I spoke to our Chinese herbalist today. She has been a great source of support to both me and my husband. My husband sees her to help his sperm. His sperm count and motility have improved quite dramatically. However, his sperm morphology and the antibodies in his sperm are still a problem.

I have also been seeing her and have had acupuncture on a regular basis but this is the first time during treatment that I haven’t had it. There were a number of reasons for this.

The first was that I have developed an aversion to needles. I am so sick of needles, blood tests and injections that I just couldn’t face seeing any more. Whilst acupuncture does not hurt, I just couldn’t do it.

The second reason was that my transfer happened on Wednesday. Having acupuncture would mean that I would have to commute for a couple of hours after work in peak hour traffic three times in that week for treatment. I decided, probably selfishly, that my time was better spent relaxing at home rather than stressing out in traffic. Maybe I am trying to make myself feel better about not going, but it sure feels like all her good work is undone when I get back into the car and stress out in the traffic.

On a positive note, my lovely IVF nurse has arranged for me to have my pregnancy blood test on Friday which will be Day 14. So with a bit of luck or misfortune, I will get to find out if I am pregnant… or not.

Normally, the clinic asks you to have a blood test on Day 16 but that happens to fall on a Sunday but the clinic is closed on Sundays. I also think my nurse is feeling sorry for me and does not want to keep me in suspense. Mind you, my period is as regular as they come so I don’t think I will waiting the whole weekend to have an answer any way.

IVF, Acupuncture and Male Infertility is a post from: The IVF Club

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Tonight heralds the night where I will inject the final needle that will trigger ovulation. I got the call from my nurse and was instructed to use Ovidrel at 9.30pm (EST) tonight. Of course, this means I will be checking in at “Hotel M” (my affectionate term for the world famous IVF clinic) at 10.30am Friday for my egg collection at 11am.

Hubby will also need to produce some sperm when we check in at the “Hotel.” It’s funny but I never really thought about how he produced his sample but I now have it on good advice that the cubicle where he is to “produce” is well equipped with visual stimuli including videos and magazines. I assume the content is soft porn. Who knows – it remains unspoken as I am sure my husband will not want to divulge this information.

In any case, after an intense couple of days of multiple needles, I find myself strangely looking forward to this last jab. On a personal note, I am feeling fine and not overly bloated which is good. I recall that our objective was to have less eggs of better quality (not 22 of poor quality like last time).

I find myself wondering how many eggs they will retrieve, will they fertilise and will they survive to a day 5 blastocyst. But most importantly I wonder if all these conditions are met – will the little embryo finally implant. This is place where IVF has failed in my last 6 attempts. At yes, time to keep playing the waiting game.

Triggering Ovulation is a post from: The IVF Club

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