RE Update

I went to the RE on Wednesday for a follow-up appointment and to go over all my test results.  I didn't really get any answers....at least, none that I wanted to hear.  The good news is that I seem to be pretty darn healthy.  No indication of clotting disorders or uterine deformities or hormone issues.  The bad news with that is that it basically means that there's no discernible reason for having two early miscarriages...which means there's not much that can be done to prevent another one from happening in the future.  I'll be taking low-dose aspirin and extra folic acid, and I'll continue taking progesterone supplements.  All of these things fall into the category of "we don't know for sure that they'll help, but they can't hurt."

The "scary" news for the day is that the doctor thinks that I have an issue with ovarian reserve, based on the number of follicles she could see during the ultrasound and the level of my FSH on cycle day 10 (after taking clomid for 5 days).  In other words, at the ripe old age of 32, my ovaries are starting to run out of quality eggs.  Because of this, her recommendation is either to just keep doing what we've been doing, or do IVF.  Because Shawn and I will not do IVF...well, this means that we just keep doing what we've been doing.

I'll admit that Wednesday's appointment was hard for me.  I left the office thinking primarily of the "ovarian reserve issue."  It's a very scary thing to be told that you're running out of time to have kids earlier than "normal."  I couldn't help but focus on "If we haven't been able to get and stay pregnant on our own in the last 18 cycles of trying, what makes me think we'll get pregnant now?"  Lots of "big picture" questions were going through my head, like what will our lives be like if we never have a child?

A few days have given me a bit of clarity, though.  In all reality...it does only take one good egg to make a child.  And I do have some...just not as many as I'd like.  When I left the RE's office, her suggestion of "do it on our own or do IVF" was very frustrating; but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that she's been approaching the whole situation from the standpoint of trying to figure out why I've miscarried twice...not why I'm not currently pregnant.  Her reasons for not wanting to try a few cycles of clomid or even doing IUI was mainly because it still wouldn't address the issue of miscarriage (and with my numbers, I'd be at higher risk for ending up with multiples...like 3 or 4).  But that's not to say that we can never get any help from her.

At this point, this is what we've decided.  Shawn and I are going to keep doing what we've been doing.  We're going to try our best to just put our faith in God and remind ourselves that He knows what He's doing, even when it doesn't make sense to us.  Our plan right now is to give it until June or so.  That would take us up to a year from the last miscarriage.  If at that point we're still not pregnant, we'll call someone (not sure who...my OB/GYN, this RE, another RE...someone) to see if there's anything else we can try.

So...that's where we stand!

Update on the Testing

For those of you who have been wondering about the testing that I'm having done, I figured I'd give a little update, even though we're not totally finished.  If you missed the blog post that explained the tests that are being run and why, it's here.  :)

Remember those 10 vials of blood that I had drawn?  Most of the results have come back (I think we might still be waiting on one or two tests?), and they were almost all "normal."  (And I learned for sure that I have O negative blood...I thought that's what it was, but I wasn't 100% sure.)  There was one test (for Protein S) that came back as "2 points below the 'normal' range."  My doctor isn't sure that a deficiency that slight could cause a clotting issue, but she's going to do a little research on it. 

Last Friday, I went back in to get started on the next round of testing.  More blood was drawn, and I also had an ultrasound.  This is the beginning of the "clomid challenge test."  I'm taking clomid this week (Monday-Friday), then I go back in again at the end of the week for more blood tests and another ultrasound.  Clomid should stimulate the ovaries, so we'll be checking to see how I've reacted to it.  The blood tests are also checking that the hormones are doing what they should be doing.  If the hormones aren't right, this could be an indication of an ovarian reserve issue (meaning that I'm running out of eggs earlier than my age would suggest I should be).  The results of the first blood draw were good...well within the range of "normal."  So...now we wait to see what happens at the end of the week.

Oh, I'll also be going in on Friday for a Sonohysterogram (SHG).  In a nutshell, it's a different kind of ultrasound that allows the doctor to see any uterine deformities I might have.  Everything looked fine at Friday's u/s, but this will show everything in more detail.

So that's where we are right now.  Lots of appointments (I haven't done this much driving since we moved to Washington!), lots of pokes and pricks and other fun things.  Hopefully all of this will result in some answers!

Trying to Conceive...an Update

Some of you who read this blog already know a lot of these details; to some of you, much of this will come as a surprise.  You may remember that it was around this time last year, I found out that I was pregnant, but miscarried very early (around five and a half weeks).  The full details are here, if you want to read about it.  I don't think I've really posted anything else about "trying to conceive" since then.  So...here's the story.

Shawn and I actually started trying to get pregnant in August of 2009.  If you don't want to do the math, that's 17 cycles of trying.  I did get pregnant on cycle #5.  I also got pregnant on cycle #10 (last June).  That pregnancy also ended in a very early miscarriage.  Given the circumstances of both miscarriages, my doctor suggested that my progesterone levels might be low, so I started taking supplements for the last two weeks of each cycle.  Although I really like my doctor, I didn't like that this was the only thing she looked for (and frankly, she tested for it on the wrong date...but that's a long story that I won't go into).  She also told me that she wasn't going to be concerned about doing any other testing until it had been at least a full year of trying after my last miscarriage.

Once we got to January (and I hadn't gotten pregnant again), Shawn and I talked about it and decided that we are frustrated.  We don't want to wait until June (almost 2 years of trying) to see if there's a reason that I'm not pregnant 17 months after beginning to try.  While I know that 32 isn't really old, it certainly isn't 22, especially when we're talking about fertility and reproduction.  So I did some research, and we made an appointment with a Reproductive Endocrinologist (RE)...aka, a fertility specialist. 

We had our appointment with Dr. K last Friday.  She spent about an hour talking with us, which was really nice.  Basically, because I have gotten pregnant twice, she is focusing on why I had early miscarriages both times.  There are many things that can lead to an early miscarriage (clotting disorders, ovarian disorders, hormonal issues, thyroid issues, something with a gigantic name that basically means the body doesn't process folate appropriately, uterine deformities, ovarian reserve issues...I think I'm forgetting one or two), and many of those issues can also make it more difficult to get pregnant in the first place. 

So before we left the building on Friday, I went up to the lab and had 10 vials of blood drawn to do all kinds of tests to check for many of those things listed above.  Once I start my next cycle, I'll do a couple more tests (the clomid challenge test and a sonohysterogram).  Hopefully, within the next few weeks, we'll have something to work with.

After talking with Dr. K, I did feel some relief.  Yes, there were a LOT of options thrown out there about things that might be wrong with me.  But it's very good to know that most of the possibilities are things that can be treated with medication.  There have definitely been times over the last 17 months that I have felt hopeless.  Knowing that we may be on the verge of getting some helpful information is giving me some hope.