IVF May/June/July 2015, Lets Get Ready!

Met with our REI today.....third planned IUI is this Saturday. Then just wait.....and if we don't get a BFP, moving right along to IVF. Our clinic does the IVF in batches....so most likely medications would start the end of May, with retrieval the 2nd week of JunAll sorts of mixed emotions, but mostly glad we are moving forward, one step at a time. Just praying hard for a baby!

At our meeting, our REI pushed single embryo transfer pretty hard. I am 29....DH will be 29 in June....no known problems (blood work, HSG, SA, respond to clomid)......she's been happy with our response to clomid the past three IUI rounds (that includes this one). I am having a hard time deciding that because my heart wants to transfer 2....but my head says we should do one, to make sure we have a healthy pregnancy and baby. I guess I am having a hard time deciding because I think the egg quality would affect my decision a lot....and also how many eggs that make it to day 5. If we have a bunch, and can freeze them, I would be more willing to place just one.......but if we only have 2 good ones, I would be tempted to do both.


Anyone else thinking about that?
 
I have really struggled with this. I am 36 and my RE is planning on transfering two. I mean the goal of this is a live baby. Twins is going to be more expensive than doing a FET after a fresh cycle. my brain also thinks one, but my heart wants a child so bad that I am having an issue going against what my RE recommends.
 
Renaendel - agreed! We are in similar predicaments. I guess it is good with both realize our head and hearts aren't matching....but it is still hard to combine those when becoming a mother and having a baby are so instinctual for many women!
In general, I handle stress and life's curve balls pretty well, but infertility is another beast. I feel like the mother instinct is something beyond comprehension.....so even though I know I shouldn't be upset, I can't control my feeling of being upset. My brain keeps telling me to be rational, and positive, and we have good odds and we love our clinic.....but my heart just wants a baby and wants one now!

You are still on for September, right?
If this IUI fails, our estimated egg retrieval will be June 8....obviously that can change a lot! But we will see.


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Our REI hands out a folder with lots of articles/Q&A type of things.....and one sheet is the recommended number of embryos transferred.

It says:

Most Favorable prognosis: First cycle of IVF; Good quality embryos; excess of sufficient quality to cryoperserve; prior success with IVF

Under age 35; rec 2 embryos but for patients with the most favorable prognosis consideration should be given to only transferring 1 embryo

35-37 With a more favorable prognosis; no more than 2 embryos
All others; no more than 3 embryos

38-40 No more than 4 embryos. Patients with a more favorable prognosis should have only 3 transferred

Over the age 40 No more than 5 embryos should be transferred.


For patients with 2 or more previous failed cycles and those having the least favorable prognosis: additional embryos may be transferred with appropriate counseling


Donor egg cycles and the number of embryos transferred should be based on the age of the donor
---------------------------


Obviously, these are just GUIDELINES and it all depends on your situation.

But for us, we are considered the "most favorable" since we are young and have no known issues......but my problem is, we are "most favorable"...but we clearly haven't gotten pregnant in 18 cycles! So I have a hard time wanting to put just one back.

I think it will be close to a game time decision, because the amount of eggs retrieved/fertilized will strongly influence that.

DH and I are not interested in doing multiple rounds of IVF, we are paying out of pocket and simply cannot drain our finances completely. We are in agreement that at least one fresh, and hope for enough eggs for one frozen.....maybe two if we are lucky to have that many eggs.

If both of those don't work, we may be able to do one more fresh down the road.....but that would really be pushing it. (again, that decision would be if we still don't know why the IVF isn't working and we think it will succeed).

-------------------------------
I forgot to ask about supplements yesterday ( but will tmw during IUI)......but I have been taking vit d, vit e, coq10, b complex, prenatal, baby asa, and fish oil.

I think I will continue to take them the next 6 weeks (surely it can't hurt anything) and then if they don't recommend them, just stop once I start all my IVF meds. But maybe it will help my egg quality over the next few weeks:)

I have been taking all of that for at least a month so far. Well prenatals over a year and a half haha.
 
It is a tough decision and I was contemplating this myself during my first IVF. In the end, I left it up to the Dr. I had to have trust in her that she would not steer me in the wrong direction. I felt that if I ended up with twins, then God would assist me in raising them....God and my mother of course ;).

That cycle for me failed and we did not get pregnant. I will be starting another fresh cycle in July because we only had 1 frostie from our first. Like you, we pay out of pocket, and we have to buy plane tickets to get to our RE, so I understand the financial burden.

I have entered this IVF with the mindset that if she wants to put three back in, then I will deal with whatever the outcome is. Of course, after speaking with her she is leaning towards 2. We don't have age on our side though, I am 39. This is def a decision that you can make once you see how many embies you get and what their quality is. Again, have faith in your dr as they are the experts at this.

I hope this helps, please let us know what you decide.
 
