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.

Doing the Colorado Protocol is a post from: The IVF Club

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Today is Day 7 of my cycle and the 6th day of follicle stimulating injections. I had my first ultrasound and blood test for cycle 9 yesterday. Goodness my IVF cycle count is getting on the high side.

The ultrasound was interesting – they spotted 16 follicles in the right ovary and 14 in the left – the largest follicle was getting close to 16 but the rest were much smaller 11 and 12 and some still unmeasureable. Its really all meaningless at this point because the follicles have a lot of growing to do before egg collection.

As a consequence of one follicle being slightly larger, I had to take my first antagonist injection this morning to prevent ovulation.  I had wanted to do a photo blog of it this time but I got camera shy. I thought it might be a novel twist. Maybe another time. Although I am not sure I want to expose my belly that is starting to bloat and become bruised from the treatment to the world.  This injection is not too bad, relatively painless but it takes a bit more pressure to pierce this particular needle into my belly and the injected area tends to be quite itchy for an hour or so.  I’ve done my second injection for stimulating my follicles tonight and will be back to the clinic tomorrow for another ultrasound and blood test.

Once I have a date set for egg collection, I will be ringing my acupuncturist for some treatment before egg collection and plan to have some more treatment around embryo transfer time.  I didn’t do this treatment the last few cycles – mainly due to the fact that I developed an aversion to needles and that I had to drive for an hour in peak hour traffic just to get treatment.  I figured the stress of the journey worked against me.  However, acupuncture seriously is about the only other thing that has been documented in studies to assist in conception.  My new acupuncturist seems quite capable too and specialises in gynaecology of Chinese Traditional Medicine from Beijing University.

Antagonist IVF Cycle and Acupuncture is a post from: The IVF Club

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One major change from the treatment protocol I had last time is the fact that instead of injecting the antagonist in the evening an hour after the follicle stimulating hormone, I now need to inject the antagonist in the morning. I asked my new nurse why the treatment protocols had changed. She replied that an expert visited the clinic in April and advised that these cycles tended to have better success when the antagonist was given the next morning.

I was mildly annoyed as I had treatment in July and I had been told to inject in the evening. I asked my nurse about this. The reply, “it takes time to do a proper literature search so it was not adopted as a procedure until June or July this year.”  Of course,  indicated that my treatment was in July so why was I not told of this.  She suggested that maybe the treatment was adopted after I commenced.  Maybe! Maybe!  Wouldn’t you kind of think it might actually be a good thing to know – especially after spending countless dollars on the treatment and having what is starting to become countless failures.

Change in Antagonist IVF Treatment Procedure is a post from: The IVF Club

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Yesterday was first day of cycle number 9.  Due to the forthcoming Christmas period, I will be doing another antagonist IVF Treatment cycle – the second antagonist cycle in my total treatment.  The benefit of doing this is that my cycle will last 28 days instead of the usual 2 months and won’t cut into the Christmas / New Year period when the clinic is closed for egg collection and embryo transfers.

At least I won’t be inconveniencing the doctors and staff who take annual leave.  Ironically, it will probably be the best time for me to conceive given I also take holidays over this period so will therefore be in a relaxed and less stressed state.

Forgive me for wanting to have the best possible IVF outcome. I am sure I have become a money tree for my doctor and the staff.  To add insult to the wound, is that my doctors comment was that I had a better result on my normal cycle but thought I should go on the antagonist cycle due to the fact that the clinic would be closed over Christmas.

In normal circumstances, I would have been annoyed by this, but the fact remains that financially we are better taking a chance on becoming pregnant now rather than next year. Why you ask? Because the amount I get reimbursed from the Government for the IVF treatment will be higher this year rather than next year when IVF limits become capped. So despite the potential lower odds of conception, it actually makes sense from a financial perspective to give it another go.  Ironically, the governments policy to cap IVF has backfired on them – at least in the short term.

IVF Antagonist Cycle #9 is a post from: The IVF Club

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