IVF Update

I had a consultation with the head doctor, Dr. S, at our clinic a couple of weeks ago. It was good to really be able to talk through everything. I wanted to know why he thought our three transfers failed. I truly never expected to have to endure another fresh IVF cycle. I was blaming it on bad luck, since it seems that we have a lot of that when it comes to trying to conceive.

The doctor said he would have expected one to two more pregnancies out of our embryos. He is surprised. I'm glad I'm not the only one. He thinks they failed because of the difficult transfers. The first was a bit difficult, but not noticeably so to me. The second was AWFUL. A transfer should only take a matter of minutes. My doctor tried for over an hour. She had me get up twice to relieve my bladder to see if that would help. You go to a transfer with a full bladder, but mine was too full. Finally, she gave up and said we would have to refreeze the embryos and try again.

That is when I asked the simple question, "Can you do that? Will the embryos survive?". I did not get the answer I sought. She said, "Well, we've never tried it before.". Sorry, I'm not your guinea pig. I lost it, and she called the head doctor/owner of the clinic. He came from the Edina office (to Woodbury) to perform the transfer. He did it in minutes. The third transfer was again a bit difficult, but we got it done. They have been difficult because of my c-section scar. It is hard to bypass, apparently.

Needless to say, a woman's uterus does not like to be poked a lot prior to embryo implantation. The result is much like the concept behind the IUD contraceptive device. So, Dr. S, thinks that may be the reason for the failures.

So, we have a plan for our next round. We have a new doctor, Dr. S. I think he views us as a fun puzzle to solve. He allowed us to do the HOPE warranty program again, even though we no longer technically qualify because of our three failures. I took that as a sign of confidence on his part. He wouldn't gamble with the warranty program if he thought he would actually have to give us our full $25,000 back at the end. We also got a $1,000 discount for being good customers. Ha! That's a drop in the bucket considering the amount we've paid them, but I guess every $1,000 counts?

The plan is to avoid OHSS (ovarian hyper stimulation syndrome). If you recall from way back in 2008, they were able to get 29 eggs from my ovaries, but I got very sick because of being overstimulated. So much so that we weren't able to do a fresh transfer. Dr. S is aiming for fewer, high quality, eggs to avoid OHSS. He is planning on changing my protocol to basically pump my eggs up right away, but then coast a bit so as not to grow too many. Obviously that is a super simplified version of our discussion, but you get the idea. We want to be able to do a fresh transfer, and have fewer great embryos. That works for us. We don't want dozens of kids, we would love two or three. But, we will not count our embryos before they're hatched...we've already experienced the roller coaster of emotions that go with that.

So, here's hoping the new protocol works. I would love to get ten or so great eggs, and a few perfect little embryos that make a home in there for nine months or so. We have hope, lots of it.