Several hours after I posted my last entry last week I decided to do a pregnancy test just to be sure that the spotting was indeed a sign that my period was imminent. This was my 10th cycle and every cycle the spotting shows up like clockwork so I don't know if when I do finally fall pregnant if the spotting will still show up and subsequently disappear or if it would not show up at all. Once again, I took a test and after a few minutes I decided it was negative and walked away. However, 45 minutes later I went back to the test and saw that it turned positive. Pregnancy tests are only valid up to 10-15 minutes after taking them, but this was the second test I had which turned positive after the time window. I've never had a test turn positive at all in the past so I was curious.
In the morning at 10 days past ovulation I took a test and within 5 minutes a very very faint line showed up. When we first started TTC 11 months ago I always envisioned that the day I got a positive test I would be jumping up and down in the bathroom super excited waving the test in Jon's face beaming all day long ready to start the next phase of my life.......but my actual reaction to this supposedly positive test was so far in the opposite direction of what I had envisioned. In fact, I was downright confused and therefore very reserved. Perhaps it was the spotting that was throwing me off. I decided to dismiss this result and test again after work to see if I had another positive. I held my bladder that afternoon and took another test that evening. My heart was pounding hard inside my chest as I was so nervous what the result was going to yield. I stared at the test intently for 3 minutes and saw nothing. I began to brush my teeth while intermittently darting my eyes over to the test to see if there were any changes. To my astonishment, at the 4-5 minute mark, another faint line was slowly starting to appear. It was definitely a "blink and you'll miss it" line, but I knew it was there.
Two positive tests in one day and I still didn't believe it. Needless to say, the next morning at 6am I was the most excited I've ever been to start my day. Unfortunately, I took a test that morning and my tests were back to being negative again. The remaining two tests I did that day turned out negative as well. I will never really know what happened that day, but I'm told that false positives are rare and I had two positives in a day. If I did miscarry, I feel somewhat relieved to know that I at least can do something other than get negative results month after month, and that in itself is encouraging.
Last Friday Jon had his urology visit. We learned that Jon has Varicocele which is (copied and pasted from Wikipedia because I don't quite understand it and don't want to say the wrong thing) is an abnormal enlargement of the vein that is in the scrotum draining the testicles. The defective valves, or compression of the vein by a nearby structure, can cause dilatation of the veins near the testis, leading to the formation of a varicocele. It is like varicose veins in the legs only they are in the scrotum. The way the doctor explained it is that it's an enlarged vein that can cause over heating in the testicle and damage sperm. Varicocele affects about 15% of the male population (to varying degrees--therefore, some men don't know they even have it because it's asymptomatic) and is found in 40% of male infertility cases. There is no known cause for why some men have this and others don't. Jon has it on both sides which is more impactful than if it were only one side.
We are relieved that we have now likely found the culprit. The course of treatment is usually surgery, although he needs to have an ultrasound done first to confirm it is indeed Varicocele before the doctor will prescribe surgery. He has that ultrasound in a few days, and then we will wait to hear what the urologist says about surgery. The doctor explained that surgery improves infertility in 2 out of 3 cases so it's not guaranteed to help us get pregnant any faster. However, insurance will cover Jon's surgery which is encouraging since my insurance won't cover all of the labs and procedures that go along with intrauterine insemination. It seems more cost-effective to treat Jon than to try IUI for several rounds with no guarantee that it will help given what we know about Jon. At this point, it does not make sense to proceed with IUI knowing that Jon's sperm can perhaps be improved. It will take 2-3 months following the surgery to notice any improvement in his sperm quality. Following those few months we will then reassess IUI.
Whoever would've thought it would be my husband getting the ultrasound before me? :)
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