Today, I made that long, 5 hour drive round trip to visit the fertility doctor again, just to follow-up and get his thoughts and ideas for what our options are for moving forward.
The news was not too great, but there are options. For starters, he wants us to get genetic testing done to rule out "balanced translocation".
"In a balanced translocation, a person usually has all the
genetic material necessary for normal growth a piece of a chromosome
is merely broken off and attached to another one. However, when that
person's cells divide to create egg or sperm cells for reproduction, the
egg or sperm cells can end up with extra genetic material or missing
genetic material, which could lead to miscarriage depending on which
chromosome and genes are affected. In about 4.5% of all couples with recurrent miscarriages,
one or both parents has a balanced translocation. Research has shown
that couples with balanced translocations are more likely to have
miscarriages than couples without balanced translocations. There's some
evidence that balanced translocations involving specific chromosomes are
more likely to cause miscarriages than others."
That doesn't sound good at all, but if one of us did show up with it, then we would at least know what the nest step would be. If I have the problem, then I could use donor eggs and everything SHOULD be fine. If it was in him, we would have to consider donor sperm. Based on the last three tries and how my body felt, I have a suspicion that the problem is with me.
However, this may not be a problem at all. If that is the case, then we are "back to square one" and we don't know if it is implantation issues with me or just bad eggs.
If implantation issues, I need a gestational surrogate where we can use my eggs (after taking stim drugs for a lot longer than normal protocol) and his sperm to make embryos and put it in a "compassionate surrogate" on day 3, who loves us and cares for us and wants to help us out, from the kindness of their own hearts.......... anyone know anybody like that????? The doctor said that he was sure that I knew 4 women that would do this for me. I am not too sure about that. Well, actually, I do know 4 women who would do this for me, the only problem is they no longer have the required equipment!
If the problem is only bad eggs, then I can just use an egg donor and put the embryos in me, do another immune therapy treatment in another country, plus IVIG (an infusion therapy that costs around 3000) and hope for the best.
I have no idea what donor eggs cost. I do have a lawyer's number that I can consult with who has a lot of experience with writing contracts for surrogates and intending parents here in this state, so that is good if we do need to go down that road and we find that special someone to help.
Needless to say, this is all very overwhelming. I don't even know if we have the finances available to do anything else but I do know that if we don't do anything soon, I will run out of time.
Besides my issues, the state legislature is trying to ban IVF practices all together.
The current bill calls for more regulation of embryos. Supporters of the bill are comparing the destruction of an embryo that has stopped growing and is no longer viable to abortion and therefore should be illegal to "murder" that embryo. They also say that having a baby is a natural beautiful gift from God and basically, "God doesn't want you to have children". The whole thing is a long debated, completely heartbreaking and just awful. I could go on and on about this issue but I won't. If you want to stop the current bill from going into effect, you can visit http://www.resolve.org/get-involved/2013-state-advocacy-efforts.html#AZ and write a letter to congress.
Thanks for reading and goodnight or good morning since it is 1:30am. (I should not have taken that 2 hour nap earlier today.......).
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