IVF#4 - FSH Day 6 Monitoring

What a long day at the clinic!

First stop was the business office to pay for our cycle. $19,880! That's just the procedure and does not include meds, communicables, genetic counseling or travel. This was the most painful part of this entire cycle. We had to divide it over 3 credit cards. Kerry may be all smiles here, but he felt nauseous as soon as we left the room. I just can't even think about it.


Next was the u/s. I can't believe how relaxed and calm I was. I barely even payed attention to the monitor and just asked for a copy of the measurements afterwards.

We met with a lady from the lab to sign our lab consent forms. Been there done that before, so it was pretty quick. We didn't even read, just signed.

We met with our nurse and went over how our cycle was going. She thought we were doing really well. She said because we are doing FET, they have more flexibility with med dosage and retrieval timing because they aren't worrying about my lining for transfer. I guess with a fresh transfer, they sometimes have to take the eggs at a less than ideal time because they have to take the lining and OHSS risk into consideration. Makes sense. I saw there was a note on my file to Dr. Sch with my concerns about my E2 going crazy if he kept me on high doses. So I'm glad they addressed my concerns. The nurse then gave us a lecture on making sure we go on vacation and have fun while waiting on the genetic test results. Kerry opened his wallet and pulled out $10 and said, how far do you think we can get on this? We all cracked up. We signed the CCRM consent forms and then headed off to b/w.

Kerry was up first for his communicables. It's about time he gets to partake in all this fun. He was handed a bill for $310, now I'm nauseous too. Then it was my turn to check my hormone levels.


Next was genetic counseling. This appt was over an hour and was very informative. We went over both of our family history in detail. She said everything looked great and had no concerns. She then asked if there was any chance that we could be blood relatives. We both stood up and said "what do you think?". I'm 5'1 and Kerry is 6'5. It was pretty funny. She taught us all about chromosomes and genetics. She looked at our current cycle and was really excited for us, thinking that this will be it for us. God I hope so!

We asked about the current statistics. She said currently they are getting an 86% clinical pg rate with transferring 2 normals and 62% transferring 1. She was unable to answer right now what the twin rate is if you transfer 2 since this is an ongoing study. As of right now, I really want to transfer 1. I'd like to avoid twins if at all possible, but also don't want the risk of getting none. I'm not going to worry about this decision now, there will be plenty of time for that later. I still have to get my embryos to blast and then tested.

We will be doing CGH genetic testing. I was surprised to find out that they are no longer doing MicroArray for now. I guess it's something to do with their consent forms changing and now no one can do MicroArray until that is resolved.

She brought up my 1 frozen 4AA embryo that I currently have at CCRM. She was really excited to find out that I had it vitrified (flash frozen). At the time, they were still slow freezing embryos and only vitrifying CGH embryos. But I had specifically asked for mine to be vitrified, so glad I did that. The thaw rate on slow freeze embryos is 75% and vitrification is 99.9%. Because of this, she was asking if I would be interested in thawing that embryo and testing it along with the embryos from this cycle. I told her that Dr. Sch had told me at my post-IVF consult that he would not recommend this as it would put extra stress on it to thaw/biopsy/refreeze. She said she would talk to Sch and the head embryologist to get their take on it. She thinks maybe Sch didn't realize that I had it vitrified. I'm not sure about this, Kerry and I will need to discuss all the pros/cons this week. We were handed a bill for $350 for the counseling, ugh ugh ugh!

Next was Kerry's appt for his backup sample. While he was off doing that, I had to request a private room so I could go shoot up. I was an hour late for my injection. Afterwards, I went back to the lobby and read the genetic consent forms we need to sign and return.

While waiting I met 9kitts from IVFConn. She was heading up for transfer. Best of luck 9kitts! She was very sweet and donated her left over Gonal pen!

About a half hour later, the elevator opened and there was Kerry, all done with his "procedure". We grinned at each other and I said, how were you? He said, I was pretty good. LOL

We headed home and then the nurse called with my results. She said that Dr. Sch looked at my records and felt that I was doing fine and was not worried about my E2. He's keeping me on the 300iu Gonal. Maybe it's because I'm not doing a fresh transfer, so it's not as big of a concern. I just hope the high E2 doesn't affect egg quality.

I'm to start the antagon (Ganirelix) tonight. This will prevent me from ovulating. It blocks estrogen receptors so that the pituitary gland won't receive the signal from the ovaries to produce an LH surge triggering ovulation. E2 readings will be a little unreliable after starting this. My day 7 monitoring is cancelled and I'll return on day 8.

Gosh, I didn't mean to write a book, sorry! Here's the results:

Lining: 10mm
Right ovary (mm): 8.5, 11.6, 12.1, 13.1, 13.5, 16.4
Left ovary (mm): 10.3, 10.4, 10.5, 11.0, 11.1, 11.7
E2: 761
LH: 1.2
P4: 0.22

IVF#3 results as a comparison:

Lining: 7.6mm
Right ovary (mm): 6.3, 6.5, 8.1, 9.6, 10.7, 11.4
Left ovary (mm): 7.3, 8.0, 8.2, 10.5, 11.7, 11.7, 12.0, 12.6, 13.6
E2: 720
LH: 0.58
P4: 0.2

Thanks for all your support, I love getting your comments!!!