Back in the game of IVF
It has been a while since I have updated you. Over the past year, I’ve been dealing with a back injury, as a result of a car accident. Fertility treatments have been put on the back burner until I was able to get it under control. I am still in physical therapy twice a week, but the pain is more manageable and all of my doctors agree that getting pregnant could help the situation. So, here we are approaching IVF again. I am encouraged and excited at the same time. We are doing a lot of things differently this time. One of my recent concerns has been my FSH. At 33 years old, I was terrified when it had peaked over 15, but I know there are more factors that go into determining ovarian reserve. As of this cycle, it was 14.9 and my RE encouraged us to move forward. Our protocol includes the following:Birth control (14 days) - doneMicrodose Lupron - AM/PM injections through retrieval DHEA - daily through retrievalDexamethasone (steroid) - nightly until HCG injectionAcupunctureStims (started Sunday, March 21 for about 10 days, depending on response) - Gonal F (225 IU) + Menopur (75 IU) AM injection; Gonal F (300 IU) PM injectionLetrozole (works like Clomid) - start Tuesday, March 23 for five daysAntibiotic - begin Sunday, March 28HCG injectionEgg Retrieval - tentatively scheduled March 30-April 2Vivelle patch - no instructions yet5-day embryo transferPIO injections + Crinone gelBetaAlthough we do not have any major male factor issues, we are considering doing ICSI in hopes of higher fertilization rates. In our last fresh cycle, we had 4 out of 8 embryos. Our first RE did not encourage it because he thought we had “decent” conventional fertilization rates. My current RE is encouraging it for higher fertilization rates. We are leaning towards doing it, and would love to have some frozen embryos, if possible. I’d love to hear your opinions on this. Again, I am encouraged and appreciate the support of all of you wonderful ladies. You are each a special part of my life and I pray you get all the desires of your heart.
Replies
I am so, so, so, so, so, so excited for you! I took a steroid for 4 months before this FET and did acupuncture immediately before and after the FET. I have such a good feeling about his. We also did injectable estrogen (Del Estrogen) - not sure of the difference but this cycle worked so it might be worth asking about? You know my opinion on ICSI - I say go for it. Why not up the fertilization rates? THIS IS IT!!!!!!!!!!! WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
I am very excited for you! It sounds like your RE is being very aggressive. I will be hoping/praying/wishing for your blessing.
I am SO excited for you and DH!!! It sounds like you have a great plan in place. We have male factor so we need to do ICSI. But since you had 50% fertilize your last cycle it would probably be a good idea to do it this time. That way you know the sperm is going into the egg and that they are using the better quality sperm. It may give you more embryos and some to freeze.
Good luck with the stims today and know I will be praying for a successful cycle! BFP here you come!!! :)
YEA!!! Allison I am so excited for you. This is going to be it for you-stay positive and you WILL succeed. We did ICSI on our last try although there were no male issues. We decided that if there were 10 or less eggs we would ICSI everything and if there were more than 10 we would ICSI half. We wound up with 19 eggs, 16 mature and ICSI\'ed 8 and natural fert. on 8. All 16 made it to blast and we transferred 1 ICSI blast on day 5 and 1 nat. fert. blast on day 5 because they were the best ones. Both made it (and yes I did wonder at first who was who, but I will never know! Not that it matters one bit.) so who is to say if it was beneficial. We were able to freeze 9 more blasts too. Of those 5 were ICSI and 4 were natural so again it seems our rates were about 50-50. If neither one of you has any opposition, I would at least try some of them with ICSI, it probably can\'t hurt. Good luck and keep me posted! XXXX, Wendy
Thanks everyone, your support means the world to me. I talked to my RE today and we\'ve decided to do ICSI. I go in for a follicle check on Thursday, just want to make sure we have my stim meds correct. I am hopeful...stay tuned.
This makes me so happy!! I haven\'t been on DS for months and I am so glad I did so that I saw this. We also did ICSI and am very glad that we did. Four of our five eggs fertilized with ICSI. I am crossing everything I have for you - I just know that it will happen!!!! Lots and lots and lots of baby dust.
YAY!!!! SO excited for you!!!!! :) :) Babydust and XXXX