From Ejaculation to Fertilization – How Long?

I watched this awesome documentary from discovery channel – The Great Sperm Race (eighteenyears, thank you for the reco!)

It’s not your typical youtube video – it’s much longer, with commercial breaks – but so worth watching!

But – I have a question now. In this video, the fertilization happened 36 hours after the ejaculation. THIRTY SIX HOURS!

So now I am absolutely confused: how long does it actually take for the sperm to reach the egg?

I’ll explain my concern.

In the last cycle, I was given an ovulation trigger and got the ovulation confirmed 48 hours later. So it’s safe to assume it happened withing those 48 hours (they say it usually happens within 24-40 hours from the trigger).

Last cycle, I was told to have sex the same day as the trigger – and the following day. Hmmm, if it takes 36 hours for the sperm to reach the egg – then they all missed the ovulation?

Now, even more mysterious. This cycle, the doc said to have sex on the day FOLLOWING the trigger day and the one after that. In plain English – he suggested we have sex 48 hours after the injection. Which, as we know from the previous cycle, is waaay past the ovulation time. WTF? Especially if it takes that long for the sperm to reach the fertilization zone?

I am glad we had sex the night before the trigger. I am banking on those swimmers.

But seriously – how long from ejaculation to fertilization?

Have I Mentioned The F****ing Suppositories?

I know that I have. Here and here.

And I am sorry if you are stopping here for the ICLW and find me all aggravated here. But I can’t hold it.

But seriously. I am so glad I am currently unemployed. Because I cannot send those into my vag. They give me burns and itches.

Rectally, though, this is the scenario: no burns, no itch, they are FAR easier to shove in (or up?) but then about 15 minutes later I need to run 2 stairs at a time to the WC. That’s water closet. That’s washroom. Bathroom. Powder room. In short, it feels like f****ing diarrhea! When you feel you can’t run fast enough to get there in time.

I am so frustrated with this whole thing. Why aren’t there no normal pills design to swallow, like birth control pills? I mean, they are hormones, too – so it’s not like you can swallow hormones…

Argh!!!! This better be all going towards a pregnancy!!!

CD21, 7DPO.

The Progesterone Saga Continues

So after a while of fighting with all the burning and itching sensations, I called my fertility clinic. “WTF?” – was my question.

“Are you prone to yiest infection? It looks like the suppositories are giving you a yiest infection. I’m afraid it means you’ll have to take them rectally. Or at least alternate – morning vaginally, evening rectally”.

Just kill me.

This prospect was even less appealing than the original one when all of a sudden I found out I needed those stupid suppositories.

The surprising part? They went in INCREDIBLY easily. I mean, we have very strong muscles there. You can make them pretty much suck things up there. Like an elevator going up (am I being waaay too graphic?)

The problematic part is that it makes you feel like you really, badly need to poo.

This is a lose-lose situation.

And no picture for this post.

Progesterone Suppositories Disaster

So you know how yesterday I said the “pussy pills” weren’t all that bad?

WRONG.

Yesterday evening I went to the bathroom to stick two pills way up inside me. Only for whatever reason, I couldn’t. Maybe I was too tense, maybe too dry… whatever the reason, I could only push them about half an inch or so in – and they would immediately get squeezed out, peaking out of… there.

I changed poses. I did mental exercises to relax myself. I lay down on the floor.

No matter what I did, every time I pushed, they squeezed right back out again, immediately.

At some point they decided it was melting time. My whole “area” got itchy and promptly started to burn and chant “u-ri-nate! u-ri-nate!”

I was freaking out. I got convinced I caught yet another UTI (urinary tract infection). It was all the same symptoms: burning, itching, inability to remove myself from the toilet seat for my bladder ached with the feeling of fullness (even though there was nothing in it).

After about HALF HOUR of struggle, I was able to push the pills just past the pelvic bone and they stayed there. It wasn’t all the way at the cervix as it’s supposed to be, but after 30 minutes of sweating and swearing, and jumping from toilet seat to the floor, pushing the god damn pills back in, and then back on the toilet again to pee or “imagine myself peeing”, all the way dealing with burning and itching, I felt that “just past the pelvic bone” classifies as “as far up as I can”. As the doctor ordered.

It took me a while to relax and overcome the burning and peeing to finally fall asleep. And even this morning peeing burned.

Yikes.

The only positive: the pill went right in this morning, although the moment it was past my pelvic bone, it turned and got stuck at 180 degrees. Perpendicular to everything. I just left it there. Whatever.

*very frustrated sigh*

I am Pissed

So today I went to FS to confirm ovulation. Ovulation confirmed, I am talking to the doctor, he says: “last cycle your progesterone was on the lower side, so we’re going to start you on progesterone”

Me, surprised: “so why didn’t you start me on progesterone last cycle?”

