[Shay]

Hi everyone...I just wanted to give a brief introduction of our situation.

We ttc (tried to concieve) for many years going through fertility treatments. After many IUI attempts I had a Lap done and found out I had Endometriosis and had to have a tube removed. Well after that we were told that IVF would be our best chance to get pregnant. So we attempted that and it failed midway through the cycle so we were left with the option of trying IVF again or adopting. We had always thought about adoption even before we ttc so the decision to adopt came to us very easily.

So here we are over a year and a half later with a beautiful little girl from Russia. We brought her home in March at 7 months old and she is now 17 months old. She is truely a blessing from God and we are so thankful to have made the decision to adopt.

So why are we now ttc you ask, well, we were very fortunate to have had a pretty easy adoption process but now see that times are changing with Russia and their adoption program. It isn't as stable as it once was and it makes me a little nervous about going through the process of adopting Internationally. We have looked into other programs as well and we just aren't in a financial position to adopt again right now. We are going to save money and reconsider adoption down the road.

So I would like to keep my ttc options open as well and see what happens.

I asked for this forum because of another member asking the same questions and feeling the same uncertainty with International adoption. So please feel free to open yourself up here and find support and answers to some of your questions.

I look forward to getting to know others who may or have been in this same boat.

[Shay]

bumping for the night crew...

[JunipersMom]

I am so glad I checked the New Posts because I wasn't aware of this thread! We tried for 6 years and stopped short of IVF and decided to adopt. We've had our beautiful daughter home from Guatemala since August and I think I'm ready to ttc already. We never really stopped trying, we just stopped timing everything.

Here's wishing luck for both of our families!

[Shay]

I am so glad you found this new board! I am very interested to see if others out there are ttc after adoption, but there really wasn't a forums for this type of discussion.

JunipersMom..so where are you now in the ttc stage? We are going to ttc on our own for a couple of months and go from there. I am almost sure I will need another Lap before we try IUI or IVF (which will certainly be down the road).

[AwaitingBeloved]

Hi there,
Wanted to wish you both luck.

We're not in the ttc boat... our situation is a little different. But wanted to wish you luck. I've been through several IVF cycles with ICSI and assisted hatching, so please, if you have any questions, pm me, I would love to be some help. It didn't work for us for several reasons... but it DOES work. I think it's a wonderful option for many people. Good luck!

[Shay]

Julie that was VERY sweet of you to comment and wish us luck. Sorry things didn't work out with ttc, I understand if it is too personal for you to share. Thank you again, and I will most likely being PM'ing you soon!

Gosh how sweet of you.

[maddensmom]

Great job Shay! I could pretty much ditto your story. Endo, lap,... 23 failed cycles and then Russia. I am scared to death to try Russia again and can't imagine leaving my son twice. I want another child, and I can't wait for ds to experience the love of a sibling. I just hope re thinks ttc is a viable option. There has simply never been an explanation for my bodies refusal to achieve pg. People with endo get pg all the time. I keep thinking maybe I can too...

[Shay]

Tracy, I know of other couples who have had similar circumstances and was never told why they can't get pregnant. I for one am glad there was something they found...ya know. I would think it would be hard to have absolutly no reason at all.

I do wish you luck, you are such a wonderful mom to Madden and I can just imagine if you had another child.

HUGS!!

p.s. YEAH...I am so glad you found this board!!

[AwaitingBeloved]

Hi again,
I wanted to let you know that endo can make it difficult, but like you said Shay, once they figure it out, than they can treat it. And a lot of times, once the problem is identified, they'll be able to succeed.

I will share about our situation, in case someone else is reading this in the same situation we were in.

DH was diagnosed with Leukemia in 97. He started chemo immediately, and in Jan 98 he had a Bone Marrow Transplant. To prepare for the BMT, he had to have total body irradiation. The oncologist warned that this treatment would make him sterile, and that he could bank his own sperm prior to the radiation.

Fast forward 4 years, we decide to start IVF in January 02. We had the ICSI form, they do a GIFT and a couple other kinds, but the ICSI is the kind where they put the embryo back right into your uterus, so it doesn't have to travel at all. GIFT, they put the gamete into the fallopian tube. Then it finds it's own way to the uterus.

The first cycle was a dudd. The hormones I was on, I didn't respond to, so they couldn't do an egg retrieval. After a complete cycle, we could try again. This time my body responded very well to the hormones. I don't think I got pregnant this cycle. It did take a couple cycles before I started to get pregnant, but I would notice that each cycle I got a little further so I thought eventually it'd work.

We started IVF at the hospital where DH was treated for his Leukemia, because that's where his sperm was. After a couple years though, we moved further north and found a different clinic (far better clinic, too!) closer to home.

This clinic made us read a book "Miscarriage: Why it happens and how best to reduce your risk" (or something like that) it was very helpful... And began to open our minds to the reality that recurrent miscarriage (3 or more) isn't likely an accident or bad luck, but for a reason. This clinic did tons of labs and found that I have antiphospholipid syndrome. (Same thing Courtney Cox had) which is very treatable. We did one cycle treating this, and it ended in miscarriage again. Now the docs do more tests, on both of us. Come to find out, DH has major chromosome problems. Mismatched and translocated chromosomes. It's unclear if the chromosome problems were there before or after the chemo, but in any case, his sperm had been produced post chemo. We did one more cycle, where they did PGD testing (preimplantation genetic diagnosis) on the embryos. Out of 9 embryos, all but 1 came back abnormal. That one, they cautioned could still be abnormal, just not in the chromosomes they screen for. They can only currently screen for 10/23 pairs of chromosomes, so any of the other 13 pairs could very well be deformed... We moved forward with the IVF with an agreement that regardless of the outcome, it'd be our last cycle. I had a couple cycles with severe Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome, and that's no picnic. This last cycle was the worst. I made the most eggs I ever had (33, lucky Larry Bird!) so the OHSS was pretty bad with this cycle.

