IVF Diary Vol III: 10-15 Mar 16

March 15, 20164 Comments

Medication(s) administered and dosage(s). Ovulation Control Pill (OCP) Reclipsen 0.15MG-30MCG x 1 per day

Medical procedures undertaken. Nil

What are my symptoms? I have had a really bad upset tummy since the weekend. I have no clue what is causing it…it could just be a really bad case of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Usually stress makes my tummy worse, but actually, I have just stopped being stressed! So maybe my body is coming down from stress and is having a big WAH at me. Or I got the bug that everyone else seems to be coming down with. Or. it is the melatonin…because there is definitely a correlation with tummy upset and starting the melatonin. A quick search indicates that melatonin could actually be a treatment for IBS! But mostly for those who suffer with IBS-C (Constipation) not IBS-D (Me – Diarrhea) . I will have to do a bit more digging and see how it goes over the next few days.

How do I feel today? Work stress is mostly over! I have a lot of travelling to be doing, but it’s not stressful travel! I have cancelled a work trip to Germnay in anticipation that I will be having my egg retrieval surgery that week! And now I can schedule in some of that leave I am owed from the leave I cancelled from cycle 2! Woohooo! This is good news.

My medications have yet to arrive, there was a slight mix up with the nurse ordering the wrong drugs. So they are supposed to be arriving tomorrow by FedEx….the only problem is I am currently in DC and am driving the 4 hours back first thing, so I hope the meds dont arrive in the morning because I won’t be there to sign for them! That wouldn’t be a problem if I didn’t need my Lupron on Thursday morning!! And the pharmacy called this afternoon (when my order is supposed to be on the way!) to tell me my co-pay was high. Well DUH…no higher than usual. Fortunately I caught the phone before I headed into work without my phone for the day, I may never have spoken to them until it was too late!!!! They have never checked with me before, but I think it hit the over $500 mark this time because I am getting more of the expensive gonal-f 😦 The old newbie infertile me would be stressed about it. But I am not, I am a seasoned veteran about these things now, so I am pretty chilled out about it. I can’t control it, so what ever happens, happens. (Please Please Please FedEx arrive in the afternoon!!!)

Any results? Not yet….my follow up appointment from my hysteroscopy surgery is on Thursday afternoon. But I am anticipating the all clear.

What’s next? Lupron injections start Thursday morning.

Weight. I am terrified to get on the scales:-(

Waist. Shrinking a bit after all the diarrhea 😦

Boobs. NSTR.

The Final Countdown!!! I decided to add in a calendar countdown so if people read just one entry they know what stage I am at in the whole cycle! Plus I love crossing things off.

*Notes. I take First Response Reproductive Health multi vitamin gummies (pre-natal), 5mg Melatonin at bed time and CoQ10 200mg gummies daily. NSTR = Nothing Significant To Report.

IVF Diary Vol III begins!

March 12, 201617 Comments

Here we are again. It’s like deja vu, right? Seriously, Christmas seemed like ages ago, but somehow IVF round 2 only felt like a week or two ago. It’s all come around again quickly for us. I don’t feel quite so ready for it – mentally, my mind has been at work, physically, my body has been at work (hahaha!) what I really mean is – I need to do some exercise!!!

I started my Birth Control Pills on Thursday evening and phoned the nurse who is covering for my nurse whilst she is on leave to schedule in my IVF cycle. She gave me the important dates and told me she would order my medications. I put down the phone with dates in my hand, excited…then a little later realised that she hadn’t asked me what meds I had left over from my last cycle! Aghhh! And it was very late friday afternoon so I knew there was no chance of catching her in time. Also, I haven’t received notification from the Pharmacy yet that my prescription has arrived with them and I need my Lupron by Thursday morning! I am in Washington DC for two days next week, so my only real day to receive by FedEx my giant box of medication goodies in time would be Monday. Aghhhhhh!!!!! I hate this last minute panic thing!!! I am sure it will all be fine and the script will be with the Pharmacy today. Zen Dani……Zen.

I had my last alcoholic beverage last night – a wonderful glass or two or red wine. Bye bye alcohol! Although this cycle has creeped up on me, I am feeling excited. This is it. It’s all or nothing now!!!! Wish us luck!!!!! Eeeeeeek….