FS, flipping through the pages: “because at that point it was too late to start you on progesterone”

Me thinking: “so why did you schedule the PROGESTERONE TEST on the day when it was too late to do anything about my progesterone?!?!”

I didn’t ask that last question. I mean, he’s my doctor and I kinda don’t wanna make a scene and ruin the relationship (not that there is any real relationship to speak of).

But I am seriously pissed. I got even more pissed when I found out:

• the price: over $100 a week ( have no clue whether insurance covers it)
• the frequency: 1 stick to be inserted in the morning and 2 in the evening, DAILY
• the mess: those consist mostly of wax, so I will have to wear pads all the time. According to my friend – daily thin pads WON’T BE ENOUGH. And we’ll have to have timed sex – when the morning mess dries up and the evening mess hasn’t started yet
• the length: in case of a BFP, I’ll have to take these until 12 weeks into pregnancy! That’s a ton of maxi pads!
• the symptoms: I might have all the pregnancy symptoms: nausea, constipation, tender enlarged breasts

Now, please understand me: I do want a baby and I am ready to do lots of sacrifices. It’s just that last month when I called to inquire about my progesterone test results, I was told everything was NORMAL and they’ll see me in a week for a pregnancy test.

And now they’re telling me it was NOT normal and I do need additional progesterone. I am just not sure whether I trust them. And the consequences of going along with what they’re suggesting are too big to just blindly follow them.

I don’t know what to do.

I am pissed.

How Much for a Baby?

There are those people that get pregnant on their own. The only expense they incur – is a pregnancy test. If it takes about 6 months for a healthy couple to get pregnant, and one test is about $15, then it’s safe to assume that it costs them about $90 to get pregnant (or, to be precise, to discover that they are pregnant).

Then you start using ovulation tests. These could cost about $50 a cycle. Plus pregnancy tests. $390 in total over another 6 months.

Then you go to fertility clinic. Now, my numbers are Canadian – we do have a pretty good medical coverage here. So far, the expenses we incurred were:

• Initial exams for both of us – consultation with the doctor, blood tests for a whole number of things, ultrasounds of breasts, thyroid, whole abdomen and intravaginal ultrasound, sperm test – all free, brought to you by the provincial insurance
• Once the diagnose is there, the clinic collects a one-time fee of $200 for an indefinite number of cycle monitorings (blood tests and ultrasounds and quick chats with doctors day after day after day). I have a friend who instead paid $35 for each cycle, and in her case she paid way more than that in the end.
• Provera drug to trigger menses – about $20 (once you are ovulating, you won’t need provera anymore). 80% covered by work insurance.
• Femara drug to trigger eggs growth – about $20 each cycle. 80% covered by work insurance.
• Hormonal shot to trigger ovulation – $90 each cycle. Don’t know yet whether work insurance covers that.
• And Pregvit vitamins – about $30 a month, 80% covered by insurance

So far, that’s it – $130 per month. I am not buying home pregnancy tests. The ones at fertility clinic are free. And more reliable.

There was no need in a progesterone shot post the ovulation or any other drugs (knock on wood). Not too bad.

IUIs, from what I heard, can run in $1000 per month ranges.

IVFs, from what I heard, can be up to $20,000 per try.

Adoption (now, this is really hearsay, I don’t know anyone personally who adopted) can be up to $50,000. Don’t ask me why on earth is it so expensive – they say that international agencies take tons of money to ensure that your baby was not bought on a slave market or something. I really hope this isn’t true. With so many lonely kids in the world, adoption should be free!!!

I am back!

Hello world! I am back from vacation. It was wet, rather cold, but absolutely awesome!

While I was away, I was having a very short and light period (in comparison to what I used to have in the good old days when I used to have periods at all) and I was taking Femara, which is an off the label drug to make my body do the cycle again. A cycle that is not 3 or 5 months long, that is.

So first thing this morning I ran to the clinic as this is already CD13. They were pleasantly surprised with the results, considering this is the first treatment cycle. I have one rather large follicle on the left side (1.8 cm – and the ovulation size is about 2 cm) and a few smaller ones on the right.

The doctor told me that unless I ovulate on my own today, she’d rather wait and have the others grow a bit more and then trigger the ovulation with some kind of a hormonal injection.

Hmmmm. Just how likely twins are?..

Anyhow, as my bloodwork just got back with non-ovulating results, I am to go back tomorrow for more follicle counting and LH measuring fun. And perhaps some hormone shots. And then – some good old fashioned sex.

Being swamped with work after the vacation, I wonder how good the sex will be. Well, as long as the little “sperm whales” have enough energy to find their way to (perhaps) multiple eggs, I think I can wait for the real orgasmic kind of sex.

But first things first – I need to ovulate!