We got 2 more embryos to freeze out of the remaining 5, for a total of 8 genetically perfect embryos! (One even made it to Grade 1 before being frozen.) I have the CGH results, and the embryo report, but not the report that combines the two, so I don't know the exact breakdown of how many were expanded blasts, etc.
But we're thrilled to have 8 from this cycle (we had 3 from the first cycle, and will be transferring the last one a week from Friday). Very very glad we did a second cycle with our donor - I'd be hugely stressed about using the last embryo from cycle #1 otherwise. And the timing has worked out perfectly.
Doing my estradiol valerate twice weekly, and I go in on Sunday for an ultrasound to check lining. Then I'll start progesterone and Lovenox, for FET on April 6!
My husband and I started trying to have a baby in 2007. We ended up doing 5 rounds of IVF with our own eggs, miscarrying twice due to chromosomal abnormalities, and then moved to donor eggs. Our son was born in 2012. After two unexplained miscarriages trying for a sibling, we found a gestational surrogate, who carried our second son (2015) and our daughter (2018).
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Good news
We've had a rash of good news since the last post:
1) My progesterone was 0.0 at my CD3 testing, so the FET date moved up a week, to April 6!
2) We have a credit from previous cycles, so we don't owe anything for this FET.
3) We got our CGH results today. They ended up testing 18 embryos (one latecomer). 11 (!!) came back genetically normal, vs. 5 of 12 last time. Of the 11, 6 have been frozen - they're Grade 2, which means they're good quality. The other 5 are still being watched - 2 are further behind, but 3 are morulas/early blastocysts, so our RE thinks we may get 2-3 additional embryos to freeze. We'll find out on Saturday. Amazing.
I'm not one to count chickens (says the girl who has no baby and isn't pregnant after 7 IVF cycles and 5 transfers), but it's hugely reassuring to have a stockpile of embryos.
The past two days have been spring-like weather, and it's given me a big mood boost. And for some unknown but fortunate reason, my sex drive is back and better than ever. So we're doing pretty well over here.
1) My progesterone was 0.0 at my CD3 testing, so the FET date moved up a week, to April 6!
2) We have a credit from previous cycles, so we don't owe anything for this FET.
3) We got our CGH results today. They ended up testing 18 embryos (one latecomer). 11 (!!) came back genetically normal, vs. 5 of 12 last time. Of the 11, 6 have been frozen - they're Grade 2, which means they're good quality. The other 5 are still being watched - 2 are further behind, but 3 are morulas/early blastocysts, so our RE thinks we may get 2-3 additional embryos to freeze. We'll find out on Saturday. Amazing.
I'm not one to count chickens (says the girl who has no baby and isn't pregnant after 7 IVF cycles and 5 transfers), but it's hugely reassuring to have a stockpile of embryos.
The past two days have been spring-like weather, and it's given me a big mood boost. And for some unknown but fortunate reason, my sex drive is back and better than ever. So we're doing pretty well over here.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
And we keep moving forward
Tuesday morning I went to the RE to have blood drawn for a repeat immunology workup. We got the results on Friday, and while my natural killer cell levels are normal, my TH1:TH2 ratios are slightly elevated. I'll go in for an Intralipid this week, and then have another one before the next FET.
Saturday my period started, so I now have a calendar for our next FET, which is currently scheduled for 4/13. I'm going in tomorrow morning for estradiol/CBC/progesterone levels and an ultrasound. If progesterone is low enough, the FET could be moved up a week, to 4/6 or so.
Initially the nurse said I'd go on birth control pills for 2-3 weeks, but that wasn't consistent with what the doctor had told us in previous conversations, so I traded emails with him and we settled on this potentially extended prep phase. Still saves us at least a week, and if the progesterone level is low tomorrow, we'll save two.
Saturday was also retrieval day for our donor. They'd been tracking 24 follicles, but retrieved 30 eggs. We got the call today that 24 of the eggs were mature, and 17 fertilized normally! Last time we had 12 fertilize normally (of 16 mature). We'll be doing CGH - so our next update will be how many make it to biopsy. (Last time all 12 made it to biopsy and Day 5.)