IVF cycle 3 Calendar

Chris told me I was too graphic in my last post about my period, so here is a Too Much Information Warning…….!!!! Don’t read past here if you don’t like reading about periods! I’ve been popping the painkillers for my period and surviving OK, the short sharp pains have gone, thankfully, it’s just the typical period pains now. But I did have something happen to me that I’ve never had before. I passed a ball of old thick dark black blood about the size of a large grape. It wasn’t clotty, but thick and sticky, kind of like a truffle! I got a little freaked out, but then remembered that putting a camera into your uterus and taking a biopsy from the the uterine lining 9 days before your period is probably not a normal every month occurrence; so I should not be surprised my body is doing some weird things. I have a post-op appointment next week, so I will mention it just to be sure. (Things I never thought I’d write about and share to the public world – my period!)

Miscarriage & the shameful tabloids

March 12, 2016March 12, 20165 Comments

I love a quick flick through the trashy magazines whilst I queue up at the supermarket*, and this week I was saddened by the headline of the Star magazine:

“Gwen’s Baby Heartbreak Emergency Visit To Hospital”

“This was our last chance to start a family”

“Gwen terrified Blake will leave her”

So I picked it up and actually bought the magazine. I thought it would be about a personal account of Gwen’s struggle with miscarriage. Maybe a celeb was being open about how terrible miscarriage is and spreading awareness. So I made an impromptu purchase.

They had me.

A few moments later a couple queued up behind me and the lady also caught sight of this headline; she was quietly speaking to her husband about how sad that is…and then….she started crying. Her husband consoled her and asked- why are you crying? I couldn’t quite hear her response through the tears, but it made me feel like crying for her, for me and for poor Gwen Stefani.

Later that day when I got home and started to read the article about Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton’s relationship and their ‘heartbreak’ (I had no clue they were even dating! That’s what happens you get rid of your cable TV to save money! All my celeb gossip knowledge gone!). The magazine article explained how the couple have been “trying to conceive for four months” (BTW – they have only been dating for four months!) and now they may have to “abandon their hopes for a child together”. Anybody having to abandon hopes of conceiving their own child is a very sad situation, even if it was only for four months they tried (Gwen is 47 and has 3 boys her youngest is 3 years old). The Star’s secret source apparently told the magazine that “[Gwen] doesn’t want to talk about it, but her friends are afraid she might have had a miscarriage or was told that she can’t have any more kids.”

What the *%!% ??? …..so basically Star magazine, you created a headline out of some random source who said Gwen *might* have had a miscarriage. MIGHT have had a miscarriage. Or she was told she can’t have kids. Oh and “she doesn’t want to talk about it” – yeh she wouldn’t want to talk about it to YOU, the ‘secret Star magazine source’. Because you are already doing a shitty thing and speculating to a magazine about poor Gwen’s personal family life.

This source then claims that “Gwen and Blake are so in love and have been trying like crazy to conceive a baby. They thought it happened – she told him she had all the signs of being pregnant. They were absolutely ecstatic and couldn’t wait for the doctor to confirm the happy news.” And here comes the clincher of the story “Gwen must be devastated. I think she’s scared Blake will leave her if she can’t have his baby.”

Am I living in cuckoo land or is this story just outrageous??!! I can only imagine that if Gwen has seen this headline she would be devastated that this magazine published this story about her miscarrying in this manner – whether there was any tiny bit of truth behind it or not.

It turns out (unsurprisingly) this article was simply untrue. This has to be the worst kind of low down tabloid story I’ve read in a long time, clutching at straws and making something up like that is just so wrong in many many ways. Gwen & Blake I wish you could sue these big arses for this terrible story. But I know you probably won’t because you would have to drag your private life about your personal family building through the courts. And you have only been together for 4 months. No one wants that at this stage of their relationship, especially as they have been through their own messy personal divorces not long ago. I am so sorry to you Gwen, and Blake. I am sorry I bought that magazine, I didn’t know.

It’s just shameful Star magazine. I am boycotting all your publications and your sister ones like OK! too. I admit I love a bit of celeb gossip, but this isn’t gossip, it’s just heartbreaking 😦

*US translation – I love a quick flick through the trashy magazines whilst I am in line at the grocery store.

I love surprises!

March 11, 201618 Comments

Yesterday I was complaining about random sharp pains in my uterus, unusually painful that I was doubling over. It turns out there was a good reason!

