Laparoscopy? To Do or Not To Do…

I have the next month off. So of course, me, being unable to “relax”, I start thinking about the possibility of fitting in a lap this cycle.

The thing is…I think I have endometriosis. I have no proof of that except my gut instinct and because I have some of those symptoms that are listed in the websites…severe cramping at times as well as the fact that my mother has it and has had a lap in the past. And the more you read on the web, the relationship between endometriosis and infertility are too close to deny. I’d brought it up with my doctor during our first consultation. He did not recommed at that point that I have a lap. He wanted us to do a few cycles of IUI and then revisit the issue if those failed since he said he’s seen many women with endometriosis get pregnant. So here I am, jumping the gun again only after 1 failed IUI. But fate has it that there are no surgery availability dates during April/May and so I have decided to wait out having a lap until after the 2nd IUI. If that fails, then I’ll have a consultation with the RE to talk about next steps and at that point, as he’d said originally, we’d talk about endometriosis and the possibility of a laparoscopy again. At least that’s what I proposed to my RE and his response…”Sounds like a good plan”. Sometimes I feel like I am writing my own protocol.

Would love to hear from others on their experience with laparoscopy and whether you think it’s worth doing or not.

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ultrasound

(image as seen on medline plus)

do you like the visual?! so i got the ultrasound this morning. i drank a ton of water to fill up my bladder beforehand as told, and then couldn’t hold it and had to go and then drank more to try and fill it up again in time for my appointment but it wasn’t quite there. the technician commented on it. oops sorry, technician lady.

the ultrasound over the belly was nice. the technician pointed things out to me as she saw them and it was really educational. then she made me put my feet in the stirrups and said, “i’m going to insert a probe inside of you. it should feel something like a tampon”. she then grabbed the giant stick that she alluded to as a “tampon” and i was like WTF! that ain’t no tampon. it looked more like a…dildo. the internal ultrasound was actually more interesting though. she at one point asked me if i exercised a lot and i said yes (well, i used to). she said, “yes, i can tell because your veins are very prominent”. she said this was a good thing as this meant that i had good blood circulation in the area. one of the slightly awkward moments was when she told me that i had “gas”. it was true. i did. but i was embarrassed that we could actually see it moving around up in there. she also showed me the matured follicle in my right ovary. she said, you either have, or are going to ovulate from your right side this month”. that was kind of exciting because i just got a + OPK this morning and usually its just this stupid smiley face looking up at me, and this time i actually got to see the real thing.

all in all, i supposedly passed with flying colors. no polyps, no cysts, a smooth lining in the uterus. no obvious endometriosis that i thought i would have. i am thankful and now am thinking that exercise is a good thing. more blood circulation in the area is no doubt a major help.

i have one more blood test this month on CD21 to measure progesterone levels and then the hysterosalpingogram during my next cycle.

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test results from CD3

got the test results back from the Cycle Day 3 blood test. In this test, they tested the following:

1) estradiol levels: estradiol hormone levels drop when your ovaries begin to fail, which may indicate that you are experiencing pre-mature ovarian failure, i.e. menopause.

2) FSH levels: FSH levels go up if you are experiencing menopause. It’s often used to get some information on your egg quality and supply.

3) thyroid test: in conjunction with the two hormone levels above, it can help determine whether you are in premature menopause or have a thyroid disease. Thyroxine and thyrotrophin levels are checked.

To learn more about premature menopause and hormone tests, this is a good site here.

Anyway, my results on this test were normal. This one was making me pretty nervous. I didn’t want to be told that i have no more eggs left or that my eggs were shitty, so i definitely breathed a sigh of relief when the doctor’s assistant called to tell me things were normal. my husband also had another sperm analysis and the results on this one were the same as the last one. all good on the sperm count and morphology front, but again some slightly lower numbers on motility. my doc suggested that he consult the fertility specialist about what he should do about that. i think i read somewhere that improving motility is easier to work with than other male infertility factors so if anything was going to be wrong for a man, this one is the preferred one.

i also made our first appointment with the fertility specialist for january. i am excited to get there and start down that path. if we’re gonna need medical intervention then lets just get to it!

one test down and several more tests to go. not to be negative, but there are still several more things that could be wrong with me. endometriosis, blocked tubes, low progesterone levels…these are all still possibilities. i have an ultrasound this thursday which will reveal a little more about the WTF my body is doing.

(image as found on Vital Signs)

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