Pregnancy by IVF/ICSI: Part 2

In part 2, I am just going to describe the medical aspects that we went through before the actual IVF treatment. It was a long year. In part 3, I will write about the emotional and mental toll it took on the both of us. 

Steps we took the first year…

March 2011

Gosh, we were excited! We rented a car to go to the hospital in Heraklio which was about 2 hours away from our hometown of Chania. When we got there, Ilia’s friend, who is a doctor at the hospital, guided us to where we needed to go. I don’t know how we would find our way around without him.
We found seats in the waiting area and waited. We waited for 2 hours after our initial appointment to see the doctor. I wondered what took so long, but then I realized that the doctor who saw us took his time with each patient to make sure each and every question was answered. I couldn’t complain about that. We told him our plans to try IVF and our medical history. He agreed that is may be our best bet and wrote us out an instruction list of blood tests and other tests that we must have for our next appointment with the doctor who runs the fertility clinic at the hospital.

April 2011 

Whew! Tests, tests, and more tests. I had several blood tests to measure my hormone levels, anemia, for all STD’s, and HIV. I had an ultrasound printed of my ovaries and uterus. Plus, an ultrasound where they injected a dye into my uterus to see if the clips were preventing me from getting pregnant. On top of that, I had another regular x-ray of my pelvic region to show where the clips were placed.
Ilias did not have it so bad, but still, blood tests are never fun. He was checked for STD’s and HIV. He also had to give a semen sample.

May 2011 

We took all of our tests to the hospital in Heraklio hoping for the best. We met with the main doctor and he reviewed our tests. We had some bad news. My hormone levels were not quite right. I would have to retest.
Ilias received some news that did not surprise him much. He had very low sperm count and most of his sperm were not mobile. He told the doctor that he lived a lifestyle of smoking and drinking most of his life. He believed this to be the reason for the low sperm count. To make sure it was not because of a genetic disorder, the doctor ordered Ilias is submit his sperm for a DNA test. The doctor said that if it came back good and the smoking and drinking was the problem, we would not be able to do regular IVF. Instead, we would be candidates for ICSI.
Regardless of this news, the doctor gave us a prescription of all the medication we would need for IVF and told us to start buying them now. He also gave us instructions for new blood tests. Off we went to complete our new tasks before the next appointment.

June 2011 

We finished our tests. Everything came back perfect. Well, we would still have to do ICSI, but we were ready to start. We went to our appointment in late June only to be told that they did not have us on their appointment book. We would not be able to see the doctor. Ilias was baffled because he called every week to confirm our appointment. Still, we could not see the doctor. I cried the way home. (That I will save for part 3)

July 2011

Since, we could not see the doctor in time, my blood test were not valid. Too many days had passed. We made contact with a doctor in Chania who worked closely with the IVF clinic in Heraklio to make sure the appointment mix-up did not happen again. I took the tests again and much to my disappointment, my hormones were not right to start IVF. I had to retake the test again at the 3rd day of my next period.

August 2011

I took the test again on what I thought was 3rd day of my period and my hormones came back too high to start IVF once again. What was wrong with me? I felt…(nope, saving it for part 3) However, my doctor in Chania had a great idea. She proposed that we would take a series of ultrasounds to determine when I was to ovulate and count exactly 14 days from ovulation as the first day of my period. Great!

September 2011

I started ultrasounds to determine ovulation. Ultrasound 1, no ovulation, but my uterus lining was getting thicker. Ultrasound 2, no ovulation, but uterus lining getting thicker still. Ultrasound 3, what the heck is that? She (and I) saw a big white mass in my uterus. She measured it and said that it looked like a polyp and that in order for IVF to proceed it would have to be removed. Ugh! Ilias and I went home and called his friend. He said to retake the ultrasound to be sure. The we went back to my doctor the following day to retake the ultrasound. Sure enough, there was the polyp and I had just ovulated also. Wonderful, huh?

