This wasn’t meant to be the first post, but since things were so crazy for a while and I’m a natural born procrastinator, here we are.
My partner and I wanted to start this blog as a means of documenting our baby-making exploits and more importantly, as a means of disseminating (no pun intended) information to other lesbian couples who are planning or trying to start a family. Because when we started this process a few months ago, we had a very hard time finding the necessary information. And it cost us. It cost us time and money.
Thanks to my procrastination and our desire to give you the most helpful information first, this record will be told a la Pulp Fiction: all discombobulated, time-wise. So please bear with me. And if you’re our daughter or son or lordhelpus our quadruplets and you’re reading this, you already know that our lives together probably continue to be marked by procrastination and wonky schedules.
So, without further ado…if you are trying to get pregnant via intrauterine insemination (IUI) do this IMMEDIATELY:
GO GET YOUR TUBES BLOWN OUT!!
Do not pass Go, do not spend another DIME on sperm samples, do not listen to your doctor when he or she tells you it isn’t necessary. Don’t flinch at the cost (~$800-1100). It’s NOTHING compared to the thousands of dollars you will spend shooting spermatozoa into your Fallopian tubes for NO REASON WHATSOEVER.
GO GET YOURSELF AN HSG TEST. NOW. GO!
Let me explain.
HSG is the Hysterosalpingogram. It’s an x-ray test that checks to see if your Fallopian tubes are open and/or tied up like a pretzel. Which would of course, inhibit fertilization.
I’m going to assume you all know how fertilization works, but maybe you don’t, So here’s a quick refresher:
The beauty of IUI is that instead of semen being dropped off down the street and your cervix having to rely on an orgasm to wonka wonka wonka suck up said semen into your uterus and then those genetic swimmers having to swim up through your uterus and into your Fallopian tubes, the unencumbered genetic swimmers are dropped off RIGHT AT YOUR FRONT DOOR. No orgasm (sorry), no treacherous swim across the uterus, just “knock, knock…oh hey, egg, wanna go?”
Now, there’s still a catch. If your egg (or multiple eggs if you’re on fertility meds, which you probably are if you’re undergoing IUI) is spit out by the ovary correctly and gets picked up by those dangling Fallopian tube fingers as it should and starts traveling through the Fallopian tube (or tubes, if multiple eggs), there’s a chance your tubes may be clogged, either at the ovary end or the uterus end. So basically, you could have a bunch of eggs ready to go and this expensive premium IUI sperm specimen shot right at the front door, but your 500-lb father is STANDING IN THE WAY AND NO ONE’S GETTING THROUGH.
Well, isn’t that a fine howdoyoudo?
So here’s the thing. The act of performing the HSG test to see if your tubes are clogged usually UNCLOGS YOUR TUBES in the process. How fortuitous!
But here’s the kicker. If you look online, most doctors don’t recommend the HSG test until after 6 failed IUI attempts. Um…hey doc, do you have any idea how expensive IUI is?! We did dual IUI attempts during each cycle. That meant two IUI specimens and two IUI procedures. We paid for the procedures out-of-pocket, so each cycle attempt cost us about $2500 (this included the overnight shipping we needed for timing purposes; more on that later).
THIS IS COMPLETE AND UTTER HORSEPUCKY.
Basically, we could have just taken that money and flushed it down the toilet. Because no amount of eggs and no amount of sperm was EVER GOING TO MEET UP. My partner’s tubes were clogged. We know this because it took two bottles of contrast dye in order for the radiologist to achieve the desired test result.
Here’s what happens:
A radiologist injects contrast dye into the cervical canal. The uterus fills up and the radiologist can check the uterus shape via x-ray. Then the dye, if everything is open and/or not tied up like a pretzel, travels out of the uterus, through the Fallopian tubes and into the abdominal cavity. The radiologist had to forcefully push two bottles of dye through my partner’s uterus and Fallopian tubes in order to see the dye go through the tubes. Get it? The act of administering the test, opened her tubes. And based on the fact that they had to physically restrain her on the table, she’s confident those bad boys were clogged.
With what? I don’t know. Lost socks? Mucous? A stockpile of eggs? Who knows.
But this I do know, based on the 5 pregnancy tests my partner has taken over the last seven weeks: the IUI she had days after the HSG test resulted in pregancy!
No one ever talks about this stuff and we’re hoping that’s why we’re here. Even if you’re a straight couple with a seemingly endless supply of semen, if you’ve been having trouble getting pregnant and can spare the money,
GO GET YOUR TUBES FLUSHED.
All the time and attempts in the world are not going to get your eggs and his sperm where they need to be to make this happen. Please learn from our mistakes.
We have our 8-week ultrasound this week. I’ll let you know how it goes. Wish us luck! (I’ve become incredibly superstitious in the last 7 weeks. Apologies.)