Hi everyone;
I'm currently diagnosed as experiencing "secondary infertility". I'm 40 years old, and I have two children. Toward the end of my second pregnancy, my health really started to suffer and a Crohn's flare started that didn't end until 2 years later (after a small bowel resection). We've now been trying again for 10 months and having no success. Because I'm over 40, we were ushered into the fertility doctor's office for testing after 6 months of trying. Everything looks good with me, all the tests checked out (including a saline ultrasound where they checked that my tubes are open and ovaries/eggs look good). DH's sperm count and motility is weak though ... and this is new to us. Six years ago when we were trying for our first and not having any luck, his analysis came back perfect. So even though I'm the one with Crohn's, all of the results are pointing to male factor. Very frustrating. And it's hard when people say "you should be grateful for what you have" because I already have two children. But this is hard too ... I always wanted a big family and the Crohn's has put me on hold numerous times. My first two children didn't come easily either ... we went through infertility years ago, and we lost one pregnancy. I really feel in my heart that we have room in our family for another ... but with my advanced age and all the knocks against us, it may never happen. I feel like my time is running out, and the disease may be back already. I'm almost a year post-op ... and instead of getting better (and more "normal"), I'm suffering with D again pretty regularly. I'm not in any pain or any losing weight or anything like that ... just lots of D. Sucks. Just wanted to vent and complain a little. I know there's nothing anyone can do. I feel sad that people feel that I am ungrateful because I already have children. My children are wonderful and they bring me so much joy ... why should I be deprived of having more if that's what I want? I do count my blessings, every day. And I absolutely feel pure compassion and heartache for those who are TTC and do not have any children.
Hugs to everyone on this board.
Angie
p.s. Oh David ... I know your post is from several weeks ago, but I wanted to tell you that I do use charts and take my temperature to monitor my cycles. It is VERY informative. It doesn't necessarily help to tell you WHEN you need to try ... but it gives you an excellent aid to determine IF you're ovulating, and after a handful of cycles, you can see patterns as to when you are, and you can equate certain symptoms to the various milestones in your cycle. I did it back in my early TTC years, and I've continued to track my periods and intercourse over the years, and I am charting my temp again now. I love having all that data to look back on, it's amazing. I use the site called Fertility Friend. It's free and super easy to use.
