April Showers Bring May Flowers

I’m having trouble concentrating at work – or doing much of anything. I keep googling things like, “day 3 8 cells 6 cells”. You can only imagine what I’ve come up with. Let me back up. I switched fertility clinics. I switched from the uber-famous clinic that’s considered one of the best in the business, to a clinic that’s known for it’s mini and natural IVFs. It seemed like such a crazy thing to do – for several reasons, the main one being we’ll have to pay for some of the costs out-of-pocket (yikes). One of my closest friend’s sister, after several years of trying, went there and is now pregnant (she’s due in October). She’s 42.  Then another friend of mine, who’d I met at the old clinic one day is now going to New Place as well. I met with the main doctor, who I really liked (even though I had some trouble understanding him). He said, “So, you were pregnant four times, completely naturally?” “Yes.” “And then you did an IUI on clomid and got pregnant on your first try?” “Yes.” “And you’ve done multiple IVFs and only made it to retrieval once?” “Yes.” “And it didn’t work out? Isn’t it interesting how the lower tech it is the more successful you’ve been? And the more and more drugs they throw at you the less likely it will work?” “Yes.” The doc recommends I freeze a bunch of embryos (if I’m able to get any), in order to bank them, so that I don’t have to wait months between treatments (i.e., you go through a cycle, you get one or two eggs, they fertilize but you don’t get pregnant – now you have to wait several months for the next cycle, etc.). This way, I just keep going in month after month, get a bunch of eggs, put them on ice, and then start having them transferred, perhaps two at a time until we hit the jack pot. The first time I did no drugs. None. They just monitored me. Then I came in and they did the retrieval with the one egg. And it broke. IT BROKE! A broken zona. I’ve read multiple things that say it could be the quality of the egg or it could be the method by which it’s retrieved. They are very skilled at the retrieval so I didn’t think it could be that – but the doc said he actually thinks it was the timing. They either got it too early or too late, I can’t remember which. I was pretty crestfallen (I’d gone through three IVFs, the only one that they let me go to retrieval, which was at my insistence, they got nothing). The Husband was pretty much done. He wanted to pull out. I talked to one of the nurses at length who was so great. She recommended we do it at least one more time. So . . . this time they had me on Clomid and one other drug. I managed to produce two good size eggs and one small one. Last time it hurt pretty badly – the ovary was in a strange spot and they had to practically jump on my abdomen (fyi – they do their retrievals with no anesthesia). This time, I got a valium (yay!) and they managed to retrieve all three eggs. And they looked good. Last Sunday I was at a baby shower (yes) and got a call that two fertilized and that the other was pending. Then yesterday I got a call that the runty one didn’t make it but that the other two, on day three, are at 8 cells and 6 cells. From what I’ve read, “Typically a good normal growing day 3 will contain between 6 and 10 cells.” So, I’m pretty excited about those two. I won’t know how they are doing until Saturday, when they let me know if they’ve made it to the deep freeze. Here’s hoping!!! Yay SPRING!

Broken Egg

So, after 10 IUIs (one successful and two converted IVFs) I started at a new clinic that specializes in natural IVF (I don't respond to the drugs anyway - so what the hey). Things have been looking pretty good, that is, until retrieval. The doctor had a very hard time getting the egg out and once he did it didn't look good - apparently the egg broke (fractured-zona pellucida). I've been trying to do some research and I'm not coming up with a lot - there seems to be some evidence, via my google searching, that it could be due to the retrieval itself. Alternately, it could be a not-so-great egg to begin with. The doctor seems somewhat (strangely, I might add) confident that it won't happen again. As I said, it was very difficult for the doctor to retrieve the egg because of the position of the ovary. There was a lot of pushing on my stomach and a lot of, what felt like anyway, suctioning. I don't know. I'm looking for other people's experience and knowledge on the subject. They want me to come back in two weeks and try again. The Husband would like to go back to the other clinic where, although they aren't experts on natural IVF, will charge us nothing (insurance). The new place we have to pay 20% - which is really hard when it doesn't work out so early in the game.