October 2011

I took the bloodtest on the day the ultrasound suggested that I take it and my hormone tests came back perfect. It seems that the polyp made me spot before my period actually started which I mistook for the first day of my period. That explains the bad tests! Perfect tests or not, no IVF for us. I was scheduled to have the polyp removed in late October by the doctor who would also perform the IVF in Heraklio. I must say he did a great job and the hospital staff was excellent. Ilia's friend let us stay at his home and were perfect hosts to us. I believe it is a debt I will never get a chance to repay to them. I hope one day…

November 2011

We had another appointment with the doctor in Heraklio for an ultrasound to see how the surgery went. Everything looked great! He said we were ready!
But…
I had to have two months of good hormone levels and my uterus had to heal from surgery. Plus, all of the STD tests, anemia, blood, on and on, had to be repeated. That was fine. I was determined to start in January. WE were determined to start in January. The blood tests became everything. We hibernated for 2 months in our house waiting for the word to start.

December 2011

The last blood test before starting IVF turned out to be the day before New Years Eve. We hoped the microbiology office would be open. Thankfully, it was for a few hours. Now we just would have to wait until after New Years.

January 2012

We did not celebrate Christmas or New Years at all, but when the doctor said that on January 18th we would start the injections for IVF/ICSI, we celebrated for 10 years worth of Christmas and New Years. We were going to start!


Next is Part 3, which is about the emotions of getting to the IVF/ICSI treatment. A couple evolves together when they go through something like this and bonds them in a very strong way. I will talk about family support, online forums, and what to tell friends.


Part 4 will be about the actual treatment.
For those going through IVF/ICSI, stay strong.

Part 1: On the road to an IVF/ICSI Pregnancy

The beginning…

Parties, travel, and beaches were the life of my husband and I when we were first married in May 2010. Even though I am from the United States and my husband is a native of Greece, we got along great. Best friends!

My husband and I spent many nights dancing in clubs and walking the streets of Chania at night to get a 3am hot dog or crepe, but as time went on, we did “partied” less and less. Our travel plans of going to Istanbul, Paris, and Vienna were always pushed back and eventually we stopped talking about them. Instead, we found ourselves at home, tending our garden, cooking together, watching mystery series, and challenging each other on computer games. Going out did not seem to have the same appeal as it did before. Soon we adopted a little puppy from the local shelter. To him, we were Mom and Dad. And then it happened, we talked about what it would be like to have kids. Then the talk turned into let’s have a baby, but there were problems.

I had two teenage sons that lived in the States, so the fear of having a child was not the problem. In 2003, I had a pap smear that revealed that I had abnormal cells on my cervix. They were advanced enough for my doctor to recommend a follow up biopsy. After the results of the biopsy, my doctor concluded that I should have them removed by a procedure called LEEP immediately. He also wanted to do a laparoscopy to search my ovaries for any abnormal cells. There was one big reality with the LEEP procedure that scared me. If I were to get pregnant, it would end in miscarriage due to the fact that part of my cervix would be missing. Of course, there were options to avoid this, but they did not sound very reasonable to me. I thought it over. At that time, I did not want anymore children. My life and my relationship (at that time) made the idea of pregnancy out of the question for multiple reasons. So I decided to get my tubes clipped to avoid any trouble in the future. The surgery was a success and I forgot about it for 7 years until I married my husband.

My husband knew about the problem and suggested we go see a doctor. I thought that maybe the clips could be removed. I heard about women having success after having microsurgery to repair their tubes. Maybe the same could work for me. We went to a doctor who said he could remove the clips, but the rest was up to us. His charged a large fee which made my husband seek a second opinion from his friend at the University Hospital in Heraklio. His friend said that IVF was the way to go. Lucky for us, the hospital in Heraklio had a IVF clinic which had a great team of doctors and the procedure would be very low cost. That was the day that changed everything for us. It gave us hope that we would hold a baby in our arms. We made an appointment for March 2011 and our IVF journey was to begin.

Next… Part 2: Starting the IVF Procedure. The ups and downs.