Treatment Options

Well here is the post that starts to get interesting (maybe only to me...I am kind of a geek like that.)  Anyway, our first appointment with Dr. H he gave us several different treatment options to consider.  Each option becomes a little more involved and costs more...imagine that!

Option 1:  Oral follicle inducing medication (Clomid) and IUI (intrauterine insemination)  This option is the least invasive and least expensive.  I would take Clomid for 5 days, have ultrasounds to monitor the follicle growth, take a "trigger" shot to force ovulation when he felt my follicles were mature, and then go in for the insemination. 

Option 2:  Injectable follicle stimulating medications and IUI.  This option is a little more involved than option 1, because there are more ultrasounds involved to monitor follicle growth, and I'd be giving myself a shot everyday for a week or so.  It would also include the trigger shot and insemination.  There is also a higher risk of multiple embryos with injectable meds, particularly among PCOS patients. 

PCOS causes the woman to produce many follicles each month, but there are so many that they never grow to maturity and are therefore never released.  Ultrasound monitoring is essential when using injectable meds but particularly for PCOS patients, to ensure we're not over producing follicles. 

Option 3:  IVF (In Vitro Fertilization)  IVF is much more involved than I'm sure you care to know about at this point, but in a nut shell, it would include many more injectable medications forcing my body to produce as many follicles and mature eggs as possible, the eggs would be removed and fertilized in the lab, and any viable embryos left after about 5 days would be transferred back to me to hopefully implant.  1-2 embryos is all I would have transferred, even if more were still viable.  Any more than that and the risk for higher-order multiples is too great.  The remaining embryos have several options as well.

So after discussing with him our options we decide to start with option 1, Clomid and IUI.

We are INCREDIBLY blessed to have unbelievable insurance coverage for fertility.  I have sworn to NEVER complain about health insurance or the state of Illinois again.  Illinois is one of 15 states that have a fertility mandate, requiring all insurance companies to offer coverage for fertility treatments.  I'm even more grateful to my employer for choosing to pick up the fertility coverage in our benefit package.  Without the insurance we would not be able to afford all the things we're doing.  My insurance covers practically everything.  We even have several rounds of IVF covered which almost never happens.  We are unbelievably lucky and give thanks all the time for the coverage we have.