Welcome ICLW!

::waving hello:: I'm Amanda and I've been married to my high school sweetheart, C, for three years. We currently live in central Arkansas, thanks to C's job, and are originally from the Houston area. We have two very spoiled dogs! Here is our story, thus far:

I was diagnosed with PCOS April 2008 and we actively began TTC. We hadn't been taking precautions for quite some time but never called it "TTC" until we learned about my PCOS. A year passed with nothing so my gyno prescribed me Prometrium and Metformin and sent me on my way. I was super excited, I fully expected a BFP from those two medications. By July, I was back at my gyno to schedule an HSG and a SA for C and I began seeing a RE. That is when it all went to hell. His SA came back zero and my gyno informed me that my husband was sterile. I immediately made an appt with a local urologist and C provided two more SAs. Both were heartbreakingly zero.

Our uro did a testicular biopsy in October that confirmed azoospermia and his advice was to "just adopt". We made an appt with a MFI guru, eight hours away in Houston for a second opinion. In response to learning this, our uro laughed and told us to let him know if the MFI guru found any sperm b/c that would be a real miracle. We began researching donor sperm and dealing with the pain of C not being able to father children. We were devastated and the second opinion was simply a formality in order to ease our minds before we moved on to donor sperm.

Imagine our surprise when Dr. L, our MFI guru, found four sperm in C's fourth SA. Only one was motile but we were overjoyed nonetheless and cried our eyes out. At the end of December, C underwent his second testicular biopsy in order to freeze testicular tissue for us to use for IVF. They believe there are six sperm in the frozen tissue. At this same appt, we learned the cause of C's azoo. He was born with a genetic birth defect called a Y Chromosome Micro Deletion. It's nice to have an answer but it made us incredibly sad at the same time. We are currently aiming for a June IVF with C undergoing his third biopsy so we can use fresh sperm with the frozen as back-up. We're excited, anxious, terrified and all kinds of other mixed up emotions.

Trying to coordinate an IVF cycle in Houston from Arkansas is a nightmare but luckily, we have great Houston doctors and all of our family lives there and have been a big help. We're rushing to do last minute fixes to our house before we bring a baby home and we're both trying to get into better shape. Mainly, we are praying it all works out and we are hopeful that it will.