Saturday, May 12, 2012

bump # 10: good news and bad news

Bad news first:

An ultrasound this morning revealed that there is a big fat polyp making itself cozy in my uterus.
Bummer.


Read more about uterine polyps here and here and here

We have no idea where it came from, or when. I have never had any of the listed symptoms and the HSG in March and the ultrasound last week showed no polyps. How did this happen? And what the heck is a polyp anyway?  My infertility vernacular is increasing everyday...

All I know is that polyps are benign tumors that form in the endometrium and thrive on estrogen. And they act as a barrier, taking up precious space where the baby is supposed to implant, making getting pregnant even harder. Also they increase the risk of miscarriage. Fantastic. Just where exactly is this excess estrogen coming from?  I haven't even eaten soy products in months.  {Although it does explain the last hormonal flare up post.}

Sidenote: My dad, bless his heart, has had to live with 6 females (2 of them being the canine persuasion, but we all know dogs can be real b*****es too) and when my sisters and I were having particularly emotional outbursts, my dad would always chime in "oops did I step on the estrogen button?"

I can now say with certainty, that this poopy polyp has stepped all over my estrogen button!



Here is what the bad news means...

The polyp will most likely need to be surgically removed before we will be able to achieve and maintain a pregnancy. This polyp came out of nowhere and right in the middle of our first IUI cycle.  And we are too far into this to just call it off now - I have already taken the prescribed femara to boost up my follicles (see good news below), I am doing the HCG injection tonight to bring on ovulation in the next 36 hours, and we are going to continue with the IUI on Monday.  The polyp might get in the way of the embryo implanting in the endometrium, resulting in no pregnancy this month. Or, we may be able to get pregnant anyway, but miscarry later due to complications from the polyp. Thanks bing.com, you nasty nuisance with nothing but bad news that sends me straight back to the bitter bandwagon!  Of course the doctors are very reassuring and explained example after example of all the patients with successful pregnancies where polyps were present and didn't interfere at all. Hopefully we'll be one of those couples.

But realistically we are never one of those couples. You know, the ones who get pregnant on the first try. Or the second try. Or... you get the idea.

So I am already planning on this month being a wash and anticipating another exciting invasive procedure next month called hysteroscopy. (This involves getting put under while scissors are crammed up in my business to literally cut out the polyp).
Oh goody. Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse!


Now for the good news:

The femara seems to have worked and picked my left ovary to be the main contributor for this month's egg competition.

This is a picture of my big beautiful follicles 
(beauty is in the eye of the beholder - I totally get that saying now!)
Those big black blotches that look sort of like a peace sign are my follicles. 
Aren't they precious?!  The biggest one is almost 23 mm.
To put it in perspective, a good sized follicle for ovulation is 18 mm.

This chart above shows the sizes of the follicles... the next biggest one is 15 mm and could possibly ovulate as well.
Usually only one follicle releases an egg per month though. We'll take what we can get.

So here we are.
Taking the good with the bad and hoping for the best.

1 comment:

  1. (OK obviously I am catching up on your blogs here...sorry if I inundate you with comments!!!)

    UGH! THat polyp really sucks. Especially since it wasn't there before...I wonder if the femera caused it? I don't know much about polyps, either, but the fact that it wasn't there until NOW...well, that just blows. And right in the middle of an IUI cycle! Horrible timing, stupid polyp. Prayers for about a million miracles to happen all at once this cycle...

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