I love when infertility is showcased in the news in a positive way!!
http://www.aolhealth.com/2011/02/24/fox-news-alisyn-camerota-infertility/
Is everyone as ready for spring as I am? We had a tease of good temperatures these last few weeks; I have been taking long walks, feeling energized and eating healthy foods. Today we have 8 inches of snow; I just want to stay in, eat, drink and be lazy!
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
A long night
So I have been doing fancy schmancy google searches all night long and am now even more confused.
Dr. Silber in St. Louis is a world renown RE...you may remember him from an infertility special a few years ago about couples going through IVF...it airs sometimes still on TLC. His website (http://www.infertile.com/) states...
There is no more confused medical care in our field than what is delivered by many urologists to the couple that suffers from "male infertility." In fact, many couples are told to delay the IVF treatment they should have had sooner (because of the wife's advancing age) in order just to wait for some dubious treatment of the male partner to increase his sperm count. Numerous control studies have demonstrated that administering clomid or nutritional supplements to the male does nothing to improve his sperm count, and the often suggested testosterone supplements just lowers rather than raises his sperm count, and may even render him totally sterile.
So what is appropriate treatment for male infertility in an infertile couple? For most men with low sperm counts, there is no treatment which will raise the sperm count, since sperm counts are genetically determined. It is best in cases of low sperm count to go directly to IVF and ICSI (which is injecting sperm into the egg) before the wife becomes so old that her older eggs become a compounding problem. Many physicians will try IUI first, intra-uterine insemination, but this is a waste of time and money. Washing the sperm and inserting it into the uterus will do nothing to get the sperm closer to the egg than sexual intercourse, although it may help the patients to feel like they are "doing something." The correct treatment for low sperm count is to go directly to IVF and ICSI.
Hmm. So maybe 6 months of clomid is a waste of time.
Also, does anyone know anything about mini-ivf? It is supposedly cheaper, produces less but higher quality eggs, and reduces the risk of multiples.
Dr Silber explains it in easy terms...
Think of this simple parable: If you are sitting under an apple tree, and wish to eat the most ripe and ready apples, you have a choice. You can chop down the tree, and look at every apple on the fallen tree to see which ones were ready. Or you can simply try to shake the lower branches and eat the one or two that have fallen. That is the idea of mini-IVF. For many patients, it will remove much of the aggravation and complexity associated with IVF, and also dramatically reduce the cost. But it requires a great deal of sophisticated ability to do well.
All of this information comes after research into antioxidants therapy and improving sperm counts (some studies show improvement, others don't) and state by state infertility insurance.
Here is a question. If we move to a new state in the next couple of years and suddenly have health insurance that includes some sort of infertility treatment, would our male factor be considered a pre-existing condition and not be covered?
Always questions, always. Thanks for helping!
Dr. Silber in St. Louis is a world renown RE...you may remember him from an infertility special a few years ago about couples going through IVF...it airs sometimes still on TLC. His website (http://www.infertile.com/) states...
There is no more confused medical care in our field than what is delivered by many urologists to the couple that suffers from "male infertility." In fact, many couples are told to delay the IVF treatment they should have had sooner (because of the wife's advancing age) in order just to wait for some dubious treatment of the male partner to increase his sperm count. Numerous control studies have demonstrated that administering clomid or nutritional supplements to the male does nothing to improve his sperm count, and the often suggested testosterone supplements just lowers rather than raises his sperm count, and may even render him totally sterile.
So what is appropriate treatment for male infertility in an infertile couple? For most men with low sperm counts, there is no treatment which will raise the sperm count, since sperm counts are genetically determined. It is best in cases of low sperm count to go directly to IVF and ICSI (which is injecting sperm into the egg) before the wife becomes so old that her older eggs become a compounding problem. Many physicians will try IUI first, intra-uterine insemination, but this is a waste of time and money. Washing the sperm and inserting it into the uterus will do nothing to get the sperm closer to the egg than sexual intercourse, although it may help the patients to feel like they are "doing something." The correct treatment for low sperm count is to go directly to IVF and ICSI.
Hmm. So maybe 6 months of clomid is a waste of time.
Also, does anyone know anything about mini-ivf? It is supposedly cheaper, produces less but higher quality eggs, and reduces the risk of multiples.
Dr Silber explains it in easy terms...
Think of this simple parable: If you are sitting under an apple tree, and wish to eat the most ripe and ready apples, you have a choice. You can chop down the tree, and look at every apple on the fallen tree to see which ones were ready. Or you can simply try to shake the lower branches and eat the one or two that have fallen. That is the idea of mini-IVF. For many patients, it will remove much of the aggravation and complexity associated with IVF, and also dramatically reduce the cost. But it requires a great deal of sophisticated ability to do well.
All of this information comes after research into antioxidants therapy and improving sperm counts (some studies show improvement, others don't) and state by state infertility insurance.
Here is a question. If we move to a new state in the next couple of years and suddenly have health insurance that includes some sort of infertility treatment, would our male factor be considered a pre-existing condition and not be covered?
Always questions, always. Thanks for helping!
Why can't we just talk like grown-ups?
Good news! DH got his genetic tests back and all is well! Normal karotype, no Y micro-deletion, no Klinefelters. And so far...no discernible reason for his low sperm count/low to normal testosterone. So WTF? Why is it low? WHY WHY WHY?!?!?
