The Background

I’m new to this blogging so bare with me. It’s taken a lot in me to sit down and have to tell our story but I feel like maybe it will help someone out there or give them some hope. A little background of myself and my husband. I am a Labor and Delivery Registered Nurse and my husband is going to school for Architecture. We have been together for almost 12 years with being married 3 of those. We first started trying to have a baby shortly after my Dad died in 2016. My husband was on testosterone replacement for low testosterone, and  anti depressants for depression. At first we thought that the reasoning it wasn’t happening was because I was on birth control for too long. I first went to my OB/GYN requesting medication to help me ovulate. I was prescribed metformin and clomid only to find out that I was ovulating perfectly normal. I then requested an ultrasound to check my anatomy. I was told “everything looks great.” We then went to Allyn’s (my husband’s) primary care doctor wondering if anything was affecting his libido or his fertility. They upped his dose of testosterone and changed his anti depressants but was told “nothing else should be a factor.” We then went and saw Dr Hudson, a fertility doctor, she ran some tests on me including a 3D ultrasound, genetic screening, blood work and referred Allyn to go see a reproductive urologist for his low testosterone but his testosterone replacement therapy needed to be stopped ASAP! We made an appointment with Dr Case the reproductive urologist and told him what was going on. We were told that testosterone can affect fertility in killing the sperm and interfering with sperm count.  Allyn was prescribed clomid and HCG injections to naturally bring his testosterone levels up. After 3 months of therapy his testosterone levels went from 220 to 600! He was feeling better and like himself again. We continued treatment for an additional 3 months and then were suppose to do a semen analysis to check his sperm count. After 3 analysis’s, we had a follow-up  with Dr Case and were told Allyn has no sperm and we had a 0% chance of conceiving. I happened to then mention after lots of research that Allyn was a cystic fibrosis carrier. Dr Case explained to us that Allyn is missing parts of his vas deferens (the tubes that make the sperm come out) which occurs in 60% of cystic fibrosis carriers. Our only option would be a needle biopsy or aspiration to obtain the sperm under anesthesia and then we would have to do IVF. The success rate, if this is the only issue occurring is 90%. The needle biopsy alone is $3,000, not including IVF costs! So 2 1/2 years later here we are. We have chosen to see a different fertility doctor, Dr Knudtson in San Antonio which the closest date they had available is in January where we can talk about our plan of continuing on this journey and what the next step is. If we choose to perform the needle biopsy and try IVF, we may have to wait until financially we can continue. There are so many what if’s that run through my mind and physically and emotionally it is exhausting. The hope is one day I will get to experience what all my patients do, to become a Mother and have a family. It’s something I’ve always wanted and waiting is the hardest part. I will update again in January after our appointment.