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Wife and I are both 27 and have been trying for children for two and a half years. After the great six month timetable we started by getting her examined by her OB and getting a clean bill of health. A few months later I do a SA with great numbers accross the board except for morphology numbers not quite where my urologist wants to see them. He says they aren't so bad as making our chances next to nil but more like just less than half of regular couples TTC. He puts me on multiple supplements with no change in SA numbers the second time around.
As of now we have an appointment with a top-10 fertility doctor in the country at The Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine, Dr. Schoolcraft. We've had a conference call with him, my wife's OB, and my urologist and Dr. Schoolcraft said after looking over our files he's interested in seeing us both. I hope that means he can help us and doesn't see some crazy hurdle to jump so he can add another accomplishment to his resume.
I guess I'm posting this just to share it with someone and to get it off my chest. We both love children and want nothing more in the world than to have just one.
Plus (and I hope this doesn't make me sound like a dick) I'm getting sick of volunteering at Big Brother Big Sister because most of the kids I work with have single mothers as parents and it rips my heart out everytime one of the little boys asks me to come meet their mom since I'd seem like a cool dad.
Thanks for letting me get this off my chest, C-D community.
SkiScree, I understand your pain and frustrations. Not as a man but as a woman who has gone through fertility issues and even now in my 7th pregnancy going through other issues.
Do not give up hope!
If you and your wife have yet to be successful in conceiving, I highly recommend this book: Taking Charge of Your Fertility.
Thanks for the book idea but I'm already looking at it sitting on my coffee table as I type this up. lol
We've never been pregnant or even had a "close call". Of course I guess there's always the chance she has had a terminated pregnancy before we met but I'm one hundred percent sure she'd have told me about that had it been the case.
Sorry to hear about the complications with your pregnancy. I hope it all goes well for you.
Thanks for the book idea but I'm already looking at it sitting on my coffee table as I type this up. lol
We've never been pregnant or even had a "close call". Of course I guess there's always the chance she has had a terminated pregnancy before we met but I'm one hundred percent sure she'd have told me about that had it been the case.
Sorry to hear about the complications with your pregnancy. I hope it all goes well for you.
I believe she would have. Whatever you do, do not blame yourselves.
Our fertility issues got explained on this pregnancy. I had five miscarriages (two which ended in termination for two different health reasons). On the sixth pregnancy the baby was a beautiful healthy boy. He is now two years old. We were about to go to a well known fertility specialist in NYC to opt for surrogacy via my sister when I discovered I was pregnant with my son. So we never got a chance to find out why I had all these problems prior.
Now this time around I got pregnant and found out relatively quick. This time around my blood work came back and I was carrying a rare antibody called E. My ob/gyn said it was a miracle that I even had my son because if my husband comes back as the carrier for the big E antibody as I am a carrier of e we should have never truly had him in the first place. It turns out my husbands blood type is A+ Ee and I am B+ee making our blood types incompatible for producing children. We have to wait to see what is the babies blood type and antibody carrier. If the baby comes out with husbands or the possibilty of baby being A+ EE then we have to start fetal blood transfusions.
What I am trying to tell you...is that not everything is ever clear cut especially when it comes to having children. I am happy that you and your wife are taking the first steps in finding out why you are having these problems. Do not wait like we did to find out. We were always told oh its a miscarriage do not worry you can get pregnant. We were never told why! The road ahead can be frustrating and at times depressing or confusing. Sometimes you will vent, sometimes you will blame yourself. I know my husband has had many periods of depression thinking it is all his fault he should have known. How can you know these things? None of us have a crystal ball, right?
Just eat healthy, maintain healthy lifestyles, take vitamins and work at it. Be a team and be proactive. If you end up the IVF route I recommend that you are prepared for disappointment as well as the possibility of excitement and elation.
I believe she would have. Whatever you do, do not blame yourselves.
Our fertility issues got explained on this pregnancy. I had five miscarriages (two which ended in termination for two different health reasons). On the sixth pregnancy the baby was a beautiful healthy boy. He is now two years old. We were about to go to a well known fertility specialist in NYC to opt for surrogacy via my sister when I discovered I was pregnant with my son. So we never got a chance to find out why I had all these problems prior.
Now this time around I got pregnant and found out relatively quick. This time around my blood work came back and I was carrying a rare antibody called E. My ob/gyn said it was a miracle that I even had my son because if my husband comes back as the carrier for the big E antibody as I am a carrier of e we should have never truly had him in the first place. It turns out my husbands blood type is A+ Ee and I am B+ee making our blood types incompatible for producing children. We have to wait to see what is the babies blood type and antibody carrier. If the baby comes out with husbands or the possibilty of baby being A+ EE then we have to start fetal blood transfusions.
What I am trying to tell you...is that not everything is ever clear cut especially when it comes to having children. I am happy that you and your wife are taking the first steps in finding out why you are having these problems. Do not wait like we did to find out. We were always told oh its a miscarriage do not worry you can get pregnant. We were never told why! The road ahead can be frustrating and at times depressing or confusing. Sometimes you will vent, sometimes you will blame yourself. I know my husband has had many periods of depression thinking it is all his fault he should have known. How can you know these things? None of us have a crystal ball, right?
