Here’s the thing. I didn’t want to do IVF.
The idea of paying thousands of dollars worth of drugs, administering my own shots, having my hormones totally out of whack, bloating and weight gain, doctors appointments for bloodwork and vaginal ultrasounds every other day, pain and discomfort from the meds and forcing my body to create multiple eggs, surgery to retrieve the eggs, the emotional rollercoaster that will come with the process, and mainly the fact that I can do all of that and having a baby, in the end, is NOT GUARANTEED did not make me want to sign up.
I have a sense of inquietude from the past year and a half of trying to get pregnant including going through a lot of testing and two failed IUIs. I felt this was enough to emotionally experience and for my body to endure.
All that to say, I’m doing IVF.
During the past three months of quarantine, we have been trying “naturally”. I called my doctor’s office to ask for refills of Letrozole and progesterone to take while we’re trying. We used an ovulation kit to monitor my fertile window and to know when I needed to take the progesterone. And my friend’s sister recently got pregnant using preseed, so we tried using that again because why the hell not. (This paragraph is beside the point, I’m just putting it here to document it for my memories.)
I had a telehealth appointment with my fertility doctor in April. She recommended that I do a third IUI with injectables. Since the chances of getting pregnant through an IUI is ~17% and the chances with IVF is ~34%, I requested that I move forward and do IVF. She understood and had me register for an IVF seminar. The seminar was canceled thanks to Covid-19 and my $500 fee was waived.
Three months and a lot of patience later, we had our in-person IVF consultation appointment today.
My doctor went over the IVF process and all the information that would have been covered at the seminar. Thinking that a consultation meant just talking, I was not prepared for the vaginal ultrasound and bloodwork. Despite the many times, I told myself I should expect both of these to happen at every appointment. From the vaginal ultrasound, my doctor saw that I had 18 follicles, which is great and I’m only a little drugged up right now. That’s how I describe being on fertility drugs that I self-prescribed. She also saw my one big, beautiful ovary that presented herself as still being big and beautiful. My other smaller ovary was… still there haha. My doctor saw a polyp, which she hasn’t seen in any of my other vaginal ultrasounds, but apparently, these are common and come and go. If it doesn’t go away, I will have to get it removed.
We both had to do HIV tests which are required before doing IVF and I was ecstatic that John had to do bloodwork! Finally, he got to get poked too! My HIV test results came back negative if anyone was wondering. John didn’t get results yet, but it’s safe to assume he’s negative too. John had to do another semen analysis since his first one was back in October. This time he didn’t have to go to little room with the leather couch. He got to take a cup home and return it to the lab.
We talked with the financial person and my IVF cycle is going to cost approximately $21,000. She is hoping to get my insurance to authorize paying $18,000. I’m trying not to be annoyed that we still have to pay $3,000 out of pocket. I’m fortunate to live in a state where insurance covers the majority of one round of IVF, but when I compare $3,000 (plus the expenses that we paid prior to this) to people that get pregnant for $0, it’s annoying.
We also met with my new nurse. And guess what?! You know how I said, “I guess I’m not going to name my baby Rona” when I found out my second IUI was unsuccessful back in March, fresh Coronavirus time? My IVF nurse’s name is RHONA. Now if that’s not a sign, I don’t know what is. She was super nice and very informative. She is going to do all of my scheduling. She understands that because I work at a school, ideally I would like to do IVF during the summer break. She said many people’s appointments had to get rescheduled because of The Rona, but she is going to do her best to get me started at the end of July. I will continue to practice patience and eat as much poke as possible until then.
❤️