Michelle answers:

No personal experience to share, sorry. But, have you ever heard of the conception cap? It is perfect for men with slow swimmers. Unfortunately you can not buy it separate. Unless you can find one on e-bay, it took me some time, but I found one. Normally, it comes in a complete conception kit. It is made by Conceivex.

Collect your husbands sperm during sex using a non latex condom, transfer into the flexible conception cap, insert the cap and place directly on the cervix. Sperm have a direct line to the cervical opening.
A “head start”.

We have used it a couple of times, no success, We just started our first round of Clomid, plan on using the conception cap faithfully this month. Good luck to you. Keep me posted.

Michelle answers:

Oh my God…you are like my Canadian twin! I am 5’2′ and had twins 3 years ago. I,too, was 130 pounds before getting pregnant, went up to 205 when I delivered, and dropped down to 145 – 150 within months. How weird is that?

Here is the bad news. I finally got back down to 130 about a year and a half after they were born….and someone asked me if I was pregnant again. My disgusting belly made me look pregnant! I became so ashamed of my body, that I put weight back on and went back to 150lbs. I was even an aerobics instructor before they were born, and I could not do anything to get rid of that stupid sag.

So, I had a tummy tuck and hip liposuction in July. Best thing ever. Doctor tightened up my abdominal muscles too. What a huge difference. It only removed about 5 pounds, but my body is totally remolded. It is amazing, and it was one of my best decisions in my life (other than marrying my husband!)

I never thought I could afford a tummy tuck…especially with twins!….but my doctor set me up with FINANCING through Capital One Health Care Finance, and I am paying about $180 a month for a $8600 surgery (in Connecticut). I’m not sure if they are available in Canada, but you should talk to a plastic surgeon and see if they have a financing company that they work with, too. In the US, health care / insurance would NOT cover the surgery….because it is “cosmetic.”

I would give yourself a little more time to lose the weight, but maybe visit a plastic surgeon or two to get some consultations. They will let you know about the health care coverage as well. Maybe there is a way to get it covered in Canada.

Best wishes with your new twins. The first year is by far the hardest! Feel free to contact me if you have any more questions!

Michelle answers:

I haven’t had a successful pregnancy after PGD/IVF, but I am also 40 years old and I have had two trisomy losses. The irony was, one was with my egg and the other with donor egg. So unfair to have trisomy with a young donor egg. I was told that PGD would substantially increase the chances of a successful pregnancy since they could test for trisomy in the embryos. However, I opted not to do another IVF since luck didn’t seem to go our way.

I do know of other women who have gotten successfully pg with IVF with PGD after having had trisomy losses.

But since PGD isn’t 100% accurate and even if you do get a healthy embryo, there still isn’t a 100% chance of it implanting, we opted to stop treatment.

Best of luck to you…

Michelle answers:

Yes, implantation through IVF is when the actual fertilization occurs outside the body by a doctor and then the fertilized egg, zygote, is placed in the woman’s uterus. The uterus has to be healthy enough to hold the zygote and fertilize it at this early stage. So therefore any contractions of the uterus could release the egg. When fertilization occurs naturally you may have sex and the egg may not be fertilized for any number of days, depending on when sex occured and your ovulation day and then the egg places itself without help into the uterine wall. As far as having an orgasm messing up natural conception, I’m pretty sure it doesn’t happen, it may, but since it is so early on in a pregnancy, you may never know it happened. As far as IVF, I’m sure them asking you to refrain from sex is true.