A Small Glimmer of Hope

Finally some good news in our journey. Since we first found out about our future and our journey with infertility it seems like it has been one bad thing after another. Yesterday however we finally got the good news we have been waiting for, we found out that Eric’s new job offers insurance that covers infertility, including IVF. Yes you read that right and I feel like we just won the lottery! We really could use it too because earlier this week we finally saw a specialist at Cleveland Clinic (voted number 3 in the country for male infertility) and once again we were told that our only chance of ever having a biological child is by Eric undergoing micro tese surgery to search for sperm followed by IVF. He ruled out a blockage after a simple exam and reviewing his lab results and records. He did suggest Eric try Clomid for a few months followed by another semen analysis to see if there are any changes and he did say that he is very hopeful that he will find sperm through surgery based on his exam and lab work (labs are within normal range and testicles are a normal shape and size). His guess for the cause is Eric’s surgery for undescended/retractile testicles at 11. Testicles should be brought fully into the scrotum by age 1 or as soon as an issue is detected to prevent permanent damage from internal body temperature. We still haven’t figured out all of the details or background of exactly what the situation was and whether he was born with undescended testicles or if he had retractile testicles at early puberty and no one seems to remember. We do know that the corrective surgery wasn’t performed until he was 11 years old to correct whatever was going on. Given the new information we received we weren’t sure how we were going to pull it off or afford it since the micro tese surgery alone is $11,000 not including freezing any sperm that is found. IVF with ICSI is an additional $20,000+ so finding out that we now have insurance coverage that will offset these costs is just about the best news we could have hoped for right now! So onward we go, let’s hope Clomid is helpful in some way, if it works enough to boost sperm production so some will show up in a semen analysis it might prevent Eric from having to do the micro tese surgery which would be nice!