The short but long process of insemination…
At the beginning of December 2009 we decided we were ready to choose a sperm donor and start our journey in the world of fertility treatment. We rang them to say that we were ready and for them to let us know when there was a donor available. They said to us on the phone that they actually had three donors we could choose from now if we were ready. We said yes we would love that and they said they would email them as soon as possible.
On the 16th December 2009 we got an email with our choices. We excitedly read through the information given on each of the donors. We had very basic information including height, build, blood group, interests, occupation and ethnic background as well as some other bits and pieces. We read through them carefully and Amber said she had picked one that she liked the best and now it was my turn… funnily enough we had both picked the same one!
We emailed them back with our choice of donor and asked what we needed to do when we were ready for our first attempt. All we had to do was call Concept on day one of Amber's period and they would let us know what we needed to do regarding blood tests and what not.
I have worked out that it must have been around March 2010 that we had our first attempt.
We were very anxious and excited. Amber called on day one and they informed her when she would need to have blood tests. After a couple of days of blood tests she was ready for insemination day. We were doing IUI which is not IVF. In basic terms it meant that they would thaw out the frozen sperm and place it in a catheter and then place it where it needed to go. http://en.wikipedia.org/
Our first insemination was going to be at the new fertility clinic they had built in Subiaco and it was nice and welcoming, certainly an upgrade from the small clinic they had at King Edward. They had a large waiting area full of nice new purple chairs and a coffee machine in the kitchen free for everyone to use. This is where we both came up with the joke of having a $600+ hot chocolate at each procedure.
We were told to go through to an examination room and told Amber what she needed to do while they went and prepared the semen. Amber and I were talking to each other nervously when they came back with the semen and checked Amber's name and information and asked if we were ready. We took a deep breath and nodded! The procedure itself didn’t take long and the lady assured us that all had gone well and now we would have to wait for 15 minutes with Amber laying down before we could leave. After that all we had to do was wait two weeks (otherwise known as a two week wait) and Amber would then need a blood test for a pregnancy test.
Two weeks later we had our hopes up high. Every little feeling MUST mean its a positive result right? Any slight feeling sick and other pregnancy symptoms must mean you are pregnant, come on we want it so bad!! Amber had a blood test and had to wait the entire day to find out the results.
It ended up being negative and we were gutted. We really thought because Amber had been pregnant before that we would just get a positive result first time. How naive we were to the whole process. Unfortunately that was the first let down of many.
We decided that we would try again straight away in the next month, Concept told us they would let us know about blood test days and again what we needed to do.
This process became second nature to both of us over the years of trying…