My husband and I have been ttc for a long while now, and we just sought the help of a fertility doctor. I had the HSG test performed yesterday, and much to my doctor's surprise, my tubes are not blocked. Obviously, I am very happy with this news, but I was wondering if anyone who has been through these fertility issues could shed some light on what the next steps usually are from here. I meet with the doctor again May 4th to discuss our options(I need to have some bloodwork redone 1st since my lab messed up) but I am getting impatient!

Jill, if I remember correctly, I believe you had a similar HSG result and went through IVF, right? I am just not sure what else (if anything) really is or could be wrong.

If anyone could share their experiences, that would be great!
Thanks!
Dana

You are right Dana...my tubes are clear, there are no issues with my husband...no identifiable reason for not getting pregnant.

We did do IVF after two failed IUIs (in MA you have to do 6 IUIs, three with oral fertility meds 3 with injectible meds) to qualify for IVF to be covered by insurance. THe drs at my clinic believed IUI would not work for me - success rates in women without surgical history are about 8% and the drs thought my chances of success with IUI were less than 1%. So we petitioned the insurance co and got the okay to skip the last four IUIs.

I got pregnant on my first IVF cycle...we transferred two 8 cell embryos (considered very good quality) and one implanted - Alex is now almost 15 months old. We had one embryo to freeze (a 7 cell) and we are hoping to transfer that in mid-May.

If you don't have insurance coverage for the treatment then you'll have to decide if you want to take your chances with IUI (if you do enough IUIs it can cost as much as an IVF cycle). Be sure to research the success rates for the clinics/drs that you are thinking of using.

Let me know if you have questions!

Thanks so much for responding, Jill!
I am fortunate that fertility treatments are covered for me as well here in NJ. When I called my ins co to verify this, I asked if there was a certain procedure or protocol I needed to follow (like you said 6 IUI, then IVF), but the answer was no, whatever my doctor recommends requires authorization, but will be covered. I will need to check on this again if this is the path we are following.

One last question for you--how was the IUI? You did it with the oral meds? Wow, I didn't realize the stats were so low for IUI for those of us with a surgical history!

Thanks again!

IUIs are no big deal...nothing more than a pelvic exam really. They use a very thin catheter inserted through the speculum to inject the semen.

I had no problems or side effects from the oral meds. My drs did not want me taking injectibles because the risk of multiples is much higher than with the oral meds and they didn't want me to carry more than 1 or 2 babies at the most. With IVF you have a lot more control because you decide how many embryos to transfer. With injectible drugs, your body is doing the fertilizing and implanting and could implant 3, 4, or more embryos.

I was pretty stressed out by the thought of the meds and egg retrieval for IVF with so many years of medical stuff behind me, but it was a lot less invasive and uncomfortable than I was expecting. Egg retrieval here is done under general anesthesia, which I wasn't crazy about, but I was only under for about 15 minutes nad my clinic was really understanding about my worries and I got to meet the anesthesiologist before the procedure.

Since you have insurance coverage, IUI might be worth one or two tries. It certainly is a lot less work and it does sometimes work (I know one woman for whom it worked).

If you do consider IVF, be aware of Ovarian Hyper Stimulation Syndrome, caused when the ovaries are stimulated too much. One of the major complications of this is dehydration - obviously a big concern for us. My clinic called my cycle an A+ one - I produced 15 eggs, 8 fertilized and three made it to a size that could be transferred. Women who don't have insurance often push to get their bodies to produce as many eggs as possible and then OHSS is a big problem.

Check out www.ivfconnections.com to find people who are cycling at the same time as you, or find others to ask questions. They have boards for IUI, IVF, pregnancy, parenting, etc...And always feel free to ask me more questions!