Barbara's Story
Posted Sept. 14, 2005

i have been meaning to write my story for so long. I guess reading all these beautiful ones gave me the little push I needed.

I am 36 years old and premenauposal (premenopausal). My egg supply is very low and obviously my fsh (follicle stimulating hormon) quite high (19.5), which explains my 3 recent failed iui cycles.

My husband and I have been married for 13 years and had our first daughter on our first anniversary. Three years later, we were still enjoying our daughter immensely, but wished to give her a sister. We started our journey through infertility at my obgyn's office who put me on clomid and urged me to "stop stressing about it". We quickly realized that secondary infertility is a difficult place to be at the doctor can't figure out why and you get no sympathy from other infertile couples who hurry to remind you that you already have a child.

Anyway, after joining a proper infertility clinic, lots of cycles of clomid and 2 failed iui's, in June 1996 I finally got pregnant and lost the pregnancy at 10 weeks. After the D&C (Dilatation & Curettage*) my husband and I made the decision to try again but with a different doctor.

we transferred our file to Dr Grazi in Brooklyn, NY and he right away suggested a laparoscopy to check and eventually remove endemitriosis (endometriosis). Bingo! the surgery took place in September '97 and in September '98 our second daughter was born.

Well, it must have been a "buy one get one free" special because in June 2000 our third daughter joined the gang. Our youngest is now 5 and I've been back in care since March. I've gone through 3 cycles of ganal-f (gonal-f) shots followed by ovidrel (same as ovitrelle) and IUI. all have failed.we are now thinking about taking the doctor's advice and moving on to IVF with genetic testing. My body seem to be a lot older than I am or feel.

I am scared to go through IVF because my egg supply is so poor and my chances so low. I wonder if after having 3 great little treasures I should subject myself to it. My husband is most supportive and would go with whatever decision I make, being the abuse is on my body and not his. Still I worry about him resenting my decision later when it will be too late. Every month I hope God will give us one more freebie.

Good luck to all of us and may our dreams come true, at least in some way.

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*Dilatation and curettage, commonly known as D&C is a process in which the cervix is dilated and the uterus is cleaned. Today D&C's are often performed using suction (as opposed to the more agressive method of scraping the uterus).

One of the main reasons a D&C is performed is when excess tissue needs to be removed from the uterus, e.g., after an incomplete miscarriage where not all the tissue associated with the pregnancy was expelled naturally.