Well I gave up on making babies the "old-fashioned" way about 5 years ago when we learned about DH's diagnosis... that was until I took a cake decorating class from a lady that said her daughter and her husband had our same issue and she tried a new method (at home) and got pregnant on her very first try! Now, my fellow IF sisters, I know there is a very good chance that this "method" won't work for us. This couple was able to do IUI, I believe, where we had to skip that step since DH's numbers were so low. But I feel a little twinge of hope again. I will be sad if it doesn't work, but since I really think it would be beyond a miracle if it did, I don't think it will set me into a tailspin like our BFN's after our FET's did. After all, this method costs all of $25 for 2 months worth of trying, were we sunk $15k+ into IVF and FET's.
So what is this new method you ask?? I'm sure many of you have seen the "cups" you can insert while on your period. They are called In.stead Sof.tcups. I have seen them many times and always wondered who would buy these things. Well now I can add myself to the list. Basically what you do is put your husbands swimmers in the cup and insert it for 24 hrs around ovulation time. Yes, it says you can only wear it for 12 hrs, but that is when you are menstruating. The cups only cost me $10 for 14 cups and I used 3 this cycle. I also purchased OPK's so I could be sure of my LH surge. (more on this later) The lady said her daughter did this and is expecting a baby boy in 3 months. Maybe it won't work for, but since we aren't going to pursue any kind of treatment for a bit I need to feel like I am doing something. Siting around doing nothing is much worse than a BFN from a cheap endeavor.
A little side note, I haven't used OPK's in YEARS, so I may not be doing it right, but I got a positive result 3 mornings in a row. Is that normal? I used the cup all three days to be safe, but I wasn't sure what was going on. My pack I got said to use your first morning urine, I didn't do that since I get up a few times a night to pee, but I did use the restroom as soon as I got up to start the day and tested then. I'm wondering if maybe the hormone was too concentrated at this time. Ladies weigh in. I would love to buy a Cle.ar Bl.ue Ea.sy Fertili.ty Monitor to use, but not sure if I will. That way I would really know what was going on with all my crazy hormones.
It is fun to have some hope again without injecting my body with 10 different hormones a day!
I'm sorry I don't have any input on the OPK's. I'm just happy to see a new post from you. I hope this new method will work. It's good to have renewed hope in something. Wishing you the best!
ReplyDeleteI think it's possible to be highly fertile over three days.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if you have discussed this yet, but are you considering donor sperm? It seems to have done the trick for us, and we're sever male factor, too.
We have severe male factor too, but we tried a few IUI's before IVF (which didn't work out either).
ReplyDeleteSo here's the deal on the OPK's: I think the ones where you have to judge the darkness of the lines are totally subjective and drove me nuts. So I recommend CB Easy Digital with the smile or blank face. Much easier to decipher. My doctor also told me not to use first morning urine, but to do OPK's twice a day. Once in late morning, a few hours after getting up (like 11 a.m.), and once in the afternoon (like around 3). Sometimes I even snuck in a later evening one too, because I was paranoid I'd miss my surge. I've found that I can see a gradual fade-in pattern where the lines (which are still present, even on the digital ones) gradually get darker before eventually turning positive. Both my doctor and the kit instructions say that once you get a positive you don't need to test anymore, but I've gotten positives starting in the early afternoon and continuing the next day too. It probably just means you caught the early end of your surge.
When I did my IUI's, they tried to schedule them for 24 hours after the positive OPK. But I've heard that you can actually ovulate anywhere from 12 to 36 hours after a positive. With our husband's sperm being what it is, I'd maybe try to wear the cup 24 hours after the positive with sperm coming off of 3-4 days of abstinence (no fewer than 2, no more than 5), and then maybe again the next day.
Good luck and keep us posted on how it works. It might be an option for me too, since our savings for another round of IVF has kind of stalled.