Need the advice of my girls

My miscarriage was a month ago and I'm still waiting to get my period to feel like I'm back on track. Thats a pain in and of itself.
But here's the thing.....we're dealing with male factor IF. When we first started seeing an RE I had all the bloodwork done and everything came back fine thankfully. I also had an HSG done....it came back fine also. But I was thinking...I often read about women who try for a while with an RE only to find out later that they have some sort of issue that was not diagnosed from the beginning. In your opinion do you think I should push the doctor to do more testing b/c of the miscarriage? As most of you do...DH and I pay a lot of money out of pocket every month for the RE so I just dont wanna waste time...know what I mean?
Thanks for your help girls

Re: Need the advice of my girls

I am sorry for your loss and the wait for AF. After 2 chemical pregnancies, I requested from my RE a full work up for repeat pregnancy loss. It included genetic testing for DH and I, immune testing, and testing for blood clotting disorders. It's not unheard of to do this testing after just one m/c.

Re: Need the advice of my girls

I would speak with the RE before continuing about a full blood work up, it's only blood work, not abig deal...

Re: Need the advice of my girls

The only thing you could really get is a full blood workup....including genetic issues.
Also, remember that 1 in 4 pregnancies end in miscarriage so it's not that abnormal that you miscarried, If it happened again I would definitely check into PGD.

Re: Need the advice of my girls

Did you have an genetic testing done on the pregnancy sac? I would definitely get the bloods...

Re: Need the advice of my girls

Re: Need the advice of my girls

Posted by daisy32

Posted by LaurenExp

Did you have an genetic testing done on the pregnancy sac? I would definitely get the bloods...

Thanks girls

No I didnt have any genetic testing done...not as far as I know. When we first started I had to go to a lab where they took like 15 viles of blood so maybe it was included with that. I'm so clueless LOL. Is this a special test that you have to request? is it a blood test?

Re: Need the advice of my girls

Posted by LaurenExp

Posted by daisy32

Posted by LaurenExp

Did you have an genetic testing done on the pregnancy sac? I would definitely get the bloods...

Thanks girls

No I didnt have any genetic testing done...not as far as I know. When we first started I had to go to a lab where they took like 15 viles of blood so maybe it was included with that. I'm so clueless LOL. Is this a special test that you have to request? is it a blood test?

I actually meant if you had a miscarriage, I wasn't sure if you had a D&C. If you did have a D&C, they usually genetically test the pregnancy sac...

Re: Need the advice of my girls

Well here is my take on male factor (after dealing with it and researching it till I was blue in the face). Basically you're dealing with a LOT of damaged sperm in one form or another. After being on a few male factor infertility boards I noticed there was a trend in m/c which I kinda think is linked to the MFI. I have NO scientific basis for this idea, but I really think that sometimes the sperm are just not able to fertilize an egg AND maintain a pregnancy or there may be other issues with the sperm which won't lead to a healthy pregnancy. Now if it would make you feel better to have more testing done on yourself then definately do that. If you're going to stress out about the unknown then you might as well fight for whatever testing you think would help. I know for me, I had regular cycles, no pain during AF, had my HSG which was clear and all bloddwork was normal. That was good enough for me to be confident that our problem was only with DH and I focused on that. We never did medicated IUI becuase I figured if I was ovulating and his sperm wasn't fertilizing my one egg, what difference would more then one egg make?? Plus our numbers were so low that IUI's ended up being useless. We did IVF, I responded beautifully, they did ICSI and were able to fertilize 23 out of 30 eggs (13 of which made it to day 5!!). I truly believe that ICSI was the answer to all of our issues, it bypassed fertilization which is where think the issue is in MFI.

Anyway, sorry for rambling. In the end you have to do what you feel comfortable with. Like Gerty said, 1 in 4 pregnancies end in m/c so hopefully this was just a fluke thing for you. If you want any other MF info feel free to FM me. I really hope AF shows for you so you can move on from this

Re: Need the advice of my girls

I am sorry you are going through this...

to be honest, it really is your decision. I will tell you that after my first mis they told me it is common...then it happened again. we finally figured out my problem. I have a blood clotting disorder that is preventing the fetus from surviving.

i would say that most of the tests are simple bloodwork, so it is not a big deal to do it. i would talk to your dr. I was never given the option, but I wish like h e l l that I had it done earlier.