I was trying to get a piece of work finished that I needed to send out before I left for the day, and I was battling with a Microsoft word table, merging and splitting cells over and over (give me an excel table anyday and I’m all over it!!). I was fighting time that was quickly slipping away because I needed to be at my dodgeball season finale tournament!!! So, as you do when you are doing a mundane task of formatting, copy and pasting a crappy table, I needed to pee. Of course, about an hour before I started this task I needed to pee already, but I was too into my work! And for something I thought was going to take 10 mins, took me over an hour. I could feel myself busting to go to the loo, but I kept holding off!! It had been an unusually warm March day, and so I had been sweating a little, and with that and working my socks off I thought I was just sweating down there – yes down there in my lady underwear!!! Plus the added issue of needing to pee I also wondered if I had just let out a bit of urine! But when I eventually stood up to pack up my things and go home I quickly realised – nope…I was bleeding! What a perfect time to be wearing light grey tight trousers!!! 😫

So that was my long story of my period surprised me. All the pains make sense now. I guess I’m just having a really crappy once every so often in a lifetime period, probably also as a result of being after the hysteroscopy. It’s only 4 days early…so not that bad! I’ll call my nurse tomorrow to schedule IVF round 3! Yippeeee!

Oh and my other surprise today? My bill for the biopsy from the hysteroscopy arrived. My clinic forgot to tell me about that $500 bill I would have to pay!

Pain after hysteroscopy

March 10, 201613 Comments

I’m pretty much used to various pains from my irritable bowel syndrome and my painful periods…but since my hysteroscopy I’ve been having really short sharp pains that radiate from uterus for a second, then disappear. It’s been random and a couple of times a day, and so haven’t thought anything more of it. But today at work I’ve doubled over a couple of times, noticeably in front of colleagues, and then been absolutely fine. The pain just disappears. I’m getting closer to the start of my period so I guess that is why it’s getting worse. I’m not very good at knowing whether this is normal or not, so when I speak with the nurse again I’ll ask. I didn’t need any pain killers at all after the procedure last week, so maybe it’s completely unrelated to the hysteroscopy or maybe this is to be expected ☹

On a slightly related note, I’ve been figuring out when our third IVF will be with the new Lupron down regulation protocol. Depending on when my period starts this week, we could be starting stims the 1/2 April or the week after that! I’ve got the ball rolling with pre-approval from my insurance, I’ve got my birth control pills ready, I’ve stocked up on CoQ10 and new this cycle – melatonin! I’ve checked with my doctor and I can start the birth control pills before my results from the hysteroscopy appointment next week, if all things are good on that front I then start the Lupron for 2 weeks. I’ve also been clearing my work diary too and scheduling in some leave that I postponed from cycle 2. Fingers crossed, things at work will be a little easier going.

The tears

March 6, 2016March 6, 20167 Comments

I woke up like any other morning, rolled over and checked my phone to see what the time was. I can’t help but check my notifications on my phone in case something exciting has happened whilst I’ve been sleeping (a pretty bad habit of mine)…if there is a facebook notification then I open up facebook. This morning, bleary eyed I opened up facebook and there was a stream of lovely photos of my friends in the UK celebrating mothers’ day (it’s not mothers day here in the US)…it warmed my heart. I like mothers’ day, I’ve never found mother’s day difficult whilst trying to conceive. Yes it kind of sucks that I’m not a mum yet, but I feel more association with the day to my mother and celebrating her. But……

This morning as I woke up, for some reason when I read a post about someone who was pregnant and celebrating being a mother, it triggered me. I thought about how far along I would be if huckleberry had decided to implant a few inches lower in my uterus rather than where ever else he was hiding probably in my fallopian tube (we never found out exactly). I would be 32 weeks pregnant with a nice bump. I would be waking up, probably complaining about some pregnancy ailment. I would be asking huckleberry how he felt like behaving today. We would probably have the nursery almost ready…..maybe I would have bought that adorable onesie I saw last week in TJ Maxx…maybe, just maybe, I would consider my self eligible for mothers’ day today. And so this morning, I quietly had a bit of a cry thinking about these things of what might have been.

