Our Last Ditch Effort

I wanted to start off by saying how much I appreciate all of the support for my blog and for my product, The Semenette®.  I really appreciate everyone’s feedback, suggestions, and support. 

Back to our journey…

When I developed the idea for The Semenette®, I was able to execute a prototype a lot faster than I ever expected.  In midst of working on a prototype, the journey to conceive did not stop; in fact, being able to actually test prototypes with my wife was the best product research anyone could ask for.  However, since my wife and I had been unsuccessful getting pregnant at this point, we decided it was time to talk to a doctor to see what our options really were.  It was NOT what we wanted to do, but we still felt it was the right move to at least talk to a doctor and then go from there.  We knew we weren’t going to be forced into anything, so that was the reassuring factor.  We met with one doctor first and did not like him at all.  We explained our situation and asked about coverage for IUI’s and he said insurance companies require same sex couples to do 6 IUI’s not covered by insurance and then they would begin to cover it.  The overall experience with the first doctor was not a pleasant one so we decided to try a doctor at Beth Israel Hospital.  I knew that facility had a good reputation for ART and thought it would be a good place for us to start.  When we met with the doctor, we explained our situation and how we were using our known donor.  He was extremely kind and open to our situation unlike the first doctor.  He began to explain that if my wife and our donor had come into his office and simply told him that they had been trying to conceive for almost a year and had not been successful, that he could apply to the insurance company for them to cover IUI’s for us immediately.  In the state of Massachusetts, if a heterosexual couple has been trying to conceive for a year unsuccessfully, they are entitled to some insurance coverage unlike same sex couples who have to do 6 IUI’s with no insurance coverage.  Yet another of the injustices of being a gay person in our country!  Don’t get me started on that!  Anyways, we decided to take his advice and he said he would pretend we never came into his office.  We then had our donor and my wife go back and make a long story short, we got full coverage for 3 IUI’s.  Here was the tricky part, we were still really adamant about trying to make this happen at home but having those 3 IUI’s in our back pocket was a HUGE sigh of relief and comfort. 

The doctor also suggested that they do a hysterosalpingogram (HSG) which basically means they shoot dye into my wife’s fallopian tubes to make sure there were no blockages or anything prohibiting us from getting pregnant.  He said this would be the last test needed to make sure there was no medical reason we were not having success at home.  We were both in agreement that was a good next step and my wife had the procedure that week.  As we awaited the results, Kiersten was also eggulating.  It was that time to do our monthly inseminations.  We mutually decided this would be our last ditch effort of home inseminations.  We had both somewhat reached our breaking point of desperately wanting to conceive and decided if it didn’t happen this month, we would move to IUI’s with the doctor. 

The Semenette is here!

Coincidentally, I had my 2^nd prototype of The Semenette® in my hands and we of course were eager to try it!  With The Semenette® in hand, we did 3 inseminations that month.  We decided if we were going to stop here, we might as well go all out and down in a blaze of sperm glory!  We successfully did 2 inseminations before getting a call from the doctor telling us that my wife’s HSG came back normal and it was now our decision to either continue at home or proceed with the IUI’s.  We explained we were doing our last efforts at home and would be in touch next month.  We did one last insemination that night and felt content with our efforts.  Might I add that our experience with The Semenette® was fantastic!  It exceeded my expectations and I knew I needed to share this with the world.  Anyways, our journey of trying to conceive at home was now all in the hands of the baby making gods!  I’m going to make you wait until the next week to find out what happens.  Until then…. 

If you are in the Boston area, please come check out my booth at Boston Pride.  And, more importantly, HAPPY PRIDE!!!