Hello--Had my surgeries back in 2009. My husband and I just went through a round of IVF and I am 6 weeks pregnant!!

I wasted money on FOUR failed IUIs. We should have saved it and went straight to IVF. My HSG was perfect, husband's stuff fine, the problem is the scar tissue in our abdomens often displaces the ovaries so they aren't where they should be, or they are covered with scar tissue and eggs can't get in. IVF is really the only chance, and it's still not great numbers.

My advice is to decide in advance how many cycles you will do before you call yourself done whether it works or not. Some people go very deep into debt to keep trying and trying it and if it never works, they are left with a big hole and a lot of despair and no plan for their life now that they know for sure they won't be parents. I developed a detailed and rewarding and rich life plan for the remainder of my life if IVF didn't work, and though I would always have wished I could have been a parent, I had other things I would be focusing on that would make my life fun and worthwhile for me, in a non-parent manner. For me that was doing more traveling, volunteering, and eventually purchasing an RV to tour the country in, but your plan is your own.

I only had a 40% chance of success and was really prepared for it to fail. We could only afford to do it one time, so it was a very big gamble. We only got 3 fertilized embryos that made it to transfer day so we put them all in, and one stuck. My son is now 4.5. But many other people aren't as lucky.

I wish you the best on this journey. I remember every couple of days seeing the same people coming in for ultrasounds throughout the process and wondering which of us would win the lottery. It's nerve-wracking.

I did two fresh cycles and a frozen and got pregnant all three times. I miscarried the middle pregnancy (the frozen cycle) early on. My kids are now almost 8 and almost 5 1/2. My best advice is to avoid the temptation to over stimulate the ovaries. Don't try to get as many eggs as possible. Have a dr who can be controlled about it - we got about 20 eggs both fresh cycles and that was reasonable. I did get a slight case of hyper stim the second time and it isn't fun and can cancel your cycle, so it isn't worth pushing for more eggs and risking the chance at a fresh cycle.

My first cycle we transferred 2 3-day embryos. We believe both implanted, but by 8 weeks, there was only one. Full term healthy boy delivered by c-section. For the frozen cycle we had only one, it did implant, but by 8 weeks there was a sac but no baby. For the second fresh cycle they wanted me to go to blast with the embryo (5 days) but because of the hyper stim we ended up waiting 6 days. We transferred one embryo - a hatching embryo (cells were breaking out of the cell sac). Full term healthy girl delivered by c-section.

Just wanted to share that I have a similar story and a happy outcome. Had no problem getting pregnant with my daughter in 2009, but after delivery my UC flared out of control and I had my first surgery when she was 3 months old. After a disappointing pouch experience, I went back to the temporary ileo 2 years ago and started trying to get pregnant, but after about a year of trying we got a fertility workup. My HSG was not quite "perfect," one of the tubes had some resistance in it, but it appeared that they were both clear. However, ultrasound showed big pockets of fluid around both my ovaries, suggesting that they were both enveloped in scar tissue, preventing egg from ever reaching sperm, so they recommended going straight to IVF, no IUI or anything else. We had a successful fresh cycle of IVF and my little boy is due in January! We are excited.

I agree with Jill, find a clinic that has good outcomes and low complication rates if possible. I was so fortunate to have a world class fertility center just up the street, so that helped a lot. They harvested 12 eggs, 5 fertilized, and 3 ultimately made it to blastocyst stage (which is great because you can choose to only transfer one--we really wanted to avoid putting my body through a twin pregnancy!). So we still have two frozen embryos that we will eventually transfer (only option we were comfortable with for extra embryos). I'm hoping to have my humpty dumpty body put back together again before any more pregnancies after this, but we just feel so fortunate that things have worked out so well so far, I know not everyone has that experience. Good luck, feel free to PM me with any questions!

Thanks all for the responses. Keep them coming! We luckily have wonderful insurance so are covered for 4 lifetime IVF cycles...hoping for luck with cycle one which will begin mid November. I am currently taking birth control pills to get ready. I have consult with dr on 11/5. My RE has never said 100 percent that my 2 surgeries are the issue for us but it makes sense being that all other factors are good and I had no problem at all conceiving my son pre j pouch. he also said that in order to know for sure that it is a factor with surgery that would operate and he said no RE in my area would operate which would cause more scar tissue and could impact my j pouch (i will not have that happen!)