In vitro fertilisation Archives - Page 4 of 4

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.

The Inconviences of IVF

July 23, 2009 By Carol Leave a Comment

One of the most annoying aspects of IVF is organising your social life around the daily process of needles and injections.

This brings me to the events of last night which were just plain weird. For a start, I was in a library. Now this is not a place I would normally frequent. However, I happened to be at the library because I was attending an Internet marketing meeting on blogging! Yep – and this blog is the result.

In any case, I came to the library prepared with mini esky (ice box), ice pack, antiseptic swabs and syringe in tow. My plan was to escape my meeting at 8pm so I could duck off to the toilet and treat myself to another dose of Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH). Just want everyone wants to do. Not!

What was weird about the whole episode was that I felt like some druggie escaping off to get my next fix – especially since I have never been a user of illegal substances.

The location of the library certainly added to my overall feeling. For a start, the library was located in Fitzroy which is an inner city suburb of Melbourne. Fitzroy is quite eclectic and fashionable but I would also say it would probably have a higher than average proportion of druggies in the area. So it would be fair to say that this contributed to the overall weirdness of what I was doing.

It also felt strange injecting in such a public place away from the privacy of home. Fortunately, by the time I went to the toilet the library was closed to the public but I think that just added to the weirdness of my act.

In the back of my mind was the thought of being caught out in the random act of giving myself an injection. How would I handle it? What would I say? How would the person react? Would they think I was a user? I don’t think I had a readily available answer.

And fortunately, my act was done undetected with no unwelcome intruders. Phew!!!