30 something and TTC #1 for a year

[Trulyoo]

Brassy, sorry about your DH. I understand how stressful this is on one another. My DH is stressed all the time, from work to me and to this fertility treatment and then all of the finances. It must not be easy for the man either. I know we are the ones that get poked and probed, that do whatever it takes to our bodies, but the men also take a beating. And I feel sorry for them and us. I hate, hate, hate infertility and what it has done and it is doing to good, loving people.

Sometimes, I get mad and frustrated at DH. Sometimes, everything that is going wrong is taken out on him. But ultimately, these are the men who stand by us and are hurting too. It just makes me more appreciative of them. DH's are pretty awesome!!!

 

[GettingBroody]

Aw, Brassy, your poor dh... It's so true, the men's feelings get quite overlooked very often in all this...

Mk8 - I'm doing good thanks! Eating in the evening is slowly beginning to improve, tg! My next apt is on Mon but it's just with my regular dr (the appointments alternate between the hospital and the gp) so I'm guessing it'll only be boring stuff like checking blood pressure etc. Still exciting though!

 

[mk8]

Hi brassy, I'm so sorry that you're having all thus waiting and uncertainty. Seeing dh burst into tears is never easy. Like you, my dh is the calm one. Seeing him cry is really hard. Sometimes we forget its just as tough for the men. Especially if they find that there's something wrong with them, they prob feel guilt as well as sadness. But we are in this together with out other halves. Good luck with your next appt. lets kick infertility in the butt ladies!

Truly, hope you're feeling a bit better and have more clarity on what you want to do next. Whilst its hard, we have to stay hopeful. Hang in there with dh.

Broody, yay to being in second tri! My how time flies eh?!? I forget, where are you based? Glad you're eating better now. Drink plenty too! Are you showing? Have you bought baby or maternity stuff? Wrap up warm and look after you. Are you getting a flu jab? I've seen a million posters in chemists telling preg women to get it.

I'm up with a blocked nose right now. I hate colds! Grrr

 

[MrsPTTC]

Aw brassy Hun & to your dh bless him let us know how your appt goes.

Mk, EDD is 13/03/13! I have had the flu jab

Broody you might get to listen to the HB, I did at my 15 week mw appt

x

 

[aleja]

hi gals,
Truly and Brassy thanks for sharing your update. I am not sure what the answer is but I want to give you some hope for us girls who are on the wrong side of 35. Earlier this year my FS kindly reminded me that turning 35 is not a fertility dead end. fertility slowly decreases and that women our age can and will fall pregnant.
I too feel this rush to have a baby before getting any older but the reality is that sometimes it takes longer. but most women get there in the end.

Please don't give up. And the whole thing about stress causing infertility is a load of BS. there is no scientific proof of this. Infertility does cause stress-that is completely unavoidable but don't feel like you are making your bodies worse by being stressed. People fall pregnant through famine, war, violence, grief etc this is a biological fact.

Truly, since the IUI's are only $700 it's worth giving it another couple of shots but perhaps injectables are the way to go. You will have no problem getting nice big follies with the stims.

Brassy, I am so sorry about your Dh's reaction. What was the results of his 3rd SA? I hope you guys pull through this.
It is hard to imagine our men breaking down with IF but its only natural. They also do feel they are to blame for the bfns'. What will be next for you?

Mk, thanks for asking about me. We had our first pregnancy scan and saw a little heartbeat. so relieved. The FS is 99% sure we have one baby in there but I am going to another ultrasound tomorrow to double check.

MrsP I can't believe you will have your bubba in March. that is so soon!

 

[MrsPTTC]

Great news on the scan aleja! Yeah I think the 2nd one can hide in the early days, though I'm sure its very likely to be seen so FXd there's only one! Yeah I know only 12 weeks to go! And only 9 on Friday til my maternity! x

 

[GettingBroody]

Congrats on your scan Aleja!!!!

MrsP - that won't be long going by!

 

[mk8]

Yay, great news on the scan Aleja!

 

[aleja]

Thanks ladies, there is definitely one bubba on board. Phew!
As much as the thought of twins is lovely the twin pregnancy would scare the hell out of me. ( I am already neurotic enough as it is!)

 

[MrsPTTC]

I know what you mean aleja. When I was told about the increased risk of twins when I started the clomid I was like...we can handle that though it'll be hard...And now I think THANK GOD! I can't imagine having double the kicks and uncomfortableness and double the bump, then how can you feed 2 babies at the same time (though I'm sure it's possible!) and you'd never get volunteers to babysit 2! x

 

[brassy]

Hello ladies!
Aleja, great news, you must be excited! I hope your pregnancy is a piece of cake!

