Gulp

I just paid my deposit to cycle with Dr. Sher in Las Vegas starting with the June 20 cycle.

I also just emailed my current RE, letting him know we were going to do this last-ditch effort with my eggs with Dr. Sher. I had some stress about that, since we are very grateful to him *and* if my eggs don't work out, would like to work with him for donor eggs. But he sent a nice note back hoping that don't need to do donor eggs. Phew.

I have a nurse consult on Wednesday to talk through scheduling and meds and stuff.

Today is CD 2 - my body had a perfectly normal, 32-day cycle last month, which was a relief. I haven't had a natural cycle (e.g. not recovering from a D&C) since last September, and that was the first one since January 2010.

My husband has been very supportive of my investigating Dr. Sher, and trusts my research and my instinct on what the best option for us is. The financial aspect isn't actually very different (3 cycle embryo banking with Dr. Sher costs about the same as two regular IVF cycles with my current RE), but the medications will be more expensive (estimate is $8-10k of meds per cycle - up from about $5k per cycle now), and thinking about it as one big lump sum is intimidating. (Email me privately if you're interested in the specific numbers.)

Traveling to Vegas will add to the cost - flights are about $150 roundtrip right now on Southwest, and hotel will be $100/night. For this first cycle, my husband will spend the entire time with me in Vegas (working remotely), but for future cycles we're likely to have him just fly in at the end for his contribution. :)

One interesting facet of the embryo banking plan is that I can start with a 2 cycle embryo banking plan, and up to my first egg retrieval, can upgrade it to a 3 cycle plan. I strongly suspect we'll want to do 3 retrievals, but if I happened to have tons of eggs, I might consider doing just 2. Anyway, it's nice to have some flexibility there.

Someone asked last time in the comments about why we're doing CGH and why I'll be on the estradiol. The estradiol is to prime my follicles so they're more responsive to the stimulation medications. With diminished ovarian reserve, estrogen priming is a trick they use to increase results. CGH is our choice - having had two miscarriages that would have been avoided if we'd done genetic screening, I can tell you I would pay ANYTHING to avoid going through that again. The physical and emotional cost of a miscarriage, not to mention the delay while you're pregnant find out it's not good, recover from the D&C, etc., is awful. Even if we end up doing donor eggs, I suspect I'll want to test the embryos to make sure we're only putting back good ones.

I'll post again after the nurse consult on Wednesday, but I think I"ll be starting medications in about 3 weeks.

Thanks for all your input!