I really do wish you the best and hope you find the answers you are looking for. oh...they tested the sacs from both of my D&C's and never found anything. My drs told me that most times it is too early to get difinitive answers that way. Genetic testing is better.

Hope this helped!!!

Re: Need the advice of my girls

First off, I'm very sorry for your loss. It's tough and I hope you know your not alone.

You need to sit and talk to your RE about your concerns and see if there is any other blood work that wasn't done yet to explain your loss or any other testing that hasn't been done.

My story and testing was very unconventional. When I went to my OB and told him my problems with trying to conceive, I was sent to have all the bloodwork for genetic testing along with CD3 bw. I was also sent for HSG, pelvic sonogram, and DH was sent for SA. This was all done before any iui was done. With that said I still had 2 miscarriages after 5 iuis. Sometimes there is no clear cut explanation for why things happen but that's not to say you should explore all your options and open up this conversation with your RE. You will feel better just discussing your concerns.

Re: Need the advice of my girls

I asked after one miscarriage. I wanted to know then, not wait for it to happen again. The RE told me they usually do the testing after two or more, but they were fine with doing it if I wanted. It turns out my instincts were correct - I have a Protein S deficiency, which means my blood clots too much. I was put on baby aspirin and lovenox - and am now almost 19 weeks pregnant.

Re: Need the advice of my girls

Posted by mcl916

Well here is my take on male factor (after dealing with it and researching it till I was blue in the face). Basically you're dealing with a LOT of damaged sperm in one form or another. After being on a few male factor infertility boards I noticed there was a trend in m/c which I kinda think is linked to the MFI. I have NO scientific basis for this idea, but I really think that sometimes the sperm are just not able to fertilize an egg AND maintain a pregnancy or there may be other issues with the sperm which won't lead to a healthy pregnancy. Now if it would make you feel better to have more testing done on yourself then definately do that. If you're going to stress out about the unknown then you might as well fight for whatever testing you think would help. I know for me, I had regular cycles, no pain during AF, had my HSG which was clear and all bloddwork was normal. That was good enough for me to be confident that our problem was only with DH and I focused on that. We never did medicated IUI becuase I figured if I was ovulating and his sperm wasn't fertilizing my one egg, what difference would more then one egg make?? Plus our numbers were so low that IUI's ended up being useless. We did IVF, I responded beautifully, they did ICSI and were able to fertilize 23 out of 30 eggs (13 of which made it to day 5!!). I truly believe that ICSI was the answer to all of our issues, it bypassed fertilization which is where think the issue is in MFI.

Anyway, sorry for rambling. In the end you have to do what you feel comfortable with. Like Gerty said, 1 in 4 pregnancies end in m/c so hopefully this was just a fluke thing for you. If you want any other MF info feel free to FM me. I really hope AF shows for you so you can move on from this

Re: Need the advice of my girls

i was tested after my second miscarriage, that's what most doctors recommend, but if i were you, i'd push for it... who wants to go through a second miscarriage if the issue is something as simple as putting you on aspirin and lovenox for a blood disorder.... and all it takes is a few vials of blood to check

that said, i was found to have a borderline protein S deficiency, a clotting issue, so i was put on aspirin and when i got pregnant for the third time, i was put on heparin (it's kind of like lovenox but twice a day)

but i STILL miscarried, so there was something else going on besides or instead of the protein S thing...

it was only when i did PGD with an IVF cycle that we found out all my embryos were abnormal, so it turns out, my eggs are abnormal
and that is probably why i miscarry, more so than the protein S deficiency

so yeah, moral of the story is, get checked for blood disorders, if they put you on blood thinners for your next pregnancy, and you still miscarry, go for ivf/pgd

good luck

Re: Need the advice of my girls