I got AF today, end of clomid cycle 1. There's isn't gonna be a cycle 2 soon. We went to the urologist a few days ago. DH has a mild case of low sperm count and moderate motility. Things are difficult with numbers like these, although not impossible. However, the dr is optimistic that there's gonna be an improvement. DH is on meds now, on something similar to Femara (!) for a few months. In three months he is going to repeat the sa and I guess if there is an improvement he will continue the meds and we might give it a little more time naturally. What concerns me is that the dr couldn't find varicosele or an other physical reason that could explain the cause of the situation. So, why is that?
Those of you whose dhs had sperm issues were you ever given any possible causes for this problem? It can't be hereditary since DH's brother has two kids and everyone else in his extended family had or had kids.
Anyways, we will try to relax durind the Christmas holidays. We both have two weeks of work, something that we really need at this point....

 

[GettingBroody]

Brassy - sorry to hear this but hopefully the meds will give him the boost he needs and ye'll be on the way to a bfp really soon! My acupuncturist said there are a lot of jobs/pastimes which can affect sperm - cycling, chef-ing, driving for long periods of time regularly... can't remember the rest. Basically anything which puts excess pressure on that area or raises the temperature. My DH does a good bit of cycling so we asked the FS and he said that it was only all theoretical and nothing had ever been proven... So who knows! The FS also said that dhs results were so poor that he didn't think there was any point in trying meds or lifestyle changes because even if the SA improved a bit it probably still wouldn't be good enough to ttc naturally. So we decided to go straight ahead with the icsi rather than waiting more months for an improvement that might not happen. My acupuncturist recommended maca for DH to take though (smells vile!!). It's supposed to do wonders for male fertility so ye could try that if its ok to take with the meds? Or maybe a few sessions of acu for DH? (if he's into that, there's no way mine would go - thought it was total nonsense and a waste of money!) Good luck!!!! (Oh, and there's obviously the usual tips like cutting out caffeine, alcohol and tobacco...)

 

[GettingBroody]

🎅🎄🎁🎉🎈 Happy Christmas to all of you who celebrate it!! Have a lovely day! 🎈🎉🎁🎄🎅

 

[aleja]

Hi ladies hope you all had a lovely Christmas!

Brassy what a shame to hear about your DHs results. What are his numbers like?
My DH had extremely low sperm count ..something like 2-3 million
The FS didn't think there was any point taking meds. FS couldn't really explain why the low sperm count but My DHs brother had the sane issue and they went through ICSI to have their first child. fertility can change as they then went onto have 2 other kids naturally.

We went to a naturopath who gave DH a series of herbs and vitamins for a few months. He didn't want to do acupuncture but did change his lifestyle . However to be honest it didn't do much for the number of sperm-on the day of my egg pick up during IVF his count was just as bad as ever !! However perhaps the herbs and vitamins may have helped the quality?? as all our embryos fertilised.

I hope the meds do help improve the quality and numbers x

 

[lilyV]

brassy, I've read on here that the men that have sa issues can be a result of diet. The men take vitamins (dunno which ones) and their sa tends to improve significantly. As someone pointed out, he needs to cut out the bad foods/drinks if he hasn't already and start taking in the healthy stuff. gl!

 

[MrsPTTC]

Merry xmas ladies! x

 

[brassy]

I hope everyone here had a great time! I hope the new year brings to all of us either the babies in our arms or some growing baby bumps...

 

[brassy]

Ladies, thank you all for your replies re DH's sa results.. He is already leading a very healthy lifestyle. Doesn't drink and most of the time eats healthy. He is at a very healthy weight for his height. He was on vits for many months and his nos have dropped instead of having been improved.
Aleja his first sa was 27mil/ml and from there we have gone to 15mil/ml and even lower at 10mil/ml with totals ranging from 36mil to 51mil. The only thing I can think of is that he's working long hours sitting in front of a computer and has no free time for exercise. Apart from that there are no other issues that could affect his sas...oh and stress. He has been in a lot of stress lately. Hopefully the meds will help. We have already started considering having an iui in Feb while he continues the therapy.
DH had a couple of acupuncture sessions with me during the summer and had the herbs twice, but apparently this didn't help either. I have abandonded acu myself since I wasn't convinced it could help. I have paid so much for it already to no avail and cannot afford it anymore. I have started yoga instead.

How is everyone else? I guess everyone has been really busy during the christmas holidays!

 

[lilyV]

sounds like those could be culprits of the low sa nos. start relaxing that man and fx things pick up ;-)

 

[MrsG2010]

Hey girls. I unintentionally took a couple week break. I hope everyone had
A merry Christmas (for those who celebrate).

We didnt ttc at all this cycle. I had some dental work done and I was taking antibiotics and pain medication and decided I didnt want to chance it.

I forget who asked (I think truly) -- no I don't want to do any more
Iuis. Once we move and get new insurance I want to go straight to ivf. But
I'm sure new dr will want to do tests and he'll have his recommendations. But if DH SA remains where it was as of the last iui I think dr will agree with me.

Sorry brassy you're in my boat. I don't know if you guys remember that I did some reading about men and infections in their teeth causing sperm problems. Well my DH has started his dental work that he needs. I'm curious to see if there's any improvement. However, he asked his endodontist who said no correlation. So who knows. Worth a try.

I hope everyone is well. I'm still holding. I know that the next few months
Will go fast so I'm going to ignore ttc and concentrate on exercise and eating better Instead.