This trip was to complete the testing that was required by the study - it consisted of blood work for both Chris and I and a semen anti-body test for Chris, which we have never done before so I had to research. Basically - this is what it is:
Antisperm Antibody Test
An antisperm antibody test looks for special proteins (antibodies) that fight against a man's sperm in blood, vaginal fluids, or semen. The test uses a sample of sperm and adds a substance that binds only to affected sperm.
Semen can cause an immune system response in either the man's or woman's body. The antibodies can damage or kill sperm. If a high number of sperm antibodies come into contact with a man's sperm, it may be hard for the sperm to fertilize an egg. The couple has a hard time becoming pregnant. This is called immunologic infertility.
I have to re-do my PAP tomorrow because it came back inconclusive, so that will probably put us back a week on our time line, but a week is better than a month so we are staying positive.
So, now we wait for the results to come back on my PAP, if they come back normal (which I am sure they will - I just had one in January and it was normal), I will start birth control pills for 14 days. After the 14 days, I will start Lupron which is an injectible drug that I will take once a day to shut down my own hormones. This ensures that the only hormones in my body are the ones that I am injecting and give the doctor more control over them.
I will have another ultrasound at that point to make sure that I don't have any cysts and everything looks good and then I will start the stimulating drugs. I will be on Follistim for this study, which is a drug that I have already taken so I know the side effects and know how to take this medicine. It is a shot that I will take in my stomach daily.
Once I start the stims, I will have ultra-sounds every other day until the follicles reach the correct size. Based on my past history with this medicince, I usually produce anywhere from 10 -15 follicles on each side. A mature follicle is about the size of a golf ball, so try to imagine what 20 golf balls in your abdomen feels like. Good times!
Anyway - after my follicles mature, I will take a trigger shot which will force my body to ovulate and the doctor will go in and retrieve the eggs from the follicles while I am under general anesthesia. The doctor will combine the eggs and sperm sample from Chris and hope and pray that they fertilize! Based on how they grow and divide, we will either do a 3 day or a 5 day transfer where they implant the fertilized eggs back into my uterus.
I will start taking progesterone at that point to feed the embryo until the 2nd trimester when the placenta takes over (assuming I get pregnant).
The study that we are participating in is a different way to deliver the progesterone to the mother - whether it is a ring that will be inserted into the mother or a gel that the mother used daily.
After the eggs are transferred back to me, we enter the dreaded two week wait where I will obsess about every little twinge and feeling that I have. ROFL
I get A LOT of comments when people find out that I have to take the shots in my stomach. It amuses me actually. Most of them are in the range of "How can you do that?!" Its amazing what you will do when you want something bad enough.
Many people ask us why we have gone to the lengths that we have to try to conceive and it was summed up in one sentence that I heard this weekend. I was watching “Steel Magnolias” and there is a part in the movie where Julia Roberts’s character,
1 comment:
I do agree - I took the shots in my belly for Coby and Ally. So yes you are doing it for a great cause!!! I AM SOOOOO EXCITED FOR YOU GUYS!!! This just sounds so positive!! So you will be home for a few weeks and then back to TX for a couple weeks again?
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