Most everyone knows that Johnny and I have struggled to get pregnant on our own. So I thought I would share the journey we had to take, with you. It's a very long, and extremely expensive process!!
My life dream was to have 2 kids, hopefully one boy and one girl. I even had names picked out for my future kids since I was a teenager. I wanted to be done having kids by the time I was 25. When Johnny and I got together in April 2009 I was only 23 so this dream was still possible. This is bad to say but after a few months we never avoided getting pregnant but were not really trying. Months went by and we hadn't gotten pregnant and now were about to start planning our wedding. I had the thought that this was going to be the time would end up pregnant since we were planning our wedding. But still nothing happened.
When I went for my annual check up in 2011 I explained my situation to my OB and she told me that Johnny would need to get tested. Our first step was for Johnny to go see a urologist to make sure that his hormone levels were good. A doctor at my moms work referred Johnny to a urologist at TUCC.
Johnny's first appointment was at the first of 2012. His blood tests came back normal and the doctor told Johnny to start taking Benadryl daily to possibly help improve his sperm mobility, and to come back in a few months to see if there has been any change. When I was at my annual I had the same type of hormone testing done. Since both of our blood tests came back good and looked normal for our age there was no apparent reason why we should not be able to conceive on our own. Since these were just simple blood tests they were covered by our insurance and the only thing he had to pay was his copay of $65.00.
Johnny went back for his follow up and reported no change and no pregnancy yet. The urologist gave him some prescription meds to start on in addition to taking the Benadryl and to try this for a few months. This appointment was $40.00.
Summer of 2012 and still no change. So the next step was Johnny getting his sperm tested. Johnny's diabetes has been a struggle his whole life and it has damaged parts of his body and made his sperm not healthy when it comes out on its own. At this point we were told that we would not be able to conceive a child on our own and would need some sort of medical help. As you can imagine we were crushed and needed time to heal our emotions. This appointment was $121.00.
At my annual check up in late 2012, my OBGYN referred me to the Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine to discuss what options we would have since it had been more than a year with unprotected sex and no successful pregnancy.
Total money we had already spent after 2012 for doctors visits and medications was $300.00.
I scheduled my appointment in January of 2013 at CCRM. I went and had a consolation with the doctors there just to tell them our story. Since this was mainly a clinic for women I went by myself. I was told that I would need to have all the testing I had already done with my OB done again because once you go through fertility you had to have everything done there. I would also have to have numerous ultrasounds to check how my body was and if it was healthy enough to even carry a baby. Our insurance covered this appointment and I only had to pay my $15.00 copay.
Johnny and I went back to CCRM together in February of 2013. I didn't think that we needed to go through fertility at this time because we were both still young, and Johnny had already fathered a child. I also didn't want to have to go and re do all of the basic testing done again and have to pay out of pocket for it because most fertility testing is not covered by insurance. The doctor told us that first thing is Johnny needed to get his sperm tested. We explained what happened at his last appointment and he told me that he would have to go back urology and see what his next option is. If they couldn't get a healthy sperm sample then we would need to look into donor sperm. Our insurance changed and we were no longer covered and the cost for this appointment was $115.00.
Things got busy in life and before we knew it we were in the middle of 2013. Johnny went back to TUCC to talk about his situation. The doctor told him that because of the results of the last appointment he had, they would need to gather a sample of sperm straight from his body. The only way to do this is to take a needle and poke him in the testicles to gather a sample. The doctor said that if this came back normal the procedure we would do is referred to as "the turkey basting method" or IUI. This can be done at a fertility clinic or some OB offices do it. The cost of this was about $3-5K. We both thought well its not as bad as it could be and that we just prayed that when they tested his sperm sample everything would all come together. So you can imagine that this would be very painful, and all he got was a little relaxation medicine and sent home with ice packs. Needless to say he was uncomfortable for a few days! The cost for this appointment was $40.00
We waited a couple of days and got the call, his test results were back and his sperm was all healthy and normal. We were excited that now all we had to do was schedule an appointment with my OBGYN to get the procedure done. When I called her she told me that the only way she would do IUI (turkey basting method) was if he could produce a healthy sperm sample on his own or if I used donor sperm. Since we knew he would have to have the extraction done in order to get healthy sperm we were back to square one. In the meantime we tried to find any other doctor or OBGYN that would do the IUI method using extracted sperm rather than a fresh sample, without having to do all the testing that was needed at CCRM that I had already done with my OBGYN. We were unsuccessful. :(
We were told that the only option for us now would be IVF instead of IUI. This was a lot more of an in detail procedure and was much more expensive. The cost of this kind of procedure is anywhere between $20k and $30k depending on types of medications and so on. We didn't expect this and were now upset that we had no idea how we would do this because that is a lot of money. The cost of this appointment was $235.00.
The total out of pocket for 2013 was $405.00.
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