So, I suppose this means no donor sperm, at least not yet. It will be moved to the backburner for now and reserved as more of a back-up option.
DH and I 'talked' this morning about things. I use quotes because really a lot of it was what I call yelling. He says he wasn't yelling, I said I wasn't crying (we were on the phone), we were both lying. We were both happy that the genetic tests were normal, of course. We've agreed we need a sit down with Dr P (urologist). DH said when they talked a few weeks ago he was recommending 6 months of clomid and another drug he couldn't remember (Started with an M? DH thought it was something like misoprop-something? Anybody have a clue?). He said it would take 6-8 months to see any changes. Then we re-evaluate and see if we can get numbers up enough to do IUI or (shocker!) intercourse. Seriously, we have been so knee-deep in infertility shit that the thought of having a child from sex seems laughable. That's something that only happens in the movies, right? ;)
If that doesn't work then it is IVF. So then the money talk began. That's when we always have our fun. I am pro baby, no matter the expense. DH is pro-waiting for God knows how long until we are financially stable.
Now I agree with most of what he says. I wouldn't want to put 20k on the credit card for IVF. Duh, that seems stupid. BUT I think in 9 months to a year we could save up maybe 10k...and I think then going into 10k debt for a 3 cycle plus option is fine. OR we could just do one cycle at around 7-8k and hope for the best. We could definitely have that in 6-12 mos.
THEN DH says, "Let's just wait until we move and try to get a job in a state that has infertility coverage". Umm, we have talked about moving like 1 1/2-2 years from now, IF we can find jobs elsewhere and IF we can sell our house. SO right there, 2 conditions that would have to be met for this to even have a chance of working. And even then the coverage may not be as great as he thinks. AND isn't there sometimes something like a time period before you can even use the benefits? UUUGGHH!
I just know one day I will suddenly be 38, almost eggless, and we will still be talking about when it is right for IVF.
Sorry for the rant. I am just SO fucking sick of infertility causing strife in my marriage.
So, I suppose this means no donor sperm, at least not yet. It will be moved to the backburner for now and reserved as more of a back-up option.
DH and I 'talked' this morning about things. I use quotes because really a lot of it was what I call yelling. He says he wasn't yelling, I said I wasn't crying (we were on the phone), we were both lying. We were both happy that the genetic tests were normal, of course. We've agreed we need a sit down with Dr P (urologist). DH said when they talked a few weeks ago he was recommending 6 months of clomid and another drug he couldn't remember (Started with an M? DH thought it was something like misoprop-something? Anybody have a clue?). He said it would take 6-8 months to see any changes. Then we re-evaluate and see if we can get numbers up enough to do IUI or (shocker!) intercourse. Seriously, we have been so knee-deep in infertility shit that the thought of having a child from sex seems laughable. That's something that only happens in the movies, right? ;)
If that doesn't work then it is IVF. So then the money talk began. That's when we always have our fun. I am pro baby, no matter the expense. DH is pro-waiting for God knows how long until we are financially stable.
Now I agree with most of what he says. I wouldn't want to put 20k on the credit card for IVF. Duh, that seems stupid. BUT I think in 9 months to a year we could save up maybe 10k...and I think then going into 10k debt for a 3 cycle plus option is fine. OR we could just do one cycle at around 7-8k and hope for the best. We could definitely have that in 6-12 mos.
THEN DH says, "Let's just wait until we move and try to get a job in a state that has infertility coverage". Umm, we have talked about moving like 1 1/2-2 years from now, IF we can find jobs elsewhere and IF we can sell our house. SO right there, 2 conditions that would have to be met for this to even have a chance of working. And even then the coverage may not be as great as he thinks. AND isn't there sometimes something like a time period before you can even use the benefits? UUUGGHH!
I just know one day I will suddenly be 38, almost eggless, and we will still be talking about when it is right for IVF.
Sorry for the rant. I am just SO fucking sick of infertility causing strife in my marriage.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
tests
So we are still waiting for DH's test results. He had genetic tests (unsure exactly but I know they were definitely looking for Klinefelter's and micro x deletion) and all the labs required for us to pursue donor sperm (it is so funny that they need his blood for that...it is to check him for all kinds of stds..I guess so that if one of us ended up with something from the sperm we would have proof that we didn't have it before?).
Does anyone know how long it takes to get these genetic tests back? They were drawn early last week.
SO...I guess we have talked, if he has some genetic snafu then we will be able to move forward with ds with clearer heads. I do completely agree with this. Almost every blog I read about ds the man has NO or almost no sperm. DH has sperm, albeit not many and those that are there are lazy. But they're there. So maybe if everything checks out with hubby's genetic makeup it would be silly not to move forward with IVF.
Anyway, just checking in. Here's to a fertile spring and summer 2011 for everyone!!!!
Does anyone know how long it takes to get these genetic tests back? They were drawn early last week.
SO...I guess we have talked, if he has some genetic snafu then we will be able to move forward with ds with clearer heads. I do completely agree with this. Almost every blog I read about ds the man has NO or almost no sperm. DH has sperm, albeit not many and those that are there are lazy. But they're there. So maybe if everything checks out with hubby's genetic makeup it would be silly not to move forward with IVF.
Anyway, just checking in. Here's to a fertile spring and summer 2011 for everyone!!!!
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