Well, that was somewhat reassuring

I had my RE appointment on Wednesday.  My husband wasn't able to come with me, which turned out to be ok.  The appointment went fairly well, I suppose.  The doctor agreed that my FSH was higher than ideal, but he didn't think it would pose a huge problem, so that made me feel a bit better.  He did an ultrasound and showed me my innards (it looks like black blobs with white lines; I couldn't even figure out what he was looking at when he was counting follicles).  My ovaries are both there (yay!) and between them I had 9 follicles (which I think is good).

The biggest issue, and what he thinks is causing our problems, is that I have several fibroids, none of which is particularly large, but at least one of which is in a spot that is probably making conceiving quite difficult.  He suggested removing it, without even doing a hysteroscopy to take a look around first considering how long it can take to schedule surgery (5-6 weeks) and how old I am (I don't want to talk about it).  So I have a follow-up on Tuesday with the doctor who will likely be doing the actual surgery, so he can take a second look and make sure going straight to surgery is a good idea.  Considering all of the tests I've had in the past, including ultrasounds with a full bladder (so much fun!) and a hysteroscopy 4 years ago, I have a feeling surgery will be a go and sometime in late October these damn fibroids that make my life so miserable every month will finally be gone.  I can't wait!

Even if we never end up having a child, I'm hoping that removing the fibroids will at the very least result in much more reasonable periods.

So I'm not suffering from PCOS, and my ovaries aren't QUITE that old and dried-up (although the doctor did say there are some clinics who wouldn't even try helping me because my FSH results would risk their stellar success records), and I can actually do something about what is likely to be the main problem, and I'm feeling pretty good about it.  I'm just hoping I can get an appointment that's not the day before Halloween (they do surgeries on Thursdays), so I can try to enjoy it a bit this year.  As soon as I figure out my costume.

Edit: I forgot to mention ovulation.  I mentioned it to the doctor.  He told me it didn't really matter whether I'm ovulating or not, because once the fibroid(s) is/are gone, the medication I'll be on will make me ovulate either way.  And he doesn't really trust the at-home kits anyway. So I'll continue testing for my own scientific purposes, and not worry about the results.