Being Positive

Welcome back.

Well, as some of you may have guessed the previous story has a happy ending. While weighing her options Sheri became pregnant. 9 months ago she had a girl, and all is well.

I talked to Sherri about the whole ordeal. She reminded me that she had done many IUIs and 4 IVF cycles. She believes her success was aided by sticking with trying the old fashioned way when not in a medical/IVF cycle.

She is resistant to sayings like, “it’s easier to get pregnant once you stop with our doctor”. And she did want people to know that she did not change her diet or add any holistic therapies, it just happened. (Just a note about this. Of course I believe in the benefits of life-improvement techniques, but they may work best when used in conjunction with conventional therapies Using unconventional therapies alone has some, but limited benefit, and counting on them as you are aging is not recommended. If two groups of 41 year olds try holistic vs holistic plus fertility treatments, both groups will have pregnancies, but there will be more in the second group).

So what are my comments? Every infertility patient has a built in “on-your-own” pregnancy rate. People do get pregnant without treatment. For some the rates are very low, but as long as there is at least one tube and some sperm, the rates are rarely zero. Sheri had an edge; she produced an excellent number of eggs during her ivf cycles and this meant the overall status of her ovaries was well above average. Plus we all understand the Sheri is an exception, not the rule. The fact is, most women her age with a longstanding history of infertility do not get pregnant using their own eggs, even with the most aggressive treatments.

But when it happens it’s wonderful. Plus, in her case to get through the increased risk of miscarriage that goes along with being 43 is a big relief.

But why and how she did it may not be the most important point here. I think we should take time out to celebrate and hope that everyone has the potential to be successful as quickly and as easily as possible.

I’ve had a few other surprises in the past months. I have had my share of patients who responded poorly to the medications causing us to cancel their IVF cycles. With the few eggs that we had, we did an iui “just in case”. Sure enough, 3 women became pregnant and they are all doing well.

Two years ago I had a woman in her 40’s get cancelled from an FSH iui cycle. Her estrogen did not budge after 10 days on drug. Four weeks later her home pregnant test was positive and she had the baby. Apparently, her normal cycle started the day she stopped the injections and without even knowing she ovulated, and without monitoring or exact timing, she became pregnant.

And on the IVF side, I have one woman whose pregnancy is doing well despite her having her retrieval at age 45. Plus, I have had a slew of women whose embryos did not look very good at all, but went on to be successful.
And just yesterday I did a pregnancy ultrasound on a woman who did absolutely nothing except try. I met the couple about 3 months ago. He had a few medical problems that were resolving. Things turned around and they were successful on their own.

One point here is that busy infertility doctors, who promote surgery, fertility drugs, inseminations and in vitro, have many patients who get pregnant without their help. We suggest IVF to some who decide to do iui instead, and some of them get pregnant. We have older patients who have failed many cycles. We may ask them to consider other options, but they persist with IVF, and a few do get pregnant. We have women on our donor egg list who call to come off because they became pregnant.

I don’t want to confuse the luck of a few with the harsh reality of many. But I think it’s important to hear about the potential positives that do exist among people who did not have the best chances. Will being positive up your odds? Some say yes. If not, at least it will give you more strength as you continue on your difficult path.

Another person needs to be very positive, and that person is your doctor. I think most are. You need a doctor who is honest and can communicate the reality of your situation and the odds of success. If you and she believe it’s in your best interest to initiate or continue treatment, then she needs to be behind you 100%. Unfortunately, there are some doctors who do not have the correct mindset to be positive and an advocate for women whose odds are low. No one can really predict who will or will not get pregnant, so why not go in saying it will work. Your doctor should work with everyone as if they will be the one. Again, I think most infertility doctors are very good at this, but if yours is not, try another.

I don’t know if Sheri became pregnant because she was always positive. But I like using her as an example of how good things do happen to people who have one or more factors hindering their chances. Most infertility patients are not optimal candidates for success. Most patients have some barrier, known or unknown, to getting pregnant. Work with what you have, and good things may come your way.

Thanks for reading,

Dr. Licciardi