Recap- part 2

As soon as the doctor told me there were zero sperm in the sample, my natural, knee-jerk reaction was to laugh.  There had to be a mistake, right?  No, my doctor was sure.....having zero sperm was a rare condition called Azoospermia and could be caused by several different factors.  The next step in our process would be for Brandon to see a specialist to help determine our reason for azoospermia.


We soon learned my husband had a congenital absence of the vas deferens.  Basically, he was born without vas deferens ..... like being born with a vascetomy.  It was a pretty rare diagnosis, but we still had hope.  There was still the chance that he was producing normal sperm, they just had no way of getting out.  And this was where we learned that the only opportunity we might have at having a biological child was through IVF ICSI- in vitro fertilization with Intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection.  Basically ICSI is a special form of IVF.  Because we are special! So, so special!


We met with a fertility specialist, or Reproductive Endocrinologist (RE).  She informed us that IVF ICSI was indeed our best bet at having a biological child.  Basically, the RE would inject a single sperm directly into a mature egg in a lab.  My doctor would set my body up to grow and harvest healthy eggs.  When the time was right they would remove these eggs and inject each one with a single sperm.  The hope is that the eggs are fertilized by the sperm (obviously) and make embryos.  The embryos are given a couple of days to grow and if they are viable, they are transferred back into me.  I mean, no big deal, right? Oh.....and then there is the cost of IVF ICSI. Amazingly.....that whole process in a lab, plus the cost of medications procedures and appointments, was not cheap.


After all this, I was a mess of emotions.  We had learned there was only one way for us to get pregnant.  It was not cheap or easy and there was absolutely no guarantee.  This whole part freaked me out.  Yet, at the same time, I was so relieved.  Finally.....we knew what was going on and exactly what we needed to do.  We had been searching for answers for so long and now we knew!

To be continued......