It’s already February….of 2012!! Blows my mind how fast time has gone since 9/19/09…our wedding anniversary. The very day we decided to try to get pregnant. Why waste time? I already have a child, let’s get this show on the road. And what a long road that has been. Never in our wildest dreams did this ever cross our minds.
This time, I have good news! No, I’m not pregnant, BUT it’s about getting there. John and I are in the qualification process to participate in a research study through Wayne State University on unexplained infertility. My co-worker was listening to the radio and heard an ad about this research study needing participants on unexplained infertility. She gave me the number to call. I called on a Wednesday after work and left a message. They called me back Thursday morning and I scheduled my first appointment for Friday. It happened so quick! The first appointment was answering a lot of questions about my health, family health history and etc. Then they drew some blood for some testing. I have to provide copies of our past tests like my HSG, PAP, and his latest SA. I have another appointment February 13th for an ultrasound and some additional bloodwork. Once I pass everything and John’s SA shows at least 5 million motile sperm, we are in the study! I don’t think we will have a problem qualifying.
This study covers up to a maximum of 4 months of medicated IUIs. We get put into the system and are randomly selected for 1 of 3 fertility drugs. 2 of which I have already taken before. Clomid, Menopur and Femera. I have taken 2 months of Clomid before. That stuff is evil. Bad side effects and I didn’t respond that great to it. I took Menopur which is the injectable kind, back in October for only one month. I responded really well to that drug and I pray I get selected for it for the study. Femera is a pill form just like Clomid. I have never used Femera but have heard good things about it compared to Clomid. Less side effects for sure. One thing is, is that if I get selected for a pill form drug, I, nor the doctors will know which one it is. They have the pills coated exactly the same. We won’t know until after the study is over. But if I get selected for Menopur, I will know because it’s the only one that is injectable.
And for those who aren’t sure what IUI is…it stands for Intrauterine Insemination. It’s where they inject the sperm into my uterus to get them closer to my egg at the right time. At my RE office, this procedure is $1000 per month and that doesn’t include the meds. So we are getting all of this at no cost to us!
All of this could happen as early as the end of this month when my new cycle starts. Seems so surreal that this really could be what we need.
Oh and John is doing great post-surgery. We did let the study coordinators know about John’s recent surgery. We are not sure what the surgery has done to his swimmers thus far. It’s only been about 5-6 weeks. He isn’t due to provide an SA until end of March. The study coordinator didn’t seem concerned and said that all we need to do is provide his latest SA and as long as he has 5 million motiel sperm, he qualifies. During our first IUI, they will take a look at his sperm to get a better look at what the surgery has done so far. For all we know, it could be worse before it gets better. She said if he doesn’t qualify for the study during the first IUI, then we can hold off a few months and jump back into the study. So I am very hopeful.
Will update after my next appointment. Wish us luck!
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