Starting Drug Treatments

Hi again,

Our story continues :)

When Chris and I decided to go to RMC, there was more testing to be done there as well. So we started the process there in about September 2008. I won't get into the testing details, but if you are interested, please feel free to send me an email. I love sharing, but I'm not sure what everyone is interested in reading.

After talking to both the doctors and nurses, Chris and I were told that In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) would be the procedure we would need to have in order to become pregnant using our own sperm and eggs. That was sad and scary, but also very good to know that there was an option. Chris and I seem to learn more and more each day about infertility - just crazy. The worst thing about IVF we learned is that it is very expensive, and of course there is a possibility it won't work. Evaluating the costs and options was very overwhelming.

Infertility health care (including IVF procedures) is usually not covered by health insurance. In fact, only 7 states have passed laws either mandating coverage or mandating the offer to cover. This is kind of confusing, but what's important to know is that Minnesota is not one of the seven states that mandate coverage. Another bummer...In fact our health insurance doesn't cover any percentage of the IVF treatment or any percentage of inferitiliy treatments beyond blood work and regular routine check ups. I'll write another chapter to our story in the future to explain ways you can help advocate better health coverage for infertility treatments.

Since IVF is out of our price range, we asked the doctor what our next step(s) should be. The doctor thought it wouldn't hurt to try some drug treatments along with artificial insemination (AI) cycles. AI is much cheaper compared to IVF costs. We were told that they would most likely be unsuccessful, but we thought it would weigh on our minds if we never tried. In January 2009, Chris and I started taking medication to do a variety of things to our bodies. Here's a little more health details: I was put on Letrozole (ovulation regulating drug to also stimulate the number of follicles produced), and Chris started taking Prednisone (steroid to weaken the immune system). Since Prednisone weakens the immune system, there may be a small chance that the sperm antibodies would also decrease. Unfortunately, Chris' antibody levels were very high, but it was still worth a try.

During the drug treatments, I visited Resolve's website. Resolve is a group that advocates for Infertility at both Federal and State legislatures and provides tremendous support to those suffering from Infertility. Please check out their website for more information: www.resolve.org. It can also help you better understand infertility. The Resolve website was great for answers, support, and various other info. In adddition, we saw that the Midwest Area for Resolve's Infertility Conference was being held in Minneapolis. Bonus!! Chris and I signed up, and best part was the prize giveaways for those that attended. Of the 6 infertility clinics in the twin cities, ours was giving away the grand prize for a free, yes I said FREE, IVF cycle. Again, BONUS!!!

The conference was at the end of January 2009, and it was superb!! Michelle Tafoya (sports reporter) was the keynote speaker, and she was fabulous and motivating while sharing her infertility story. The day was full of laughing, understanding, and crying. Very emotional. But Chris and I learned so much. Our goal was to end the day with more information and possibly a Plan a through g. We went to various seminars including: adoption, donor sperm, donor egg, IVF costs, how to deal with infertility, etc.... Overall, wonderful. We thought that the seminar on Donor sperm was fabulous, and would be great in our situation. I'll have to write more about that in updcoming blogs.

The best part of the day came at the end. At the end of the conference is when they read the raffle winners. There was about 200 people there. Well....yes, we won the FREE IVF cycle. After they read our ticket number, we gasped and started crying. We just won the baby lottery - We couldn't believe it!! It was a flood of emotion following a very emotional day as some of you know from our phone calls after the conference. My messages and calls were pretty hard to understand due to my hyperventilating cyring :) But that's my style, right??

So now the story gets even more interesting :) More blogs to come :)