This week has been one of the most challenging so far. Tuesday, I got a call with some results of blood work I got done. They ran something called a "cycle day 3 panel", which is where they check your LH levels, FSH levels, estrogen levels, and your AMH, which is also known as your Ovarian Reserve. The ovarian reserve is the number of eggs a woman was born with. The number most 25 year old women have is 2-3, and they don't want it at any lower than a 1. Unfortunately, my ovarian reserve is 0.5, which is a number more for a 35-40 year old woman, as the older you get, the more your eggs decrease, and the harder it is to get pregnant. There is nothing you can do about your AMH level, and it is just the amount we were each born with.
I had two appointments at Dr. Gentry's yesterday, and it was all filled with many ups and downs. My morning appointment was for an ultra sound scan to check my follicles, along with some blood work to check my estrogen levels. At that appointment, they found my follicles weren't growing as fast as they should, and my estrogen was still quite low. I asked the nurse what that meant, and she told me they usually want your estrogen level between 300-400 at that point, and mine was only 98. I called Kyhle as I left the appointment and told him the news, and then I headed to the gym. One good thing about that news was that it made me motivated to do a hard workout and take my anger and sadness out on the treadmill!
Later in the afternoon, I had another appointment for a consultation with Dr. Gentry. My parents and Kyhle were able to come with me so they could hear everything he had to say, and see what his thoughts were for our next step and our chances of ever having children. He is such a wonderful, understanding doctor, and he made sure to take the time to answer every one of our questions, and explain everything so thoroughly to make sure we were all on the same page. I was so grateful to have Kyhle and my parents with me, because there is no way I would have been able to understand everything on my own, as I was already feeling so overwhelmed.
He explained more to us about my ovarian reserve and explained that it is very good I am "so young" because I have a little more time to work to get pregnant. However, unlike most cases, he wants to aim for multiples, as I will have a very limited about of time until my AMH levels drop even more. He kept telling us that I am a rare case, because he doesn't see 25 year olds with such low numbers like mine. He also told us that if we are wanting more than 1 child, we need to try hard to have our children very close in age before I get too much older, or else I most likely won't be able to have anymore. Unfortunately, having such a low AMH level also means I will more than likely go through menopause between the ages of 35-40, but they will work with me and do what they can to help prevent that as much as possible. In my opinion, I think Dr. Gentry is excited to have me as a patient because I am "such a rare case." He seems like he is up for the challenge. :)
Dr. Gentry decided he wants me to continue the injections for this week and he increased my dose to help stimulate the follicles a little more. I will go back Monday for another ultra sound, and as long as my estrogen level at least doubled, we will continue with IUI #4. If they don't, we may sadly have to cancel this round and rethink our next step. He told us that he still feels good about our chances of IUI working, as long we are pro-active with my meds and ultra sounds, and as long as he sees some of my levels increase with the follicle sizes. He said that if this round doesn't work, we will meet with him again to discuss further options.
I am grateful to finally have an answer as to why we haven't been able to have a baby yet. I am grateful that they no longer can tell me, "We just don't know why this isn't working. You have unexplained infertility." It makes me sad that there really is nothing they can do for my eggs, and it makes me sad that we have a small window to try to become pregnant. However, a blessing that I do see from all of this, is that since we married young, and started to try for a family young, we were able to catch this early instead of when it was too late. Like Dr. Gentry told us, we are going to stay cautiously optimistic.
