What would you do?
If your insurance covered 3 ART attempts (IVF or FET), and would allow a fresh cycle AND a FET (if the fresh doesn't work) to count as just ONE of those three in the event you elect to do a single embryo transfer, would you do it??
At our clinic the success rates for my age group are:
2 fresh embryos transferred- 80% chance of pregnancy- 65% chance of live birth, 50% of those births are twins.
With a single embryo transfer our success rates would go down by about 10%.
WHAT WOULD YOU DO?!?!?
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Friday, April 29, 2011
Small World...
Back in February I wrote about running into someone I went to high school with at our fertility clinic. It was kind of an odd moment between us, because although we played volleyball together both at school and on club teams for the better part of 7 years, we were never really good friends. I haven't actually seen her again at the clinic, and assumed she worked in the andrology department.
Well, on Monday my phone rang and I noticed that it was the clinic calling. I assumed it was the financial office calling to go over the costs of IVF, but instead it was my doctor. I was surprised to hear her voice (I typically hear from her nurse) and she said she "had something she wanted to run by me." She explained to me that as they were going over upcoming cases that the nurse recognized my name, and approached my doctor telling her that she felt it was necessary to ask me if I was comfortable with her being part of my medical team at the ER and ET.
It turns out the reason I don't typically see her at the clinic is because she works in the surgical area. She typically is in the room with my doctor at both egg retrievals and embryo transfers. So my doctor reiterated over and over that if this was something that was going to stress me out we could work around it. In the end I said I didn't care. I mean it isn't like she doesn't already know all of our business. The only thing that she wouldn't see is... well, my you know. And as I told my husband... what's one more person seeing my lady bits? ... at this point it feels kind of like a show piece.
It is a little weird to think that this person that I've "known" for 17 years may potentially be in the room when I conceive, but lets face it, if you had told me ANY of this would happen ten years ago I would have thought you were nuts. So, why not make the story of our baby/babies' conception a little more twisted!
Well, on Monday my phone rang and I noticed that it was the clinic calling. I assumed it was the financial office calling to go over the costs of IVF, but instead it was my doctor. I was surprised to hear her voice (I typically hear from her nurse) and she said she "had something she wanted to run by me." She explained to me that as they were going over upcoming cases that the nurse recognized my name, and approached my doctor telling her that she felt it was necessary to ask me if I was comfortable with her being part of my medical team at the ER and ET.
It turns out the reason I don't typically see her at the clinic is because she works in the surgical area. She typically is in the room with my doctor at both egg retrievals and embryo transfers. So my doctor reiterated over and over that if this was something that was going to stress me out we could work around it. In the end I said I didn't care. I mean it isn't like she doesn't already know all of our business. The only thing that she wouldn't see is... well, my you know. And as I told my husband... what's one more person seeing my lady bits? ... at this point it feels kind of like a show piece.
It is a little weird to think that this person that I've "known" for 17 years may potentially be in the room when I conceive, but lets face it, if you had told me ANY of this would happen ten years ago I would have thought you were nuts. So, why not make the story of our baby/babies' conception a little more twisted!
Thursday, April 28, 2011
ABC's
I saw this on Josey's blog a couple days ago, and thought I would play along....
A. Age when you started TTC: 25
B. Baby Dancing or Sex: Sex.
C. Children wanted: Before infertility we planned on 3, but now we would be happy with one or two.
D. Dogs/Cats/Fill in Children: Nada.
E. Essential Oils/Vitamins/Snake Oils: I only take a prenatal.
F. Fertility Meds I’ve taken: Clomid, Follistim and Ovidrel.... I will be adding a few more to the list soon!
G. Gain: I gained about 10lbs during our 6months of clomid about 1.5 years ago... since then I've lost that plus another 20.
H. HSG (Hystosalpingogram): All clear!
I. Infertile Pet Peeves: People bad mouthing their children and telling me how *LUCKY* I am to not have kids.
J. Job title: Officially, I'm a substitute teacher... but currently I spend most of my time at the fertility clinic or being a stay-at-home-wife.
K. Kid’s names you’re afraid will be taken by the time you can use them: We have our names picked out, and are fairly sure we will use them no matter what at this point... unless of course my brother and SIL use one of our boy names in June.
L. Length of time TTC: 2 years 8 months
M. Miscarriages: None, thank God. Praying that answer never changes.
N. Number of times you’ve switched OB/GYNS, REs, FSs: Never. I've seen one OB and one RE...though now I'm trying to figure out which OB or Midwife to use.
O. Ovarian quality: PCOS
P. POAS or wait for AF: I can almost always tell by my BBT... so usually I just wait for AF. I can't even remember the last time I used a HPT.
