Embryo Archives - Page 3 of 3

Day 3 Fertilization Update

August 3, 2009 By Carol Leave a Comment

The news of the day is that I have lost two of my 15 embryos. We are now down to 13 embryos at Day 3 with four of them a little slow on the uptake. Of course, there will be less by Day 5.

I find myself disappointed by the news. Yes. I know we still have 13 embryos but a lot can happen in the next two days and I really want this one to work. I am praying that we will get more than 1 blastocyst this time since 3 out of 4 cycles have only produced one. Surely all this effort has to produce more than one. Fingers crossed. One day at a time.

Egg Collection Results

July 31, 2009 By Carol Leave a Comment

Despite having an objective of achieving less eggs of better quality, we ended up getting what I would consider a large collection of eggs – 19 in total. This makes this collection the second highest ever with the previous stimulated cycles achieving:

– #4: 22 eggs;
– #3: 12 eggs;
– #2: 18 eggs;
– #1: 15 eggs.

Given we had 19 today, I am not sure what this actually means in terms of quality. Maybe this is not a good sign. IVF is essentially a numbers game where hopefully you throw enough embryos out there one of them will stick.

In any case, I feel better today than what I have done in previous collections. I put this down to having lots of rest before and after the egg collection. The big test will come tomorrow. The big questions are:

– How many will actually fertilise?
– How many will make it to a day 5 blastocyst?

So far we have had pretty good fertilisation rates. Whilst there has been a few fragmented embryos, the majority have survived up to Day 3. However, the statistics are more telling by Day 5. Essentially, in all but one cycle we ended up with only 1 little blastocyst for transfer to my uterus. The last cycle was by far the most successful with 6 little blastocysts in total. So whilst I am anticipating fairly good fertilisation rates tomorrow, the big test will be 5 days from now and of course 11 days after that. Hopefully my number is up and it will be my turn to get pregnant.

Triggering Ovulation

July 29, 2009 By Carol Leave a Comment

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.