Our new beginning....

Because it took me just shy of a year to try this again, I removed all previous posts of our first IUI journey. So, sorry if it's a little empty around here. After loosing the 4 y.o. foster child we were hours away from the start of the adoption process to our first official BFN; I had a really ruff year. Last night, I finally packed the final pictures of our foster children and put them away. I spent sometime with God afterwards and prayed for strength and courage to move forward.

Diagnoses:

Her: PCOS  Him: Male Factor Infertility

How we got here:

After 2 years of dating, Jay & I married in 2001. We knew we wanted children and started trying right away. By 2005, there were no babies. I made our first appointment with a local Fertility Specialist in the spring of 2005. Jay kindly donated a sperm sample and I went through a lovely physical exam. It was confirmed that I had Polycystic Ovaries (PCOS) and I was placed on Metformin. I was also given Provera to induce a cycle as well as Clomid, to start on cycle day 4. A few days passed and we received a call stating Jay's sperm count was negative; confused, I stopped Provera. Thinking the results were incorrect, we requested to be tested again through our PCP. Sadly, the test results came back the same.

Jay was devastated; I was confused. This is where our journey began. In 2007, we made the decision to become foster parents and was blessed with several precious children. During this time, having the luxury of staying at home, I consumed myself with research on infertility and PCOS. We had been told of several sperm exploratory and retrieval surgeries for Jay. The goal would be to hopefully retrieve sperm, if indeed there were blockages, then proceed with IVF. This procedure in addition to the In-Vitro, was insanely expensive; neither of which our insurance covered; I also understood his views on the sense of finality he would feel, in the event of unsucessful retrievals. We researched embryo adoption; this is the direction I wanted to purse, as both the egg and sperm would be adopted. We were then introduced to sperm donation and Interuterine Insemination (IUI). I allowed Jay to make this decision, since donor sperm would be involved; after months of prayer and discussion, we decided to begin our IUI journey.

In September 2008 our darling foster children were reunited with birth family, one day before the adoption process was to begin. Our hearts were shattered; our hands tied. In July 2009, we made our first appointment with our new RE, who had came highly recommended. Actually, during this time, my neighbor was currently pregnant with triplets, after a 5th successful IUI and drug therapy.

July 21, 2009: Our first appointment was scheduled with a different Fertility Specialist than we first saw in 2005. It was confirmed that with a sperm count of zero, exploratory surgery wouldn't even be considered. Fortunately, we had earlier decided the direction we wanted to pursue and had identified the perfect donor. My Metformin was increased and I was to start Femara on cycle days 3-7.

July 25, 2009: Cycle day 1

July 27, 2009: Started Femara thru Cycle day 7.

August 13, 2009: Cycle day 16 ultrasound - 2 follies, 14 & 16; Trigger Shot in evening

August 16, 2009: Our first IUI

September 2, 2009: Beta - Negative; Started new cycle early AM.

Our second cycle was to begin in September, however an uncooperative work schedule interrupted the cycle day 16 ultrasound; so this month was not successful. At this time, we decided to wait until after the holidays and start again after the new year.

April 1, 2010: Anxiously awaiting my cycle to begin to proceed with our 2nd IUI. Restarted Metformin; 1500mg.