Double Trouble: options for elective single embryo transfer

July 7, 2015July 7, 20153 Comments

Double trouble can only mean one thing – twins! A couple of weeks ago our friend recently gave birth to two handsome little boys – fraternal twins. I visited them after they were just a few days old, and as I held one of the boys I tried to imagine how it was possible to fit two of these little babies in anyone’s tummy! I know they are curled up pretty tight in there, but seriously – it must be magic! I am so amazed at how my friend carried these two boys to full term and not break her back! I am also super impressed that she avoided a c-section, despite one of her boys being breach – what a super mum (mom). And I am under no false impressions that it was easy! So all this got me thinking about our first IVF cycle and the number of Embryos we will transfer…and our chances of twins.

Now…Chris and I have already discussed and agreed that we are OK with multiples…we had to make that decision when we had our IUIs, in fact for one of my IUIs I had three follicles, so there was always a chance for triplets! Yikes Treble Trouble. But being OK with multiples is not the same as actively desiring multiples. For IUI, it was kind of out of our hands how any eggs would fertilise and implant, it was still very natural. But for IVF, we kind of have a choice. Our clinic typically transfers 2 embryos for women <35 and first round of IVF, but of course, we can choose to just transfer 1.

I read somewhere that 29% of IVF patients said that twins were a desirable outcome. Why? Well it’s kind of like BOGOF (buy one get one free). IVF treatment doesn’t come cheap, both financially and emotionally, so I can understand this logic. But for me this is all about probability and gambling….not with money, but with needles and drugs. Sure it costs $$$$s but fortunately we have it covered by insurance. It’s the emotional and physical cost that I am particularly nervous about. I have no clue what it will be like, so I feel like for our first IVF round we can’t make a firm decision just yet how many embryos we will transfer. I want to wait and see what all these hormones are like first and what our doctor’s prognosis will be when the time comes.

However, that doesn’t stop me looking into it now. Whilst I was surfing the web for more info on this subject I discovered an article that my RE had commented on regarding the a study that had shown single embryo beat double embryo transfer. Her point of view on the study was very vanilla and cautious! Random. I also found that the CDC provide a good little list of things to consider for elective Single Embryo Transfer.

So for now this topic lays to rest until we get a bit closer to transfer day. But until then, I’ll keep educating myself on what it might be like to be a mother of twins as well as help out our friend however we can with their teeny bundles of joy 🙂 So it’s not just double trouble – it’s also double the adorable 🙂

Work in Progress…ARTApp

April 3, 2015April 3, 20154 Comments

I successfully completed another module in my Data Science course! Woohoo!! Eight modules down, one to go. Now I have one week off of study, then onto the home straight. I can’t wait to finish it.

Part of my final project was to develop an online web App; I decided to develop an App that uses the data provided by the CDC on Assisted Reproductive Technology and presents the data in more user friendly way. I bit off more than I could chew for this project because the data the CDC provides is a bit messy and required some cleaning up in order that I could manipulate it easily. Now I have ‘cleaned’ the data, I need to spend a bit more time making the visualisation useful. I got 100% for my project so I passed with flying colours, but I have a lot more to do before I share it with a wider online community. You can have a sneak preview!

You can see my ARTapp here. It was supposed to look a bit more like this…

Screen shot of my ARTApp so far

My idea is that someone can select a state they are interested in, it shows all the fertility clinics in that given state, then the user can select a fertility statistic they are interested in comparing their clinic against the state wide average. There is also a map of the states that shows the statistic average for each state. This is just a prototype for now, I will keep working at it and include all data available from CDC, not just data for fresh embryos. Also add in some more interactive charts for looking at ART data over time.

Now, wouldn’t it be good to know what the IUI stats are like too?

Half way through the two week wait and feeling low…

February 23, 2015March 2, 20152 Comments

So this is it…the half way point in the 2 week wait (AKA the 2WW). I am feeling a little low. It is probably as a result of a mix of things – first of all, being stuck inside all weekend behind a computer, second of all, I am impatient being in the middle of the 2WW, thirdly I am fed up with the progesterone suppositories leaking everywhere. Is there a chance that my feelings are related to hormones and medications? Maybe, I can’t tell.

