The IVF Club

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.

What to Expect After Egg Collection

August 2, 2009 By Carol Leave a Comment

Well so much for thinking that I was feeling better from egg collection. The rest and relaxation has been good but it has ruined my weekend in terms of achieving anything. I am still feeling out of sorts with a bloated stomach and sore ovaries.

This is one of the not so pleasant aspects of IVF. I assume it is worse when there is a higher number of eggs collected but given I produce lots of eggs I have not way of comparing.

Usually it takes a couple of days to recover but this recovery is actually taking longer than normal. The key here is to keep drinking water (plenty of it) and panadol (less of it).

Maybe that Panadol I took when I wrote my earlier blog gave me false hope. In any case, I am hoping I am better tomorrow as I am back to work!

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.