Fertilisation Rates Archives - Page 2 of 2

Embryo Transfer Moments

August 5, 2009 By Carol Leave a Comment

Wow. What a day. One expanding blastocyst transferred. One early blastocyst in the making. And drumroll please …. hopefully at least one more blastocyst to come.

The transfer itself went smoothly. The only hiccup was when I went to go to the toilet to empty my bladder and found that someone was already in the toilet.

That’s right. The occupant forgot to lock the door. I don’t know who was more surprised, the occupant for being sprung or me for finding this woman standing up over the toilet facing the door. The mind boggles. Not how I would use the toilet anyway.

Now my only perplexing thing is that the embryologist told me that there were still 13 embryos going along. You may recall that yesterday my nurse told me that there was 11 with 3 not looking so good. I sure hope they get their stories straight when I ring up tomorrow afternoon to find out the final outcome.

Some other random thoughts about the day and why you know you have done IVF too many times:

– When the admission nurses all greet you by your first name without looking at your file.
– When the Doctor asks you if you would mind if a student watches your transfer and you ungratefully say that’s ok but with an attitude that sounds like an imposition.
– You vow to say no to the student next time because news flash! It is an imposition. You don’t want any more people looking at your girlie bits even if it means annoying the doctor who is helping put the embryo inside you.
– You start becoming less amazed with the science of it all and more impatient for a result
– You start telling people not to ask you any more questions about how your IVF is going because you know if there is a failed result this time, you will be devastated and “tear up” at the drop of the hat

Day 4 – IVF Fertilization Success Rates

August 4, 2009 By Carol Leave a Comment

There are now 11 surviving embryos. Of these, 8 look good and 3 don’t look so good. If we get 8 blastocysts tomorrow that would be fantastic but maybe it’s a touch unrealistic.

Today is the first day since egg collection that I feel remotely normal. My tummy is still a bit bloated but the pain has gone. I can walk normally instead of being bent over like an old woman.

In any case, I am booked into admission at the clinic for 7.45am. Bugger – no sleep in. The big transfer happens at 8.30am and then I am off to work. Lucky work is only 15 minutes away from the clinic so I reckon I will only be half an hour late.

I’ve told my manager and she has been pretty good about it, even offering for me to work from home if I want to. I am not sure if it will help, I work in an office so nothing I do at work is ever strenuous on my body (maybe my mind but that is another story).

It is hard to know what to do. Believe it or not, there is a meeting at work I want to go to. Besides, I’ve tried taking time off to rest and I have also tried working after a transfer. Neither options have worked. I guess there is no right or wrong thing to do. I think it can happen either way – just depends on the quality of the embryo.

A lady at work got pregnant at 43 on IVF and she had her transfer when she was in the middle of some high level negotiations with a leading retailer. So it just goes to show that it doesn’t necessarily matter.

Anyway, the woman in question has now gone on maternity leave and I arrived at work today to find out that she had a little baby boy. I am very happy for her.

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.

Fertilization Post Egg Collection

August 1, 2009 By Carol Leave a Comment

Of the 19 eggs collected, 18 were suitable to be fertilised. If those 18 eggs, 15 fertilised. I think that is a good result but last time something like this happened we only had 1 egg left for a Day 5 transfer. Still we were lucky to have 1.

This means I will need to start crinone gel on Monday night before I go to bed. The transfer will at some stage on Wednesday – I will get the phone call the day prior so I know my admission time. Fingers crossed more than 1 embryo will make it to day 5.

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.