Now that the miscarriage is complete, I've been wondering when we can start to try again. I'm not entirely ready, emotionally, but I do feel like we want to keep trying rather than take a break, since neither of us is getting any younger! My doctor said to wait two cyles to try again. [...]
Well, we went back for a second HCG test today. It looks like the levels are dropping. They were at 360, only 105 today. Looks like a miscarriage. I guess we start trying again next cycle, and we will be talking to the doctor about ways to increase his semen quantity and motility. We'll also [...]
Now that we're pregnant , I've found myself increasingly anxious and fearful. I started spotting a few days ago. This is not supposed to be that unusual early in pregnancy, supposedly one third of women will spot in the first trimester. My doctor has been reassuring, and did an ultrasound on Wednesday. He was [...]
Yes, despite our disappointing recent semen analysis, we're pregnant! I actually took a home pregnancy test on Saturday, and got a positive result. But I didn't really believe it until today, when I went to the doctor and had my home test confirmed. Given the low number of sperm and low motility of Rich's [...]
It's been two months since Rich's last fertility test, so it was time for another. Since we were in Sacramento last week, we decided to go in to the doctor's office and have the test done there. Yesterday we had a chance to speak with the doctor about the results. The news was not [...]
According to Wikipedia, “retrograde ejaculation occurs when the fluid to be ejaculated, which would normally exit via the urethra, is redirected towards the urinary bladder. Normally the sphincter of the bladder contracts and the sperm goes to the urethra towards the area of least pressure. In retrograde ejaculation this sphincter does not work well. [...]
I came across a post the other day on Stories of Pregnancy & Birth over 44 years, which said in part:
"My husband had a reversal after at least 10 years with a vasectomy. At first they put him on Clomid to raise his sperm count. I didn’t think I would ever get pregnant. Then [...]
Anti-sperm antibodies can result from a vasectomy, and lead to problems conceiving following a vasectomy reversal. This is a complex subject and, rather than try to explain it myself, I'm going to provide a number of resources for further reading on this subject:
An excellent article on antisperm antibodies from the Northern California Fertility Medical [...]
What are the options if a vasectomy reversal isn't succesful? When the first semen analysis results came back low, we instantly thought about the worst case scenarios — IVF, sperm donors, adoption. Fortunately, we were able to meet with our doctor soon thereafter, and he reassured us that we had other options [...]
In our small town, a lot of people know about Rich's vasectomy reversal and our goal to get pregnant. Since we both took time off from work to go to Sacramento for the surgery, we told our co-workers. And when I'm excited about something, I tend to talk about it. So now, well meaning [...]