Saturday my period started, so I now have a calendar for our next FET, which is currently scheduled for 4/13. I'm going in tomorrow morning for estradiol/CBC/progesterone levels and an ultrasound. If progesterone is low enough, the FET could be moved up a week, to 4/6 or so.
Initially the nurse said I'd go on birth control pills for 2-3 weeks, but that wasn't consistent with what the doctor had told us in previous conversations, so I traded emails with him and we settled on this potentially extended prep phase. Still saves us at least a week, and if the progesterone level is low tomorrow, we'll save two.
Saturday was also retrieval day for our donor. They'd been tracking 24 follicles, but retrieved 30 eggs. We got the call today that 24 of the eggs were mature, and 17 fertilized normally! Last time we had 12 fertilize normally (of 16 mature). We'll be doing CGH - so our next update will be how many make it to biopsy. (Last time all 12 made it to biopsy and Day 5.)
Monday, March 12, 2012
Yet another BFN
Sorry for the delayed post - we spent all weekend with family, so I didn't have time to blog...
I did end up POASing yesterday (Sunday) morning, right before I drove to my RE's clinic to have my blood drawn for my beta. Stark white. No sign of a second line. Sigh.
The blooddraw confirmed a negative.
That's two genetically perfect embryos that failed to implant.
By now I'm quite uncompromising at ignoring any symptoms, since I know they're equally likely to be caused by progesterone as a pregnancy. In hindsight, I had fewer twinges than the previous BFN cycle, and no nausea (also compared to the previous BFN). I have yet to identify any symptom that's specific to the two cycles when I did get pregnant, apart from super vivid dreams; however, I don't remember when those dreams started and it may not have been in the 2ww.
I've asked my RE to redo my immunology workup (we do this every few months anyway) to confirm my immune activity is quiet before we go into the next FET. Blooddraw is tomorrow morning. I'll wait for CD1 and then we'll immediately go into the FET with the last embryo from the first donor cycle. That's the saving grace with these cycles - quick turnaround in between.
Meanwhile, my donor arrives in town today and her retrieval (for her second cycle with us) will likely be later this week, so I'll start getting updates about her counts really soon. The timing works out well - we'll know how many genetically perfect embryos we get from this cycle before we transfer the last embryo from the first cycle, and hopefully that'll be reassuring.
Would sure be nice for one of these embryos to stick - it's so hard to know that everything worked except the one part my body has to be involved in.
For those of you who follow me on Twitter, thanks for all the twitter love yesterday. I had to ignore Twitter for most of the day since I was hosting family, but every once in awhile I'd peek at my @ comments and appreciated the support.
I did end up POASing yesterday (Sunday) morning, right before I drove to my RE's clinic to have my blood drawn for my beta. Stark white. No sign of a second line. Sigh.
The blooddraw confirmed a negative.
That's two genetically perfect embryos that failed to implant.
By now I'm quite uncompromising at ignoring any symptoms, since I know they're equally likely to be caused by progesterone as a pregnancy. In hindsight, I had fewer twinges than the previous BFN cycle, and no nausea (also compared to the previous BFN). I have yet to identify any symptom that's specific to the two cycles when I did get pregnant, apart from super vivid dreams; however, I don't remember when those dreams started and it may not have been in the 2ww.
I've asked my RE to redo my immunology workup (we do this every few months anyway) to confirm my immune activity is quiet before we go into the next FET. Blooddraw is tomorrow morning. I'll wait for CD1 and then we'll immediately go into the FET with the last embryo from the first donor cycle. That's the saving grace with these cycles - quick turnaround in between.
Meanwhile, my donor arrives in town today and her retrieval (for her second cycle with us) will likely be later this week, so I'll start getting updates about her counts really soon. The timing works out well - we'll know how many genetically perfect embryos we get from this cycle before we transfer the last embryo from the first cycle, and hopefully that'll be reassuring.
Would sure be nice for one of these embryos to stick - it's so hard to know that everything worked except the one part my body has to be involved in.
For those of you who follow me on Twitter, thanks for all the twitter love yesterday. I had to ignore Twitter for most of the day since I was hosting family, but every once in awhile I'd peek at my @ comments and appreciated the support.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
FET #1
Wow. I didn't realize I hadn't posted in over a month! Sorry about that... I've been pretty disconnected from the online IF community while prepping for this FET.
