In Vitro Journey - Cycle #1 - "It Only Takes One"

More "It Only Takes One" Success Stories

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In Vitro Journey - Cycle #1 - Embryo Freeze Results

I put off writing this entry for a couple days cause I was having a hard time accepting everything that's been going on. Even now, I don't even know where to start or what to say. First let me educate you a little on the 5 or 6 day embryo development process.

On days 1, 2 and 3 our embabies were growing pretty normally. On day 4 things started to slow down and 2 embryos were falling behind in development and not doubling in cells as they were supposed to. On day 5 we were told that we had 1 strong one that would definitely make it to blastocyst, 2 that may or may not make it to blastocyst, and 3 that were not likely to make it at all. On day 6 we got our final embryo update call.

The good news first: We have 1 very strong, very healthy embryo that made it all the way to day 6 blastocyst and was successfully, cryogenically frozen. We were told the embryo looked perfect in shape and size and they are hopeful that this embryo is our best bet at a successful pregnancy.

The bad news is obviously that 5 of our 6 embryos did not make it. Only one other made it to blastocyst but it was poor quality and was therefor discarded with the others.

As you can imagine, coming from 16 eggs at egg retrieval to one singleton embryo is quite a shock and left us pretty devastated. We are still dealing with the thought of it while trying to remain extra hopeful about our one little fighter.

One of the many hard parts about this process is the fact that there are so many people that are so involved and invested. Of course I take full blame for that; It's hard NOT to talk about something THIS big going on in your life. It is all consuming and so much bigger than anyone realizes. The hard part is getting comments like "congratulations! we heard about your six embryos, that's so exciting!" or my mom who literally cried and felt like she had 6 grandbabies after finding out the fertilization results. Everyone has different levels of understanding and emotional connection to this process but it takes it's toll on me the most. I feel the congratulations are unearned because there is still so much that can go wrong. I feel the longing of many people involved for the ultimate success of this process while I'm completely helpless to changing the results. It's all in the hands of the powers that be; it's up to science and the doctors; it's up to chance.

David and I have been widely prepped on the statistics and possibilities/risks involved in this process and we've always known where we stand in the success rate pool. I feel the need to kind of put it in perspective for everyone else in the form of collected and organized data.

These are general statistics from 2012. Singelton live birth means one single embryo was transferred and a baby was born which lived longer than 72 hours. This graph was done with fresh embryos but there are studies that show that fresh and frozen transfers don't differ all that much in success rates. Hopefully this helps put into perspective how many transfers result in pregnancy as well as how many of those pregnancies actually result in live births.

These are my results from the online SART (Society of Assisted Reproductive Technology) Patient Predictor. I plugged in my age, weight, height, medical diagnosis, etc and it calculated the chance that a live birth will happen after one, two, or three cycles.

Finally, these are the 2012 results from my clinic. Out of 55 frozen embryo transfers, they had a 40% success rates and on average, transferred 2+ embryos at a time. As we don't have the luxury of transferring more than 1 embryo our chances of success are probably even lower than 40%.

Now, even with all this information, we have not and will not give up hope that our one little embryo will be the one we bring home in the form of a happy healthy baby one day. However, it is imperative that we stay steadfast and realistic about our chances and that everyone else does too. This is the only way to prepare for the possibility of heartbreak and the realization that we may have to start all over.

I'll end this post on a happy note.. Here's a success story that is similar to mine from a lady in my facebook support group.

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In Vitro Journey - Cycle #1 - Egg Retrieval and Embryo Update

Lots of exciting news to share with everyone! 

On Tuesday 8/18 at 11:00am we had our surgical egg retrieval. We arrived at the surgery center, which is just next door to the fertility clinic, at 10am and got checked in and into pre-op. Stylish surgery gowns, my lucky troll socks, and a high end massage chair had me pretending to feel pretty relaxed. In reality I was freaking out.  

David stayed with me until it was time to go into the operating room. As soon as he left, I broke down. Cried all the way onto the operating table until I fell asleep from the anesthesia.
Took a quick little nap and woke up hyperventilating about 30 minutes later. The nurses brought David back to my recovery room and gave me a narcotic to ease the pain. Eventually I calmed down enough to talk to our Dr. about how the procedure went. 

We were told they got a total of 16 eggs from my ovaries!