Anyway, it ended in a miscarriage and the doctor told us then, that this would just never work for us. I think I knew in my heart for some time, it was very hard for DH.

We met with the agency last February, during my last miscarriage. So we jumped right into adoption, but it was something we had considered and looked into a year earlier.

Anyway, that's what happened with us... I love to hear about IVF working for other people, and I really don't mind answering any questions at all. I really wish I had found these forums while I was going through IVF, but never in a million years thought to. I did feel very alone during that, whereas with adoption, everyone knows someone touched by adoption, you know? So it can be a long and lonely road, don't hesitate to reach out.

Things to expect with the hormone shots... if you're going that route (Shay, I imagine you'll be going to IVF since you had your fallopian tube removed, but not sure) the hormones may give you hotflashes and headaches, but to be honest, it wasn't that bad. I actually got a kick out of the symptoms I had because to me it meant they were working, it was like gratification for doing my shots on time, you know?

You will have to go to the docs, a lot. Sometimes every day. Maybe even a couple times a day at times. But, if you are like me and do better with knowing than not knowing, you probably won't mind going. You'll get to see your eggs as they develop and you'll get to see your embryo when they implant it. That I thought was the coolest thing, how many other parents have pics of their children from EMBRYO to birth? I did enjoy that a lot.

Sorry it's so long.. wanted to share so nobody thinks that it won't work for them since it didn't work for us. We had some weird things in our way, not typical at all.

It will be exciting to watch you all go through this. Best wishes.

[Shay]

Julie, thank you so much for sharing your story. I wanted this board so that we could be a support system to those who may be ttc after adopting and maybe they have never tried more evasive procedures to get pregnant. Also for those who may not have somewhere to go to talk about ttc after adopting. So thank you for sharing this with us, it really means a lot. Also I am sorry that your husband has had a hard time too. I hope things are better. So are you done with ttc or adopting anymore children?

I did try IVF and was doing the shots but they had to cancel midway through the cycle due to not starting me out on a stronger dose of fertility drugs. But due to financial concerns we may ttc on our own for a few months and then may consider adopting or IVF.

[BrandyHagz]

Having a tube removed doesn’t automatically mean IVF – it’s actually very possible (in my case almost guaranteed) that you can and will get pregnant with one viable tube. I carried two successful pregnancies with one ovary (I think, still trying to confirm) and one tube…we too are struggling with infertility…but our issues are male factor and provided DH’s numbers have come up “some” next week, we’ll be going in for our first IUI on the 13th.

We haven’t adopted – but we were foster parents for about six months…so I hope that counts

[AwaitingBeloved]

Thanks, Shay! I should have mentioned the most important part, DH is very well! Thank God. He is considered cured now. PHEW!

Yeah, I think they often start women out on a very mild hormone the first cycle.. and we end up not being able to have the cycle completed. I assumed for us it was because they had to show our insurance company that they tried less expensive hormones first.. or jumped through the insurance company's hoops basically. It can be very expensive without insurance, we would not have tried as long as we did if we didn't have it.

The clinic we went to I believe is a national clinic. They have the best success rates in the country, and they have a plan where they will reimburse you almost all of the fee if the cycle does not end in the birth of your baby.

If anyone wants the name of the clinic we went to, please don't hesitate to pm me. I would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone in this situation. They were very personable and knowledgeable and just had so many nice touches. There's a website I could direct you to, and you could check it out.

Shay, I hope you and yours have much success in your efforts... and maybe even a little fun trying!

[Shay]

Brandy you are so funny...of course fostering counts.

My DH also had "lazy" sperm and low count. So the odds are against us but your post makes me hopeful that it can happen for us.

I will keep you in my prayers for your first IUI!!!

So have you been on Clomid or anything? Boy do I know all about IUI

[Shay]

Originally Posted by AwaitingBeloved

Shay, I hope you and yours have much success in your efforts... and maybe even a little fun trying!

Oh I am so glad your hubby is better. I couldn't help but wonder sorry if that seemed too personal.

You are too funny in this regard about having fun trying. You know it was weird how it really wasn't fun after the 15th million time we tried IUI. i mean it was like "ok honey, I am ready are you"...well I have to do this or that"...it got to be "routine" as far as a certain time and such. Maybe since we are doing this more on our own this time we will have more fun trying

[BrandyHagz]

Shay, funny you should ask LOL

DH also has low count, but they found the cause and hope to be addressing it.

I did take Clomid in Nov, my Dr. wanted to stimulate more eggs so we could see if that ovary was there or not...but because of some stupid ticket lady at the airport counter at Midway Airport the day before Thanksgiving - I ended up having to camp out at the airport for four hours, missing that appointment for the US to see about the ovary - so the whole cycle was a wash.

We decided to bypass Dec - there was just to much going on and I didn't need the added stress of driving to the clinic an hour away three days in a row...

So, tomorrow, I start my 2nd cycle of Clomid to increase the targets for the few sperm due to low count and then on the 12th go in for the US and have the first IUI on the 13th...*sigh*