In the general population, they generally determine infertility after a year of trying to conceive. But, when you are at an increased risk of infertility (yes, your doctors were wrong!), you should wait no longer than 6 months or so of unprotected sex to seek fertility expert consultation and advice.

Jan

Although I'm not planning to become pregnant, my surgeon cautioned me as a general caveat that given the history, to seek assistance after 3 months of trying. He did say that that we have as much as a 40% increased chance of infertility due to the pouch surgery, and that there has been more and more research pointing to this in recent years. Though you are still quite young, I wouldn't wait if you are really hoping to become pregnant.

What Jan said, 100%. 6 months of targeted trying (with temping and charting) and no results, go to a fertility specialist.

I also agree with Jan- we did the "didn't try, didn't protect" for a year, but then once we really started actively trying (with temping and charting) I only waited 6 months to see a fertility specialist and get tested. Since my tubes were open, we decided to wait another 8 months of actively trying before we actually started treatment (testing was covered under my insurance, but treatment was OOP). As everyone is mentioning, J-pouch does increase your chance of infertility (you can search this board for links to scholarly articles to print out and bring to your doctor, if that will help). Try not let it freak you out too much, though! Some women on this board conceived naturally. For me- turned out I had a (very) mis-shapen cervix that prevented passage of most of the sperm into the uterus- but it was unlikely that issue was related to my surgery. 5 non-medicated IUIs and 1 clomid IUI later, I'm now 19 weeks pregnant with B/G twins.