Fall is here...now to plant my little pumpkin seed!!!

[floridasian]

With my mmc last year I didn't test until 13DPO but it was blaring positive, as in the test line was almost darker than control already so I'm assuming I would have gotten an early BFP.

Last cycle I had a trigger shot and it never really went away before the test started to get darker at around 9 or 10 DPO.

 

[beaglemom]

Hey guys...took a last minute trip to the outer banks & forgot my laptop. 7 were fertilized. Kinda bummed me out. They said the sample was not very good. Like 200,000...but I blame that on the stopping of the vitamins & also my husband was told to release 36 hours prior to IVF...he needs at least an extra day. Did I tell you guys this already? Anyways...got the voicemail today...all 7 still hanging in there. So hoping they all stick around for the pgs. I think I should have all results by Friday because that is when my transfer would have been. My FET should be about mid January.

 

[minuet]

I don't know much about IVF.......so you're saying that they fertilized seven eggs and those eggs are still alive? Then they freeze them and use them for the FET? That's pretty neat.
You must be so impatient for January to get here already!

 

[minuet]

Opks are frustrating me. Yesterday they were darker - not positive, but darker than previous ones this cycle. That along with increased pain led me to fully expect darker opks today, and the result is just the opposite today.
My temp this morning is several hours early too, so I can't go by that. It's CD13 and six days after the pills, I expected ovulation to happen by now!

 

[beaglemom]

Minuet, maybe you peaked during the night. But I will also tell you I got the O pains & cm before a pos opk. My opinion on this is that since sperm live a few days, your body gears up a few days earlier. Especially the increased sex drive. I think nature knows to get the boys in early. But this is all speculation. I have also heard people getting almost positive opks then they get lighter only to get pos the next day. So opk is not like a pregnancy test which should gradually get darker. They can go light then go straight to positive.

As far as my eggs, here is the deal. They pump your body up to get as many mature follicles as possible. Then trigger...then they go in before you O to retrive them. In my case I had a ton growing. At retrieval, they got 14...which is a good number...but obviously I would have loved more. During retrieval they collect a semen sample. Sometimes they put the sperm in the egg & let them "naturally" fertilize. But in my case we have male factor so they use ICSI which is they take 1 sperm & inject it in to each egg. 13 of the 14 eggs were mature. In my case, they got 7 of the 13 to fertilize. I was upset by this. I knew I would not keep all 14, but 10 would have been great. So they give me updates on how they were doing. Sometimes they will stop growing. The other thing I am doing is PGS. This is a process where they take cells from the embryos & test them to make sure they have enough chromosomes. So I will lose some embryos due to them not being good. This increases the success rate & decreases the mc rate. So on day 5 they test them & freeze them. I was supposed to have a day 6 transfer, but my P levels went up & so they switched me to FET. My levels going up basically means my body is ahead of the process so when putting the embryo in it would not work because my body was not in sync. So instead all will be frozen & one will be thawed when I do my FET. During FET they will manipulate my cycle & body so they it is ready for implantation.

Anyways...sorry for the long explanation. I hope you guys never have to do it, but it is def an awesome process. I can't believe we have this science available.

 

[floridasian]

Minuet - I also get O pain and CM before positive OPK like beaglemom does. I don't get EWCM but I have watery CM days before the actual O.

Beaglemom - I know you were hoping for more fertilized eggs but 7 is a great number and what's more important is that they are all still growing! You might have more left for baby # 2 when the time comes! I don't even know if I'll have 7 to be retrieved if I have to do IVF since my antral follicle count seems to be low every cycle.

FX'ed they all come back normal! Do you know how many you are planning on transferring?

 

[minuet]

thanks for the encouragement ladies, I really appreciate it. Was definitely feeling discouraged earlier but will try to be patient again.
beaglemom, that explanation is fascinating, it's amazing what science can do! I think it's sad that couples have to go to such expensive and difficult lengths, but I'm also glad that it's even possible as an option.
If I understand right, that means you have seven eggs that could implant and grow into a baby - how cool is that? Seven is a great number of kids, though personally I'd be happy with three! Haha

 

[beaglemom]

With pgs my 7 Wil probably go down to 4 if I'm lucky which is still good. Any left after pgs are chromosomeally normal.

With pgs my chances go up to 70% success rate. With the higher rate and Because the goal is one healthy baby I can only transfer one. If I were 38 or over I could do two. But that was another reason we chis pgs. We do not want twins. If the egg splits then fine...but we are not trying to increases the chance of multiples.

 

[floridasian]

Thanks beaglemom for all the explanation and sharing your IVF experience. It makes a lot of sense and definitely helps to prepare myself if I have to go through that down the road.

 

[minuet]

With pgs my 7 Wil probably go down to 4 if I'm lucky which is still good. Any left after pgs are chromosomeally normal.

With pgs my chances go up to 70% success rate. With the higher rate and Because the goal is one healthy baby I can only transfer one. If I were 38 or over I could do two. But that was another reason we chis pgs. We do not want twins. If the egg splits then fine...but we are not trying to increases the chance of multiples.