Q. Quote from an obnoxious fertile: "Are you pregnant yet?"
S. Sperm: Not the best, not the worst
T. Time you tried naturally: The first 9 months were natural, though I wasn't ovulating, so that was pretty much time wasted. Then 6 months of clomid followed by 8 more months of natural.
U. Uterus quality: So far, so good!
V. Vagina: Uh, good? I have no idea how to answer this question!
W. What baby stuff do you already have?: There are a couple of tiny clothing items that have been put away for a VERY long time. Hopefully it will be time to get them out SOON!
X. X-tra X-tra Hear all about it! How many people know the ins and outs of our crazy TTC journey? recently our parents and a few close friends.
Y. Yearly Exam (do you still go in even though someone sees your lady parts most months?): I do.
Z. Zits: Every once in awhile.
So now you’ve read mine. What are your IF A to Zs?
A. Age when you started TTC: 25
B. Baby Dancing or Sex: Sex.
C. Children wanted: Before infertility we planned on 3, but now we would be happy with one or two.
D. Dogs/Cats/Fill in Children: Nada.
E. Essential Oils/Vitamins/Snake Oils: I only take a prenatal.
F. Fertility Meds I’ve taken: Clomid, Follistim and Ovidrel.... I will be adding a few more to the list soon!
G. Gain: I gained about 10lbs during our 6months of clomid about 1.5 years ago... since then I've lost that plus another 20.
H. HSG (Hystosalpingogram): All clear!
I. Infertile Pet Peeves: People bad mouthing their children and telling me how *LUCKY* I am to not have kids.
J. Job title: Officially, I'm a substitute teacher... but currently I spend most of my time at the fertility clinic or being a stay-at-home-wife.
K. Kid’s names you’re afraid will be taken by the time you can use them: We have our names picked out, and are fairly sure we will use them no matter what at this point... unless of course my brother and SIL use one of our boy names in June.
L. Length of time TTC: 2 years 8 months
M. Miscarriages: None, thank God. Praying that answer never changes.
N. Number of times you’ve switched OB/GYNS, REs, FSs: Never. I've seen one OB and one RE...though now I'm trying to figure out which OB or Midwife to use.
O. Ovarian quality: PCOS
P. POAS or wait for AF: I can almost always tell by my BBT... so usually I just wait for AF. I can't even remember the last time I used a HPT.
Q. Quote from an obnoxious fertile: "Are you pregnant yet?"
S. Sperm: Not the best, not the worst
T. Time you tried naturally: The first 9 months were natural, though I wasn't ovulating, so that was pretty much time wasted. Then 6 months of clomid followed by 8 more months of natural.
U. Uterus quality: So far, so good!
V. Vagina: Uh, good? I have no idea how to answer this question!
W. What baby stuff do you already have?: There are a couple of tiny clothing items that have been put away for a VERY long time. Hopefully it will be time to get them out SOON!
X. X-tra X-tra Hear all about it! How many people know the ins and outs of our crazy TTC journey? recently our parents and a few close friends.
Y. Yearly Exam (do you still go in even though someone sees your lady parts most months?): I do.
Z. Zits: Every once in awhile.
So now you’ve read mine. What are your IF A to Zs?
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
IVF...
There is something comforting about walking into a place you haven't been in four weeks and having everyone know you and ask you how you've been. In the future I would like those occurrences to NOT happen at a fertility clinic, but beggars can't be choosers I guess. Yesterday was our IVF consultation appointment.
We sat down with our doctor to discuss the risks, success rates and a timeline for the IVF cycle that is about to happen....
At our clinic, IVF is a three month process. The first month (hopefully starting at the end of next week!!) will be the testing/teaching phase. During May I'll have my baseline ultrasound, some blood work, an IVF class, an injection training, a practice transfer and an ultrasound to look at the blood flow to my uterus. Once I start another cycle (hopefully at the beginning of June) I will start birth control. My IVF nurse said that I will probably do two weeks of birth control then start lurpon and likely be moving on to stims the first week in July!
We sat down with our doctor to discuss the risks, success rates and a timeline for the IVF cycle that is about to happen....
At our clinic, IVF is a three month process. The first month (hopefully starting at the end of next week!!) will be the testing/teaching phase. During May I'll have my baseline ultrasound, some blood work, an IVF class, an injection training, a practice transfer and an ultrasound to look at the blood flow to my uterus. Once I start another cycle (hopefully at the beginning of June) I will start birth control. My IVF nurse said that I will probably do two weeks of birth control then start lurpon and likely be moving on to stims the first week in July!
I've Lost It....
I think I've officially lost it!
