RE Consultation

Ethan and I had our RE consultation today. It went very well! It kinda sucks that the fertility clinic is on the same floor as obstetrics. We almost knocked into a very largely pregnant woman when we got off the elevator. Not what you want to see on your way to the RE office. But it ended up being a pretty fantastic appointment.

First of all Ethan and I both LOVE our RE doctor! She was very nice and friendly and explained everything to us. She never once brought up the issue of weight. That was a big fear of mine. But she never said a word. She made it very clear that although fertility treatment does have an increased risk of multiple births she in no way shape or form wanted to make me the next octomom. Which in our minds gave her a lot of credit. Her goal is to help us fill our dream of bringing home healthy baby. There is always the chance of 2 or 3 but it is low. She will not do anything to put me or our baby/babies in danger. That made us respect her more and feel safe in her hands.

She went over all of our past test results with us. She broke it all down and explained the results and what every thing meant and what was normal. She also looked at my BBT charts and was impressed. She said it helped her zero in on what she thinks the problem is and what tests need to be run. She was also very happy that we had already done most of the tests she would have suggested to us. That way we can just get on with treatment and not have to wait since we have been TTC for 3 years now.

So Ethan' SA was fine. We knew that. But she went over everything in the results piece by piece. 20 million is considered normal. His sperm count was 89 million and she was pleasantly shocked. Morphology should be 15% and his was 14% but with that many spermies swimming around it is really not an issue. So Ethan will not have to do anymore testing.

All my tests looked good. She did notice from my charts that I have been ovulating later and later in my cycle. I told her I have a lot of cramping around ovulation so I know ahead of time when it is coming. She said my body should not have to work that hard to ovulate. Also because it is taking so long she is worried about the quality of egg that I FINALLY pop out.

Soooooo ... when I get my next period I have to go in for blood tests to check my hormone levels including my FSH. She does not think there is a problem with my ovarian reserve but she wants to check it to cover all our bases. I will also have to go in for an ultrasound so they can take a look at my ovaries and the egg quality.

The doctor gave me a prescription for clomid! She said I can start as soon as I get my next period. Well CD 3 ... but ya know what I mean. I don't have to wait for all the testing to be done since we have already done the big stuff. She said hopefully this will make me ovulate sooner in my cycle, increase the quality of egg I release and of course the number of eggs I release. That ups our chances of getting pregnant. Also it means shorter cycles which means more opportunity to get pregnant. We will try 4 cycles of clomid and if that doesn't work we will move up to IUI.

The doctor did warn us of twins. She asked if that was a problem or not. Would we be ok with twins? We both said YES! Twins are just fine and dandy! Of course our goal is one healthy baby. But at this points twins would not bother us one bit.

So everything was great. We love our doctor and feel well taken care of. We are both relieved to have taken that first step and started to try and fix things. There is light at the end of the tunnel again!