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Published by Kerry | Filed under Uncategorized

A little background on why we started this blog…

A little warning before we start – if you don’t want to know TMI (sometimes very personal and in-depth TMI) about us, I would just forget all about this blog.  We will make no apologies for any over-sharing or making you feel uncomfortable because we are talking about artificial insemination, sperm analysis, or how much Kerry hates feeling like a human pin-cushion.  For far too long, infertility has been this hush-hush, taboo thing that most people are too scared or too embarrassed to talk about.  Well, not us.  Sadly, infertility has become part of who we are, so why not educate others on what 1 out of every 6 couples face in their lifetime?

As most of you know, we have been trying for a baby for a while now.  A long while.  We tried the “old-fashioned” way for a little over a year, and began taking medication (prescribed by Kerry’s obgyn) to “boost” my ovulation shorty thereafter.  When that didn’t work, we decided it was time to seek the help of a RE (reproductive endocrinologist).  RE’s are highly qualified fertility doctors – they have all completed a residency in obstetrics and gynecology, and most have completed three additional years of training in reproductive endocrinology. 

We started with CRE (Colorado Reproductive Endocrinology) in the spring of 2007.  Our RE was Dr. Trout, or as Jeff calls her, “The Laughing Hyena” (she had the weirdest laugh…).  After an ASSLOAD of bloodwork, paperwork, ultrasounds, and a few SA’s (semen analysis), we tried three (orally) medicated IUI’s (intra-uterine insemination) to no avail.  We didn’t really like the quality of care (or lack thereof) that we were getting at CRE, so we moved about a block away to…

…CCRM (Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine).  Our RE there was Dr. Minjarez, and we liked her instantly (although she made Kerry cry pretty much the entire initial consult appointment).  We did several more tests with CCRM, and then we were ready to go with IUI #4 when Kerry went in for a baseline ultrasound, and she had two big ass cysts on her ovaries.  Cysts = no go for fertility treatments.  We had taken a 6-month break from fertility treatments (you know, just “trying to relax” like everyone suggested, and yes, you are sensing sarcasm here), so we were pretty bummed.  The next month we got the go ahead, and began the oral meds and intra-muscular injections for IUI #4.  Two weeks after we completed IUI #4 we got a BIG FAT “Not Pregnant” on a digital pregnancy test.  We were crushed.  We thought this was it.

On to RE #3.  Nope, we’re not kidding. 

We decided since we weren’t getting anywhere with IUI’s (and research shows that doing more IUI’s doesn’t necessarily increase your chances of success), we were ready to tackle the king (or queen) of all infertility treatments – IVF.  In-vitro fertilization.  Holy shit.

Last Friday, June 20th, we had our IVF consult with our new doc, Dr. Swanson, at Conceptions.  Several factors contributed to us switching RE’s, again.  One was success rates.  According to sart.com, Conceptions success rate for IVF in my age group was 11% higher than that of CCRM (which is supposed to be the place for IVF in Colorado) – 11%!!!!!  That’s huge.  Another factor was that we personally know several people who have seen Dr. Swanson for IVF – all of whom have had successful pregnancies and/or children to show for them.  That’s huge.  There are several other reasons that we wanted to explore other options, but you know the old term, “if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all”?  Yeah.

More to come…need sleepy.

J&K