Prologue

Let us start our adventure by first setting the scene. How we got to this place has been a journey in itself. When Kylie and I first met we discussed kids – did we like them (yeah) and had we ever thought about having them (yep). We had both thought about having kids, but neither of us had found ourselves in a position or relationship where that went any further than those thoughts you find yourself ruminating over from time to time. So after some initial discussions we agreed that having a child together was a definite possibility for us, but down the track.

Down the track for us initially meant 2-3 years as being 37 at the time my biological clock was not going to allow us 5-10 years to settle in together, build up a real estate portfolio and own 2 cars outright!!

As time passed we talked of our future plans with others. Some of these discussions were with couples already well and truly entrenched in the fertility clinic process and some were with people who’d had kids later in life. These conversations led us to believe that this whole pregnancy business was not necessarily as straight forward as one would possibly think. We heard of stories where it took couples 3-5 years and thousands upon thousands of dollars to achieve their dreams of having a child. Others shared stories of birth defects and disabilities which were thought to be attributable to advanced maternal age. Eeeeeeeeek – we were starting to think that maybe we should look in to this sooner rather than later. So we researched the internet, read plenty of books and picked peoples brains………especially the ones who had been there and done that!!

Armed with heads full of information we booked in to see the GP in March 2009 to have a chat and get some advice about our next move. The Dr got all the preliminary tests underway and referred us on to Queensland Fertility Clinic. So our first WAIT began!! A 6 week wait to be precise……..not to bad considering we are in Townsville and there aren’t that many specialists on hand.

At times that 6 week wait seemed to drag and the week prior to our first appointment was a tense time for me. Whilst excited at the prospect of starting this adventure I was also filled with trepidation about what lay ahead. In the hours before our appointment I felt like a school girl waiting to be called in to the headmasters office. Not knowing whether I was receiving a pat on the back for good work or a rap on the knuckles for misbehaving.

The appointment itself was much like an interview for a job or so it felt. The relief I felt at its completion was immense. I felt like we’d passed the first stage and had been shortlisted for the second round of interviews. The second round of interviews included more blood tests for both of us and a mandatory couples counselling session before being able to proceed. We had a 2 week wait to see the counsellor and an 8 week wait until we could get in to the Fertility Clinic to find out what happened next.

The Dr advised us that all our tests came back fine and we could start proceedings as soon as we had picked out a donor and in conjunction with the start of my next cycle. Wow…..just like that we would be off and running!!

Before we could take our position at the starting blocks we had the task of picking out a donor that we were both happy with…….sounds easy…….think again. We both thought we’d be inundated with donor profiles which would take us weeks to pour over and short list our favourites. The cold hard truth was there were 4 Australian donors and 16 American donors to choose from. So pour over them we did. In our initial perusals we picked fault with just about every profile. This one had braces, that one wore glasses, this one had a receding hairline and that one had acne. None of these good samaritans was going to be good enough to be the father of our child. Okie Doke……take a step back for a minute…..I wear glasses, had zits and could have had braces!!! We had to lower our expectations to be somewhat realistic. So we did and came up with a top 2 candidates. Next step was to purchase said donor – fingers crossed they weren’t too popular and already “SOLD OUT”.

Kylie rang the sperm coordinator in Brisbane to see if our donor daddy was available – and yes he was. So how many vials do we get? If you are super keen and loaded with money – heck – buy all 10!! Whilst we were keen we are not “Loaded” so we got 3 vials for our suggested 3 IUI attempts. If were are not successful with the IUI’s we will look to try IVF and put a special order in for our donor at that time.

With the sperm on its way up from Brisbane, our next appointment was with one of the clinic’s nurses to go through the whole IUI process and get required scripts. Now we wait for day 1 of my next period. Although all my hormone levels were fine the process does require some mild drug stimulation of the ovaries so that they can be sure that you will ovulate. They don’t want to waste any valuable sperm if there is no egg to fertilize. This stimulation is by way of a tablet (Serophene – Clomid 50mg) from days 2-6 of your cycle. On Day 12 you have a TV scan (internal ultrasound) and if there are 1 or 2 mature follicles then Ovidrel injection 10pm Day 12 and insemination Day 14 then fingers crossed. Note: any more than 2 mature follicles the cycle is cancelled due to the risk of multiple births.