HPT Anonymous and Segway

Dawn: “Hi. My name is Dawn.”

Group: “Hi, Dawn.”

Dawn: “Uh, I’m a 38 year old post-fertile infertile and I’m addicted to HPTs.”

Group: (Sympathetic murmurs)

Dawn: “I started using HPTs after my miscarriage November 2004, and the last time I used was yesterday after I got home from work.”

Group: (More sympathetic murmurs)



This was how I had envisioned my post for today. Unfortunately, some things have happened that now make the above start inconclusive.

My period started this morning. No surprise, but an ominous sign of my day to come. I called the RE’s office to let them know and to see when I should schedule my baseline. I thought I had prepared myself for the worst: wait ‘till Saturday, take the HPT as scheduled, come in Monday a.m. for the US, be advised I have more cysts, and be sent home with another package of birth-control pills and wait out another grueling 3 weeks for my next period AND realize that this now makes it impossible for me to be pregnant by November 10, 2005 - then anniversary date of our first miscarriage.

But noooooo…I get a call back from the RE’s office to let me know that we should seriously consider moving onto IVF based on Jerry’s numbers from the last IUI. That’s not so bad, right? It’s not an unexpected move on either my RE’s or our own parts. We had just thought we would wait until January when we could change plans on my insurance which covers “Infertility.” Except, what I didn’t realize until just a few hours ago is what my insurance company considers coverage for “Infertility.” 1.) No injectable drugs. OK, we can cover that. 2.) Maximum benefit $2,500.

Let me put it to you this way. $2,500 is the maximum benefit the insurance company will pay out in a LIFETIME for infertility treatments, AFTER we pay any applicable deductibles and coinsurance (20%). Can anyone tell me what kind of treatment for infertility $2,500 would ever cover! One, maybe part of a second, round of IUI with your own eggs and sperm. After that the insurance company must figure that anything beyond is “elective” and not “medical in nature”. HORSESHIT!

This is the same insurance company that pays for erectile dysfunction medication for a 70+ year old man. I’m thinking that’s pretty elective.

OK. So a couple hours passed since that all came down the crapper. That’s when I finally called Jerry with the news and our next options.
1) Continue on with IVF and figure out how to come up with the money, while at the same time get a house built within this decade.
2) Consider another IUI using donor sperm.
3) Decide to make Max our Show Pony.

As much as I love Max, I know from growing up with 5 siblings and my husband 4, an only child is not what we had envisioned. For those without children, this statement may strike you as selfish, and I can only say I’m sorry. But knowing how much Max loves to play with other children, it’s not fair to him if there’s a chance we could do more.

The first choice is fraught with the obvious problems.

It’s No. 2 that was the proverbial straw. Jerry said “no”.

When we initially met with Dr. M. back in July, this topic came up and I quite clearly remember Jerry saying as long as a baby could be part one of us, that option was just that – an option.

Maybe he never thought this is where we would be. I didn’t. Not in a million years.