Dr. Pinto

Today was our first appointment with the Reproductive Specialist. It was a very informative appointment. We first met with Dr Pinto in his office. He went over our history and discussed the basics of fertility and fertility issues. He did some really cute hand drawings (upside down, no less!) showing us the progression of egg loss as women get older, and how the brain and ovaries work together (or not) and what effects PCOS can have on the ovulation process.

Side Bar

Did you know that when a female baby is in utero at about 16 weeks, she has about 6-8 million eggs! By the time the baby is born, she's down to about 1-2 million. By puberty, 350,000. From that point, we lose, for various reasons, about 3-11 eggs per month! And this greatly increases the older we get, along with diminished quality. Wow! That was eye-opening information for sure!

Okay, back to the post

Dr. Pinto then went over how he likes to start the process. First he wants to determine an approximation of my egg quality and quantity. This is done most easily by blood tests on specific cycle days, to check the FH and estrogen levels in my blood. Until that is determined, he doesn't really want to discuss possible treatments/procedures. He's definitely the type that will tell it to us straight and not waste our time. He'll go over all the results and give us a reasonable expectation on what he thinks our chances are. After the initial tests, if everything looks good, then Kevin will have his 'boys' tested and we'll decide on a plan of action!

He also wants to do a Clomid Challenge Test to see how my ovaries respond. I'm not worried about this, since I've used Clomid in the past; but just hearing him call it that conjures up images of games shows and booming voices! LOL!

Next, he did a sonogram and he didn't see anything that concerned him. He's confused as to why Dr Lopez's office is telling me I have a polyp on my ovary. He agrees with what I found online....polyps don't happen there, cysts do. So, he's not sure what they saw, and he hasn't received their records yet. He thinks it might have been ovulation-related because their sonogram was done on Day 15 (how cool would it be to see an egg as it's ovulating!!!). He said there were signs of possibly PCOS symptoms on my left ovary - about 7-8 follicle masses that weren't released, but nothing serious or harmful (maybe this is why the ovary felt enlarged to Dr Lopez?!?!) He had mentioned possibly doing a hysteroscopy to check out the condition of my uterus, too, but during the sonogram, he said he didn't see any fibrous tissues or anything else, so he's not going to do that yet.

He gave me orders for getting my blood drawn on cycle day 2 or 3 for checking the FSH and estrogen levels, and prescriptions for Clomid and Provera (to take in case I don't start my period on my own soon....I'm due anytime, but with the last few cycles being so whacked out....who knows). He said to do a home pregnancy test on Wednesday if still no sign of a period, and then call them, but more than likely he'd have me start the Provera then.

All in all, I really like him. He seems attentive, told us he'd give us his cell phone number in case we ever had any questions (didn't seem to get it though! Need to ask at next appt!). And he has 3 offices that are all fairly convenient to work (within 20 mins at least). So, we'll see what happens! I'm going to go ahead and start temping and charting again, too....couldn't hurt!