Some of you may remember me as the CAG with testicular cancer back in 2008 (Here’s the thread). Thankfully, after surgery and chemo, the cancer was defeated. But what lead to its discovery in the first place was a long and unsuccessful attempt to conceive a child. My wife and I have been together for more than 10 years now, and almost half of that time has been spent actively trying and hoping with all our hearts to have children.
Listening to Cheapy and Wombat’s parenting escapades (my wife is seriously in love with Tai) on the CAGcast week after week and reading about so many CAGs on the forums with kids both made me envious and helped solidify my resolve to become a dad (by any means necessary).
So I am incredibly stoked to tell my fellow CAGs that we are expecting twins in April!!!
:shock:
It wasn’t easy: After three years of mixed results with hormone treatments, this summer we moved on to full-fledged in-vitro fertilization. If you followed my cancer thread, you’ll recall that I had a unique testicular sperm extraction (TESE) procedure alongside my orchiectomy (removal of the cancerous left testicle). So I had those on ice up in NYC. But there weren’t very many, and the IVF docs weren’t confident they’d get many good ones to use after defrosting.
Our docs felt that we’d have a better chance if we did a fresh TESE on my remaining right testicle. We were a little skeptical, but agreed to the procedure. My wife, who thankfully had no fertility issues of her own (to the contrary, she seems to be about as fertile as they come, impressing even these seasoned reproductive specialists), was a trooper, enduring dozens and dozens of painful hormone shots, both self-administered in the stomach and in the butt from me (got pretty good at it, actually). If you think you have a strong relationship, put it to the test by coming at your loved one with a hypodermic needle every day for a few months. This was to manipulate her reproductive cycle and boost her egg production so we’d get as many eggs as possible to pair with whatever viable sperm they were able to get from me (both from the fresh TESE and the defrosted fellas).
In July we underwent back-to-back surgeries: I took the scalpel to the nut on a Friday morning, and they went in and got her eggs on Saturday. We ended up with 19 eggs (really good), and more than enough sperm to attempt fertilization on all of them. 13 of them fertilized, and of those six went on to mature into viable blastocysts. When they were five days old (optimal day for implantation in the womb), we decided to implant two of them (freezing the other four), hoping one would successfully result in a pregnancy. Both of them made it.
We’re 16 weeks along now. They’re only about 4 inches long at this point, but they look like fully formed little humans in the ultrasounds. They wiggle around, suck their thumbs, even do flips and twists. It is just so amazing to me that this is happening, especially when I think back to those darkest days of cancer treatment, not to mention sitting in a urologist’s office three and a half years ago and being told that I had cancer in one or both testicles, and I’d likely never father children.
If anyone else in the southeast is experiencing infertility issues (male OR female factor), let me know and I can refer you to our fertility clinic. They are one of the best in the world and really do work miracles as far as I'm concerned.
Due date is April 15 (Tax Day), so we've taken to calling them (Uncle) Sam and IRiS.
Up next: GENDERS! We’ll find out right before Thanksgiving.
Listening to Cheapy and Wombat’s parenting escapades (my wife is seriously in love with Tai) on the CAGcast week after week and reading about so many CAGs on the forums with kids both made me envious and helped solidify my resolve to become a dad (by any means necessary).
So I am incredibly stoked to tell my fellow CAGs that we are expecting twins in April!!!
:shock:It wasn’t easy: After three years of mixed results with hormone treatments, this summer we moved on to full-fledged in-vitro fertilization. If you followed my cancer thread, you’ll recall that I had a unique testicular sperm extraction (TESE) procedure alongside my orchiectomy (removal of the cancerous left testicle). So I had those on ice up in NYC. But there weren’t very many, and the IVF docs weren’t confident they’d get many good ones to use after defrosting.
Our docs felt that we’d have a better chance if we did a fresh TESE on my remaining right testicle. We were a little skeptical, but agreed to the procedure. My wife, who thankfully had no fertility issues of her own (to the contrary, she seems to be about as fertile as they come, impressing even these seasoned reproductive specialists), was a trooper, enduring dozens and dozens of painful hormone shots, both self-administered in the stomach and in the butt from me (got pretty good at it, actually). If you think you have a strong relationship, put it to the test by coming at your loved one with a hypodermic needle every day for a few months. This was to manipulate her reproductive cycle and boost her egg production so we’d get as many eggs as possible to pair with whatever viable sperm they were able to get from me (both from the fresh TESE and the defrosted fellas).
In July we underwent back-to-back surgeries: I took the scalpel to the nut on a Friday morning, and they went in and got her eggs on Saturday. We ended up with 19 eggs (really good), and more than enough sperm to attempt fertilization on all of them. 13 of them fertilized, and of those six went on to mature into viable blastocysts. When they were five days old (optimal day for implantation in the womb), we decided to implant two of them (freezing the other four), hoping one would successfully result in a pregnancy. Both of them made it.
We’re 16 weeks along now. They’re only about 4 inches long at this point, but they look like fully formed little humans in the ultrasounds. They wiggle around, suck their thumbs, even do flips and twists. It is just so amazing to me that this is happening, especially when I think back to those darkest days of cancer treatment, not to mention sitting in a urologist’s office three and a half years ago and being told that I had cancer in one or both testicles, and I’d likely never father children.
If anyone else in the southeast is experiencing infertility issues (male OR female factor), let me know and I can refer you to our fertility clinic. They are one of the best in the world and really do work miracles as far as I'm concerned.
Due date is April 15 (Tax Day), so we've taken to calling them (Uncle) Sam and IRiS.
Up next: GENDERS! We’ll find out right before Thanksgiving.
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