Trusting doctors

I'm a bit upset and angry that I've believed that my doctors would tell me the truth and that they knew all their was to know about my condition. Either they didn't know, even though it's their specialty, or they did but decided they didn't need to tell me. Either way, I'm not happy with them.

I've spent some time today researching the causes of early miscarriage including IVF failure. The more I read, the more I understand that I was never told the truth about endometriosis and the odds of pregnancy with it.

Until our recent trial of IVF, we were told the chances of us to conceive were as normal as everyone else's. Dr. McCoy did correct us by telling us our chances were much lower than normal because of endometriosis. But that was the end of our education from him.

This website has much to say about it.

"Endometriosis, regardless of its severity, is almost always associated with a Reproductive Dysfunction that manifests as infertility or early pregnancy loss. The condition (even in its mildest, earliest stage of development) reduces the ability to conceive (diminished fecundity). In fact, even in early endometriosis, the natural conception rate per month of trying as well as the rate following the use of fertility drugs with or without IUI in such cases will inevitably be about 4-6 times lower than for women without endometriosis."

"Immunologic Implantation Dysfunction (IID): About one third of women whom have endometriosis (regardless of its severity) will have activated uterine natural killer cells (NKa), the presence of which can prevent normal implantation leading to “infertility” or miscarriage."
Without looking at endometriosis, and strictly looking at early miscarriages and failed IVF, you'd find the majority to be caused by Autoimmune Implantation Dysfunction or Alloimmune Implantation Dysfunction.

These "dysfunctions" cause the body to think that the embryo is bad for the body so it attacks it. So, besides the fact that my tubes are highly toxic to eggs and sperm, apparently my uterus is highly toxic to embryo's trying to implant. This bit of information would have been good to know years ago when we first started trying to conceive. But it's not too late! There is a treatment for each of these "dysfunctions."

(1) Intralipid/IVIg therapy treatment before trying to conceive, and then again once diagnosed with pregnancy, should ensure a full term pregnancy and healthy child. IVIg is extremely costly but is available here at my hospital. Intralipid is much cheaper but I don't know if it's available here.

(2) Aspirin! One type of autoimmune implantation dysfunction, Antiphospholipid Antibodies (APA), can be treated with just a low dose aspirin regimen. Heparin is also used. The combination greatly improves pregnancy chances.

This information is good to know before considering doing another round of IVF. We do not want to raise the money for another round if the baby won't stick. Knowing this before we get to that stage will allow me to get on the correct treatment and allow a healthy full term pregnancy.

We've scheduled a re-consult for IVF with Dr. McCoy on March 17th. We will discuss everything in this blog and ask to be tested for it all. The testing will covered medically as "endometriosis" is the diagnosis we would use, not "infertility." Since everything I am reading says the endometriosis is usually just one condition a person has and is connected to one, or more, of the dysfunctions listed above.

We've also scheduled sit-downs with my sisters as they've again offered us their eggs and surrogacy if needed.

Continue to keep us in your prayers. Continue to pray for health as God intended for me.