I had another crazy dream a few nights ago. This time we'd done a fresh IVF cycle, and had some embryos to freeze. Our RE asked if we would like to go into the lab and see the tubes that housed our little snowflakes. When we walked into the lab it looked more like the hospital nurseries that you see in movies, the kind where all of the babies spend a good chunk of time in the nursery. Each one of our frozen embryos was in a test tube and each test tube was swaddled in a tiny piece of cloth, just like a baby. One of the oddest sights of my life.
Wow. Maybe I need to start thinking about something else :)
I had another crazy dream a few nights ago. This time we'd done a fresh IVF cycle, and had some embryos to freeze. Our RE asked if we would like to go into the lab and see the tubes that housed our little snowflakes. When we walked into the lab it looked more like the hospital nurseries that you see in movies, the kind where all of the babies spend a good chunk of time in the nursery. Each one of our frozen embryos was in a test tube and each test tube was swaddled in a tiny piece of cloth, just like a baby. One of the oddest sights of my life.
Wow. Maybe I need to start thinking about something else :)
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Goodbye Modesty....
Over the last nearly three (wow, that was painful to type!) years I've had several dreams where we have kids, but I don't think I've ever had a dream that I was pregnant. Well, Thursday night that all changed.....
I dreamt I was 6 weeks pregnant and we were going in for our first ultrasound. Seems pretty normal, right? It was until we pulled up to Target for said ultrasound. Weird yes, but I figured there would be a room set up near the pharmacy for this type of thing. Wrong. We walked in and found my doctor standing near the front of the store with a medical table and ultrasound machine. Upon noticing us she said the usual "undress from the waist down and hop up on the table." The weird part is, I was TOTALLY fine with it. The pants came off and I jumped up on that table excited to see what was hiding out inside in my uterus... one or two babes?!?! It seems important to also share that the 'business end' of things was pointed directly at the doors..... welcome to Target!!!
As soon as she started the ultrasound I started to cry... I could see them.... twins!! Later in the dream we shared the news with my husband's parents. Before telling them that we were expecting we first asked them 10 questions ranging from why they didn't have any bobble heads in their living room to what their favorite mnemonic device was. Seriously, WEIRD! Their reactions to the big news were pretty fitting... lots of tears and very few words.. until they both threw themselves on top of us. I woke up SO thrilled to have finally had a dream that I was pregnant and cracking up at the events that had just transpired!
While I am known to have crazy dreams from time to time, they usually occur when I am on some sort of fertility medication, which is not the case right now. I am taking this little dream to mean one thing... babies are on the way! I am just going to look past the crazy parts and focus on the main event :)
I dreamt I was 6 weeks pregnant and we were going in for our first ultrasound. Seems pretty normal, right? It was until we pulled up to Target for said ultrasound. Weird yes, but I figured there would be a room set up near the pharmacy for this type of thing. Wrong. We walked in and found my doctor standing near the front of the store with a medical table and ultrasound machine. Upon noticing us she said the usual "undress from the waist down and hop up on the table." The weird part is, I was TOTALLY fine with it. The pants came off and I jumped up on that table excited to see what was hiding out inside in my uterus... one or two babes?!?! It seems important to also share that the 'business end' of things was pointed directly at the doors..... welcome to Target!!!
As soon as she started the ultrasound I started to cry... I could see them.... twins!! Later in the dream we shared the news with my husband's parents. Before telling them that we were expecting we first asked them 10 questions ranging from why they didn't have any bobble heads in their living room to what their favorite mnemonic device was. Seriously, WEIRD! Their reactions to the big news were pretty fitting... lots of tears and very few words.. until they both threw themselves on top of us. I woke up SO thrilled to have finally had a dream that I was pregnant and cracking up at the events that had just transpired!
While I am known to have crazy dreams from time to time, they usually occur when I am on some sort of fertility medication, which is not the case right now. I am taking this little dream to mean one thing... babies are on the way! I am just going to look past the crazy parts and focus on the main event :)
Friday, April 22, 2011
Holy Hope...
In the midst of Easter preparations, I found myself feeling sad about what is not present this Easter. We wont be filling baskets, buying white lacy dresses or hiding eggs, but in the middle of these 'poor me' thoughts I realized how much hope can be found in the Easter story.
As I was preparing to write this post, I googled Easter and Infertility. I happened upon a blog post from last Easter that is pretty dang close to what I was prepared to write. Please, click over to Pregnant with Hope and read this post. I promise, you will not be disappointed!
Let Him roll away your stone!!!
As I was preparing to write this post, I googled Easter and Infertility. I happened upon a blog post from last Easter that is pretty dang close to what I was prepared to write. Please, click over to Pregnant with Hope and read this post. I promise, you will not be disappointed!
Let Him roll away your stone!!!
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