Our First RE Appointment

We met our doctor today. (For more information about our doctor, please see the previous post.)Dr. Conway talked to us for an hour about our case and options for treatment. Basically, she spent the entire first 45 minutes explaining my existing condition and why it impairs my ability to conceive. For Jim, this information was fascinating. For me.....been there, done that.

Dr. Conway explained to us that NORMAL couples have a 20% chance of conceiving during any given month. On average, it takes a healthy couple an average of 6 months to conceive. In cases like ours, where the woman is afflicted with PCOS, the chance of conception is barely 5% during any given month. It would take a couple with PCOS an average of 2 years to become pregnant. However, because women with PCOS rarely ovulate, it is impossible to know when conception would most likely occur. In order to alleviate this problem, the doctor suggested a drug designed to induce ovulation called Letrozole. In addition to this, Dr. Conway told us that our chances would go from 5% to 15% (maybe 20%) if we added an IUI to the protocol. We expected that. She then went into the protocol for IUI:

* Schedule baseline pregnancy test. (Letrozole, by law, cannot be given to patients who are pregnant. To rule out the possibility of pregnancy prior to treatment, a pregnancy test has to be performed.)

*Bloodwork today, and on Cycle Day 3

*Take Letrozole on Cycle Days 3 - 7

*Schedule an ultrasound for Cycle Day 12 (to measure egg follicles and see if the Letrozole is working as planned)

*Learn how to do self-injections (for HcG trigger shot)

*Take HcG (human growth hormone) to trigger ovulation after mature follicles are detected

*Come in on Cycle Day 13 for the actual IUI procedure

*Wait until Cycle Day 35 to take pregnancy test (that's a long 23 days!)

The total cost? $1,029.00!!!! Oh my! Jim and I were not prepared for that figure. Our insurance's website was very misleading. It appeared as though we were going to have 90% coverage of procedures, but that is NOT the case. Nothing is going to be covered by our insurance. In addition, future IUI attempts, should they be needed, would cost $1,441.00 because additional bloodwork and ultrasounds would be required. (So, let's all just pray really hard that we only NEED one attempt!)

At this point, based upon pure conjecture, I would say that Cycle Day 13 would be sometime around February 22nd. With that date set as a conception date, an estimated due date for "Baby D" would be on or around November 14th - a Thanksgiving baby!

Now, we pray, and wait.

~Kris~