The Whole Sordid Story, Part I

So, how did we get here? We got married in 2003 and decided to start trying for a baby in 2005. By the time we left for vacation that year, I finished my last birth control pill and we were giddy at the thought of having completely unprotected, baby-making sex. Needless to say, we had a great vacation.

I realized when we got home, though, that I remembered nothing from 9th grade biology about how my cycle worked. After all, why did I need to pay attention before then? I had been on birth control pills for the previous 10 years. The most I thought about it was to know that I needed to refill my prescription. I recalled from my days on the Knot boards that there was a book that every girl who wanted to get pregnant should read: Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler. I dutifully got my copy and was wowed at how little I really knew.

I faithfully charted for several months and tried to figure out if I was ovulating. When I finally did ovulate, I was ecstatic! I told everyone, including my parents who promptly responded that they really didn't need to know that much detail. But, I still didn't get pregnant. Five months after we started trying, we moved to a new city and had to spend time getting acclimated.

By January 2006, I knew something wasn't quite right. I went to see a GYN and he promptly put me on Clomid. He told me at the time that if I didn't get pregnant on Clomid in six months, he would refer me to the infertility clinic across the hall, which sounded an awful lot like being sent to the principal's office. Of course, six months later, I wasn't pregnant. So, across the hall I went.

I didn't like the RE at all. I knew that immediately. He just seemed very disinterested and unsympathetic. I had met a neighbor who also went through infertility and she told me to visit her former doctor. That is how I met Dr. Uterus.

Late August 2006, Dr. Uterus performed an HSG and found that both of my tubes were almost completely blocked. This was a total shock, especially since before the procedure he opined that it would be very unlikely that I would have that particular problem. I was told that there were two options: surgery or IVF. Sweetie and I talked it over and decided that the best option was surgery, particularly since I had been diagnosed with endometriosis when I was 19 and I wanted to know if it had gotten worse. In early October 2006, I had laparascopic surgery in which Dr. Uterus completely cleared out my tubes and found no endometrosis. The most frustrating part was learning that the tubes were just blocked with debris but there was no particular reason why that would happen. I scoured the Internet searching for information on this happening and couldnt' find anything.

While I was healing, Sweetie went back in for another analysis, since he had also had low sperm count. It was still low, so Dr. Uterus advised that it was best to go with IUI with my newly opened tubes.

Part II: in which our heroine learns how to get a shot and tries out turkey basting 101.