Which happened this morning. We transferred one female grade 6AB fully hatched genetically perfect embryo.
Transfer was easy. I've finally (on transfer #5) figured out how much water to drink to fulfill the requirement of having a "full" bladder without making myself miserable. Turns out it's 1/3 of a bottle of water.
I'm on the couch, where I've been all afternoon, and get to start puttering around tomorrow.
Since the embryo is fully hatched, implantation would be tonight or tomorrow morning, but my beta is still 10 days away on Sunday, March 11. Which happens to be a weekend we're spending entirely with family... (none of whom know we're in cycle - we stopped telling people those sorts of details after miscarriage #2). So for the first time, I'm seriously considering POAS on Friday the 9th. We'll see...
Our donor arrives in town in two weeks for her second cycle - so right after I find out if this one worked, we'll have the rollercoaster of following her numbers too.
It's hard to think that this could work - it's been so long since we've had good news. At least I know to completely ignore symptoms or the lack thereof.
Which happened this morning. We transferred one female grade 6AB fully hatched genetically perfect embryo.
Transfer was easy. I've finally (on transfer #5) figured out how much water to drink to fulfill the requirement of having a "full" bladder without making myself miserable. Turns out it's 1/3 of a bottle of water.
I'm on the couch, where I've been all afternoon, and get to start puttering around tomorrow.
Since the embryo is fully hatched, implantation would be tonight or tomorrow morning, but my beta is still 10 days away on Sunday, March 11. Which happens to be a weekend we're spending entirely with family... (none of whom know we're in cycle - we stopped telling people those sorts of details after miscarriage #2). So for the first time, I'm seriously considering POAS on Friday the 9th. We'll see...
Our donor arrives in town in two weeks for her second cycle - so right after I find out if this one worked, we'll have the rollercoaster of following her numbers too.
It's hard to think that this could work - it's been so long since we've had good news. At least I know to completely ignore symptoms or the lack thereof.
Friday, January 27, 2012
CD1
Finally! On what would have otherwise been CD61, my period finally started. I've never had this long a cycle and was getting extra frustrated with my body's lack of cooperation.
I promptly emailed my clinic, to let them know, and I got a quick response with my prescriptions for this cycle, and with my calendar. Even though my RE told me it's 3 weeks to transfer, it'll apparently be 4 weeks. I go in tomorrow for an ultrasound and bloodwork, go in 2/8 for bloodwork, go in 2/19 for bloodwork and ultrasound, and the FET is scheduled for 3/1. Which is horribly late compared to when we thought it would be after our fresh donor cycle failed, but at least we have a date we should be able to rely on...
We'll be transferring one of our two perfect frozen embryos from the first donor cycle in this FET.
Meanwhile, we're waiting for our donor's CD1 so she can get started on cycle #2 for us. It'll take her about 6 weeks, so probably she'll be having her retrieval about 2-3 weeks after my transfer. Hopefully we'll get a handful of perfect embryos to add to our stash so we can create and build our family without having to do more fresh cycles. I'm so ready to be done with this.
In Google Reader, I have separate folders for IF, Expecting, and Parents. I now always have more new posts to read in each of Expecting and Parents, than in IF. It's getting really old. It's been more than a year since I was last pregnant, and 2011 felt like a waste in the IF department (apart from our two frosties), not to mention our most expensive TTC year yet. It's fucking depressing when I think about it, so I try not to.
Kind of a weird post, I guess. I'm happy to finally be able to move forward with this FET, but I'm so frustrated at a deep, deep level about IF and my lessening ability to be hopeful. We had one perfect embryo not implant, who's to say that one of these two will. Ugh.
In other news, our puppy got spayed yesterday. Thankfully she's recovering easily and apart from moving up and down stairs more slowly, doesn't seem very affected by it all. That said, she was VERY happy to see us when we picked her up at the vet yesterday evening.
For a blast of good news to end this mostly depressing post, Jay had her son today - congrats, Jay!
I promptly emailed my clinic, to let them know, and I got a quick response with my prescriptions for this cycle, and with my calendar. Even though my RE told me it's 3 weeks to transfer, it'll apparently be 4 weeks. I go in tomorrow for an ultrasound and bloodwork, go in 2/8 for bloodwork, go in 2/19 for bloodwork and ultrasound, and the FET is scheduled for 3/1. Which is horribly late compared to when we thought it would be after our fresh donor cycle failed, but at least we have a date we should be able to rely on...
