How We Arrived Here

January 2013 – September 2013: No luck month after month. Frustrated but still hopeful, we decide it might be time to see a doctor.

October 2013 – Initial doctors appointment to create a plan. OB recommends starting infertility testing. Lex gets basic blood tests which are all normal. HSG shows “scarring,” which is weird, since she has no risk factors. OB recommends seeing a specialist for potential surgery to remove scar tissue. Meanwhile, Mike has semen analysis. All factors appear normal except a lower than normal percentage of sperm with normal morphology, or shape. OB recommends repeating semen analysis.

November 2013: We’re fortunate enough to get an appointment with an RE, Dr. K, who we LOVE. Dr. K looks at our records and gives us reassuring news. States that the abnormal sperm morphology should not worry us, and with one look at the HSG films knows that the original read was incorrect. Wooohoo! She does an in office ultrasound to confirm which shows a normal endometrial lining. We decide to continue with timed intercourse, and add a “trigger shot” of bHCG to help. Lex gives more bloodwork, including for genetic screening of common disorders. Mike gives some blood as well.

December 2013: Trigger shot cycle is unsuccessful. Plans made to consider IUI with medication aided ovulation. Meanwhile, all additional bloodwork is normal, except that we find out Lex is a carrier of the most common CF mutation, ∆F508. We knew there was a 50/50 chance of this as her sister was found to be a carrier when she became pregnant less than a year before. Mike gives blood to determine if he is a carrier as well.

January 2014: Happy New Year! As we await for the correct timing to start our IUI cycle, we get the bad news from Dr. K that Mike, despite no family history, is also a carrier of CF. But his mutation, known as A455E, is much more rare. Something like 1 in 400 people of Northern European descent. Lucky us. For the first time, our optimism begins to fade a bit. Just to summarize, not only have we been trying to conceive for over a year now without success, but we can’t find a reason for our infertility (being a CF carrier does not affect fertility). And now we know even if we do get pregnant, there is a 1 in 4 chance our child will be afflicted with this devastating, and ultimately fatal disease. Enter PGD with IVF. More on that here.

February 2014: Henceforth known as the lost month. Many emails and phone calls are made to the insurance company and the PGD lab to try to determine how we are going to finance this whole thing, which apparently will cost $9250, not exactly chump change. Oh yeah. Apparently the PGD lab is about to roll out some new technology, with the purpose of making PGD faster and more accurate. Great! But until it’s ready, they aren’t accepting any new cases. Not great.

March 2014: We check some more boring tasks off the never ending checklist; signing consent forms for IVF and for PGD (which require separate trips to the RE’s office), and taking an IVF class. And we meet with our new RE, Dr. G, again and really kick things back into gear. He calls the PGD lab, and within 1 week we make a down payment, and probe creation officially begins. They estimate the probes should take about 10 to 12 weeks to create…more waiting. He advises Lex to start taking birth control. In addition to helping minimize ovarian cysts, it will also give us more flexibility in starting our IVF cycle as soon as the probes are ready. Meanwhile, phone tag with various branches of the insurance company continues and we meet our nurse case manager. He is a miracle worker. He opens up a case, and after another week the PGD coverage is approved…sort of. While we still need to pay the full cost up front, we are approved to be reimbursed afterward by submitting a claim. We’re cautiously optimistic about this.

April 2014: Obsessive research into IVF and PGD, success, risks, statistics, protocols, symptoms, bahhhh. The wait seems endless. Ten more weeks?? We preauthorize our medications, which only cost $90 out of pocket, first good news in months.

April 23, 2014: We get the call that our probes are ready after only 4 weeks! Call our RE who tells Lex to stop taking the pill, and on Day 2 of her ensuing cycle, we can start, finally!!!

June, 2014: Results of PGD Cycle #1 and we have zero viable embryos. Cried A LOT and then Cycle #2 begins.

July, 2014: Retrieval and we find out we have 24 embryos retrieved and we have 9 to send away for PGD testing!

August, 2014: We get the results of our Cycle #2 PGD testing and we have 4 good embryos! We throw a mini parade for ourselves!