We have been trying for a baby for some time now. In May 2010, I decided that I could not stay at my place of employment any longer as it was an extremely unhealthy environment. I moved to another company and low and behold, they had some Infertility coverage ! I am also very lucky that there is a Reproductive Endocrinologist in the Outpatient Center in the next building over.I made an appointment for the beginning of June to start our testing and discuss our options.
We went through the whole battery of tests ( u/s, b/w, HSG, SA, etc) and it came back that my thyroid was the culprit. I was diagnosed as hypothyroid several years ago, so it did not come to that big of a surprise. Not many people realize that your thyroid gland regulates almost every function of your body. If it is too fast or too slow, it can not only cause miscarraiges but also prevent pregnancy in the first place.
I was originally having my PCP treat my hypothyroid issues but I did not feel like they were doing a good job. After some research, I found a very good endocrinologist that was not too far from my work. Note: I had been going to an endo. before but switched to my PCP when he shut his business down as he was being accused of murder.
This new doc is very "on the ball." She knows everything there is when it comes to thryoid problems and infertility. She has been monitering me very closely and my thyroid is now in a normal range. Also, she was the first doctor to test me for anti-thyroid hormones. The test came back positive for Hashimotos which basically means my body is attacking my thyroid gland (as it thinks it's a foreign object) thus causing it to slow down.
After the doctor determined the primary cause of my infertility, we started treatment. I started with clmiid + ovidrel ( trigger shot) + IUI. It did not work. Not only that, but the high dose of clomid caused my endrimitriol lining to become too thin. Also, at this same time, my TSH level skyrocked in 2 weeks. They are unsure if it was just a freak occurance or related to the medications. Because of this, we had to take a break to get my thyroid under control. It was so frustrating to finally have an answer and a plan, only to have to take a break.
After a month break, my TSH was just borderline normal. Since we did not want to waste a "chance" or the money, we decided to do a lower dose of clomid & TI. This did not work either. At this point, my thryoid was under control. I met with the actual RE to discuss another game-plan. She wanted to only do 1 to 2 more IUIs ( depending on the response) before moving onto IVF. The IUIs cost appx $1K and had a 6% chance of working. IVF is far more expensive ( appx $10K-$15K) but have a 50% chance of sucess. So, we went for another IUI. I stayed at the lower dose ( due to my lining issues at the higher dose) but was not responding well. I was threatened with canceling my cycle when my overies decided to actually do something. I was not all that surprised when this IUI did not work. So, now we were stuck as a rock in a hard place. The higher dose caused my lining to be too thin and the lower dose caused my overies not to respond too well. At this point, it was recommended that we move right onto IVF.
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