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198 Posts
Hi everyone,
I just wanted to post a quick version of my journey to having our beautiful daughter last November as we came under the "unexplained" catergory and had to have some tests which not all clinics will send "unexplained" patients for.....
We started trying seriously just after we got married in 2001 but I'd been off the pill for nearly a year before that so in Jan 2002 I decided to go to the Doctor. We had all the usual tests, hormone levels, sperm test, etc, and all were exactly as they should be. My periods also were very regular so there was no question there. The first test after these ones we had was the almost extinct "post-coital test" which did show that the sperm was dead... so we were referred to a specialist. He said that the first thing he wanted was for me to have a laparoscopy which I did in Nov 2002 and this showed everything to be fine except very very slight polysystic ovaries which in his opinion would only probably affect ovulation once in a while so was not the cause to his mind. He recommeded IUI and off we went to the Brentwood Nuffield.
We had two IUIs in Jan and Feb 2003 - both negative. We then switched clinics to the Isis in Colchester under Mr Lower. He suggested we try IVF to see if this would show up any other problems that other tests can't, ie, does the sperm actually penetrate the egg, and things like this, and then said that we could go back to IUI if this proved to be the case.
So we had the first IVF in May/June 2003 - negative but had 6 good embryos from it so there was no problem with fertilisation - and had a FET in August 2003 - again negative.
Mr Lower said in his opinion there was no point in having another IVF without further tests because the fertilisation was good and after two IUIs, the IVF and FET, I should be pregnant so there must be another reason why.... he said he would like to send me to St Marys in London to see Mr Rai at the recurrent miscarriage clinic, even though I had never had a miscarriage, because he said that "we are finding out that there is a link between recurrent miscarriage and unexplained infertility"... and so off we went to Mr Rai in Nov 2003. I had all the blood tests that you have if you have suffered recurrent m/c and when we went back in Dec 2003 for the results, it was found that I had a high thrombin level which meant my blood clots too fast, which leads to the embryo being unable to implant even though it tries to! He said that on my next IVF I should inject 20mg of clexane from egg collection daily.
We had our second IVF in February/March 2004, injecting clexane as prescribed, and on 26th March had the best gift ever - a positive pregancy test!!! I had to inject clexane for the entire pregancy and you can see on the left the result of all this who arrived on 28th Nov last year!
The reason I wanted to post this is because I think some clinics still don't send unexplained for these tests and it could be something so simple like mine turned out to be. Mr Rai said that without the clexane it was highly unlikely I would ever get pregnant or if I did, there was a great risk of m/c, so to our mind, we owe everything to Mr Lower in referring us more tests instead of just taking more and more money for IVF.
I wish everybody out there all the luck and love in the world and hope your dreams come true soon.
Love Jen xxx
I just wanted to post a quick version of my journey to having our beautiful daughter last November as we came under the "unexplained" catergory and had to have some tests which not all clinics will send "unexplained" patients for.....
We started trying seriously just after we got married in 2001 but I'd been off the pill for nearly a year before that so in Jan 2002 I decided to go to the Doctor. We had all the usual tests, hormone levels, sperm test, etc, and all were exactly as they should be. My periods also were very regular so there was no question there. The first test after these ones we had was the almost extinct "post-coital test" which did show that the sperm was dead... so we were referred to a specialist. He said that the first thing he wanted was for me to have a laparoscopy which I did in Nov 2002 and this showed everything to be fine except very very slight polysystic ovaries which in his opinion would only probably affect ovulation once in a while so was not the cause to his mind. He recommeded IUI and off we went to the Brentwood Nuffield.
We had two IUIs in Jan and Feb 2003 - both negative. We then switched clinics to the Isis in Colchester under Mr Lower. He suggested we try IVF to see if this would show up any other problems that other tests can't, ie, does the sperm actually penetrate the egg, and things like this, and then said that we could go back to IUI if this proved to be the case.
So we had the first IVF in May/June 2003 - negative but had 6 good embryos from it so there was no problem with fertilisation - and had a FET in August 2003 - again negative.
Mr Lower said in his opinion there was no point in having another IVF without further tests because the fertilisation was good and after two IUIs, the IVF and FET, I should be pregnant so there must be another reason why.... he said he would like to send me to St Marys in London to see Mr Rai at the recurrent miscarriage clinic, even though I had never had a miscarriage, because he said that "we are finding out that there is a link between recurrent miscarriage and unexplained infertility"... and so off we went to Mr Rai in Nov 2003. I had all the blood tests that you have if you have suffered recurrent m/c and when we went back in Dec 2003 for the results, it was found that I had a high thrombin level which meant my blood clots too fast, which leads to the embryo being unable to implant even though it tries to! He said that on my next IVF I should inject 20mg of clexane from egg collection daily.
We had our second IVF in February/March 2004, injecting clexane as prescribed, and on 26th March had the best gift ever - a positive pregancy test!!! I had to inject clexane for the entire pregancy and you can see on the left the result of all this who arrived on 28th Nov last year!
The reason I wanted to post this is because I think some clinics still don't send unexplained for these tests and it could be something so simple like mine turned out to be. Mr Rai said that without the clexane it was highly unlikely I would ever get pregnant or if I did, there was a great risk of m/c, so to our mind, we owe everything to Mr Lower in referring us more tests instead of just taking more and more money for IVF.
I wish everybody out there all the luck and love in the world and hope your dreams come true soon.
Love Jen xxx
