A little background: we have MFI, husband is absent of his vas deferens, which means azoospermia. The same day of my egg retrieval he will be having a Testicular Biopsy in hopes that there will be sperm there 🙏🏾. Our doctor says in this case fresh sperm is best to be used if they do find it. We are optimistic and just being hopeful that we will have tried everything. But I just wanted to document our journey and hope there is a good outcome at the end of this cycle. This is our 4th year ttc.

4/16/2022: Started my period today (Cycle Day 1).

4/17/2022: Today is CD2and was instructed to start the birth control pills today. I will receive an updated calendar tomorrow!

4/18/2022: Received updated calendar! I’ll continue taking the birth control pills until CD11 then start injections on CD16.

4/19/2022: Period ended tonight CD4.

4/20/2022: Just received the prescription for the medications that I will need. My calendar says injections will start May 1, 2022. So plan on purchasing these this week. Posted a picture of my meds in case anyone is interested. I have no idea what any of these do yet but I’m assuming once we purchase them that they will come with instructions and my nurse will tell me which ones to take and when. So another calendar I guess…

4/25/2022: CD10 Went to Labcorp this morning and did 3 blood tests: Estradiol, HCG & Progesterone. The lab sent the results to my doctors office STAT, and my hormones came back low. My nurse said that is a good place to be.

In-laws paid for my meds today, so grateful for them 🥹🙏🏾. We went through MDR pharmacy, received a discount through our doctors office, they overnight the medication through fedex so I should have them sometime tomorrow.

4/26/2022: CD11 took last birth control pill this morning. In-laws sent a check to our fertility clinic for $23k. Medication 💉is out for delivery 🚚! It’s all getting real now 🥹🙏🏾.

Received all the meds! It got real today, got emotional because it hit me that we are really doing this 🥹♥️.

4/28/22: CD13 Started spotting, my nurse mentioned once I stopped the birth control pills that I might start spotting and not to worry.

4/29/22: CD14 Still spotting.

5/1/22: 7am; Gave myself my first injection of Follistim. My husband was right beside me, I wanted him to do it but he said you have to know how to do it yourself because he won’t be with me most mornings so I did it myself, nervous at first and it was very weird putting a needle into my skin myself but I got through it and it was really quick.

7pm: The Menopur injection wasn’t too bad either. I think it’s all in my head. I had to really talk myself into inserting the needle 😬. But I think I’ll do better tomorrow, I got this 🙏.

5/4/22: CD19 | 4th day of injections, so far I haven’t had any symptoms. I was expecting mood swings, bloating, headaches etc. But I haven’t had one symptom. Im actually worried that the meds aren’t working cause I feel regular lol. Took my 2nd blood test this morning (Estradiol) so should be getting those results sent to my nurse, later today.

- Nurse told me my lab results were great, estradiol levels went up quite a bit, which is good. My Follistim dose will stay the same but instead of 2 vials of Menopur, doctor wants me to go down to 1 vial of Menopur.

5/6/22: CD21- Had a blood test this morning (Estradiol & LH) was told the labs came back great. Now it’s time to begin Ganirelix tonight and each morning, and also to take 112iu of Follistim instead of 150iu.

5/8/22: CD23 | First time feeling any effects. My stomach is crampy but in a different way that I never felt before. Feels like weird little balls in my lower stomach. I had to sleep on my back at first cause when I slept on my side it was uncomfortable. Ultrasound tomorrow, then we’ll find out what day retrieval will be.

5/9/22: CD24 | Had ultrasound just now and doctor said I have a lot of follicles. Was told that I am done taking the Menopur, Follistim & Ganirelix. And tonight I will take the trigger shot. 1 Lupron & 1 HCG ($70 for both). Tuesday I will take a urine test to test if the trigger is in my system. And Wednesday will be my egg retrieval and husbands TESE. We are so happy that the timing is working perfectly and the injections that I’ve taken for the past week have done their job! 🙌🏾

-Taken my trigger shots (HCG & Lupron) at 8:02pm

-My boobs have been swollen and tender all day!!

