So after reading million$baby’s blog the reality of IVF really sunk in for me. Insurance coverage or no insurance coverage I just feel like it would be foolhardy to dive in head first. I called my RE’s office and requested to switch nurses. My new nurse (who is also the IVF Coordinator), Jenn, is awesome. And if we pursue IVF down the road, I won’t have to switch nurses again.
After talking to Jenn and voicing my fears and frustrations, she agreed with me and said it would probably be better if we didn’t start with IVF for a variety of reasons. Her reasoning was that we are unexplained which means IUI may really work for us, IVF is very invasive and should really be a last resort procedure, and a few rounds of injectibles with IUI will give the practice some time to figure out how I respond to meds.
The really comforting part in all this is that because we do have insurance coverage for IVF, if I’m overstimmed we can convert my IUI cycle to IVF (instead of cancelling the cycle altogether) and the conversion will be covered.
Now Joe and I just have to decide which path we’ll take for our first IUI – are we going to do a Letrozole/Ovidrel/IUI cycle or are we going to do a Gonadatrophin (injectibles)/Ovidrel/IUI cycle? I’m leaning toward the injectibles because they’re more aggressive than Letrozole, but not as aggressive as IVF. Maybe we’ll do one Letrozole and then if that doesn’t work move on to injectibles?
I’d like to do three IUI’s before moving on with IVF. I feel like that will give my nurses and RE the best chance to get us pregnant without us really reaching the end of our ropes.
We’re still going to go to our IVF Orientation Class as planned on Monday, since there’s a strong chance we’ll still move on to IVF in the future (or that our cycle could be converted to IVF if we go with injects). This, and Jenn thought it would be good to really go in eyes wide open with our decision making. I hope that the IVF Class will really help further educate us and help us with the next steps.
IF still sucks, but for the first time I’m comfortable with where we’re headed.
