IVF- personal experiences?

Question

So I just got the news that in order to reduce the chance of recurrent miscarriage and massively increase my chance of ever seeing a positive pregnancy test, I require 
IVF
.  I know if I want to be a mom, it’s something I must do, but I’m just looking for understanding of the questions below
What are your personal experiences? What, if any, out of pocket expenses have you spent? How many cycles did it take for success if you’re 30 and under and otherwise healthy minus the fertility issue-mine is a balanced translocation? How did you deal with the initial news of the recommended next step? Did you have to take a lot of time off from work and did you tell your immediate boss if you were low on PTO about the upcoming appointments?
Also, how many of you have seen success with one cycle? We just learned my insurance covers infertility treatments up to IUI, and anything more invasive is not considered. I’ve been devastated since hearing the news, I never thought I’d be in this position.  My husband is pushing for trying one cycle, but I’m not sure it’s worth it if we can’t cough up the cash for the potential of 2 or more cycles.

Answer

Unfortunately, no guarantees one cycle is all it will take. 
From the internet: “There is tremendous attrition from egg numbers to blastocysts for transfer or freezing. Typically, it goes something like this: 10 eggs, 8 mature eggs, 6 fertilized embryos, 4 eight cell embryos, 2 to 3 blastocysts. If the egg numbers are larger than 20, we typically have more immature eggs in the bunch. Cycles with between 5 and 10 eggs often yield the same numbers of blastocysts as those cycles with 15 to 20 eggs.”
And then with a balanced translocation, is it 25% might have the issue? Not to be a Debbie downer, but best case scenario would be 2-3 normal embryos from one round, but 1 would be more likely. And then the pregnancy rate from a normal embryo isn’t 100%. 
I think you should do it (I follow a woman on insta who has balanced translocation and had only one embryo and is 20 weeks pregnant). Some people get way more blasts. My friend got like 12pgs normal embryos her first round and she got pregnant with her first transfer. You just need to have all the info and go in with eyes open. My first round ended in a miscarriage (not pgs tested) and I was devastated. I’m still doing IVF but I’m more seasoned (and a little more bitter) now. Best of luck to you.

Answer

I'm 33 (turning 34 in August), my husband is 35. We are healthy. I'm unexplained infertility. He has a daughter from a previous relationship. The morphology of his sperm is slightly off but nothing of any real concern. As a precaution we decided to proceed with ICSI/IVF. We started our first round November/December 2019. We transferred one fresh embryo which was our only viable embryo. The other 4 were biopsied but had severe issues. We became pregnant but ultimately miscarried in January. I start injections next week for our second round next week - 🤞
Our doctor and clinic have and are amazing. We are part of a program where you pay more up front but if you don't have a "take home baby" you get refunded up to a certain amount. They put your testing results through a database that determines likelihood of conceiving and will determine what percentage you would get back. For the first round; medications, ultrasounds, sperm testing, retrieval, transfer, biopsy, frozen embryo transfers (not including medication) and discounted additional cycles, etc) are included in this cost, we paid about $32,000. This next cycle we will pay about $10k (everything included again). If at the end of this we do not have a live birth we will be refunded 90% of that $42k. If there is a live birth than we obviously don't get any money back. 
I was freaking out at first when it came to the injections. You get through the first day and it gets easier. Be diligent and follow your doctors orders. Honestly, the medications make you feel like your losing it. I cried ALL the time lol at ridiculous things. Like because my dog was sitting and staring at me 🙄😐 
I ended up with OHSS and had to have fluid drained which was no fun. Going to a clinic that makes you feel comfortable and you feel like a real person rather than $$ is huge.
It's a scary but exciting time - you got this! ❤️

Answer

IVF is a rollercoaster for sure, but it’s not horrible! I was on “long protocol” and it still went pretty fast. I wouldn’t have my almost 1 year old baby girl if it weren’t for IVF so I’m very grateful! Went through it at 30, had my baby at 31. Only issue on my side is one tube. I had never been pregnant or miscarried. We just weren’t getting pregnant. My husband has lower count/volume but not horribly, he is 10 years older than me.  Found out during IVF that his sperm and my egg just weren’t “communicating”. That had to do ICSI so now we know for our next round ICSI will need to be done immediately. Sometimes the first round is trial and error. We tried several IUI’s that failed so it wasn’t a big shock to move on to IVF, in fact I was very ready. Theres a lot of pre-testing things to do before starting, fees had to be paid, and we also had a mandatory counseling session. I was lucky that I had a job where I could go to labs/ultrasounds in the morning and work later. I think I only took off for retrieval day and had the weekend to rest. And also transfer day. That was honestly it! It would best to communicate with your boss upfront especially if your work hours will be effected. 
For me the hardest parts were after retrieval when you are waiting to hear how many embryos made it, and of course after transfer waiting to see if it worked. Theres a lot of waiting with IVF and it can be tough. Gotta find stress relievers and keep up with hobbies and still have fun. 
I was lucky that insurance covered meds, so that saved us about $3500-4000. And my IVF out of pocket was roughly $7,000. Included assisted hatching which was protocol at my clinic but that does NOT include PGS testing.

Answer

I'm 27, husband is now 38. Strictly female factor: PCOS, mild endometriosis. Had my ovaries drilled and endo diagnosed and excised early in my fertility treatments due to being clomiphene resistant. We made the choice to self advocate for IVF after 2 consecutive years of fertility treatment and failed TI and IUI cycles. 
For me the process wasn't too bad. I was pushed back two months- one for testing and one for vacation. I had a quick protocol (antagonist) so I started stims day 3, Cetrotide day 7, triggered stim day 14, retrevial, then PIO and fresh transfer. I had 10 eggs retrieved, 9 mature, all 9 fertilized, 4 made it to 5 day blasts. We also decided against PGS to avoid tossing any good embryos with the small amount we had. My fresh transfer took, but I miscarried just shy of 7 weeks. My subsequent FET failed to implant. 
As far as work, I cant fully attest to that. My appointments were all morning appointmenta for monitoring and I was usually out of there by 9. I'd take retrevial day off, and maybe a few days after depending on your AFC. Transfer day you don't need off unless they tell you to or you want it off- it's a fast process. I was back in the gym 2 days past retrevial but some done bounce back as quick- I was lucky. I worked as a lab tech testing radioactivity levels in certain material. On any given day I was exposed to excess amounts of Radium, Thorium, Lead, and Potassium. While naturally occurring I was told to wear gloves while gardening so the fact that I was exposed to these in levels far exceeding radioactive (anything over 7pci). I quit a few weeks before we decided to move onto IVF. It seemed counter productive to stay. 
My IVF was covered by insurance so my out of pocket for retrieval, cypropreservation, transfer, meds, all lab work and ultrasounds was about 5k. If you feel comfortable telling your boss, go for it. You could also go directly to HR if you really want discretion. Good luck!!

IVF- personal experiences?

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