Infertility: hypertension and pregnancy

What an emotional roller coaster!  Today I feel great, confident and hopeful.  As promised, I have to provide all the updates since our first appointment with our fertility doctor.  In September, I had to go to his office to have an hysterosalpingography, (HSG).  This step is necessary to determine by x-ray if my tubes are blocked.  I arrived at the appointment very afraid and discouraged.  They said it would be some cramping, but that would be an understatement.  It was VERY painful!  The process was similar to having a pap, but they injected dye so that they could get a clear picture of my uterus and fallopian tubes.  Oddly enough, just like the dream I had the night prior, my tubes were blocked.  Complete devastation.  I don’t think I’ve ever cried that much.  I went right away to the bathroom to get dressed and cried for about 10 minutes.  Believe me, no one wants to see me cry, but cause I’m an ugly crier!  So I came out, eyes blood-shot and could only look at my loving husband and apologize.  I felt like I had not only disappointed him, but myself as well.  He held me and comforted me and then we drove the long hour drive home.  I’m not really sure what happened during that ride home, but I do know that I was in a complete state of shock.

So after weeks of grieving this process, I was told by the doctor’s office that there is still hope.  They could perform a laparoscopy.  Because in some cases, the uterus spasms due to the cramping.  This then results in tubes that only appear blocked.  That was scheduled to happen in October.  I went to my pre-op appointment and my blood pressure was dangerously high.  So much so that my doctor said that he would not operate on me until it was under control.  Well, for those of you that may know anything about hypertension and pregnancy, it’s a serious issue.  And not all medications are safe to take while pregnant or trying to conceive.  So 4 weeks later, my blood pressure is under control (with a change of medication of course) and I can finally schedule my laparoscopy.

During a laparoscopy, they make 2 incisions to get inside to get a closer look at the tubes with attempts to repair them if possible.  Well, as it turns out, my tubes are blocked and unable to be repaired.  This now leads us to 2 more options: tubal recanalization  or in vitro fertilization.  In the tubal recanalization, he will open the tubes, however, there is only a 50% success rate, and he can not guarantee how long they will remain open.  In addition, we’re not sure that it’s covered by our insurance.  IVF is where they will take the eggs from my body, mix it with sperm (outside of the body), and after it fertilizes, the embryo with be transferred into my uterus.  There is about a 60% success rate.  (Take home baby rate) as my doctor likes to call it!  This is not covered by insurance either, but we were somewhat expecting to have to go this route anyway, so we’ve been saving for it.

Until next time,

The fertility Goddess 2012

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