I’m not to dwell on the ‘what ifs’…but yet it reminded me that there are many, many women out there who have mother hearts. We might not be able to see them, but they are loved by many. So to you all…happy mothers’ day X

mother's day.jpg

A week of celebrating my loves

March 5, 2016March 5, 20169 Comments

This week has been chaotic, stressful, exhausting and emotional both in my personal and work life. It was like being on the triple loop-de-loop part of the roller coaster of infertility with a crowd of people squirting water into my face as I go round and round. Ughh I feel sick!! My roller coaster journey hasn’t stopped just yet, but it’s feeling a little gentler this weekend!

But amongst all that chaos there are three people in my life who are always there for me that I am celebrating this week – My husband, my mummy and my granny!

My husband.

Four years ago I married my best friend, my confidant and my very handsome lover, Chris. It was an amazing day! We celebrated our love and our commitment to each other with all our friends and family around us. The sun came out and we danced the night away to an epic Ceilidh band. I remember every minute of it, I hope I never forget second of it. Little did we know on that day what the next four years had in store for us! We had no clue we would be moving our lives to the USA and starting from scratch. We had no clue we would lose touch with some of our friends, and make some friendships even stronger despite the distance. We had no clue we would be making new friends. We had no clue we would struggle to grow our family. We had no clue we would miss these friends and family that surrounded us that special day. And through all of this, our love continues to grow stronger day by day in ways I never thought possible.

Thank you Chris for being so loving to me!

The cat who got the cream!

My mummy.

I have known and loved my mum longer than anybody else in the world. We have had our fair share of disagreements….OK….some of them might actually be arguments! But I can say that probably 95% of the time they were of my doing as a teenager I caused despair with my mother! We are also chalk and cheese in some other things in life and times, I have wondered sometimes how we are related, but I guess that is normal in every parent-child relationship! The important thing is, my mum always supported me in my differences and encouraged me to seek out the best and different opportunities in life – even when she didn’t really approve (I could tell those disapproving looks!). I don’t think I would be so happy and successful now without her support.

My mother has been through some very tough times in her life and has battled breast cancer – twice. She has also been through many ups and downs in her relationships with my fathers. Simply put, my mum is a fighter. The most important thing my mother has taught me as I grew up, probably unknowingly to her and maybe today she will only realise that I credit this to her, is problem solving skills – and not giving up on wicked problems. I learnt this skill from observation and understanding the effects of successfully solving a problem ….it was a nurtured skill, not given, not genetic. Often I’ve wondered how I ended up becoming an analyst, but it makes a lot of sense given what I have learned from my mum. And there is one other thing that I admire about my mother – and that is her care and dedication to many of her friends and her children at her job.

Thank you mummy for being you!!! Happy Mothers Day!!

My granny.

My gran is the second person in my life I have known the longest after my mum (my mum wins because I hung around inside her for 9 months before meeting the rest of the world :-p). My gran is one of the most humble and selfless ladies I have ever known in my life. My gran has taught me the values and standards I try to live by in life and how to be considerate for other people. I think this is why today I find it so hard to fathom why other people can be so mean and horrible to other human beings (i.e. trolls). But there is something else that I think my gran might not realise she has taught me to be in life… that is fearless. My gran IS fearless. My gran is not afraid to try new things or think of things in a different light. I am pretty sure every time I speak to my gran she has been doing something different, something new – it probably seems like nothing to her – but to me that is amazing. Gran is coming to visit us in a few months time and I am soooo excited that we can share our USA experiences with her! My granny and papa looked after me and my brothers regularly as we grew up and their unconditional love has always been my safe place that I think about when I use calming techniques.

Although my gran isn’t my mother, she is my mummy’s mother and so on this Mother’s day I want to thank you granny for everything you do!!!!

The hysteroscopy

March 1, 2016March 1, 201611 Comments

I am insanely missing my blog right now! I have been so busy with work and other things that my blogging has suffered, and I am constantly thinking about things I want to write about and get out of my head, I just haven’t been able to. There is definitely a truth in writing being a form of therapy…a therapy I’ve come to rely on and when it’s not there I start to get itchy. Anyway, I am here! Briefly albeit 😦

Today I woke up at 4AM and could not get back to sleep, I won’t lie, I was a little anxious about the hysteroscopy procedure today. We got up at 5AM so I could shower before inserting the cytotec pills into my vagina! Nice. We arrived at the clinic at 6:30AM and the nurses were great as usual. I was first on the surgery list, a few other ladies were there for their egg retrievals after me. I got changed into my beautiful one size fits all, modesty covering gown and climbed into a bed with freshly warmed sheets and a couple of extra because I get so so cold in that prep/recovery room! I signed my life away and took the obligatory pregnancy test. It would be miraculous if I was pregnant and we all joked about how we all would be happy if I had to be sent home because it turned out to be positive. No such luck.

