Consult w/CCRM

So...Dr. Surrey called this morning and we talked. He said, CMV is a harmless virus except in these situations:

1) immunocompromised patients - either by intended immune suppression in organ recipients or in patients with HIV, "of which you are neither" or

2) to a fetus

Then he went on to explain why and how harmful it can be, etc.

I told him that the list of sperm donors with my ethnic background was very low and if I used the CMV to screen them, I would have been left with no one. He said he wasn't surprised.

I also added that CCRM must see women frequently who are CMV negative and whose spouses are positive and that those ladies must absorb that risk. "Very good point," he said. He merely added that in that case, not using the husband's sperm is usually not a good option for them. I said, Well, even if a married CMV negative woman was to use CMV negative donor sperm (instead of husbands), it still leaves her open to infection by her husband any time throughout marriage/pregnancy (intercourse, kissing, etc.) and, again, "yes, that's very true." And he said I could reduce the risk to zero. I agreed that I could reduce the risk to zero during the transfer but I could never reduce it to zero unless I agreed to live in isolation throughout a pregnancy and that "I believe the odds are overwhelmingly in my favor, even if not 100%." Again, he agreed.

Ultimately he said he was pleased I'd done my homework and that, given all of the above, he was very comfortable with my decision and felt I was making the right one but that he had to "inform me of the possible risks, no matter how remote."

I did add this, which I have always intended to do "Dr. Surrey, should I be blessed with success, I fully intend to be tested for CMV every month for the first few, while I still have options" (and we both knew "options" was a euphemism for "abortion"). He said, "that's an excellent idea."

The reality is that if I didn't acquire CMV in the first 2 months then any CMV infection later on in the pregnancy would be from a source other than the donor.

In the end, I'm going with my donor, I will be tested for CMV during the pregnancy (yes, I'm being very hopeful! :) and I will have to be extremely judicious about hand washing - much more so than ever before.

You CMV positive ladies are VERY lucky not to have to worry about this! Sheesh!

(PS: Wanna know the kicker? During my IUI cycle early 2008, the donor was CMV positive and the donor embryos I transferred last summer came from CMV positive male sperm - and yet, I'm still CMV negative!)