First post

Hi all, this is my very first blog (ever). I'm not big into tweeting and didn't think I would get into blogging, but I guess I was wrong. I'm not really sure if anyone will read this or if I care, I was just thinking it would be a good way to cope with the stress and verbalize my feelings.

A little background:

My wife and I have been married for almost 4 years (Sept 9.) and have been actively trying to have a baby since. We spent about 18 months trying before we went to the doctor. My wife was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovary Disease (PCOS), which basically means she gets cysts on her ovaries and will sometimes not ovulate (depending on if there are cysts or not). She has been doing really well, she has been put on Metformin, which is a diabetes drug, but it also helps her to ovulate and not get cysts.

I have also had low testosterone which results in low sperm production. I have had a lot of semen analysis to date and they have ranged from below a million per ml to 7 million per ml.

As we started to realize that we had multiple issue preventing us from having the baby of our dreams, we decided to go to a specialist for help. The first stop was Advanced Fertility in Gurnee, IL. They were nice at first but quickly took the stance that the only solution to our issues was to do In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) at a cost of $15,000 per try. At this point we had both done a lot of research and knew for a fact that Intrauterine Insemination (IUI) was a very real possibility for us. Advanced Fertility was very proud of their success rates and wasn't willing to try the less expensive IUI, and persisted that IVF was the only way. Not being in a position to spend $15,000 and none of this being covered by our insurance (BCBS) we moved on to another fertility center.

*At this point we still have no information as to what is causing my low testosterone.

Since then we have been seeing Dr. Frank Whittmaack with Aurora Health Care in Milwaukee, WI. He and his staff have been great, he has put me through every test he can think of to try and figure out why my testosterone is low. About the only abnormality he found was a small imperfection on 1 of 20 MRI scans. This could have been a pituitary tumor that was causing my problems. I was very excited even though that would mean I would have to have surgery to fix the problem. However we quickly realized that if it was a tumor it wasn't secreting anything and was more than likely just an imperfection with the MRI itself and not a tiny little tumor. I had two other specialist look at the MRI's and my records and confirmed that it was not a tumor. Still to the day that I am writing this, I have no idea of any reason why my testosterone is low.