My favorite question in the world - NOT! People love to ask this question.. It may not seem like an offensive question to some, but to us it gets awkward trying to answer that question. Adam and I both LOVE children and can't wait to have them however I have fertility issues that we are working through to get pregnant. I'm not afraid to tell people about our problems but I prefer to keep it simple by saying, "We're trying." However, when that's the answer you keep giving for 10+ months, it's time to find something new to say. Well, maybe not in our case since most of our family and friends know we are struggling with infertilty. The nice thing is I already knew I had infertility problems a few years ago.(I was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome - PCOS.) So when I met Adam I told him right away (luckily it didn't matter to him, because he still fell in love with me!) Having that in mind, we starting trying to get pregnant around Thanksgiving last year. Yes, it was a few month before our wedding, but knowing we weren't going to get pregant right away, we though it'd be best to start trying as soon as possible. We tried on our own, then we tried pills to help me ovualte for a few months.
After a few failed cycles, we moved ahead with injections to produce follicles (which I can do like no tomorrow due to PCOS!) and an injection to trigger ovualtion. After three cycles of that (two of which were cancelled due to ovarian hyperstimulation - too many follicles...though I was repeatedly told I'd be a perfect IVF candidate due to me responding so well to follicle stimulation drugs) the doctors tried a different oral drug along with a few injections. We ended up doing an IUI (interuterine insemination) to increase our odds of getting pregnant. Those odds increased from 12% to a whopping 16%. After that cycle failed to produce pregancy, we had another discussion with doctors and decided that IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) was our last option to try to conceive children on our own.
The good news is that our odds of getting pregnant increase to 43-59% success! The bad news is that it is expensive to do. The first cycle of IVF costs $14,500-$22,000. And you have to pay the money upfront. Yikes! Luckily, Adam works for Mayo and we have health insurance through him. His insurance covers 50% of infertility costs, up to $15,000 lifetime maximum. This means we had to pay $6,000 upfront. However, this does not include the cost of drugs (which will cost us about $3,000 just for this one try).
We've already made our payments to Mayo for the IVF cycle and have already purchased some of the drugs needed. We are now just waiting to get the cycle started. By the time we are done with this cycle, we will have paid almost $13,000 in infertility expenses. Just to get pregnant. We are asking for everyone's thoughts and prayers that IVF works for us. If we get pregnant, this will definitely be one loved, miracle child!!!
Oh, and please refrain from asking, "Have you thought about adoption?" because it is an insensitive question for those suffering from infertility and want to have biological children of their own. Adam and I have talked about adoption, but it is our last resort, should we not be able to have children on our own. Adoption is also more expensive than IVF. We'll worry about that when we get to that point. For now, please support us in our decision to attempt have children via IVF.
Only close family and friends know the details of our IVF cycle, so you'll just have to stay tuned for hopefully good news. :o) In the meantime, keep checking back here for details on what keeps us happy and busy while we wait to add to our family. :o)
No comments:
Post a Comment