IVF or the Island Life?

Our visit to Charleston went very well! Our doctor had a lot of positive things to say, and we left more optimistic about going through with IVF #2. We have been a little skeptical over the past month about whether we should go through with it again, or just accept our losses and move to the islands:)

What went wrong? Well, Dr. P said that he and the two other doctors in the practice have been steadily trying to figure this out over the past month. Everything was perfect...I responded to the medications, my estrogen levels went up accordingly, the follicles grew, and the eggs were harvested.

Remember the "little" cyst that delayed my cycle? Well, it did a little more than delay the cycle. That son of a gun messed it all up. With most women, an ovarian cyst will not affect the outcome of the cycle. This is why they didn't pay it much attention.

To explain this better, I should not have ovulated or developed a cyst while on the birth control pills...we already knew this. When you start a fresh cycle, they want all of the follicles to be uniform in size. Apparently, the cyst was causing my estrogen levels to stay elevated, which in turn caused two of the follicles to prematurely develop before I started the stimulation meds. These two huge follicles continued to grow and kept growing in front of the others throughout the entire stimulation. They were just planning on letting those go (not using them) while proceeding to grow the smaller follicles. With most women this works out great. I, on the other hand, do not have the reproductive system that agrees with these odds. In the end, the two big follicles interfered with the development of the smaller follicles. Hence, my outcome: 8 retrieved, 3 immature, 4 degenerated, 1 fertilized.

Was this my fault? No.

Dr. P said that if anyone is to blame, it is them for not paying closer attention to the cyst which led to the overdeveloped follicles. Now that he knows that I'm Murphy's best friend, the plan is to over-monitor my next cycle. He did a post-IVF ultrasound which looked great...my ovaries are back down to size, lining is great, and a follicle count of 17. Woohoo! I do have a small fibroid, but he said that it is out of the way and it won't interfere with anything. He recommended that we try to go ahead with cycle 2 while everything looked clear. Which means in about 1 week. Oh my goodness.

I will have an ultrasound on Day 3 of birth control this time to check for any "little" cysts. If one grows, then he said I need to pack up and head to Charleston that day to have it aspirated before it causes any problems. Talk about being proactive!

I will have more ultrasounds this time around...if anything looks questionable at any point in the cycle, I will have to drive to Charleston so that they can do an ultrasound themselves.

They will be increasing the doses on Lupron, Follistim, and micro-HCG. Also, Andy will have his sperm frozen ahead of time so that they will have more to choose from. Dr. P said that the 2nd cycle usually has a better outcome because they know what they're working with. He feels very optimistic that everything will turn out fine this time around.

Now we have a big decision to make...we can go for it now while all is clear, or risk it by waiting until after the holidays. My gut is telling me that now is the right time. We've waited long enough and it's time to get this show on the road. As always, I'm worried about taking so much time off work. I absolutely love my job, but I've got to make this my priority.

We will lay it all out on the table over the next week and pray that the answer comes to us.

Although we haven't really ruled out that whole moving to the islands idea:)