Bill and Guiliana's sexy time!

Bill and Guiliana Rancic had their second episode which was on The Style Network last night. The episode was a continuation of their fertility battle and all about trying to conceive Baby Rancic. It starts out with them having dinner with friends who have been trying to get pregnant for 4 years, they are on their 5th IVF cycle. Guiliana was shocked to hear that IVF is a pretty invasive procedure. My heart really went out to their friends who were going through IVF, because I have been there done that- have the T shirt!

Bill and Guiliana decided to see and obgyn- who did basic tests on both them- it seems that Bill has a slight low sperm count- which is not really that big of a deal. The doctor suggested that they have sex every other day during their fertile time, which is very common- it's called the sperm meets egg timing. He also suggested that Guiliana use ovulation predictor kits to see when she is ovulating, always a good idea- I highly suggest them if trying to conceive.

Overall it was a good episode- although I feel that it does not correctly show infertility. A little basic- but basics are good. Guiliana made a good point, it's not all that easy to get pregnant, and a lot of people have a hard time. She hit that nail right on the head!

This Sperm Will Self Destruct In One Hour

Well, we've taking the next big step and pulled out the big guns and have done our first IVF. After years of being unable to conceive naturally and a few IUI's with no results, our first IVF may have finally revealed our problem.

Sperm normally can live up to a week once implanted into the female. Giving it ample time to find where it needs to go. Mine on the other hand only has about an hour. Of course when trying naturally there was no way of knowing this and since the IUI's injected the little guys fairly quickly we had no idea they were dying. This is why nothing has been working. They never have a chance.

My sperm always seemed perfectly normal. Once the initial analysis was over there was no further checking for any other problems and this was never caught until now.

This has been very disheartening as we thought this was going to be the fix all. To be so excited thinking this was the one to feeling doubt just sucks. We did implant 6 eggs. One at least looked pretty good and one is all it takes. See Shannon's post for more of what happened.

For those of you who follow us please pray for us. I feel just horrible that we may not be parents once again. I know Shannon will be devastated. I can't bare to see her disappointed again.

I don't understand why this has happened to the people who are known as "the couple who have everything". This may be the one thing we can't have. We are loving, have a nice home, are able to support ourselves and a child or children, and we would love our child as much as we love each other. I have heard the theory that we pick our parents, but does no one want to pick us? I don't know why that would be.

There are so many people who obviously don't want children. They have abortions, chloroform their kids and leave in car trunks for dead, smother them and bury them in the park, try to sell them on Craigslist, and through them in trash cans. Why do they get to conceive and we do not?

I have to think God wants us to tell our story and help others. But right now I feel we need the help. God please Bring Us A Baby.

Drama on the internet!

Let me start by saying that I am addicted to Thenestbaby.com, its a great resource for me, there are mesasge boards for all different types of fertility issues. I tend to hang out on the Trouble Trying to Concieve board and the Success after Infertility board. Well, today some shit went down. There is a girl on the Success after Infertility board who had her first daughter last March after no fertility treamtents, it was a "miracle" cycle that she happened to concieve. Well, her daugher just turned one and she just went through a miscarriage, she concieved very easily again, but lost it early on. Well, first month after the miscarriage she and her husband "accidently" had sex and she got pregnant again. Well, she comes over to our Trouble trying to concieve board and gets up on her soap box about how poor sperm morphology is no big deal, because she has gotten pregnant a bunch of times, and has a beautiful daughter to show for it, and how we should all have hope because she can get pregnant and her husband had one seman anaylsis that showed poor morphology.

Well, did girls get upset, she is certainly the most fertile infertile that we have all met! Yes, I am happy that she can get prengnat so easliy, but do not come over to our board and talk about how easily you can get pregnant when there are tons of women get get pregnant with poor morphology through IVF and ICSI. I truly wonder if this freak show's husband even has sperm issues, he had one damn test that showed it, and that means NOTHING. Try having several seaman anaysis's that show poor sperm quality. So don't parade around telling us it can happen to you, and it will happen to us! I could have sex all day long, we need medical intervention, not a freaking story about how one girl got pregnant. Yes, there is also a chance that I would win the lottery, does that mean I sit around and wait, HELL NO! Why would I sit around and wait for a stork when I could do IVF and fix our problem?!

I hate these women who give false hope to other women, there is a fine line between hope and advice. Hope for me comes from the dozens of women who have been successful with IVF on their first try. Not that fluke pregnany that comes out of no where.

I love my nestie girls! I never thought I could be so close to women that I have never met.

IUI #3 is done!

This morning was what I hope will be our final IUI. I have been feeling really bad going into this cycle, I only had 3 mature follicles and I usually have more. Then this morning I got a call from John saying that he thinks he did a crappy job with his collection. So all the way to the doctors I am thinking "great they are going to cancel our cycle and all the shots were for nothing." What a great way to think, right?

