I was first diagnosed with infertility at the age of 40. After one year of trying, we decided to go see a reproductive endocrinologist. He ordered a Hysterosalpingogram (HSG), which is a procedure that checks the shape of the uterus and the patency of the Fallopian tubes. It turned out that both of my Fallopian tubes were blocked, which lead to my infertility diagnosis. My doctor gave me two options: surgery to try and fix the blockage or remove both of my fallopian tubes. Surgery wouldn’t guarantee pregnancy and if I became pregnant, the chance of having an ectopic pregnancy would be higher. On the other hand, removing both of my Fallopian tubes would mean never being able to get pregnant naturally leaving IVF my only option to have a baby. I weighed both of my options and decided that removing my tubes would be the best option considering my age and circumstance.
Egg retrieval #1
On my initial visit to the IVF clinic, I had an ultrasound done to check my follicle count. I had 6 on my right ovaries and 4 on my left ovary, which was considered normal. I also had to get bloodwork done to make sure everything was within normal range. Everything came back normal except my vitamin D and my TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone). He placed me on vitamin d twice a day and Levothyroxine daily to bring down my level to less than 2.5. A TSH level higher than 2.5 can compromise the quality of the eggs retrieved. Once my labs came normalized, I started my fertility drugs. I was on Follistim and Menopur injections to stimulate follicles to develop and mature in the ovary. In addition, I was prescribed Ganirelix injections to prevent ovulation. 3 days prior to egg retrieval day, I gave myself an HCG trigger shot to stimulate the eggs to mature enough for egg retrieval before ovulation.
The results:
19 eggs retrieved
12 matured and fertilized
9 fertilized normally and became embryos
On Day 5, I got a call from the clinic saying that 5 of the embryos arrested and didn’t make it.
4 embryos were cryopreserved and sent to a lab to test for genetic disorders.
Out of the 4 embryos sent for testing, only one came back normal.
I was disappointed, but 1 is better than none!
Frozen Embryo Transfer #1
To prepare for the frozen embryo transfer, I had to start taking estradiol injections on day 2 of my period to help prepare the endometrium to accept the embryo. After about 2 weeks of being on estradiol, I went in for a transvaginal ultrasound to check the thickness of my endometrial lining and to do lab work to make sure my hormone levels were good. Once my lining was thick enough, I started taking progesterone in the form of suppositories and IM injections. Up until the day of the transfer, there were several labs drawn to check my hormone level and transvaginal ultrasounds done to check the lining of my uterus. We finally set our date for the embryo transfer!
The 2-week wait
The dreaded 2-week wait that I’ve been hearing about. I thought I was going to be able to handle it because I was working, however, all I could think about was whether my transfer was successful or not. I would google every single symptom that I had and probably read every single blog and community post on successful/unsuccessful IVF stories. By a week and half, I couldn’t stand it and ended up taking a pregnancy test. I saw a faint second line! I was so happy but still weary because I had read up about false positives. At week 2, I went in to get my HCG levels drawn to determine if I was pregnant. I got the call that afternoon that I was pregnant! My beta HCG came back positive at 56!! Don and I were so happy and relieved at the same time we cried. I went back in 2 days later to get a second HCG and my level came back at 95. This was devastating news because the level should have doubled. Still, it was rising, so my doctor wanted me to come back in 3 days. After 3 days, my HCG level came back at 145. Still rising, however, this time it wasn’t even close to double. He did a transvaginal ultrasound to check the growth and it showed that our baby had stopped growing. I was emotionally prepared for this news when our second beta didn’t double, but hearing it out loud was worse than I expected.
We lost our baby…..
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