So. Surgery it is.

We had our second infertility meeting yesterday. It is mostly good news. All our genetic tests came back normal, which means that we both have the right number of chromosomes, and aren't carriers for any major monogenic diseases. Our blood hormones also look normal. We found out that my husband's sperm morphology is 4%-7%, which is sub-normal, but not really that bad.

Thanks to Fertility Friend, I know that we have had well-timed intercourse for over 14 ovulatory cycles with no pregnancy.

So the next suspected culprit is endometriosis on my side. This is tricky to diagnose externally. I never suspected this, though when I think back my periods do seem to be getting worse with time since I went off the pill. So the professor recommends a laparoscopy/hysteroscopy.

While it is keyhole surgery, it is still surgery. General anesthetic, filling my abdomen and uterus full of gas, and three keyhole cuts - one for the camera, and two for the robot arms. They say that in 50% of cases like ours, they find mild endometriosis, which they repair with a laser during the same operation. After treatment, they move onto IUIs and notice a doubling in success rates compared to women who do not have their endometriosis fixed. We will then have a 10-20% chance of success for the first IUI cycle.

So the expected timeline would be something like:
October: Hysteroscopy
November: Stimulated IUI #1
December: Stimulated IUI #2
January: Stimulated IUI #3
February: Meeting to discuss options

Now I am waiting for the nurse to call me to schedule my first ever operation. I am quite worried and nervous. They say there is <1% chance of complications and that they do around 10 of these operations a week, but I am still frightened of catheters and drips and anesthetic and incisions. Still, I suppose pregnancy and childbirth is no walk in the park either, so I might as well start to get used to strange things happening to my uterus.

I am not looking forward to the pain.