Male Factor Infertility

We called the Reproductive Endocrinologist and made an appointment. We had to wait a month to get in, which felt like an eternity.
At our first appointment, and after quickly looking me over, we were taken into the office of the Reproductive Endocrinologist. He told us that with the numbers we had, we only really had one option. In-vitro Fertilization. Doug asked about the vitamins, the surgeries, but this doctor told us that in our situation, the only option was IVF. We both left his office that day heavy-hearted. Part of it was his attitude and part of it was the realization of it all setting in.

Doug and I decided to explore our options. Doug made an appointment with a urologist, hoping he could find the source of the problem. We were told there was a surgery that may help boost the numbers. It was an outpatient procedure and we had to wait at least six months after to know if it had helped. We went for it.

After the surgery, as soon as we were told we could start trying again, we did. We prayed, we used ovulation kits, we took supplements and we changed our diets. I took pregnancy test after pregnancy test, always seeing that single line. Six months after the operation, Doug went in for his analysis. When they faxed over the results, my eyes scanned the page, and I felt relief and disappointment all at the same time. The surgery had helped, just not enough. We were still stuck in the IVF range.

Our last hope was treating Doug's high white blood cell count. We had both been given a course of antibiotics during the time of the surgery, and it hadn't done anything for the white blood cells. But the urologist told us that he would send part of Doug's sample to the lab, and if they could culture something out of it, then they could give him an antibiotic that could specifically treat it. This was a three day process.

During that three days, we discussed the possibility of fertility treatments. I felt that IVF was surely in our future, but Doug was optimistic that we wouldn't need to worry about that. We did agree on one thing. We didn't like the Reproductive Endocrinologist we had been using.

I got a text message from Doug the next day saying the urologist had called and that they couldn't culture anything from the sample. I was just laying my daughter down for a nap when I got the message. I was so tired that day, I had planned on taking a nap with her, but instead I laid there next to her in her bed sobbing silently.

We decided to make an appointment with a new reproductive endocrinologist, Dr. R.