But I was pleasantly surprised to find out that John had put in his best numbers so far, 20 million post wash, which is great!

So I was totally wrong. The good news is that our doctor said we can get into the March cycle for IVF, because our transfer and retrieval will be after April 1st, which is when we have our new insurance. So I was happy to hear that I don't have to wait until May for IVF. So lets keep our fingers crossed that everything goes well with the insurance, we are almost at the 30 day mark for our insurance to kick in, we are in the home stretch now!

Myth #8

THE SEXIST MYTH
“Infertility is primarily a woman’s problem.”

So many women beat themselves up when conceiving becomes difficult. I remember thinking, "please find something wrong with me" because I know that I will go to the end of the earth to fix it. I just wanted to have control over what was going on. Unfortunately women and men equally share the responsibility of causing fertility issues. Approximately 40 percent of infertility is caused by a female medical factor and 40 percent is caused by a male medical factor. The other cases of infertility are caused by a combined male/female factor or the cause of the infertility is unknown, which is the dreaded "unexplained" infertility.

I think when men are the ones who are found to have a problem that is causing the infertility it is very hard on the man. To a man being able to reproduce is a something that gives a man his manhood. Men are very sensitive when you start talking about their sperm. So when one is told that his sperm is causing a problem, or lack there of sperm its a blow to his masculinity.

We were initially told that John had a sperm problem, that his sperm did not move forward and that the shape of the sperm was not right for fertilization. At first John was very upset, he felt horrible and used to tell me that it was all his fault and he could not give me what I wanted most, a baby. Now, as time went on John came to terms with our male infertility diagnosis and actually can laugh about it now.

The positive side to having sperm problems is that new sperm is created every 90 days, so by taking vitamins, avoiding caffeine, alcohol, hot showers or hot tubs can help the sperm.

John's sperm has actually improved to the point where we were told that the sperm is no longer an issue. So it can happen, just be hopeful and take lots of vitamins and protein shakes.

Advances in Infertility Treatment

This video discusses the definition of infertility, factors that affect infertility, fibroids, endometriosis, and ovulation problems.

Getting Pregnant #3

Today's video discusses male infertility. Many people believe that women are the cause of infertility, but men are equally responsible.

With Sperm Like That...Who Needs Infertiliy?

Well, folks. Shannon and I had another go at IUI. Once again my semen analysis was FANTASTIC. The little guys were swimming like Michael Phelps. What a difference things have been since I had my first semen analysis and started taken ProXeed. The stuff really works.

I really hope this time is it. Although, I always think this is it. I will always remain positive and not give up until we are pregnant. My biggest thing right now is seeing Shannon in such discomfort. I think she is a trooper. She thinks she is a baby, but I love her for going through all this. I know it will all be worth it someday. Thank you sweetie!

Folks please pray for us. Finding out we are pregnant would be the best Christmas present would could ask for this year.

Its all about the Sperm!

Our official diagnosis is male infertility, due to low morphology. Now if you didn't understand a word in that sentence I will explain.

Men have a biological clock, just like women, only their ticks a little slower, but can still create problems. The easiest thing to check and normally one of the first things to do when dealing with the inability to get pregnant is to have a semen analysis done on the male. All of the women's test are very invasive and can be painful, where a semen analysis is very easy for the male to do and is not invasive at all.

There are 4 things that are tested in a semen analysis:
Volume- Should be at least 2 ml
Sperm Count- Should be at least 20 million per ml
Motility- Should be greater then 50%
Morphology- Should be greater the 14%, but anything over 4% is considered decent (Kruger scale) if testing on a WHO scale it should be greater then 30%

There are 2 scales with morphology, Kruger is stricter and is used by fertility specialist, WHO is used by most basic labs. I really suggest the Kruger scale, because it will give you a better test, but it just depends on your lab and what type of doctor ordered the test.

There is a lot of debate about morphology, as to how much effect it has on male fertility, and its a heavily debated issue in the world of fertility.

My husband has been diagnosed with having low morphology, so we are told that his sperm cannot penetrate my egg and fertilize it. Well, that does create a problem, if the egg cannot be fertilized then I cannot get pregnant. It all makes sense. But the good thing is that he has sperm and they are good swimmers.

We were told that IVF with ICSI ( intracytoplasmic sperm injection) was our best option, because it allows the lab to take the sperm and directly inject into my egg, therefore taking our sperm problem out of the equation. The fertilized egg will then be put into my uterus and hopefully implant, and then I am pregnant! We were told if we going to have a problem, this was a good problem to have, because it can be solved very easily. IVF with ICSI is very common, it gives the best results.

So if you having problems getting pregnant have your husband or partner get a semen analysis, it may give you insight as to what the problem is.