Archives for May 2010

New Doctor, New Outlook

May 26, 2010 By Carol Leave a Comment

Yesterday, I finally had an appointment with a new IVF doctor. I chose him because he does thing differently to other IVF doctors. After 13 cycles with no positive result, I decided it was about time to try something new. Some of you may recall that I had decided to stick with my current doctor since he finally changed my treatment protocol and that I had seen another doctor at another clinic who also didn’t seem to have any other ideas.

I suppose I could have given up, but I made a third appointment with yet another doctor. The wait was long and arduous but well worth it. My now new doctor asked me a whole stack of questions that had never been raised before:

Have you had a biopsy on day 21 to test for natural killer cells
Have you have blood tests for x, y & z ? Did you fast for the thyroid test that you had?
Has your husband had a blood test on his chromosomes?
Has your husband had the SCSA sperm test?

My answers were mostly negative. So we are now all set for a fresh round of tests. The SCSA test that my husband has to do is a test for sperm DNA fragmentation. I read somewhere that if sperm fragmentation is over 30% then the likelihood of getting pregnant is 1%. If this is the case, then we may need to consider other options like a sperm donor. the cost of $500 but I think it is money well spent given I have now spent over $50k on IVF. It would have been better to assess this earlier – maybe I could have saved time and money. I guess I will soon find out. Personally, I feel this could be our major issue. We have lost a lot of embryos due to fragmentation and there is some possibility that the antibodies in my husband sperm have had an impact on this. I feel sure that these things are connected in some way.

The biopsy that I have to do is a test to see if I have any natural killer cells that try and destroy my embryos. Charming. There is heaps of information about this on the web but I recommend not reading the information unless you have a good understanding of biology. For me, reading about this stuff bores me to tears – it is far to technical for my liking. The main point of interest about natural killer cells, is the fact that my new doctor has helped 60% of women found with natural killer cells become pregnant. Apparently the treatment is simple – just some medication to fix the issue.

The other tests are also important and essentially will help the doctor determine the right protocol for me – particularly if the there are no other likely issues revealed by the other tests. So my next test is 2-3 weeks away. Unfortunately we know the full extent of the problem until my Doctor returns back from the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) conference in Italy which is a massive annual event about all the latest findings on IVF.

So it seems my next steps won’t happen until July. That’s exciting. I hate the wait but hopefully we might know more than what we did before and be able to make some decisions from this point. My husband is really annoyed though – he is angry that our other doctor hasn’t done these tests. I can understand that but it does seem that many doctors follow the tried and true path. My advice for anyone in the same boat is to try different doctors – particularly if you feel you issues are not being investigated thoroughly.

Negative Result

May 21, 2010 By Carol Leave a Comment

The phone call came. I detected in the nurses voice that the news was not good. I was right – negative. Still no sign of Aunt Flo. Not pregnant just like I expected. For one brief moment, I imagined myself finding out a positive result and then not saying a word to anyone (unlike me) until when I was home with my husband. I just wanted to see the look in his eyes. Sadly this is not to be. Tonight I am going out with some girlfriends for dinner. A couple of glasses of red wine is on the cards. I just hope that no-one asks me any questions. One of my friends is likely too – as well intentioned as wht she is, she is thoughtless sometimes! Grrh!

Waiting for the Phone Call

May 21, 2010 By Carol Leave a Comment

After a relaxed couple of weeks convincing myself that I am not pregnant, I am now finding myself sitting here anxiously waiting to hear the results back from my blood test. I mean what are the chances of a day 2 embryo making the cut when every other day 5 embryo I have had hasn’t.

Aunt Flo normally arrives before my blood test, however this time I have taken my blood test a day early. Whilst it is not common for my period to be a day late, it is not uncommon. It just doesn’t happen very often…. but it does happen. The trouble is that the delay is killing me. It is all I can think of and I am finding it difficult to concentrate on what I doing.

Personally I don’t feel pregnant. My breasts are not sore – they stopped being sore about 4 days ago. I have acne on just to the left of my chin – just like the acne I get when I am pre-menstrual. And today I have broken into the lolly jar at work. My cravings for sweets are fairly normal but they do tend to be worse just before my period arrives. So all things considered it is not looking hopeful.

