Tuesday, October 16, 2012

We have a plan...again...

Finally met with the RE again yesterday. It turns out he does want a consult with his patient prior to doing a procedure...I asked. So it looks like I should just keep that in the back of my mind for future reference. However, there were new girls at the front desk, so who knows how it's actually supposed to be, maybe he was just covering for them.

We set up a plan for the next few months. A plan that I'm actually happy with. A plan that doesn't leave me feeling like I'm just sitting around. However, it was nice to try naturally again while having hope that it would work.

We will be doing injectable IUIs. Each month until I get pregnant with a maximum of 4 cycles. He said that if we needed a break emotionally we could take a month off.

The plan really sounds like most I've read about online.

I am to call on CD1 to schedule a CD3 screening ultrasound. They will check for ovarian cysts, fluid in the uterus and any other abnormalities. If CD 1 occurs on a Thursday or a Friday I am driving to El Paso on the weekend for the ultrasound. If it happens any other day, I can go to a local doc to have this done and save myself the 4 hour round trip drive (and a half day or more off of work). The local doc trained under the doc in El Paso, but is technically just a gynecologist, not an RE (that would be too convenient).

If I get the all clear, my meds will then be shipped directly to me so that I don't have to go back and pick them up. I have a list of meds, but not with me as I type this, it would be interesting to me to compare to you girls as I wasn't paying much attention as others were going through their meds when they were doing IUIs.

I will then schedule a follow up ultrasound for a follicle count and measurement. This has to be done by the RE in El Paso. From the paperwork I was given, it sounds like this will be 6-9 days after the original ultrasound. I will then be given a time and date for trigger and IUI.

However, he did say that we could continue to try timed intercourse if for some reason we can't get an IUI done with my work schedule. He says that the IUI only improves our odds by 5-10% per cycle.

He said that he would not recommend IUI or timed intercourse with more than 3 mature follicles.

Because I asked, he gave me the following statistics. I have about 25% chance of getting pregnant each cycle using IUI. With 4 cycles I have up to about a 75% chance of pregnancy total. With 3 mature follicles at trigger, 2 out of 10 women will get pregnant with twins and 1 in 300 will get pregnant with triplets. However, the increased estrogen of medicated cycles will cause my endometriosis to grow back. Therefore the likelihood of success decreases with each subsequent cycle.

I just hope I get pregnant at all.

I will be calling for more detailed quotes, but he through out the number of around $1000 per cycle. That seams reasonable to me, but I bet it will be more like $1500.

I still think that for a woman who has the financial means to afford these fertility treatments, it's been an awful long wait to get where we are, which is still no further than when we first started, or so it seems to me.

4 comments:

  1. Sounds like a good plan. Wishing you all the very best and lots of luck. Hoping the first cycle is a success!! :)

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  2. Woo...that sounds great!!! I like that you've got at least a few months organized for you. Hoping for just one great one though ;)

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  3. FYI, my RE and the doc I work with now all want consults before procedures, so I do think that is pretty standard.

    At any rate, that sounds like a great plan moving forward!! This sounds very similar to us (though I needed more monitoring appts b/c it took me forever to ovulate). I did clomid CD5-9, and then 75iu of Menopur injectibles CD9-15...IUI CD17. Our RE wouldn't let us trigger with more than 3 mature follies (though we only ended up with 1 - Stella!). He also was going to let us go 3-4 cycles max before recommending IVF instead.

    Here's to hoping that your 1st IUI will be IT for you!!! They gave us a 20-22% chance each cycle, and it worked for us!

    Oh - and $1000-1500 seems really reasonable for an injectibles IUI cycle. Ours cost close to $5k b/c of the monitoring ($500/day, and multiple days of ultrasounds and bloodwork since it took me so long to ovulate - that jacked the price up WAY higher than it should have been).

    EEK!! So excited for you that the ball is finally rolling!

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  4. Dust yourself off and try again, right. I'm glad you have a new plan in place. Makes life a little bit easier knowing you will move forward and hopefully one of these IUIs will do the trick! it's time my friend, you have waited far too long now.

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