Pregnancy after Infertility

It's been quite awhile since I posted here but I've had a few comments as well as a hike in visitors.  I thought that those visiting here would be interested to hear that even though I continue to have PCOS and its symptoms, that I was able to have a second child on my own.

We tried a couple rounds of IUI at Carolina Conceptions with Dr. Meyer back in 2010 with the last one being in November.  After the last failure, we decided to take a break for the holidays.  I'd been very stressed through the IUI and holidays and had laser eye surgery scheduled for January 2011.  In early March I struggled with shingles and later was just not feeling better.  I got the crazy idea in my head that I might be pregnant so I took a test.  And then hubby had me take another test!  Sure enough, baby girl was on the way!

Sweet Inara was born in December last year and just turned a year old!  I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and a Happy New Year!

Thin Women PCOS

As a woman with PCOS, I still read about the condition from time to time. It's not something that magically goes away with or after a pregnancy. I still have symptoms though they rarely are significant enough to bother me. That said, I recently came across a site that caught my attention called soulcysters.com. I would have loved this resource when I was initially diagnosed!

On one of the forums there, I found interesting information about thin women & PCOS (I was originally told that obesity is a common factor in PCOS). I've never read anything that talked specifically about PCOS in thin women. Not only does this article cover treatment in thin women, it talks about potential causes of PCOS in thin women. It's very detailed & lengthy so I wouldn't suggest it for my casual readers but I wanted to link it here for any of my PCOS readers. (It covers PCOS for all body types as well).

http://www.jarrettfertility.com/PCOS%20patient%20handout.pdf

Huge Beta

I called the clinic as soon as they opened this morning and was able to get an appt before 10AM thankfully. I was dying to find out what my beta levels were and get our pregnancy confirmed by the doc! I showed up early but thankfully they never make me wait, even if I'm early. They called me right back and took my blood. She said since this was the first test, they would do both hcg (what I keep referring to as the beta) and progesterone. Progesterone is a necessary hormone during pregnancy, esp in the early stages to maintain the pregnancy (thus why I was prescribed prog. suppositories as part of fertility treatment).

So finally Dr Meyer called me back and confirmed that I am indeed pregnant. Yay!! He said my beta was 1100 (my reaction was 'woah, really?!'). That's a pretty high number which I knew from my internet obsessions. Here's a beta chart that you can look at to get a general idea (look at day 16, today is 16 days past ovulation for me). Notice there are two charts, one shows values for single pregnancies (one baby) and the other is for multiple pregnancies (twins or more). As you will see from the chart, 1100 is high even on the multiples chart.

Dr Meyer said that beta is high enough that it may be TWINS!! (as I was just alluding to) but that it's too early to tell. I don't even have to go back for a second beta as expected since it was so high. He said my progesterone looked good (I didn't ask the exact number). So I'll finish up the progesterone I have (just a few more days) but then do not need to refill it. He also confirmed my expectation that I no longer need Avandia or Glucophage (for my PCOS) while pregnant. So other than prenatal vitamins, I am going to be drug-free for the first time in two years! I setup an appt for two weeks from now (9/18) for our first ultrasound where we'll hopefully learn more.

Now off to tell our families...

PCOS Awareness Auction

Tomorrow morning at 9AM Central, the bidding opens on the 2007 PCOS Awareness Auction. Proceeds will benefit the Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome Association. The acution will run until Sept. 28.

Visit the auction

Ouch... my ovaries!

This afternoon I was chatting with my MIL on the phone and we got to talking about my latest cycle news. I mentioned that I was having minor pains, just twinges really. I said 'my ovaries hurt' and she laughed. Not at my pain, but at what I had said. She really thought that was funny, and to be fair, it is a pretty unusual thing to hear someone say.

For you boys out there who don't know, women aren't usually aware of their ovaries.. kinda like your liver or a kidney. It's just an organ that you know is in there doing its job (or in my case quietly not doing it's job) and unless something specifically goes wrong, you're oblivious to it. But sometimes in fertility treatments, the ovaries become enlarged (overstimulated) and they can be downright painful. They call that OHSS (ovarian hyperstimulation). Of course, OHSS is more likely in patients with PCOS (lucky me).