The nurse prepared the back of my right hand for the IV needle. I have wonderful veins, but the nurse managed to bust it and it started swelling up like a balloon. I started to feel faint like I was about to pass out. I’m not a needle fan so watching this made me feel sick. So she tried again but on the inside of my forearm. She got the needle in, but it felt really, really weird. She wasn’t happy with it, so she called another nurse to come take a look and try on my other hand. I was feeling really light headed at this point, so she lay me down almost completely. The other nurse had done my IVs both times previously, so I started to feel a little better when she attempted to insert the needle in the back of my left hand. She also used lidocaine to numb the area first so I was instantly less nervous because I couldn’t feel the needle jabbing around inside me! Finally, the IV was in!

Pre-sedation! The nurses wrapped me up all nice and snuggly

Chris came back to keep me company whilst we waited for my doctor to arrive. After about 20 minutes she arrived and asked if I had any questions; I may have mentioned this before but she has a real awkward bed side manner, it is actually now growing on me! Then the anesthesiologist gave me a cocktail of drugs through my IV, and I started to feel like I had 4 or 5 strong margaritas (apparently margaritas was what he was putting through my IV!). I was wheeled on my bed through to the operating room, and I concentrated really hard on looking around the room to see what it was like. But that lasted 30 seconds and I was out. Next thing I knew, I was waking up with Chris next to me, and everyone was laughing and joking at me because I had apparently been dancing to Elton John music in the surgery. Hmmmm. OK, if that’s what you say! I think it might actually be credible thing I’d do!

I vaguely remember them also saying that everything looked good on the camera and they had taken a biopsy to be sure. I had to ask Chris later if I imagined this conversation because I wasn’t sure if I had dreamed it!

I was really, really sleepy coming out of this cocktail of sedation drugs compared to my egg retrievals. I struggled to wake up and felt very woozy. I asked the nurse if the drugs were different, but she said they were the same, they may have given me a little more this time, or just being tired and stressed can make recovery time longer. Well, both of those things are true so I guess that explained it. After an hour of coming out of the operating room, I was ready to be driven home. We stopped off at Panera bread to buy some breakfast treats. I also ordered a decaf caramel latte and when I took a sip of it I was convinced it had no coffee in it at all! It just tasted like steamed milk to me. Chris tried it and said that it definitely had coffee in it. I didn’t believe him, miffed, I didn’t drink anymore of it until I got home, when this time I took a sip it definitely had coffee in it! So something weird was going on with my taste buds! I attempted to eat my giant cinnamon roll, but my mouth was sooooooooooo dry I could barely swallow a mouthful. My throat is sore and my mouth dry now still! Well at least this time I don’t have a drippy nose! Ah well, I think I would rather have been sedated than have none, so I can’t complain in the grander scheme of things.

So once again, everything looks normal. We still have no explanation as to what may be wrong. I am pleased that there is nothing obviously wrong with my uterus (well, I am still waiting for the results of the endometrieal biopsy they took whilst they were in there today!).

Tomorrow I will phone and see what the plan is for starting IVF round 3 because my period is due to start 3 days before my results appointment, so I need to see if they will start me on down regulation before the results. I also don’t really know much about their lupron down regulation protocol and how long they do it for.

For now I have a very busy week ahead of me, but I have a quieter weekend coming, so I hope to catch up with the blogging then and get me some blog therapy in!

