Infertility specialist

Two weeks ago, I met with the infertility specialist that came highly recommended by my neighbor and wonderful friend Shei'la. I just LOVE this man! He came and fetched me from the waiting room himself and spent 2 hours talking to and examining me. Because of my age, he's not going to fool around here. Next cycle I'll be on Clomid to help me ovulate. And since Clomid can thicken everything up, he will do intrauterine insemination to make sure only the strongest swimmers are in the pool. He will try that for 4 cycles, then move on to the next strongest fertility drug if I'm not pregnant by then. He claims a 25% success rate per month and is optimistic that I'll be pregnant by the 4th cycle (which would be January).

Steve was none too happy about the IUI but is willing to do whatever it takes. At the consult appt, Doc wanted to do another semenanalysis since it'd been 2 yrs since the last one. He also wanted to freeze some of the sample so as to take some of the pressure off Steve having to produce a sample on demand whenever I happen to ovulate. And there begins the small fiasco...

Doc had said we could drop off the sample in the Lancaster office (which is right on our way to work), just to make an appointment and make sure to mention that some is to be frozen. After Doc was finished with me, I went to the nurse for a blood test and some pamphlets, etc. Nothing else was ever said about the sample appointment.

When I called to make the appointment, I was informed that freezing is only done in the York office (which is about 35-45 minutes in the opposite direction from home). Well, beings that we're willing to do just about anything it takes to get pregnant again, I took the York appointment and figured we'd just have to figure a way to get the sample there. When I dropped off the sample this morning (making myself 15 minutes for work), I mentioned that Doc wanted some of it to be frozen. They got the lab manager to talk to me. She said "Oh. Freezing requires bloodwork to be done beforehand, an 8 page consent form to be filled out (in case something happened to Steve while they were still in possession of his sample), and a $175 (or whatever number she said) fee that insurance doesn't cover." I told her that there'd been some serious miscommunication on this issue; first about the location, now the fee, paperwork, and bloodwork. So, I made an executive decision and told them not to freeze any, to just do the analysis. AGH! If I'd known all that, we could've just dropped the sample in the Lancaster office in the first place!!!!!!! I guess I still love them even now that I know what I know. I will just have to ask more questions in the future. I just hate when somebody has me by the short and curlies.

So far, today is day 26 of this cycle. Soon I should be ready to start the next cycle.