One week from today I start injections for IVF #2. I never thought I would be a “multiple IVFer” so this just blows my mind. I was even more stupidly convinced that I had beaten the system after our first positive pregnancy test in January. I remember even telling Joe, this is great we’ll even have insurance money left to cover another IVF for our next baby. Foolish girl.
Anyway, now that we’re back on this path again there are two things that are weighing (somewhat) heavily on my mind. This is our last IVF that will be covered by insurance (we’ll be OOP for part of it, but I won’t know how much until the cycle is over). That said we need to decide how aggressive/risky we want to be at transfer.
{ start Lupron Wednesday 4/14 }
Last IVF we had 6 mature eggs at retrieval, by day 3 we were down to 5 embryos. Of our 5 remaining embryos only two made it to blast (one that was transferred = our BFP, and one that we had under observation for cryo but wasn’t strong enough to survive freeze/thaw). So basically only 1/3 of our embryos actually had the potential to be babies. If you’ve been through this process do you think of things like that?
Anyway, at our WTF appointment our RE suggested putting back 3 embryos this time and even hinted that depending on quality it would not be foolish to consider 4 embryos. I’m wrestling between the idea of being so aggressive that I endanger myself or our babies and suffering through another BFN or miscarriage.
{ start Follistim Saturday 4/24 }
The other issue I’m wrestling with is the idea of a 3DT or a 5DT. Last cycle our embryos were transferred on day 3. One of our embryos (as I mentioned earlier) was under observation for cryo, and even though it made it to blast stage it wasn’t strong enough to survive the process. Had we waited until day 5, that embryo would have been transferred back, and maybe I’d still be pregnant now.
Our embryologist thinks we should wait until day 5 this cycle, but our RE isn’t convinced and thinks a 3DT may still be the best scenario (he thinks embryos have the best conditions in utero). I am leaning toward a 5DT so that we know exactly what we’re working with, but I know plenty of girls who have gone to 5DT and still failed their cycle.
So much to think about. I’m ready to get this show on the road. The waiting is definitely the worst part of IVF (and infertility).