But looking hopeful and being hopeful are two different things. Although I expect the results to be negative, I am more hopeful that they are positive. I think my husband is the same. He even rang to find out the blood test results. He doesn’t normally do that – but then normally I know the outcome before I have the blood test. Imagine if the clinic rings up and tells me that I have a positive result – I reckon I would find it difficult to hide at work. I think I would just scream.

On the other hand, I am going to be so disappointed if it is a negative again – even if that is the result I am expecting. And if that happens, I am reaching out to the bottle. Seems like the longer Aunt Flo takes to come, the more hope you have and this just makes the waiting period more difficult. Its actually killing me. I mean how many times can I inspect the toilet paper in one day. Every trip to the toilet has taken on greater significance. Every time I feel the progesterone cream, I wonder if that is the first sign of Aunt Flo.

How long will it take before the clinic call mes – 1 hour, 2 hours, maybe even 3 at most. I wonder if they call all the people with the positive results first and then call all people with the negative results. I wonder if it was random. If it were me, I reckon I would call with the good news first and then deliver the bad news. That rationale is not really helping me – maybe thats why they aren’t calling me. More bad news – just this time my body is keeping me in suspense.

The countdown continues….. rescue me.

IVF Cycle 13 Fertlization Results

May 8, 2010 By Carol Leave a Comment

This cycle has so far been the most unsuccessful cycle I have done to date. While my scan showed 22 follicles, the fertility specialist estimated there would be 10 eggs. I didn’t believe him however he was pretty accurate.

My egg collection yielded only 9 eggs – this is a lot less than I have previously had in any other cycle. Six of these 9 embryos successfully fertilized. This time we decided to only a Day 2 or 3 transfer. We decided this before I knew my egg collection results. Because the clinic doesn’t do transfers on Sundays it has meant that I had the transfer done today. So I now have 2 Day 2 embryos floating around in my body which I hope might finally help me realize my dream of becoming pregnant.

The embryologist told me that the other remaining embryos were moderately fragmented. Two have gone on to become 6 cells embryos (growing a bit too fast), one is four cell embryo and other is only a 2 cell embryo.

I know I have have had a stressful week – moving house, car crashes and dealing with insurance companies probably don’t help but the results surprised me – I thought I would be having a good haul of eggs like before. To top it off, I haven’t been following the Colorado Protocol exactly as prescribed. There has just been too much going on in my life to even remember what pills to take. For a start I forgot to start taking the tablets the day after my HCG injection – instead I started it a day later. My husband and I were also supposed to make love the day before transfer. Instead, I was working on the computer until after midnight (my husband went to bed and fell asleep). I told my nurse about starting the medication late and she said not to worry – just to take it for the 5 days! Haven’t spoken to her about forgetting to have intercourse. I wonder what she will say about that!

Doing the Colorado Protocol

May 5, 2010 By Carol Leave a Comment

Finally, found time to put fingers to keyboard and write about my latest IVF experiences. Actually it is all become a blur. The main thing is that I am doing the Colorado Protocol with an Antagonist Cycle so I have been continually having to keep my mind focused on what I have to do next.

The cycle has started off like any other. Injections from day 2, followed by blood tests and scans on day 6, antagonist injections from day 6 to yesterday, more blood tests and scans and then finally my trigger injection last night. In between all that I have had to take Astrix from day 2 to day 9 and my husband has been taking Doryx from Day 2 to day 9. It is nice to see that he has finally had to take some drugs. I am now all set for egg collection which will happen sometime tomorrow.

Its all been a blur in between moving house, losing my Internet connection and crashing my car into my new neighbours gate!!! Ironically, tThe day I crashed the car I had just finished from picking hubby up from day surgery. He wasn’t allowed to drive due to having anaesthetic whereas I could since I had not been in surgery.

What a way to make an entrance and meet my new neighbours. Actually, I didn’t meet the neighbours as I had to run off to a meeting and had to leave my husband to deal with my mess. Poor thing – he is just recovering from surgery and I leave him to clean up the gate, post and letterbox I hit after my foot slipped of the car brake.

Even worse I found out why the gate was there in the first place after I copped an eyeful of a naked man from the vantage of the open gate and front room of the house. I wonder if this will affect my eggs! OK – most likely not. At the moment, my belly is uncomfortable and swollen from my active ovaries. At the last scan they found 17 follicles on the right ovary and 9 on the left. I am sure they won’t all have eggs in them but I could be facing a double digit collection again. Oh for a day a rest.