Infertility Consultation

We went to see Dr. M for the first time yesterday.  The results were not what I expected, but we left with more direction and we both felt like, at least for now, Dr. M is the right person to be seeing.

The first thing he did was go over our medical history.  For Matt this portion was short... Have you fathered any children? Do you take any medication? Do you have any medical conditions? No, No, No.

My part was a little more complicated.  Dr. M requested the surgery notes from the Lap that Dr. A did in February, and also the pathology report.  He combined that with the photos from surgery and was able to "score" my endometriosis on some scoring system that doctors use.  I fell in the "moderate to severe" category. We asked why endometriosis causes infertility, and he explained it better than anyone has so far.  He told me that the end of your fallopian tube that is unattached floats freely in your abdominal cavity.  It is attracted to inflammation, so when you ovulate, your ovary becomes inflamed and the fallopian tube is attracted to it and attaches and catches the egg as it's released.  My abdominal cavity is full of "powder burn" or endometrial implants, which become inflamed as well, and in a way "distract" the fallopian tube to the point where it doesn't attach to my ovary and catch the egg.

The only way to really overcome this abundance of inflammation is to use gonadotropins that are injectable and cause me to superovulate along with IUI. The superovulation will not only cause the ovary to become more inflamed than it would normally, but it will also help insure that I release an egg.  Of course, there are downsides to this. The first one being that it can occasionally cause a condition where your ovary apparently becomes too enlarged to the point where it's quite dangerous.  The other downside is multiples. 30% of women who become pregnant with superovulation and IUI have twins, and a small percentage become pregnant with triplets or as many as sextuplets. The other downside (there must be more, right?) is that it is VERY expensive.  The drugs are $1200.00 each time, and that is after ordering them from England, where they are apparently half the price but still of good quality.  The treatment all together is $2500.00.

So we have a lot to think about, and I think I will take a few more days to think and talk with Mr. D before I post much more about it here.  Just wanted to write it down while it's still fresh in our minds.

The adventure continues...