That makes sense, and that is a great success rate! I guess what I meant is that you could do FET in the future with the other frozen ones without having to go through the retrieval process.

 

[beaglemom]

With pgs my 7 Wil probably go down to 4 if I'm lucky which is still good. Any left after pgs are chromosomeally normal.

With pgs my chances go up to 70% success rate. With the higher rate and Because the goal is one healthy baby I can only transfer one. If I were 38 or over I could do two. But that was another reason we chis pgs. We do not want twins. If the egg splits then fine...but we are not trying to increases the chance of multiples.

That makes sense, and that is a great success rate! I guess what I meant is that you could do FET in the future with the other frozen ones without having to go through the retrieval process.

Oh yes definitely...we really hope to have some left for future babies. Also at my clinic if I opt for PGS, I pay more for the IVF cycle, but I get any FETs half off until I become pregnant. But down the road for siblings, I would have to pay full price.

Floridasian, I really hope you do not have to do IVF, but it is not that bad...just the waiting on the egg progression is killing me.

 

[minuet]

Question: Do you ladies think it would be worth getting a follicle check ultrasound?


Assuming the fertility clinic could even fit me in the next couple days, do you think it would be worth paying the $200 for a follicle check?
I am really curious to see if the Clomid is working, and what size the follies are now that it is CD14. The pain is still there and I'm noticing it on both sides, so I'd really like to know what the ovaries are doing.
But is that worth paying $200 for? Besides satisfying my curiosity or verifying I'm not making a dozen eggs, I'm not sure it's worth the cost.

We weren't able to get the HSG dye test this month, so I have this nagging fear that there's a blocked tube and this month wouldn't be able to do anything anyway. I'd hate to throw away money for an ultrasound on a wasted month!

 

[minuet]

[
Oh yes definitely...we really hope to have some left for future babies. Also at my clinic if I opt for PGS, I pay more for the IVF cycle, but I get any FETs half off until I become pregnant. But down the road for siblings, I would have to pay full price.

That's great that they have a discount on it. And I would like to believe they can find a reason for the low sperm count and solve it so that you won't need the expense of IVF in the future.

 

[beaglemom]

I personally wouldn't waste the money. Trust your body and trust your Dr. Clomid can make large eggs so the O pain is more intense.

Unfortunately not mugh can be done about sperm count. Vitamins help but they only got my husband to a noral number but still very low.

 

[minuet]

Thanks beaglemom, and I'm glad the vitamins helped at least some.

Did anyone else get snowed on yesterday? It looks lovely and white outside now.

Floridasian how are you doing today?

 

[floridasian]

$200 is a lot to spend on a follicle check. I would do it if it's $50 but $200, I'm not sure. If I were you, I'd make sure you o first for at least a few cycles and if you still don't get pregnant then I'd get a HSG test. If I were you I'd take care of o'ing first then worry about blocked tubes. It sounds like you're paying OOP so HSG might be costly for you as well.

We had some snow yesterday but not enough to stick to the ground. Might get more over the weekend but no white Christmas in the forecast, at least not yet.

Test is still negative so I'm ready to move on to the next injectable cycle. Hopefully the monitoring won't interfere too much with our Christmas travel but we're driving so we have some flexibility there.

 

[floridasian]

Beaglemom - did they call it a "antagonist protocol" for what you did? I've been hearing a lot about this phrase for an IVF protocol and I'm wondering if that's what I'll be doing next cycle since our meds are basically the same?

 

[beaglemom]

Beaglemom - did they call it a "antagonist protocol" for what you did? I've been hearing a lot about this phrase for an IVF protocol and I'm wondering if that's what I'll be doing next cycle since our meds are basically the same?

I'm not sure. I had not heard that before. Looked it up and it does seem like what I did. Basically meds to grow follicles, then med to stop O, the trigger for when follicles are the right size.

My hsg was covered by insurance because it was diagnostic not treatment. But i paid out of pocket because it was late in the year and the cash discount was less that my deductible.

 

[FutureBabyG]

Beaglemom Congrats on your egg retrieval. I think 7 strong ones is great! Can't wait for January bfp.

Floridasian love your positive attitude. Will this be your 3rd injectables cycle in January?

Minuet I got my bfp with clomid. It was ectopic but they said the egg was normal with the pathology report.

Afm I had such a great recovery. No pain ever before or after surgery which made my doctor very frustrated when trying to diagnosis the ectopic. I thought my recovery was amazing until yesterday. One of my coworkers was coming over and I got up to get ready. When I went to the restroom I had severe pain and passed out. I felt like I would pass out again but was able to get my father on the phone. He took me to the dr office. The dr took blood and urine. Basically said he doesn't know if it was kidney stone passing or uti. Ugh I told him no catheter for surgery and he did it anyway bc he said he had too.. bs!

 

[floridasian]

FutureBabyG - that's so scary that you passed out. I hope you're doing better now. I bled because of the catheter after both my D&C and the hysteroscopy. I had no choice though because I was not able to pass urine for hours before the actual surgery so I asked them to empty my bladder for me after I was knocked out. I had no pain afterwards, just the bleeding from the catheter for about a day.