The big reveal - you are infertile because....

...ah.... male factor?

Today was our follow-up appointment after my cycle monitoring, to go through all the test results and look at our options.  It's funny, everything was pretty expected, but I still feel worn out after talking for so long with Dr A (we were there like 1 hr+).

DH:  Essentially, everything looks good from a disease/bloodwork point of view.  (Why is it that I giggle when someone mentions syphilis?  We made jokes each time the doctor said we didn't have syphilis.  If you have syphilis, I'm very sorry.  But really, it is a disease for 19th century poets, non?). 

His ALT was slightly high, but probably nothing to worry about.  He is supposed to get it rechecked in a month (this has to do with liver function).

DH does have high cholesterol, which seems to be bad for the spermies.  We already eat all the foods on the mayo clinic top-5 good foods to eat to lower your cholesterol!  Sheesh.  Poor DH - it must be genetic.  Well, we've been slacking on the oatmeal lately, I guess we'll go back to it (although I seem to do better with higher protein - are we going to end up eating different meals?  Yikes!)  Unless somehow some transfats are sneaking into his diet somehow?  hrmm.

ME:  Again, everything hunky-dory.  My FSH is 7.7, which I think is good.  He said I was a cholesterol and blood sugar super star (which is crazy, since I feel shaky half the time, but that is neither here nor there).  My estrogen was slightly high (peak value was 800 - hrmm... Dr Google seems to think that's ok, but Dr A thought it was a bit high).  He would want to see me having a longer luteal phase, but who doesn't? Hopefully flax will help lengthen my cycle a little.

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The grand summary is that DH doesn't have enough progressively motile sperm.  And as he's recently had surgery to maybe help with that... well, we'll see.  The plan is to keep trying for the next 6 months while we wait to see if DH's numbers improve .  He said if DH's sperm plateau, and we get nada for 6 months after that, it's time to come back in and reassess our options.  Like,  duh. But he did say we can come in before that if we want.  (Which, if you do the math, we will - essentially, unless we catch, we're back in 6 months, regardless of sperm improvement.)

So we'll give 'er the old college try for the next few months.  That's going to put us right around our "2nd anniversary cut-off".... which we may of course just chuck depending on our mood and how things are going.  DH is being a very good sport about not drinking and giving up Diet Coke and caffeine and all high fructose corn syrup.  I suppose we'll need to add trans-fats to the list specifically - I sort of assume I don't get any, since I just don't eat that kind of food, but maybe with his high cholesterol we will have to double-check.

In other news - I decided to join the choir of a church about a 10 min walk from home.  My only hobby has been IF for the last 1.5 years, it's getting out of hand.   I never really expected to be 'here' this long.   I like singing in choirs (not that I'm particularly good at it - but churches can't really say no), so there you have it.