My Infertility Journey: The Pre-IVF Testing Begins (Part 17)

Obie Editorial Team

With everything squared away to begin IVF, I set up an appointment with my new fertility clinic to get the pre-testing they said I needed. This amounted to a saline sonogram for me and a sperm analysis for my husband. I'd already had my hormones re-tested with my gynecologist a few months before and they were fine, and I'd done the hated hysterosalpingogram three years prior, so there was no need to repeat it. I went in for the saline sonogram on September 17 and brought my husband's sperm sample (he found it too humiliating to show his face for this, so I went alone).

After dropping the sperm off at the front desk, I was taken back to do the sonogram. I was assured this would not be painful. All they were doing was inserting a catheter into my uterus to deliver enough saline to fill it. Then, the doctor would remove the catheter and insert a probe into my vagina to look inside. I could watch on an adjacent viewing screen if I wished. It sounded simple enough.

It wasn't as painful as the hysterosalpingogram. I'll give it that. However, it wasn't painless. The main reason for this was because my cervix, which another doctor had already told me was tiny, was too tiny for the catheter! Mind you, the catheter is smaller in diameter than a drinking straw. Still, it wouldn't fit inside my cervix.

My cervix is apparently also very rigid and tight, so the doctor couldn't force the catheter in. He ended up having to artificially dilate my cervix just enough to insert the catheter. The dilation produced some really powerful cramps, like the kind you get with a particularly bad period. The doctor said he needed a beer after finally getting the catheter in me!

Eventually, though, the pain was over, the catheter was out, and the probe was in. Both the doctor and the nurse immediately spotted the same thing on the screen...a polyp in my uterus big enough to fill up most of the inside of it if it hadn't been filled with saline. It was just one polyp, so I asked them if that could keep me from getting pregnant. They said yes. To get pregnant, I would need surgery to remove it.

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