Just eat healthy, maintain healthy lifestyles, take vitamins and work at it. Be a team and be proactive. If you end up the IVF route I recommend that you are prepared for disappointment as well as the possibility of excitement and elation.
I truly wish you and your wife all the best.
And here is a bit of baby dust to you!
Mrs. X
I have to agree! If you haven't read Taking Charge of Your Fertility and it is just a coaster as of now, I would recommend it for both you and your wife. It explained things that my doctors never did and helped me make a lot better decisions. Many of our friends had fertility issues (mostly unexplained) and had gone to several specialists, and found that book to finally explain the possible causes and treatments. Definitely don't blame yourself. There are several boards out there with Infertility forums - not sure why this one doesn't have a section - that seems to help a lot. We were convinced that we would have difficulty conceiving and without even being diagnosed my doctors were ready to start fertility medicine so I am a bit skeptical about some doctors. All I can say is that this field is huge these days and many doctors try to take advantage of your extreme want to have a child, so beware of that. If there are any steep costs, or guarantees I would run the other way. But, I really do hope that we see a post from you in the future that everything has been resolved and you have a little one on the way!
Wife and I are both 27 and have been trying for children for two and a half years. After the great six month timetable we started by getting her examined by her OB and getting a clean bill of health. A few months later I do a SA with great numbers accross the board except for morphology numbers not quite where my urologist wants to see them. He says they aren't so bad as making our chances next to nil but more like just less than half of regular couples TTC. He puts me on multiple supplements with no change in SA numbers the second time around.
As of now we have an appointment with a top-10 fertility doctor in the country at The Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine, Dr. Schoolcraft. We've had a conference call with him, my wife's OB, and my urologist and Dr. Schoolcraft said after looking over our files he's interested in seeing us both. I hope that means he can help us and doesn't see some crazy hurdle to jump so he can add another accomplishment to his resume.
I guess I'm posting this just to share it with someone and to get it off my chest. We both love children and want nothing more in the world than to have just one.
Plus (and I hope this doesn't make me sound like a dick) I'm getting sick of volunteering at Big Brother Big Sister because most of the kids I work with have single mothers as parents and it rips my heart out everytime one of the little boys asks me to come meet their mom since I'd seem like a cool dad.
Thanks for letting me get this off my chest, C-D community.
Hi Ski,
Sounds to me like you will be a great Dad.
I suspect Dr. Schoolcraft will tell you it only takes one sperm to make a baby!
His job will be to recommend the best way to maximize the chances for that one sperm. It is even possible to select that one sperm and use it to fertilize an egg, but there are other procedures that are more low tech.
Now this time around I got pregnant and found out relatively quick. This time around my blood work came back and I was carrying a rare antibody called E. My ob/gyn said it was a miracle that I even had my son because if my husband comes back as the carrier for the big E antibody as I am a carrier of e we should have never truly had him in the first place.
Me too... but in our case it was not causing fertility issues... antibodies more often cause 2nd trimester miscarriage and we never got that far. Anti-E usually causes only mild anemia so I am surprised your doctor attributed everything to the anti-E... but anything is possible.
OP: Did you get checked for varicocele? Anything that increases heat to the area alters morphology. I don't like it when doctors take morphology lightly because in cases of unexplained infertility you have to investigate every avenue. Vitamins are a good place to start though.
I also hope that they did a HSG on your wife or else you will be wasting your time with fertility treatments.
6 months of evaluation is not a long time and you are still young. I know it can be discouraging, but keep trying! There may be a few factors (both male and female) to optimize and you might never pinpoint a specific problem before achieving success, but that is the nature of "unexplained" infertility.
Me too... but in our case it was not causing fertility issues... antibodies more often cause 2nd trimester miscarriage and we never got that far. Anti-E usually causes only mild anemia so I am surprised your doctor attributed everything to the anti-E... but anything is possible.
My Ob/GYN and Perinatalogist stated that if this was the first pregnancy I was experiencing not my seventh, it would have been a case of mild anemia and baby jaundice. Since this is my seventh and tracking this pregnancy I have a 50/50 shot at giving birth to a still born or a premmie. We go for our ammnio in two weeks to determine the babys blood type. If it comes back EE we will begin with fetal blood transfusions amounting to seven times and give birth to a premmie/or stillbirth before or in December, if it comes back Ee the pregnancy is monitored and they expect delivery in December, and we are praying for ee so we do not have to worry and just pray for a health baby in February. Every case is different and my case is on the bad end of the spectrum unfortunately.
That makes sense that it gets worse with each pregnancy... wow, 7th! Good luck with the amnio! I had 1:64 titer of c antibody from a transfusion. Husband is homozygous. Titers never changed and I got monitored like crazy, made it to 37 wks, but never needed IUT. I hope that your outcome is good...
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