NoodleGuy is a superstar!

Last IUI cycle we had a bit of a roadblock in that NoodleGuy didn't have the optimal "donation" session, so to speak. It was 5:30am - hard to feel sexy, he was under the weather and we had done a pre-emptive session of our own only 38 hours prior (at the nurse's suggestion because I was triggering at only 14mm due to my body looking like it was going to ovulate naturally). The sample was small and we were worried it wouldn't make the 5 million threshold for a good IUI. Lo and behold, it was 12 million post-wash. Not the greatest since NGuy usually has very good counts, but it was better than we had hoped.

This time, however, we had tried sort of a new trick: extended foreplay for the 2 days beforehand. No culmination allowed, just lots of middle-school type fooling around. I don't know if that was the magic elixir but the numbers don't lie! 198 million total, 48% motility, ROP of 3 = post wash count of 48 million. Yippee! WAY higher than the 20 million that most REs consider optimal.

The IUI itself was uneventful. I don't have much discomfort with these things, good for things like this, but bad that I can have issues like Stage IV endometriosis and have no idea. Anyhoo. it was easy, my favorite nurse did the procedure. She talks everything through: when she's going to touch your leg, what angle your cervix is in, what she had for dinner last night. She's awesome. Props to Mary!

So now I just wait. I harassed my RE into giving me progesterone this cycle -- my clinic normally doesn't give it for anything but IVF. I can't figure that out -- almost everyone else I know gets it for IUIs. It may not be necessary but it certainly doesn't hurt. And there is research that injectables can cause a luteal phase defect, so why not give it as a precaution? Last cycle was a bust because the cycle ended (AF) only 7 days after the IUI, something I feel would not have happened with progesterone. So, I was not going to let them deny me it this time, and now I have it. It's making me sleepy and a little cranky, but c'est la vie.

Infertility roundup

I've had a hard time starting a TTC blog, not know when and where to start. The cycles simultaneoulsy seem to zoom and crawl by and the optimstic part of me kept thinking that maybe it wouldn't be worth starting a blog because what if I get pregnant this cycle? I'm not sure if it says more about my waning optimism or my embracing of spilling my guts, but I'm diving in! I thought about trying to recreate my past successed and failures in real-time since you can post-date blog posts but the mere thought of that made me want to curl in a ball, so I'm just going to give you a bullet point list. I'm sure I'll go into more detail on some of these carnival rides below in later posts, but here are the cliff notes:

Past cycles of note
• Sept 08: Clomid 9/27-10/2. IUIs 10/7 & 10/8. BFP!
Oct/Nov 08: pregnancy progressing slowly. Early Dec 08 m/c :(
• Feb/Mar 09: Gonal-F 150 (CD2-5), 300 (CD6-8), 450 (CD9-11). Planned on Ovidrel trigger. IUI. Poor response by CD13 and had to leave town on vacation, so abandoned cycle. BFN.
• Mar/April 09: Hormones screwy, not at baseline during AF, started Gonal-F 450 on CD4 anyway. Gonal-F 450 (CD4-8). CD9 14mm follie but might O naturally, so trigger CD9 pm and IUI on CD11 am. 12 million post-wash sperm count. AF-like bleeding started on CD18 and hormones supported baseline levels, only a 7-day LP, BFN no surprise.

Tests/results
• July03: DX Graves disease, hypothyroid now.
• Sept07: HSG clear, SA great.
• Feb08: Laprascopy in Feb 08, stage IV severe endometriosis removed.
• July08: Ovarian Reserve Index worst possible score of 1 out of 30.
• Sept08: Elevated prolactin. Parlodel for a month, levels back to normal.
• Oct08: Clomid > IUI = BFP!
• Dec08: Embryo stopped developing at 6w5d. M/c. D&E. :(
• Jan 09: Genetic test (DH/me) for chrom18 abnormality from m/c. Non-inherited (yay).
• Feb 09: Hysterscopy. Ten polyps and an adhesion removed.