Since you asked...

The jig is up. We've got some slightly defective reproductive plumbing. I think it's pretty obvious at this point, right?

So here is the deal.

When Mark and I got engaged, we discussed our future plans in great detail. You see, I am a planner, and I must plan even the most mundane minutiae of my life. We agreed that we would be ready to have a baby any time after the wedding since we had almost two years of shacking up logged before we were legal.

In October 2005, I stopped taking my birth control pill. It was giving me horrible migraines and I figured why not? I'd be trying to get pregnant soon enough. Plus, it's not like we were having premarital sex or anything...

From March 2006 until around September 2006, we were not taking any precautions. Normal couples who do not prevent pregnancy will become pregnant within six months. I started to worry. Not only were we not preventing, but I was actually timing our intercourse with ovulation. I mentioned it to my OBGYN at my annual pap, and he said that he knew I would be pregnant by spring, and if I wasn't, to come back and see him.

Of the couples under the age of 30 who do not become pregnant within 6 months, half of them will become pregnant within a year. Infertility is defined as the inability to become pregnant in one year of unprotected sex.

In December, I decided to start charting my basal body temperature to time our baby-making efforts more accurately. I also started using ovulation prediction kits.

Our one year anniversary was bittersweet. It marked the first year of a happy marriage, but it also marked the dreaded day that we went from being normal to being infertile. For me, the challenge started a while ago. I don't know if it's really dawned on Mark yet, even now. I called to make an appointment with a reproductive endocrinologist.

In May, we met with the endocrinologist, who was a total douche, and who I call Dr. Condescending. While we got no help or answers, he did order us a hysterosalpingogram and a semen analysis. My uterus is normally shaped and my tubes are clear. Mark's counts are all great, but the sample did have a high number of white blood cells, which is usually an indicator of a prostate infection.

Mark saw a urologist in June, who said he does not have a prostate infection. To eliminate the white blood cells in the semen, he prescribed Cipro and Motrin, for seven days starting at day 5 of my cycle for the next four months.

In August I decided to contact a different reproductive endocrinologist in order to preserve my sanity. So I met with Dr. Fabulous in September and got the action I was looking for. He ordered cycle day 3 blood work and another semen analysis. He said that we can move forward, we have waited long enough, and he will be aggressive with us.

So that's where we are. Waiting for semen analysis results and blood work results and a plan. I go back on Tuesday to get the results and to check on the cyst on my right ovary. And to see what is next.