Thursday 7 April 2016

Mission "Make a baby" begins

My darling husband (DH) and I planned to make a baby so we initiated the process in Dec' 11. We read and did research about the "fertile days" concept and marked it on a calendar and did the needful on the specified days.

The concept of "fertile days" is 3 days before and after your Ovulation Day (OD) as healthy sperms can survive upto 72 hours inside the uterus. Since one can't be totally sure about your OD, the formula becomes 4-OD, 2-OD, OD, OD+2, OD+4. Yes, your DH has to do a lot of work in that one week. Another way to predict your OD is by using an Ovulation Prediction Kit (OPK) easily available in the market. It is similar to a Home Pregnancy Test (HPT), a drop or few of urine is enough. Basically, OPK measures the level of the leutinising hormone (LH) and Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH), LH levels are highest on OD. Third way is to keep a track on your Body Basal Temperature (BBT). Since I could never follow this procedure, I left it. All these methods can't predict your OD in advance, so if you miss the fertile window this month, aim for the next month.

Well, my DH and I tried for a few months using the calendar method but couldn't succeed. So we visited a gynaecologist (Dr. Joshitha Naik, Lady Hospital, Jayanagar, Bangalore) in June’ 12 just to understand if we were heading in the right direction or not. She got my basic tests done (CBC, Lipid Profile as I am hypertensive and on medication, and a pelvis scan). All looked fine so she prescribed a folic acid supplement and baby Aspirin 75mg (for hypertension). She also suggested the use of OPK for better prediction of OD.

Three months went by, and our attempts failed, leaving us a little perplexed. We visited the gynaecologist again in Sep’ 12 and voiced our concern. This time she suggested a Semen Analysis (SA) of my husband. The report wasn’t good, Severe Oligospermia is what she concluded (as the value was 2 million sperm/mL). We were asked to consult an urologist and if not cured, only an artifical way could help us make a baby.

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