We'll be transferring one of our two perfect frozen embryos from the first donor cycle in this FET.
Meanwhile, we're waiting for our donor's CD1 so she can get started on cycle #2 for us. It'll take her about 6 weeks, so probably she'll be having her retrieval about 2-3 weeks after my transfer. Hopefully we'll get a handful of perfect embryos to add to our stash so we can create and build our family without having to do more fresh cycles. I'm so ready to be done with this.
In Google Reader, I have separate folders for IF, Expecting, and Parents. I now always have more new posts to read in each of Expecting and Parents, than in IF. It's getting really old. It's been more than a year since I was last pregnant, and 2011 felt like a waste in the IF department (apart from our two frosties), not to mention our most expensive TTC year yet. It's fucking depressing when I think about it, so I try not to.
Kind of a weird post, I guess. I'm happy to finally be able to move forward with this FET, but I'm so frustrated at a deep, deep level about IF and my lessening ability to be hopeful. We had one perfect embryo not implant, who's to say that one of these two will. Ugh.
In other news, our puppy got spayed yesterday. Thankfully she's recovering easily and apart from moving up and down stairs more slowly, doesn't seem very affected by it all. That said, she was VERY happy to see us when we picked her up at the vet yesterday evening.
For a blast of good news to end this mostly depressing post, Jay had her son today - congrats, Jay!
Monday, January 16, 2012
Sluggish
I've been AWOL for awhile, waiting for my body to do its thing so we can get this FET going with the second perfect embryo from our donor egg cycle.
Of course, my body isn't cooperating. It's now CD50. My cycles are usually 32-33 days.
I had an ultrasound on December 15 with my RE, when my estradiol was about 80 and progesterone was effectively 0 (just realized I never posted an update after that appointment - sorry!). My lining was thin, around 6.5mm, and there was nothing visible growing in either ovary. So my RE thought maybe it was an anovulatory cycle, and expected AF around Jan. 1.
I finally got fed up waiting last week, and scheduled bloodwork for this weekend. I went in on Saturday. Estradiol is now 320-something, and progesterone is still effectively 0. Which means I can't go on birth control pills, I have to wait for ovulation, and then for CD1, when I'll finally be able to start the meds for my FET (estradiol valerate injections, and then eventually PIO).
My estradiol is high enough I should be close to ovulation, but I'm withholding judgement given how uncooperative my body is being. I've never had a 50-day cycle. Longest prior to this was 42 days, and that was years ago.
I was emotional over the weekend - we had some disappointing news in another part of our lives, nothing major, but not the result we wanted, and then I found out about my hormone levels. I could use some good news.
If I ovulated today, then with my ~12 day luteal phase, I'd have AF around the end of the month. Then 3 weeks of meds before transfer. So right now I'll be lucky if I get to do the FET in February at all.
Grr.
Of course, my body isn't cooperating. It's now CD50. My cycles are usually 32-33 days.
I had an ultrasound on December 15 with my RE, when my estradiol was about 80 and progesterone was effectively 0 (just realized I never posted an update after that appointment - sorry!). My lining was thin, around 6.5mm, and there was nothing visible growing in either ovary. So my RE thought maybe it was an anovulatory cycle, and expected AF around Jan. 1.
I finally got fed up waiting last week, and scheduled bloodwork for this weekend. I went in on Saturday. Estradiol is now 320-something, and progesterone is still effectively 0. Which means I can't go on birth control pills, I have to wait for ovulation, and then for CD1, when I'll finally be able to start the meds for my FET (estradiol valerate injections, and then eventually PIO).
My estradiol is high enough I should be close to ovulation, but I'm withholding judgement given how uncooperative my body is being. I've never had a 50-day cycle. Longest prior to this was 42 days, and that was years ago.
I was emotional over the weekend - we had some disappointing news in another part of our lives, nothing major, but not the result we wanted, and then I found out about my hormone levels. I could use some good news.
If I ovulated today, then with my ~12 day luteal phase, I'd have AF around the end of the month. Then 3 weeks of meds before transfer. So right now I'll be lucky if I get to do the FET in February at all.
Grr.
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