First Fertility Doctor (looking at my laparoscopy photos): "Wow, that tube's in bad shape."
Me: "What the hell happened?" (it' clear that I'm paraphrasing here, right?)
FFD: "Well, you've never had an STD, and you have no risk factors. You'll probably never know why your tubes are messed up and there's no point in trying to figure it out, but the fact that you've had two uterine pregnancies indicates that something happened recently to mess up your tubes. Maybe you got an infection from your miscarriage."
Me: "Oh. Well, shit. So, am I screwed?"
FFD: "Not at all. I'm not convinced your tube is even closed. After all, you got pregnant with your left tube all messed up. We'll do an HSG, and hope to get you pregnant that month."
Me: "Ok, then. See you in a few months."
Second Fertility Doctor (looking at the same exact photos): "Wow, that tube's in bad shape."
Me: "What the hell happened?"
SFD: "Well, you've never had an STD, and you have no risk factors. You'll probably never know why your tubes are messed up and there's no point in trying to figure it out. But I think it's probably been like that for a long time, possibly years. You were just lucky that your first two pregnancies made it to your uterus."
Me: "Oh. Well, shit. So, am I screwed?"
SFD: "Probably. I think the tube is open, but I doubt you'll ever get pregnant with it, due to all the scarring. Go ahead and do the HSG, and try for a few months if the tube is open. But in the meantime, why don't you stop by our financial office and find out if your insurance is going to cover the IVF you'll probably need?"
So I don't know what to think here. I have two doctors looking at the same photos, refusing to do any testing, and drawing dramatically different conclusions. I think we'll stick with the first guy for the HSG, and see how that goes. If we end up doing IVF, we'll probably switch to the larger clinic.
By the way, my insurance does not cover IVF, not even a little bit. If we do it, the money will all be coming out of pocket. Thank god I spent my late 20s being a soulless big firm drone. The good news is that I'm practically an infant for fertility purposes, and both doctors concurred that I am an excellent candidate for IVF. Both told me I would almost definitely have another child, somehow.
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3 comments:
What you have just encountered is the very essence of infertility treatment: The inability to get a straight answer. Bonus points for getting two entirely different opinions from two different doctors so early on.
Hang in there. I think Dr. Two's optimism is well-founded.
I've always wanted to be either a weatherman or a doctor - they can have absolutely no flamin' clue what's really the issue and can guess and still have a job. Drs just have a more pompous way of going about it. (Sorry to my dr. friends you of course are excluded). I swear one of these days I'm going to try it in Court "Well your honor it depends on what you mean by case law and precedent. Like does the Supreme Court's decision on this issue really count? I mean it might but then again it might not. You know?"
Ditto on the hang in there. I am thinking of you!!
For what it's worth, I think you're doing the right thing with the HSG. At least that will tell you if the tube is open or not. I ended up getting a third opinion at one point. None of them really agreed about anything.
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