It's possible that I might have a very mild case of OHSS, but even if not, my ovaries are making sure that I don't forget about them over the last few days. They've been just tender enough to make me take notice and occasionally led me to feel like lying down (more comfortable). Before IVF, I honestly could not point out the exact location of my ovaries. I knew roughly where they should be, but had never had any feeling in that area. That certainly changed this year starting with IVF. But if it means these guys (ok maybe I should call them gals) are working, then I'm all for it. No pain no gain right?

Countdown: 10 days to hpt

HPT negative

What a week... it's been one thing after another! My hard drive at work crashed while I was supposed to be doing my job plus being a backup for someone else, had tons of family events all week including a graduation to attend and another negative home preg. test. Yesterday was 14 days after IUI so I had taken a test first thing in the morning. RN said to stop taking the progesterone and that would allow me to start a cycle.

Before the day was out, I started another cycle. Unfortunately, when I got to the doctor today, he found a few large cysts. They are nothing to worry about, just remnants from the IUI cycle. Actually, with PCOS, I have cysts all the time, but these were particularly large (he measured them .. but I wasn't paying attention to what size they were). The problem is that with these large cysts, he would be unable to monitor me through another cycle as there would be no way to tell if I was developing mature follicles or still just had the cysts.

So we have to take a month off again. You'd think I'd be happy for a break.. with all we've been doing, it doesn't seem like we've had many breaks. But in the last 6 months, we've only had the two cycles of medicine, one IVF and one IUI. So I really am not thrilled with yet another delay. But, it is what it is. Of course, just like my previous two doctors, he said that it's still possible to get pregnant while off the medicine. But, it is not very likely. So, again this blog will be quiet for a few weeks.

IVF consult

DH & I showed up at the dr for our 4PM appt. 45 mins later we finally got to see the RE. Then he rushed me with all my questions. He kept checking his cell phone & once said 'you about done with all those questions?'. UGH... what a jerk. We were only in there maybe 10-15 minutes tops.

Most of my questions were shrugged off, indicating that there is nothing we could have done different & there are no other tests we should do to look for any other problems. Just try again. He said that I stimulated like their 21-yr old egg donors (I guess that was supposed to make me feel better?). Of course stimming that way did us no good since my levels went too high (as you know already if you've been following along on this blog). The only explanation he would give as to the failure of this cycle was the possibility that 'coasting' (no ovulation induction meds) for so long prior to retrieval and/or that I had not been taking my full dose of glucophage could have reduced the quality of the eggs. I have several issues with this statement. First, we had no idea until today that there had been anything wrong with the eggs. All he could tell us was that we had 'slow embryonic development' (though even that confuses me since 2 got to blastocyst stage on day 5 which is typical.. did they start slow & then catch up?). Second & third, I had informed the nurses of my difficulty in taking the glucophage as it made me sick & he never tested me for insulin resistance (not all PCOS patients are insulin resistant & only need glucophage if insulin resistant).

For the next try, he had only a few changes to make. Take birth control longer (20-25 days instead of the 15 or so I did last time). He is also going to start me off with FSH of 100 (started at 150 last time) and Lupron of 5 (10 b4) and just try again. He also said to make sure to take the full dose, at least during the stim phase if I can't manage it the rest of the time. (Glucophage gives me GI issues at full dose, or even at smaller doses sometimes).

So, just try again. Now that he's seen how my body reacts, he says he knows what doses to use next time. What if these doses are not enough? Plus, the problem with that mentality is that we only have one more try that our insurance will cover. And we don't have $10-15k to pay for another try ourselves. So I'm very interested in doing all we can to increase our chance of success at this try. I'm not in a hurry to do it right away.. if time is what we need to be better prepared then fine by us.

PCOS

Apparently I have PCOS. DH & I went to the fertility clinic for our first consultation and Dr. Toma quickly determined that I had PCOS & that it's the cause of my infertility. The more I read about it, the more I realize how many warning signs I had. But apparently being overweight & hairy are 2 of the big symptoms that indicate this disease (for those of you that can't see me, I'm a little thing & hopefully not too hairy!).

DH was upset that I'd been going thru all this for so long & no one else had diagnosed this (esp. since doc found it so quickly on the first appt.). I agree.. but it's just nice to know there really is a reason that we've had all this trouble. So we went thru our options and we came up with a treatment plan. 2 rounds of IUI with clomid (lovely.. more of my favorite) and then onto IVF if necessary. The financial side is terribly scary.. which is part of why we're trying IUI first. It's both less expensive & less invasive.