Diesel don’t look so worried, it’s gonna be OK

My lowness hasn’t been helped that I had two course projects due this evening. Both were programming assignments….the first project I developed a web app that uses the CDC’s most recent data on Assisted Reproductive Technologies (Here is some info on it). I was unable to fully deploy the app online before the deadline. It worked perfectly yesterday on my computer and all day today I have bee trying to figure out why it won’t go live. Sooooooo frustrating. Hopefully my graders will see my code and be generous.

My second project was a little dull, statistics and investigating relationships in cars between Miles Per Gallon and transmission types (amongst other things). I completed my report, but in the last hour before the deadline I could not get it to convert to a pdf file. Such a simple task. I am gutted. I will have to re-take this module as it counts for 60% of the grade.

I will admit that I have screamed and cried at my computer several times this weekend. I am not very good at not being in control of it!

Our cats, Sushi and Diesel, have been overly affectionate the last couple of days. I am sure they can sense when we are down or ill.

Next week is a new week, no more snow, warmer temperatures, back to some gentle exercise, and the end of the week we are having friends over to watch rugby, eat some bad foods, and play some board games. Something to look forward to. With all that fun it will then be time to take the test. Which incidentally, will be the same day as our 3 year wedding anniversary – it would be a good present to ourselves if we got the big fat positive. Monday Monday!!!

Sushi and Diesel being cute together, can’t help but me smile

: go home cat, you’re drunk – Classic Diesel

Statistics statistics – infertility and treatment – who to believe?

February 9, 20152 Comments

Did you know?? Over 1% of all infants born in the US are conceived using Assisted Reproductive Technology*.

Luckily I am an analyst by trade, so I am quite aware of the lies, damn lies and statistics. I am quite skeptical when it comes to stats that don’t explain the data source. A lot of websites quote stats and don’t tell you either where the data originated, how it was collected or how it was analysed. So which stats can you believe?

I am undertaking a small project for an online course in data science – part of my project is to develop an online app. The app can be anything I like, but it has to be an interactive tool using data. Seeing as I have been looking at lots of statistics online about fertility treatments, I thought, why not design my own web app that allows a user to interact with all that data out there? Hmmmm perhaps I am being ambitious. But I have a couple of weeks to complete it – so lets see! In the mean time, I have been doing some research on potential data sources…

The most up to date fertility treatment data I have found so far is from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (Ha! I didn’t expect to find the data here!!) Apparently there is an Act that mandates all clinics performing Assisted Reproductive Technology to provide annual data to the CDC. I think this data is THE most comprehensive (or certainly largest) source of data to understand the factors that contribute to a successful birth when using Assisted Reproductive Technology*. The CDC has been collecting data since 1995. All their data is freely available to download along with reports and interactive tables. The most recent data released is from 2012, collected from 256 clinics with in the US.

When I was reading the CDC 2012 report that was published in 2014 I found an interesting stat that surprised me – In 2010 about 7.4 million women aged 15-44 received infertility services at some time in their lives. That makes it about one in ten women of that age group. If I look at all my friends and family on my facebook in that age group, that could be 12 of my friends affected somehow. Woah.

Anyway, the data provided by the CDC gives stats on almost 98% of clinics in the US. The link below (provided by the CDC website) takes you to an interactive tool that allows you to see the data for your fertility clinic – they probably report it on their website. But you have to be careful when you look at the numbers and what they all mean. I’d highly recommend reading the whole report to help understand it all. I did not see this data before we decided which clinic to use. To be honest the number of choices for us weren’t particularly big, but we did have a choice.

The data looks good for my project, I just need some ideas on how to make a useful app out of it. If anyone has any suggestions on what they think would be a useful way to see the data I’d be interested to hear from you. I’ll keep you updated on my stats research as I come across it…

Ps. Hope this post wasn’t too geeky!! I can be quite geeky sometimes.

*Note. The CDC define Artificial Reproductive technology as a procedure that involves surgically removing eggs from a woman’s ovaries, combining them with sperm in the laboratory, and returning then to the woman’s body or donating them to another woman. They do NOT include treatments in which only sperm are handled (ie. IUI) or procedures in which woman takes drugs only to stimulate egg production without the intention of having eggs surgically retrieved.