Sharing some things learned from a Utah Fertility Center seminar back in 2015. While it’s been a while I still think things learned in this are helpful if you’re new to infertility or are dealing with a new diagnosis. I also published this post back in 2015, and have since updated it.
We got an email from a friend about an upcoming Utah Fertility Center seminar on things related to infertility. Chase thought it would be a good idea for us to go.
There were some things with our current fertility clinic that had me feeling like they didn’t care about us. It took the Reproductive Endocrinologist over a month to get my test results reviewed. They didn’t help us with a plan for starting fertility treatments, and a cost breakdown for us personally.
At the Seminar, Utah Fertility Center had two speakers. The first being a Reproductive Endocrinologist (RE), and the second a Reproductive Urologist (their focus is on male infertility – I think most Urologists are focused on that?).
Some new things that I learned from the RE:
- Infertility has only been listed as a “disease” for about 5 years (in 2015) by the World Health Organization (WHO).
- Stress doesn’t cause infertility – did you hear that?! Stress doesn’t cause infertility! That is a big fat MYTH that stress causes infertility!
- For an IUI they take a sample of the most moveable and viable sperm and inject that into the uterus.
Did you know that a normal fertile couple only has a 20% per month (85% per year) chance of getting pregnant?
Intrauterine Insemination (IUI) 20% per month chance
In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) 46% per month
Utah’s IVF average for a live birth is 61% per month
They also suggested writing to your local legislation to mandate insurance coverage for infertility. They said in Utah, for everyone to have infertility on their plan, would only raise it about $2.50 (or close to).
Some things I learned from the Reproductive Urologist:
- Male factor infertility is more expensive.
- Underwear doesn’t matter, and having a laptop on your lap doesn’t matter.
- Having a healthy lifestyle = higher sperm count.
- It takes 72 days for the sperm to recover after a man has been in a hot tub/sauna. So stay away from those!
- The doctor said that Spermatogensis takes 64 days to complete.
- Men produce 100,000 sperm a second. When the urologist said that all the females in the room looked at the mens crotches. Which we thought was pretty funny.
While at the seminar, we were talking to one of the ladies who work in the front office. She was saying that we can’t put our lives on hold for infertility. We need to live, we need to go on trips and enjoy ourselves, because Chase and I are a family. Yes, kids give it more of a family feeling, and it made me happy that she told us that we are a family. It reminded me of the post: Pregnant or not life will move forward.
We can’t put our lives on hold for infertility. We need to live, we need to go on trips and enjoy ourselves because we are a family.
As a side note… I was talking to a friend dealing with infertility, and she said they had taken off last year from doing anything fertility related (like Chase and I) and she said she was SO happy. The same has been felt for us, because life has to move forward, we can’t put everything on hold. The world will change while we still wait for our miracle.
What are some things that you didn’t know about infertility?
P.S. Be sure to check out our post on dealing with male factor infertility.
P.P.S. Check out my infertility shop!
