I want to document my

<a href="https://glowing.com/glow-fertility-program">IVF</a>

journey for anyone who is entering this territory for the first time. To start, I had four failed IUIs, one natural and three with stims. I’d had enough at that point as we just hit two years of trying with only one ectopic as of this March. So on to

<a href="https://glowing.com/glow-fertility-program">IVF</a>

:

January 2019 - bfn on fourth

<a href="https://glowing.com/glow-fertility-program">IUI</a>

February 2019 - one cycle of rest for my ovaries with low grade birth control (junel fé).

February 27, 2019 - period day one

March 2, 2019 - start stim - 225 follistim and 75 Menopur, estradiol.

Continue to March 4 - same cocktail add Ganirelix to prevent ovulation

Monitoring March 8 - reduce Follistim to 150 keep rest the same

Monitoring March 9 - they think retrieval Monday or Tuesday.

Monitoring March 11 - confirm retrieval Wednesday, March 13, Ovidrel trigger and Ganirelix administered At 10:00 PM

March 13 - 10:00 AM retrieval - meet with nurse, anesthesiologist, and RE prior to. Take me in to or, insert IV, give fentanyl, I’m out in about 20 seconds. 20 minutes later they wake me up to tell me to move to gurney and take me to recovery. Let me rest 10-15 minutes then bring my husband in. RE comes in 15 eggs retrieved! Feeling great about that. Make me eat some cookies and drink some juice. 40 minutes later I’m up and out. We are doing genetic testing on the embryos on day 5. Will update tomorrow once I know how may fertilized. Happy to answer questions.

March 14 - just received fertilization update. Of the 15 retrieved, ICSI was performed on 11 and only six fertilized normally. I’m feeling really down as I know the statistics for those that reach blast are about 50% on average and another 50% of those will be genetically abnormal. That would leave 1-2 genetically normal embryos at best. I have a call into the doctor. I want to know if we should go for a fresh transfer or if we should stick to the plan. I guess it only takes one good one but I was hoping to be able to freeze extras and not have to go through retrieval again.

March 16 - Just got my day three update. All six that fertilized are still growing. They didn’t send any grading details. Feeling good about this but already looking to the next update on day six (Tuesday).

March 19 - All six embryos made it to blast and were biopsied for PGS. Trying not to get too excited, but it’s hard.

March 27 - not sure if anyone is still reading this, but of the six embryos that were biopsied, two were PGS normal. Both are boys. There were three abnormal girls and one abnormal boy. I had US and blood drawn today as well. They will call me later today to tell me if my doctor wants to do a medicated cycle, a natural cycle, or to wait one more cycle because there are two left over follicles from last cycle. I hope not the latter but we are going for success here, not speed.

April 8 - the FET is cancelled because my estradiol is too low and my leading follicle is too small for this point in my cycle. They said that this is not uncommon when doing a natural cycle the month after retrieval. I’m bummed but I want this to work.

May 12, 2019 - things are finally looking good. I’m triggering tonight. I start progesterone tomorrow and go to monitoring Wednesday and FET Thursday.

May 15, 2019 - transfer scheduled for tomorrow at 9:50 AM. Trying to let myself be excited.

May 16, 2019 - FET was this morning. We transferred one hatching blastocyst. I forgot to get the grade. I feel fine and I’m ready to go back to work tomorrow. I need to keep myself busy until my first beta in two weeks.

May 23, 2019 - 7dp5dt and there is a faint line! I had a vvfl yesterday that I needed to use the flashlight to see and today is darker and no flashlight required so I know it’s not trigger! I’m over the moon happy.