The IVF Club

A Personal Blog About IVF Treatment & Infertility

Antagonist IVF Cycle and Acupuncture

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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.

Change in Antagonist IVF Treatment Procedure

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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.

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IVF Antagonist Cycle #9

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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.

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Cost of IVF Increases by 15%

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The cost of IVF has increased by over 15% since July.  This increase marks the second price increase in less than 12 months putting further pressure on would be families.

At a leading Melbourne Clinic, a typical IVF cycle in July cost $4,666 in up front fees.  As of November, the cost increased to $5,387.25 – a massive difference of $721.

The clinic does not charge patients all costs up front so with the additional costs considered, the total cost for IVF in July was $6,900 and $8,800 when hospital costs were also included. At the time of publishing, only the up front costs were available. The total cost of IVF is yet to be uncovered but if the 15% increase is applied to the total cost, it may well be that the total cost may push up over AUD$10,000.

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Role of the IVF Nurse

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One of the more positive aspects of IVF is actually having regular contact with your IVF nurse.  Your nurse will fill in all the gaps that your Doctor hasn’t told you about or that you have forgotten to ask. Your nurse who take you through the whole IVF treatment process step by step. She will get you to repeat everything that she has told to make sure that you understand everything that is going on.

The nurse is the person who will make all your blood test and ultrasound appointments for you – at times that they know are convenient for you!  They will be your first port of call if anything goes wrong while you are undergoing treatment – like breaking a vial of medicine, like having unusual pain when you shouldn’t.  They offer solace and advice when unusual things happen during the treatment process.

They will be the one who will be the one who rings you with your pregnancy test results – positive or negative. They will lead their ear in times of distress.  They will recognise when you are close to breaking point and get you in touch with a counseller of need be.  They may offer you some impartial advice and answer all your questions even though they have probably heard the same ones millions of time before.  They usually will also recommend those questions that you have that you should discuss with your doctor.

The nurses play an important role are the unsung heroes of the whole process.  In Friday, I discovered my nurse had moved on to look after another Doctors patients.  I was shocked – my trusted advisor was gone.  I now had to deal with a new nurse who knows nothing of my history, does not understand me or how I react to things.  This is a big change and one that I probably didn’t want to deal with now that I know I will soon be starting yet another IVF cycle.

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