2012: Ending the year with a fertility specialist

The first appointment with the Reproductive Endocrinologist was mostly an informative type of visit. We discussed the common reasons of infertility and how each was treated. We also discussed the testing that would be done to confirm or rule out potential fertility problems.

1)Bloodwork. I had at least 12 vials of blood drawn that day.

2)Hysteroscopy. This has be done at a specific point in your cycle, so I had to wait a few weeks before this was done.  That was ok and worked out perfectly as some of the bloodwork would take that long to come back.

3)After these two things are done, the next course of action depends on the results of #s 1&2.

 October 30th I had the hysteroscopy done. This is a simple in-office outpatient test done to look at the inside of the uterus. My uterine walls and cavity looked great, but my right fallopian tube appeared to be blocked. It looked like a thin opaque tissue was covering my right fallopian tube. RE was baffled. He thought it was either a blocked tube or a possible septum of sorts.

In both pics on the right side you can see the black hole, this is where my LEFT fallopian  tube connects to my uterus.  As you can tell the RIGHT fallopian tube entrance is not visualized (as there should be a matching black hole on the left of the pics). 

 

 

 

After the hysteroscopy we went into his office and discussed the next testing and my bloodwork. My labs looked pretty good. There was only a couple of things with the labs. The first, my thyroid. My thyroid level was normal, directly in the middle of where it should be. RE told me that when getting pregnant, there's a higher success rate of pregnancy when the thyroid level is on the lower end of normal. We discussed thyroid medication but he didn't have me start taking anything.  I did have one genetic mutation. It's called the MTHFR gene. I have the heterozygous A1298C mutation. Apparently this is very common and my mutation is the least worrisome of all the MTHFR mutations possible. For this I was told to take a baby aspirin.

The next thing discussed was what we had just saw on the hysteroscopy. He ordered a MRI so the blockage/possible septum we saw on screen could be evaluated.  I had the MRI two days later. I went back to the RE a couple of weeks later to discuss the MRI results. Oddly enough, NORMAL. No septum, no blockage, everything looked perfect. No abnormalities what so ever. My fallopian tube is definitely not blocked and there's no mention of any tissue or septum in the way.  RE is still baffled.

On November 29th I had my next test: a SHG/SIS (sonohysterogram or saline-infused-sonogram). Again, an easy outpatient test with immediate live-time results. FINALLY, some confirmation that we weren't crazy. There really is a very thin piece of tissue near my right fallopian tube. It doesn't block it and RE doesn't think it would be anything to worry about when conceiving. Just to be safe, he wanted to remove the piece of tissue. Again this is all done at a specific point in my cycle, so I was to wait for my period in January and call the office to get this minor surgery scheduled.

So long 2012!