When we were finally given the news, that we had a 1-2 % chance of conceiving on our own, we were given three choices on how to proceed.
1. IUI
2. IVF
3. Donor Eggs
Since our set back stemmed from my poor ovarian reserve (egg storage) and my husband's unpredictable sperm, We ruled out IUI. This had been our fall back while we were in the 'unexplained infertility' category. We didn't want to pull out the big guns, when a little one would do.... but, once the issue had been identified we quickly saw the cons in the IUI choice.
IUI is a bit of a short cut in a way. Ovulation is monitored and once 'it's time' then off to the clinic you go and sperm is injected into the body much closer to the eggs. This means less swimming and searching for the little guys, which hopefully means a better chance of conception. For us, our chances only increased to 7% if we decided to use this option. Though it was significantly less expensive than the other two options, it ran an additional risk.
Because it was my ovarian reserve that had been called into question, and they couldn't pin point whether it was a quality or quantity issue, there were additional 'things' to consider. If it was the quanity we had no way of telling if I was producing an egg that month. If it was quality than we increased our chance of conceiving a special needs child.
The idea of donor eggs was unbearable for me. I couldn't imagine carrying a child that was 1/2 my husband's and 1/2 someone elses. I knew that if it became necessary I may be able to wrap my head around it, but in that moment we had another choice. One that increased our chances quite a bit.
We decided to go with IVF almost immediately. I was proud of how easily I fell into this decision, considering a few months before the idea of IVF had brought me to tears. But with this option our chances increased quite a bit. We had over a 40% chance of getting pregnant and normal chances of taking home a live baby at the end of all of it. I have to admit, that since we didn't have a fertility clinic here, the idea of taking a month off work to live in a whole new city had its appeal too!
The cost of IVF, plus the travel plans we'd have to make was a bit daunting. We knew the procedure would cost at least $7,000, the drugs about $5,000, plus two return flights, a hotel for a month, food, a car rental, etc. But this was one area we didn't dwell too long. This was an area we had some control.
