Embryo Archives - The IVF Club

Fertilization Results Day 4

November 23, 2009 By Carol Leave a Comment

Well the moment of truth has arrived. As the clinic has not been accessible over the weekend, I learnt today that we have 8 remaining embryos. Essentially, the development of one embryo was arrested (I think this means it stopped developing) and the other two were growing a bit slowly and were behind. As I well know, a lot can happen between day 4 and day 5. Last time we had 13 day 3 embryos and only ended up with 1 by Day 5.

The funny thing is that I have this spreadsheet thing going on where I record all my IVF results – from egg collection – to how many is left at day 3 and day 5. Based on our track record, I actually predicted that we would end up with 8 embryos by Day 3. My next prediction is that we will only end up with 1 by the time we get down to it. I’d prefer not to have to make this prediction and I could be wrong. It could be worse – we might end up with none or we might end up with more. Having more would be a pleasant surprise.

This time, we had been thinking of having two embryos transferred. However, I have not been feeling well the last few days. I’ve still got a sore tummy and I have been waking up to go to the toilet to urinate about 3 times a night. This is not normal for me. Given this, I called the clinic and let them know. I didn’t want to risk transfer if I was unwell. The end result was that I had to visit the clinic again today and have an ultrasound and blood test. Everything came up normal even though I don’t really feel my normal self. The ultrasound revealed that potentially I may have a spot on my gall bladder and this would be worth checking out, however, it shouldn’t impact the transfer and I am still good to go for tomorrow. So my dilemma now is whether to transfer one embryo or two? Might have to sit on that one until I see how I feel tomorrow.

Embryo Transfer Entourage

October 5, 2009 By Carol Leave a Comment

On Saturday I had my last frozen embryo transferred into my uterus. Nothing unusual about that apart from the fact that were several people present during the transfer that normally would not be there.

Besides the usual suspects of having the Doctor, Nurse and Embryologist in the room, I also brought three other very important people in my life along – my husband, my mother-in-law and my mother who had flown in from Perth to help me celebrate my recent 40th birthday.

Picture this. Three scientists plus my two mothers and my husband all watching as I put my legs in stirrups and spread em! Who would have thought this was possible. After 7 rounds of IVF and several doctors, nurses and embryologists later, you become de-sensitized to normal thoughts of modesty. Seriously though, it wasn’t so bad.

My family had back row seats and were solidly behind me when all this action was taking place. They had the privilege of watching the big screen – only trouble was that there was no Gold Class seats. Lets just say that the tiny little room was somewhat cramped.

In any case, all went on without a hitch. My mother was treated to a once in a lifetime opportunity for watching her potential grandmother hood on the ultrasound. My mother-in-law got to see science in action. My husband on the other hand was over it.

Maybe having the support around might act as a good luck charm. Who knows – maybe I am suspicious but my mother is a devout Christian so I figured getting her and God into the act might help my cause. Am I clutching at straws? Probably!

Next steps – live in the two week waiting zone.

IVF and Your Sex Life

September 10, 2009 By Carol Leave a Comment

It’s a pretty delicate topic I know but IVF is not conducive a good sex life. For a start, when you are doing a full stimulated cycle, the following passion killers are likely to, and do, happen:

1. You may bleed for several days after you expect your period to end because you have been taking a contraceptive pill since the start of your period
2. You experience intermittent spotting during your cycle whilst you are taking hormonal treatment
3. Quite likely you may bleed after egg collection and will be feeling quite sore and bloated for a couple of days
4. Your breasts may become sensitive to touch so any foreplay is just out of the question
5. Because you are inserting Crinone Gel to line your uterus, you worry that a pile of it will end up on your sheets (it does!)
6. You decide to avoid intercourse for the for 24 hours after transfer (just in case the embryo falls out)
7. Both of you will continue to avoid intercourse cause you are both scared your partners penis might dislodge the embryo (As if! But as IVF is so darn expensive you both don’t want to repeat the process)
8. You then get your period

I think this just about covers the two months when you are cycling. Of course, you do have breaks in between when things get back to normal – whatever that is. But after several cycles of doing this, combined with all that previous experience of trying to conceive, you sex life just diminishes. You know you need it to bring sexy back but it all becomes too hard during this time. Its pretty ironic that this is the case, given that the old testicles need to be used to produce good quality sperm. See my blog on sperm titled Keeping the River Flowing).

The good thing about not doing IVF: Bringing sexy back.

IVF Conception Still Possible

September 2, 2009 By Carol Leave a Comment

A visit to my IVF specialist revealed that he still thinks my husband and I will conceive. So despite being nearly 40 and despite my husbands sperm problems, he still thinks this is a realistic goal.

It’s funny how a Doctor can be so confident when after 7 failures, you are not. So after asking all the probing questions, he still feels we will get pregnant. Apparently, he has done every test possible to me so from his perspective there is no reason why I should not fall pregnant. IVF apparently helps overcome male infertility issues so theoretically, there is no reason why we shouldn’t be able to become parents.

This makes things a little frustrating as it seems everything that should be working isn’t. I guess it puts us in no mans land. The other annoying thing is that IVF is not cheap – not by a long shot so every failure means spending more money on another round. Whilst, you can’t put a cost on what I perceive to be a joy in having a baby, it does place a financial strain on your budget.

So with this in mind we have decided to continue down this path and try again. Fortunately, we have one frozen embryo left from the cycle I did in January. So apart from giving my body a rest from the drugs it means we will use our last remaining embryo. So if this fails, another stimulated cycle is on the cards. In the meantime, I will continue to focus on having a good nutritional diet, no alcohol or coffee – basically following the suggestions in the Pregnancy Miracle ebook I purchased a few weeks ago.

Questions To Ask Your IVF Specialist

August 21, 2009 By Carol Leave a Comment

After seven failed attempts at IVF, there comes a time when you have to ask some pretty hard questions to your Doctor.

I’ve been too frightened too ask – maybe I am not going to like what I might hear. But my visit with the Counsellor today did help in exploring what our options and questions we might ask our Doctor.

The questions are:
– Given our history and 7 failed attempts, what is the likelihood of us conceiving?
– Why do you think we lose so many embryos between day 3 and day 5?
– Do you think it has something to do with my egg quality or my husbands sperm?
– Should we try giving Day 3 embryos a go instead? (or Day 5 if relevant)
– Is there any kind of genetic testing that you think we should do?
– Are there any other tests that you think we should explore?
– Should my husband see an Andrologist?
– Should we have his sperm tested again?
– Are there any other alternatives that we should explore?

I am sure there are some that I have missed but these are the questions that seemed most relevant after repeated IVF failures.

Feel free to post any other questions you might have. We can all learn from other peoples questions.