Thanks ttcbaby

Yes I agree. Yesterday was just our meeting to discuss "next steps" if this IUI doesn't work. She said she expected us to have enough eggs and respond well to the medications (she didn't say the dosages that we would be prescribed, but did say it would be the lupron protocol because that is the safest and most controlled)....and that most likely, she would recommend one egg transfer.

She also recommended ICSI...either total ICSI or split the embryos. Right now, we are planning on total ICSI....one less variable included in all of this, from our standpoint.

We were also pleasantly surprised that the cost will be a few thousand dollars less than we had anticipated (and my insurance covers up to 5k in medications, so it will cover at least one cycle)......we went in thinking only one fresh and maybe a frozen.....but we may be able to do a bit more than that now, given the change in cost.

And agreed too.....on our mothers and God helping us out, whatever the outcome may be!

I am sorry your first cycle didn't work. I do hope you and your doctor were able to learn from it and make any changes that are needed for this round. (it looks like this is the case as you are getting intralipids next round).

Wow - buying plane tickets on top of infertility costs....that's a lot. Not just financially, but planning everything too. Did you just stay in town for the retrieval?

We are very blessed that we work at the same institution as our REI...so I am able to walk over and be the first ultrasound of the day and go back to work quickly.
 
Its definitely a tough decision. Our first clinic transferred 2 the first cycle and then 3 the next and I'm 34. I have been pregnant before (on our own) but always mc'd. Then I wasn't able to get pregnant for a year so you would think that they would've said let stick with two max. Now I'm at CCRM and they are telling me 2 max for my age so I guess it depends on the clinic. I read somewhere that someone was in a similar situation and their previous clinic also transferred more embryos but their success rate wasn't as high. Then they go to CCRM transfer 2 and BOOM...twins. DH and I talked about it and I have always had a fear of having twins and DH said something similar to what Ren said... "Our goal is to have a baby so if we put two in and end up with two, then that is our fate". We have always said that we wanted two kids but to have them right off the bat scares me. Its a personal choice and one that you can only make for yourself. I just wish there were more solid statistics out there but I guess going off of your clinics stats is the best way to go?

Update on my embryos... out of 14 we had 3 that they were able to biopsy yesterday. They said that there were 4 more that were early blasts so they were going to give them one more day to see if they could biopsy those today. I'm praying they are. Im grateful to have anything but to have 7 vs 3 will make me feel a lot better. PRAYING that they are normal.
 
mrsL4 - yes in my first IVF, they split my eggs and did 1/2 ICSI and 1/2 regular. All of my regular fertilized, in and the ICSI worked as well. I ended up with 3, 2 she put back in and 1 frostie. That is awesome you are right there, what a benefit. My dr did change a few things for this next round. She had me suppress with Birth control, which caused me to get cysts. Because of this, I ended up on Birth control and Estrace for almost 2 1/2 months. This over surpressed me in my IVF cycle so I didn't make as many eggs as she thought I would. This time around she is not going to suppress me at all (no risk of cysts) and just start my stimming on cd 3. I had read that this is sometimes better for people of my age, so I will go with it.
Not to cause you more concern but I felt I should tell you that my only surviving eggs were all the ones that fertilized on their own. My ICSI ones were not good enough. I don't know why, but I think it comes down to the timing of it all. The sperm knows when an egg is good to go while you are depending on the lab tech to time it perfectly. Again I almost hesitate to tell you that and to you cause more heartache in the decision making, but I did want you to have all the facts.

mommylov - that is wonderful, I will pray you get those other 4. Please update us when you know!
 
mommylov - will say a special prayer for you and your growing embies!

thanks ttcbaby - I'm glad you told me! that's why I love coming to these boards, because of everyone's experiences.

our clinic has 4 REI doctors and you end up meeting all of them through the ultrasounds and whatnot....so for my last baseline ultrasound, it was one that I hadn't met yet.....and I was asking her just to tell me what our options were after 3 medicated IUIs.....so she started talking about IVF and she was in favor of half ICSI and half regular

However, yesterday our doctor said if we were interested in having an experiment or were dying to know why we haven't been successful, we can do half and half (and see which does better).....but if we have no desire for that, she would recommend all ICSI.

Just like not knowing if we are going to transfer one or two.....I am not positive on doing all ICSI, although I am leaning towards that.

OH - and a side note, my doctor is pregnant with her IVF baby and is due this summer, which is kinda neat. She really understands what it is like to go through IVF (although I don't know her personal story - but the feelings are the same!)
 
