A slave to the (reproductive) system.

The RE’s office called yesterday (and again this morning) to tell me that I still needed to have my beta, even though I got my period and even though I’ve taken TWO different HPTs that were negative. I even took one last night, just to prove to myself that it really was negative and they STILL want to run a beta. So, I get to have yet another person tell me that I’m not pregnant. The joy of it all. The funniest part is that the nurse asked me if I was still taking the progesterone. I told her no, I didn’t think it was worth it since I was bleeding so much and I had two negative tests. Her reply? “It shouldn’t be a problem if you need to start it up again after the beta.” Um, what part of I’M NOT PREGNANT are you not understanding?

So, my original post-IVF consult was supposed to be on December 6, but I made them change it to tomorrow at 3:30pm. I’m a pesky little bugger, aren’t I? No time like the present to jump back on that horse, right? (See that funny little way I combined two bumper-sticker sayings? At least I didn’t lose my sense of humor along with those two embryos…) Knowing my RE the way that I do, I’m 99% sure I already know what he’s going to say about our failed cycle. He’s going to tell us that the cycle wasn’t a true failure because we learned a heck of a lot about what’s going on. We learned that ovulation isn’t our problem because I had plenty of eggs to harvest; we learned that fertilization isn’t our problem because out of the 9 that they fertilized naturally (without ICSI), all 9 fertilized just fine, which also means that egg quality and sperm quality aren’t issues for us. So, the next issue that we have to think about it what’s happening in my uterus that isn’t allowing those embryos to implant. I’ve done some research and there are two thinks that I want him to investigate and one new treatment I want to try:

1. I found that one of the reasons for a thin lining is the uterus’ inability to absorb estrogen properly. We pumped my body FULL of estrogen but my lining stayed put at below 6mm. Studies show that anything below an 8mm lining is a recipe for IVF failure. One of the reasons that the uterus may be unable to properly absorb estrogen is because of a septic delivery. Most septic deliveries happen when the delivery is unplanned (i.e., mother doesn’t make it to the hospital and gives birth somewhere other than a hospital) or when the mother has an infection of some sort after the birth. When I had E, the placenta was sent off to the lab because the OB thought it looked strange. It turns out that it was infected and so they put me on IV antibiotics for 48 hours. Every time I brought it up with my OB, she said it wasn’t a problem. I’ve always thought it was strange, so I’m going to bring it up again and see what the RE says.

2. Both E and R are O+ blood types; I’m A-. I’m still thinking that because of the infection and the delivery when I had E that our bloods mixed and I developed rH antibodies against R’s bloodtype. I’ve heard of it happening before, but again, when I bring it up, the OB said that the rH shot should take care of that. I’m not convinced that something didn’t happen to make this a problem.

3. A new treatment option: Viagra. Ok, laugh your little head off, but there’s been some very interesting research done in the past 10 years about women with IVF problems using Viagra to solve thin uterine lining issues. Read all about it here:

http://www.fertilitycommunity.com/fertility/viagra-for-infertility-treatment.html

http://archives.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/women/03/23/viagra.pregnancies/index.html

http://www.inciid.org/article.php?cat=&id=315

So, there you have it. Just one more thing to stick where the sun don’t shine. And since I’m not sure if my RE will consider using it, I’m going to bug him about it until he either does use it or comes up with something as aggressive.

I dragged out the old fertility monitor last night in preparation for the fact that the RE may want us to sit out the month of December. HA! As if I’d let a little thing like infertility stop me in my baby-making plans. I figure that if the doctor won’t let us try with medical intervention, then we’ll have to resort to the old-fashioned way again. Maybe he’ll let us try ‘home relations’ with the Viagra this month, just to see if the lining improves. Maybe we’ll try another IUI with the Viagra. I’m guessing the possibilities are endless right now.