The Pre Hysteroscopy Surgery Appointment

February 25, 2016February 25, 201615 Comments

The nurse called me back and directed me to the toilet. I told her I had literally just gone to the toilet 2 minutes before she called me and that I apologised profusely that I did not know I was required to do a pregnancy pee test! Whoops!!! But the silly thing is that almost two weeks ago we did a blood test after IVF cycle 2 and it was a big fat negative. I am currently on Cycle Day 11 so it would actually be a miracle if I was pregnant right now!! But hey, I guess stranger things have happened. The nurse took my blood pressure and temperature as usual, but this time we did something different! A finger prick to test my hemoglobin levels. I told her it’s always fun to try something new at the clinic, just to mix it up a bit! I suggested a fertility test card bingo game, I might be on way my way to winning by now!! Winning what exactly, I’m not sure…

The nurse explained that she was going to order in to my pharmacy a prescription of two cytotec pills that I need insert vaginally an hour before arriving for my hysteroscopy next week (basically I will need to do that at 0530 on the day of the procedure!!! :-s). Cytotec is actually primarily used to prevent stomach ulcers when taking Non Sterodial Anti Inflammatory Drugs such as Ibuprofen or aspirin. But cytotec does have an off label use – to ‘ripen the cervix’ (Haha I love the fact that one ‘ripens the cervix’ like an apple or banana) Basically it helps dilate the cervix so it is easier for the camera to get into the uterus. So this adds 4 types of drugs I’ve used during infertility treatment that is off label use – Letrozole, vivelle dot estrogen patches, methotrexate and now the cytotec. Off label use means that the FDA hasn’t approved that drug for the manner in which the doctor has prescribed it. But all of these drugs are commonly used off label, so I am not worried about it. But at no point have I ever been told these are drugs are being prescribed off label. It’s an interesting practice! I digress….

After being prodded and poked by the nurse I saw my doctor who went over the procedure with me and updated my medical history. The procedure is relatively simple. I arrive at 0630 AM at the surgery operating room, they get me prepped and ready in a fabulous gown. No eating or drinking after midnight until after the procedure. No make up, jewellery etc. Similar to the egg retrieval. The anesthetist will give me a cocktail of sedation drugs, probably similar to ones to the egg retrieval. Once I am knocked out, they insert a camera through my cervix into my uterus – there are no cuts required. Then they take a look around. If there is anything there that shouldn’t be there, they will remove it there and then. They will probably also take a biopsy of my uterus. The whole procedure typically lasts 15 minutes. Then I am back out of surgery into recovery for about an hour for the sedation to wear off, then I am driven home by my lovely, patient, husband. So it really is a quick and simple procedure. I might be in a bit of pain afterwards, but there is no requirement for me to rest afterwards, however, I won’t return to work until the next day because of the anesthesia drugs.

Simples!

Finally after my doctor gave me the low down and I signed my life away for all potential risks, I moved to the business admin office to pay my dues. Here is the complicated bit.

My insurance provider is United Healthcare. Well kind of. My actual insurance company is Allianz. I work for an international organisation where the majority of its employees work in Europe, but there are a small number of us here living in the US, so although Allianz provides us with worldwide coverage, it doesn’t have a primary market in the US. So, Allianz pays United Healthcare to be the ‘front man’ for all of us employees who live in the US. This means that Allianz gets access to all the in-network negotiated benefits and doesn’t have to worry about administration costs of billing etc in the US. So all my healthcare providers bill to United, United then bill Allianz.

Have I lost you yet???!!

For anything dental or vision I have to pay for it upfront then claim it back from Allianz, then they re-imburse me 90%. But I also have the choice of paying for any other healthcare service upfront and then claiming it back directly from Allianz, I don’t have to go through United. Most of the time this isn’t beneficial because of the in-network negotiated costs can sometimes be ridiculously discounted so it is better to go through United. Except in the case of my hysteroscopy….

United demand that the hysteroscopy procedure is performed at a hospital and not the clinic. If it is not performed at a hospital they won’t pay up. If I went to the hospital, there is a longer wait time, particularly co-ordinating it so my doctor from the clinic can go to the hospital to do the procedure. Then there is the high cost of doing it in a hospital – approximately $20 000! Now, there would be in-network discounts on that, but still that is a lot of money when you compare it to what my clinic charges – just $1300 if you self pay. Also, it is also far more convenient to have the procedure done at the clinic, especially as I know their surgery room well now! So it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out what needed to be done. Today I payed the $1300 ($400 of it in cash for the anesthetist, sounds dodgy right??!) , and then I will claim that back from Allianz directly in a couple of weeks time when I get the itemised bill. Allianz don’t care where I have it done as long as it doesn’t cost more than the limit. This made me think may be I could pay for all my IVF treatment upfront and claim it back – I reckon I could save about $500 if I did that. But then I remember how many bills I got through and realised that there is no way I could easily track all of that and then track all those claims to Allianz in addition to also handle the pre-approval process. I did that for my IUIs and it was a headache. It’s not worth the stress. Even if it were to give me a crap load of credit card points!!!!