5/10/22: CD25 | Took the test to make sure trigger was in my system. Trigger is officially in my stem. I’m ready for egg retrieval tomorrow at 7am!

5/11/22: CD26 | Egg Retreival/TESE day 🙏🏾. Egg retrieval at 7am, TESE at 9:30.

-Egg retrieval was successful, got 36 eggs. Was only under anesthesia for 10 minutes. Husband going in for his TESE in 15 minutes 🤞🏾

-Nurse just came to me and said they found SPERM. She couldn’t tell me exactly how many but she did say fertilization will begin today. They only had to go in 1 testicles to find the sperm. So that is amazing news. Omg I can’t wait to see him!!!

5/12/22: CD27 | Day 1 | Received an email from our nurse that says, 22 eggs are mature, and 17 were fertilized. She will update us on Monday about Embryo development. Let’s see how many will make it!

-We will soon find out exactly how many sperm were found in my husband. We were under the impression there might be none so we are ecstatic and want to know!

-8 vials of Sperm were frozen!!

5/13/22: Day 2. Can’t wait for Day 5!!

5/14/22: Day 3

5/15/22: Day 4

5/16/22: Day 5; out of 36 eggs, 22 were mature, 21 fertilized with sperm. Right now 14 are developing great and 7 are developing slowly. We will get another update later today about how they are doing. Our package included genetic testing up to 10 embryos, the rest will be frozen. We will also get another update on day 6 & 7. We’ll be doing the embryo transfer this next cycle. So I will let them know as soon as my period starts!

5/17/22: Day 6; So we have a total of 14 embryos. 10 have received genetic testing the other 4 will not receive testing because it cost $450 per embryo to test. We should get the results for the genetic testing in a bout 2 weeks or so!

5/18/22: CD33 | Day 7; 1 more blastocyst made it yesterday. So today we officially have 15 frozen embryos. 10 tested 5 not tested. All 15 are now frozen.

NOW WE’RE STARTING OUR FROZEN EMBRYO TRANSFER CYCLE (FET)

5/19/22: CD1.

5/20/22: CD2 | Back on Birth control pills again for 7 days.

5/24/22: CD6 | Blood Test (Estradiol & Progesterone)

5/26/22: CD8 | Last day of birth control pills.

5/27/22: Received the results for our tested embryos!! All 10 came back normal!!

4AA= 2 Female/2 Male

4A-A-= 2 Male

4AB= 1 Female

4A-B= 1 Female/1 Male

4B+A= 1 Male

!!!!!!

5/30/22: Been spotting since 5/27/22

5/31/2022: CD13 | Started Estradiol 1 tablet 3 times/day

6/1/2022: Started taking 81mg of Aspirin, was supposed to start on the 31st with the Estradiol, but totally forgot 🤯

6/7/2022: Estradiol blood test/Ultrasound; results came back good.

6/14/2022: Estradiol/Progesterone blood test/Ultrasound

6/15/2022: CD28 | I’ve been on Estradiol pills for the past 2 weeks, and I think that’s the reason I am sooo tired!

-Uterine lining came back good! We are on schedule for the FET next Wednesday 🎊👶🏽

6/16/2022: CD29 | Endometrium lining is 10.6

6/17/2022: Started Doxycycline twice a day & also Progesterone injections. I put the injection under the heating pad for 5 minutes. The only part that hurt was when my husband first put the needle in. After he injected it and out the band aid on, he massaged it reallly good. I put the heating pad on and went to sleep. Next morning I didn’t feel sore, have any lumps or anything.

6/20/2022: Took last blood test; Estradiol & Progesterone!

6/22/2022: CD35 | FET in an hour and a half. Currently drinking water to have a full bladder. Ahh the nerves!

FET is complete! So happy 😀

Beta on 7/1/22 🙏🏾👶🏽

6/26/2022: 4dpt5dt got my first ever positive 🎊💙

7/1/2022: 9dpt5dt today I am 3 weeks 6 days. My HCG came in at 332! Happy about that!