Wow that is awesome that you get so many Drs to kinda bounce things off of. I have met 2 in my clinic and I love them both. It was interesting to find out about the 1/2 and 1/2 experiment on my eggs. I didn't know she was going to do that at all. In a way I am glad I didn't find out till later because then I would have been plagued with another decision, like you are. This stuff is tough, who knows if we are making the right decisions. At the end of the day, all we can do is follow our heart and hope for the best. This time around my dr is doing 100% IVF which is kinda scary to me, as my last IVF was 2 years ago. What if we have fertilization problems this time around LOL....damned if you do and damned if your don't I guess.
 
the 4 didn't make it to biopsy. They survived but were graded CC and below. So its just the three that we have. I know its better than nothing but Im so worried. I hope atleast one of those is normal. :(
 
Oh no, sorry to hear that....I know that is a huge disappointment for you. Fxed that your forever baby is one of those 3 left!
 
Thanks hun :)

Lots of dust to everyone and hope you all have a good weekend! :dust:
 
Sorry to hear that Mommylov... Here's hoping the other ones are nice and strong and all you need :hugs:

Regarding the debate over transferring 1 or 2 it's something that has always weighed heavily on mind as the thought of having twins scares me so much since I know how much work 1 is!! In that sense I always thought I would only ever transfer 1 however I was recently talking to a friend of ours that had both of her children through IVF with ICSI and she told me that they transferred 2 both times (no twins for her). She nailed it for me because she said you have to decide what you would rather have in a worst case scenario.... 0 or 2. It put it all into perspective for me so assuming Dr recommends that as well we'll go for 2 and not just 1. For me I wouldn't do more than that but I understand why ppl do.

I hope you all decide a course that is best for you... In the meantime have a great weekend! :hugs:
 
Hi

Just found this thread. I started BCP on Monday will Stimming expected to start around 8 May.

I am 34 and DH is 40 in June (eek). We have been TTC since August 2013 with not even a whisper of BFP. And the most frustrating.... Is is UNEXPLAINED!

After months of clomid, menopur etc... Our specialist recommend IVF immediately. IUI would be a waste of money has DH is perfect and there is nothing a lap would show us that would not be solved via IVF (I have also had too many friends with horrors story's and will now not be able to conceive because of Laps that were too aggressive). So here we are.... And this is after we told the specialist a year ago that we did not want to do anything evasive!! I am petrified but also super excited as j want to get my eggs in a lab and see what is going wrong with them. At least I will know. It may hurt like crazy but I will know. This not knowing is driving me mad!!

Hoping ER will be 20 May with 5 day ET in 20th. Would love to be able to give my DH and BFP present.

Our specialist has been so relaxed, my last round of menopur / gonal f he just said I had to make an appointment with the coordinator to find out process and plan then come and see him CD2 after BCP is over and tell him we are doing IVF. I thought I could do that and be all blasé about it but NOPE! I have questions that need to be answered. Soooo many questions.
After email after email sent to him he has suggested we come see him this Thursday and have a proper chat.

I read all of your posts about supplements. He has told me not to take anything he has not specifically told me too. And he has told me to only take folic acid. His favorite saying is that you cannot Medicate or operate your way to falling pregnant (?!??) He has said I can have one glass of wine a night (although I save this for Friday and Sat) and said of coffee calms me down then have it. Everything in moderation.

So there we are. The last round of gonal f (the lowest dosage) I put on 4kgs in 3 days. I have not been able to shift this weight so trying to do all I can exercise wise until Stimming starts and I need to stop. If I reacted that badly to the lowest dosage I hate to see what I will look like IVF dosages. :) my DH is already dreading it.
 
Welcome Pecks. I hope this is the last time you ever have to go through these injections and you get your perfect baby at the end.

Keep us updated on how you fare through this. We would love to keep hearing how things are going.
 
Welcome pecks!! Sending you heaps of baby dust!
 
Welcome pecks!
Yes it is hard to deal with when they tell you unexplained....that's us too! It is hard no matter what the diagnosis, but I hate grasping for straws.

Good luck as you start your first round! I had my third IUI today, and if this doesn't work, we are on the books for late May/early June IVF.
 
Thanks all.

Slightly perplexed though. Started BCP on CD1. AF is normally 4-5days for me. It is CD 8 it is like AF is back and I have stomach cramping. Boo!!
This has NEVER happened before.

Off to doc tomorrow if it is still like this.
 
Ooh! Mind if I join you guys?
I just started meds for our first stim cycle yesterday (Follistim and Menopur). If all goes according to plan we'll do our first FET in ~early June. We'll also being doing PGS as well

I actually didn't need to take any vitamin supplements (beyond the regular prenatal) you have me a tad worried now lol. Is it just for the transfer? Or do they help the stim portion as well? Also, are any of you ladies making any dietary changes (avoiding caffeine, alcohol, dairy, gluten, etc)? My RE says just to keep anything/everything in moderation... but I'm curious what other's have heard.

Oh - and a little about how I got here. I've got endometriosis causing secondary infertility... no problems on DH's side. We've been trying for just over a year and have gone through natural cycles, medicated/monitored cycles, two failed IUIs, and now we're here :)
 

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