SIS and auto immune profile are completed

I had the saline infusion sonohysterogram (SIS) yesterday. The reproductive endocrinologist (RE) that did the test was not my usual RE, but she was very nice and took the time to explain all of the blood work that had come back from the lab in France, in addition to sharing her thoughts on the SIS and my history.

As we expected, there is good news and bad news. First the good news, my uterus is “perfect” in her words, no septum, polyps, or fibroids. The left ovary also looks great, nice and healthy. The bad news, the right ovary is “small and diminished”. I was not at all surprised to hear that because my RE in Belarus had problems with it, too. In fact during egg retrieval he didn’t even mess with the right side.

The other bad news (also not a surprise) is that I have several auto-immune issues, in addition to the autoimmune thyroid problem.

They are going to fully suppress my immune system (heparin injections and prednisone) before even starting IVF. Once I start injections for IVF, I will continue with the meds that are keeping my immune system knocked down. The RE said that instead of the one or two daily shots most patients have, I will have 3, 4, or 5, plus several pills to take. Good times.

There was some additional lab work sent to Denmark yesterday that will hopefully be back in 2-3 weeks; once we have the results back from the Danes, we will proceed from there (our labs travel more than we do, France, Belgium, Denmark, possibly the U.S. ;) )

In the past two years we’ve dealt with seven REs in three countries (working with them directly, their colleagues reviewing the case, or consultations in the U.S.) While it doesn’t make the news any easier to hear, I do find some comfort in the fact that they have all said the same thing, it would be medically impossible for me to get and stay pregnant without IVF and a lot of medical intervention. I’m really happy with our clinic in Dublin and feel that we are where we need to be. And so the journey continues….