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Conceiving After Spinal Cord Injury: Our Perspectives and Experiences
On our social profiles each week, we get tons of messages about conceiving as a couple after spinal cord injury. It’s one of those topics that is not discussed as openly as others due to the private struggles of many couples and misinformation out there. We want to change that!
Now it’s your turn to comment: As a WAG of SCI, Have you conceived after Sci? Are you working on it? Are you familiar with one or all of the processes? What has worked for you? What hasn’t? What’s your story? What are your biggest questions? We want to hear from all of you who have been through this (and those who want more info) as it’s one of the most common messages we receive on our social media pages. No judgements, just resources and stories! Thank you for sharing and for your questions in advance xox
Now it’s your turn to comment: As a WAG of SCI, Have you conceived after Sci? Are you working on it? Are you familiar with one or all of the processes? What has worked for you? What hasn’t? What’s your story? What are your biggest questions? We want to hear from all of you who have been through this (and those who want more info) as it’s one of the most common messages we receive on our social media pages. No judgements, just resources and stories! Thank you for sharing and for your questions in advance xox
Your WAGS of SCI
(Elena and Brooke)
(Elena and Brooke)
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Comments
Jacob was diagnosed with infertility due to anejaculation secondary to his paralysis. He is a T11/T12 incomplete. While Jacob receives most of his care through the VA system, he was referred to an outside urologist to further assess our options. We chose Dr. Jason Kovac. He is one of the top urologists in the state of Indiana and the leader in men's reproductive health. He advised given Jake's complex situation that we proceed directly to a combination TESE. This is essentially the surgical extraction of sperm from a biopsy sample taken from the testis. Jake unfortunately had this procedure done twice. The first one was done in September 2017 (eight years post-injury). After that procedure, the doctor was confident that we had what we needed to move forward. This sample was frozen. That didn't end up being the case (more detail in a bit) and he had to have a second surgery in August 2018. That sample was used fresh.
While undergoing IVF because of Jacob's condition, it was also determined that I had infertility issues of my own. I was diagnosed with low AMH (anti-Mullerian hormone) and ovarian reserve. I was a 0.6 ng/ml which meant my reproductive performance even with IVF was likely to be low.
We ended up doing three IVF stimulation rounds. Here were our results. Reasons for our failure were ultimately inconclusive but they believe it was due to a combination of poor quality eggs and severe DNA fragmentation in the sperm.
Cycle 1: Stimmed 14 days. Meds used: Menopur, Gonal-F, and Cetrotide. Max doses. Frozen/thawed sperm with ICIS (intracytoplasmic sperm injection). 9 eggs retrieved, 7 mature, 5 fertilized, 0 blasts. February 2018.
Cycle 2: Stimmed 16 days. Meds used: Menopur, Gonal-F, and Lupron. Max doses. Frozen/thawed sperm with ICIS (intracytoplasmic sperm injection). 9 eggs retrieved, 7 mature, 5 fertilized, 0 blasts. May 2018.
Cycle 3: Stimmed 14 days. Meds used: Omnitrope, Menopur, Gonal-F. Max doses. Fresh sperm with ICIS (intracytoplasmic sperm injection). 9 eggs retrieved, 9 mature, 8 survived the freeze (eggs were frozen to coordinate use of fresh sperm), 6 fertilized, 0 blasts. August 2018.
We ultimately ended up doing no transfers due to the lack of blastocysts. It was a devastating long and heartbreaking year.
Our first three cycles were covered by the VA under a billed lay-named #ivf4vets. #ivf4vets is actually the Women Veterans and Families Health Services Act S700 and HR1681. There is limitations to the funding however and with how the law was written. At the time I am writing this, 2/20/2019, the funding is NOT permanent. It also DOES NOT allow the use of donor gametes. Unfortunely, due to the length of time post-injury for Jacob and my egg quality issues, we need donor material. There is legally no exception to this - anyone stating otherwise has been misinformed. In order to utilize #ivf4vets, the veteran must have service-connected infertility. In our case, Jake's paralysis.
After our three failed cycles, we began to weigh our alternative options. We considered domestic infant adoption as well as adoption through Indiana's foster care system. At this time, we don't feel those are the right routes for growing our family. Although, I do have the personal line to our governor who has pledged to help us to remove any barriers that arrise should we choose to adopt from the system in the future. Foreign adoption is not on our short list at this time.
We are currently, about to undergo a double donor cycle. We have chosen and purchased donor sperm. We used Xytec. We chose an egg donor through our fertility clinic, Midwest Fertility Specialists (located in Carmel, IN). Because we are opting to split our donor's eggs with our clinic, we anticipate getting at least two good quality embryos. Our success rate is projected to be about 70%. The estimated cost including cost of the sperm, the donor's IVF cycle, one FET (frozen embryo transfer), and ERA test (endometrial receptivity analysis), required counseling session, as well as various other items like initial consultation, the cost will end up being approximately $25,000. All of which is due before or at the time of service (so we've already began paying some expenses). This is completely out of pocket.
Because some may ask, we used Dr. Laura Reuter for our first two cycles (do not recommend for various reasons) and Dr. Matt Will for our third. He will also be doing our donor cycle.
While we haven't yet had success in growing our family, I am well-versed in IVF and extremely knowledgeable in #ivf4vets as well navigating the VA healthcare system. I am always willing to share my experiences and my resources.
- Ashley
Have you been tested for MTHFR or Factor V Leiden? They're often hidden causes for recurrent miscarriages.
My husband (T5 complete) and I conceived this gorgeous baby girl at home. He had never ejaculated after his accident but read a trick on another message board and gave it a try and it worked. We attempted at home “turkey baster” method for a few months until we perfected it and to our surprise, we got pregnant.
My tips: get a sperm analysis first before you start trying. Get cheap ovulation tests on Amazon. Have him ejaculate to “clean out the pipes” a couple days before you know you’re ovulating (This is just an SCI thing, not for “normal” couples). Have FUN! At home IUI isnt aslways the most romantic thing, but we laughed a lot so I have great memories of trying to conceive 💗