Last week we received disappointing news that Jon's varicocele as noted on the ultrasound wasn't large enough to warrant surgery. That felt like a swift kick to the gut. We know he has varicocele and it could potentially be harming his sperm, yet there is nothing we can do about it? That certainly felt defeating. I digested the news and moved on by reminding myself that I probably got pregnant last month so it's not like our chances of having kids are a long shot. The urologist said he was merely "sub-fertile" and that our chances of conceiving were about half of what it is for healthy couples (1 in 5 for healthy couples, 1 in 10 for us).
Our one last straw of hope before having to pursue more invasive and costly interventions were lying in the results of Jon's blood tests. The urologist was going to send us a letter once he reviewed the blood work and make decisions to pursue medication or tell us that the source of his infertility is idiopathic and therefore not treatable by intervention.
The letter finally arrived on Friday and was both enlightening and hopeful! A value that calculates testosterone while considering FSH callled, "Total Active Testosterone" indicated that while Jon's testosterone registered in the "normal" range, the total active testosterone level was a little on the low side. The urologist stated that Jon is a "perfect candidate for Clomid"....wait-what? Clomid!? Yep, not only did Jon have an ultrasound--he now gets to go on Clomid. Apparently men produce the same hormones woman produce that help them ovulate (FSH and LH) and because his FSH levels coupled with testosterone were considered low this could apparently help him balance out his hormones. Jon needs to visit once again with the urologist to discuss this treatment option and I hope by the end of April he can start taking the medication since it will take 2-3 months to see improvement.
One seemingly innocuous and thus overlooked detail on Jon's medical record was that he uses a skin cream called Tetracycline which I think (but could be wrong) is an active ingredient in Triamcinolone which helps fight skin conditions such as acne. Jon was prescribed this medication about 1.5 years ago and he took it regularly in 2011 and then started tapering off it from January-March 2012 because it was causing his skin to dry out. We had arranged about 2 weeks before the urology visit to have Jon's medical record released to the urologist since he is umbrellaed under a different health system, yet it still didn't make it to the urologist in time for the visit. Therefore, it wasn't until he was reviewing Jon's blood work last week and after the medical record arrived did the urologist notice the contraindication. According to our urologist, this medication can have a negative effect on motility (how fast and efficiently the sperm move). He advised Jon to stop taking it immediately.
April 27th marks the one year point for us trying to conceive. It seems ironic that a year ago I was focusing on getting us healthy, cutting back on caffeine, keeping us out of hot tubs, and wondering if Jon's medication and vitamin regimen was conducive with fertility......yet I never once heeded notice to his skin cream. In fact, at our urology visit, it didn't even cross my mind to bring up this medication!
Needless to say, we have been feeling rejuvenated at this one year mark and hopeful that by the end of summer we can announce that we are pregnant and skip all the costly interventions.
In other news, we leave for our Europe trip tomorrow night and I'm allowing the final details of trip planning distract me from TTC. We are very excited to finally take this trip we've been talking about since 2008! When we return we will mark the one year anniversary as an opportunity to start fresh and look at this TTC journey from a new more hopeful perspective now that we have some tools that could finally improve our success rates.
Cheers!
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