Choosing IVF

Choosing to do IVF is not an easy choice.  But also it is easy because we wanted a baby and that's what it came down to doing.

There are so many factors with infertility, most of them unknown.  That's the hardest part.  There are all sorts of simple options to "fix" problems but most of the time doctors are just guessing as to what will help.  You can spend years trying all the simple stuff that's relatively cheap and that's what most people do.  We tried some medications but that's about it.  Because when I say relatively cheap I mean a few hundred to a few thousand dollars an option.  All of those add up to a lot of time, a lot of emotions, and eventually a lot of money.

None of the doctors could give us a good prognosis for any of the "simple" options so we decided not to pour our resources (emotional, physical, and financial) into them.

I was really blessed to be introduced to the concept of IVF back in 2010 when a church leader went through the process.  Then a close family member did IVF recently and I learned even more about the process.

We first went to a fertility clinic at the beginning of 2017.  The cost for IVF is somewhere around $12,00-$15,000 plus the cost of medications, which they estimate to be $4,000-$6,000.  Woof.  Who has that kind of money?!

We started saving but didn't have a solid plan of what we wanted to do or a timeline.  We just knew it would work itself out eventually!

Before the Beginning

Introduction
I stopped blogging years ago when I started digital scrapbooking.  I get annoyed with "oversharers" on social media so I keep my sharing to a minimum but my lurking to a maximum.  It's a problem.  Digital scrapbooking allowed me to keep a record of our lives, journal on a semi-regular basis, and organize my pictures.  Anyways.....

I decided to start a new blog to document our IVF journey.  Yep.  That's right.  Didn't see that coming.  Or did you?

I actually haven't been writing much during this process but I have been making video diaries.  To your luck, I'm keeping those close and not sharing any.

Since I'm writing most of this after the fact, I am going to date the blogs in a semi-correct time-frame so anyone thinking about this process gets an idea for how longs things can take.  Here goes nothing.


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Chapter 1- Before the Beginning
Like many couples, we decided to wait a couple of years before trying to get pregnant.  A month or two goes by and you don't think anything about it.  Then it's 3-4 months.  Then 6-8 months and you start getting worried.

I knew most people aren't encouraged to go to the doctor until it's been a year of trying but this was about the time we were going to move from Rexburg and I was going to lose my insurance so I went to a family doctor.  They gave me a medication to try and I used that one month but then my insurance ran out and I didn't want to pay for the meds out of pocket so we decided to wait until I found a job and had new insurance.

Fast forwarding...got a job, got insurance, went to OBGYN, did bloodwork (was normal), had Nate tested (was abnormal), Nate went to a doctor who wanted to do surgery, Nate went to another doctor who maybe wanted to do surgery but wanted more bloodwork, didn't get bloodwork because didn't have good insurance, went to fertility clinic, finally more bloodwork for both of us, too much money later there's not a lot they can fix, a few months of new medications, those didn't work, we can also try X, Y, and Z for slim chances of good results, IVF is an option but it's really expensive.

Whew.  I think that covers that.