Reproductive Health Archives

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 at 40

August 27, 2009 By Carol Leave a Comment

Call me ignorant but after months of worrying about not being about to get pregnant before the age of 40, I am not worried anymore.

A sure sign of this is that after months of procastinating with the Police Record Check forms so I can start IVF, I have finally sent my form in complete with cheque. Somehow I don’t think I will be getting it back in time for the 1st September deadline when the new laws take effect.

Apart from the fact that my husband’s form has not been sent in yet, I imagine there will be a backlog of applications from the late rush of couples who have also submitted their forms. Obviously, holding off like me in the hope that they won’t have to do another round of IVF. In any case, I guess it means we might start the next round a little later.

It’s strange but I am less perturbed by the later start this time. In the past, I have pushed my body so hard, doing IVF with only a month break in between cycles. Once, I did a cycle back to back with no break. Now that was hard. All of my attempts, of course, have been done in my futile attempt to racie against my biological clock.

But the truth is, I will be turning 40 at the end of September. I am already in the statistically significant, lower end of the IVF success bracket. A delay of one month is hardly going to make a big difference. I think my body also needs a break to get back to its natural rhythm. The scary thing is that I’ve been doing this so frequently that I don’t even know what my natural rhythm is.

Apart, from that IVF is hard – I am in no rush to start again only to get another negative result. I need emotional space to come to terms with the last seven failed attempts. Maybe my birthday this year will not be about trying to conceive – maybe it will be about relaxing and enjoying myself. Now that would be a nice change.

Tips To Improve Male Infertility

August 23, 2009 By Carol Leave a Comment

At a recent human reproduction and embryology conference in Europe (http://www.eshre.com), some interesting findings on Male Factor Infertility were uncovered.

One of the studies titled “Keep the River Flowing” was an exploratory study investigating the effect of daily ejaculation for 7 days and sperm DNA damage. Anyway, the study uncovered that 3 days of abstinence followed by 7 days consecutive days of ejaculation, resulted in reduced sperm DNA fragmentation (down from 33% to 21.8%), increased motility and improved morphology.

It was concluded that sex / ejaculation for 7 days leading up to and including ovulation during a normal female reproductive cycle may then increase chances of conception. The implication being that if the same thing was applied leading up to a sperm collection for IVF/IUI/ICSI then the chances of conception may also be improved. There is the usual caveat that more studies are needed to look at this further but I don’t need any convincing. We’ve tried many things – might as well give this a go and keep the river flowing as well. My poor husband is going to be exhausted (he works full time and studies part-time)!

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.

Day 3 Versus Day 5 Embryos

August 16, 2009 By Carol Leave a Comment

The debate between Day 3 or Day 5 embryos continues. I have always done Day 5 blastocyst transfers. The theory being that scientists can monitor the embryo for longer so that they can assess which ones are most healthy. This allows them to process and screen out those embryos that are unlikely to survive and are the most healthier. Although, it is not that they are screened out – they just don’t survive.

The risk is that you can lose most if not all of them. Certainly this is something we have experienced. From 19 eggs and 15 fertilised, we were left with only 1 Day 5 blastocyst. The implication being that if this failed to implant we would need to go through the whole process again.

We have now had 7 transfers in total (9 blastocysts) and every one of the them has failed to implant. They say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over again. Maybe we are insane. It led me to ask the question of my nurse, should we do day 3 transfers instead. Apart from the fact that she suggested I discuss this with my Doctor, her answer was interesting. She said some women have had no luck with Day 5 blastocysts and have tried Day 3 and got successfully pregnant. Others have had had the same result as Day 5. My guess is that there is no easy answer but I am going to give the Day 3 ones a go. Maybe there are better off in my body than some cultured medium.