Insurance in the US – what an absolute nightmare. But I think I probably have it easy despite the unusual arrangement we have with United & Allianz. I have it easy because I have amazing infertility coverage, and for that I am truly grateful.

Anyway, here I am, ready to go now for my hysteroscopy procedure next Tuesday!!! Who’d have thought I’d be excited for a diagnostic procedure that requires anesthesia! This is what infertility does to a woman, it turns you into a masochist-craaaazy!

Average number of blastocysts per IVF cycle

February 21, 201624 Comments

It’s a really simple question – what is the average number of blastocysts per IVF cycle? After our failed IVF cycle I posted a status update in my local resolve support group’s facebook page, I explained what had happened with our cycle: 14 eggs retrieved, 11 mature, 11 fertilised, 2x 5 Day blastocysts transferred (5BB & 5CC) on Day 5, 9 still alive on day 5, but 0 were of sufficient quality for cryopreservation. Some ladies commented how they had similar results with 0 embryos making it to the freezer, and one lady posed the very good question how common is it to have 0 make it to the freezer? Perhaps it is more common than we think? So it got me thinking…at no point has my doctor said what a typical number of eggs, embryos or blastocysts she would expect out of a cycle for us – the only stats we were ever told was all about our likelihood of a successful pregnancy from 1 cycle of IVF, and ultimately, a live birth. And of course, that is the only statistic we only really care about, right? This holds true, until you get a Big Fat Negative (BFN), then the other statistics start to matter and grind at you.

So I looked into it, and asked google – what is the average number of blastocysts per IVF cycle? But I couldn’t find an easy answer, or at least one that I held great confidence in. I’m the kind of person who needs to see the supporting evidence, and not just some seemingly arbitrary numbers some random person has posted on a website. But although I didn’t find any national statistics per se, what I did find, made me feel a whole lot better about our last cycle.

The statistics that the Pacific Fertility Center in Canada are claiming are [1]:

11 – Average number of eggs retrieved

9 – Average number of mature eggs

7 – Average number of eggs that fertilise (approximately 80%)

7 – Average number of fertilised eggs that will form embryos (98%)

7 – Average number of embryos on Day 3 of culture

3.5 – Average number of blastocycts on Day 5/6 (50% of good quality day 3 embryos make it to blastocyst)

It was not clear if this was their clinic’s statistics or where the source of this data came from. So my confidence is not high in it, I don’t know over how many cycles or patients this average is calculated. But at least it gives you a flavour of what numbers to expect. Note, it does not mention average number of blastocysts making it to cryopreservation!

Another clinic, Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago, provides a nice pretty chart of their own statistics, broken down by age for the period of 2003-2005. First of all my first alarm bell is that is over 10 years old now! Has anything changed in Assisted Reproductive Technologies in the last 10 years? Hmmmmm. Anyway, here it is….

Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago’s average number of eggs, mature eggs, fertilised eggs, 8 cell embryos and Day 5 blasts [2]

Their numbers are slightly lower than the Canadian clinic’s…but there could be many reasons for this because, again, there is no clue as to how many cycles/patients this average is calculated over. This clinic does publish their statistic of how many blastocysts make it to cryopreservation. And here is the money shot statistic people!!!!

Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago’s average number of blastocysts frozen per cycle in 2010-2011 [3]

Just look at how low these numbers are! An average of 1.7 for women younger than 35 years old. And this statistic is a little bit more up to date than the ones above – this was for cycles from 2010-2011.

So what is the point of this post? The point is that we didn’t have any blastocysts that made it to cryopreservation, but we did have 2 blasts that were transferred and 1 that could have been frozen, but they decided it might not survive the thaw. For our first cycle we had one blast make it to the freezer. The point is, we had high expectations for more to make it to the freezer, when in actual fact the reality is, we were better than average to have so many good Day 3 embryos and we were typically average with transferring 2 on Day 5. Yes, IVF cycle 2 was a failure, but we were pretty average with our second cycle!!! This doesn’t mean we are less likely to succeed with cycle 3, rather the odds ARE in our favour.

Happy dance Dani!!!

stay the path