The rest of Tuesday was spent in a blur of groggy, pain filled complaints and not being able to stand up or walk unassisted. David was the most amazing caretaker; administering my meds, going to the store for things I needed, and continuously telling me how great I did and how proud of me he was. Wednesday was Day 1 of conception for our embryos. We got a call first thing in the morning that of the 16 eggs, 9 of them were mature. Of those 9 mature eggs 6 were successfully fertilized. 

Today is Thursday or Day 2 for our little embabies. They are being closely monitored and documented and are expected to have divided from single cell organisms to 2-4 cells. 1 embryo is ahead of the game and has already divided into 7 cells! 4 of them are in the normal 2-4 range and 1 was still a single cell organism. Our embryos are rated on a "poor, fair, good" scale and they all fall in the fair - good range.

We will get a call every day to update us on our embryos progress. We hope that they make it to 5 day blastocysts and then they will be frozen right before hatching. We will meet with our Reproductive Expert in 2 weeks to have some more blood tests done and see how my estrogen levels are doing. From there we will have a better idea of when we will start preparing for the Frozen Embryo Transfer.

This has been such a crazy, intense journey so far and I am so so thankful that I have David by my side through it all. He is just as involved in this process as I am, attending every doctors appointment and is constantly by my side encouraging and helping me in anyway possible. He has put up with my extreme mood swings, constant complaints about side effects, has given me over 30 shots and so much more. I couldn't imagine doing this without him. We are both so amazed and happy that we have 6 little embryos made up of 50% of his DNA and 50% of mine. We are so excited for everything the future holds.

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The In Vitro Journey - Cycle #1 - The Final Check Up

We officially have a date and time for Egg Retrieval! Tuesday 8/18 @ 11:00am.

I will not miss these shots!

Our last ultrasound was today and my follicles are HUGE!! Some are measuring at 28 and 29 mm! 

I'm still in a good amount of pain and not sure what my estrogen levels are at today. We were instructed to take our trigger shot tonight @ 11pm. This is the final step in making my eggs mature before surgery.

We're taking guesses on how many eggs we will get.. I say 18, David says 21.

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The In Vitro Journey - Cycle #1 - Complications

Yesterday we got some news, which at the time of the call I considered bad news. Now that I've had some time to process, research and talk about this news I realize it's in my best interest and am ready to accept it for what it is.

Friday morning we had another ultrasound to check on the growth of my follicles. The doctor was happy with what she saw and called me a super-star egg producer. My uterus lining is 8mm and shaped perfectly. She counted 19 follicles on the left side and 12 on the right. There is no way to see if each follicle contains an egg however they are looking for follicles bigger than 14mm and assume that those follicles have grown to the point of containing a mature egg. My follicles measured as follows..

After the ultrasound I got my blood drawn and scheduled an appointment to come back for monitoring on Sunday morning. I was told we were probably looking at a Tuesday (8/18) egg retrieval. 

Now you're probably asking yourself, where's the bad news? Where's the complication? This all sounds good and normal. Well, as soon as we left the clinic I got really bad lower back pain.. I couldn't stand up straight and struggled to get in and out of the car. When we got home I laid down and tossed and turned trying to get comfortable. I figured the pain was due to how large my ovaries are and the probing of the ultrasound pushing them around and causing some soreness. A couple hours later we got a call from the doctor who said my estrogen level is 3,360 when it should be no higher than 2,000. They said we will most likely have to do a freeze all after egg retrieval. This means that after the eggs are collected they will be fertilized, monitored, and then frozen. We will then have to wait a couple months for my body to reset itself, clear itself of all the hormone drugs, and then have a frozen embryo transfer. Now, at first when the doctor told me this I rushed off the phone before I started to cry. After waiting this long the last thing you want to hear is that you have to wait longer. When I turned to my awesome Facebook IVF support group to complain about the news, the response I got really helped to ease my mind and calm me down. It seems that this is a very common thing that happens and is really in the best interest of my health and my future pregnancy.

The back pain and the high estrogen level is a sign of Ovarian Hyper Stimulation Syndrome (OHSS) which is a side effect of the hormone injections. Getting pregnant while having OHSS can cause many complications and be extremely painful for the mother. 

As it turns out, frozen embryo transfers are typically more successful than fresh transfers. Allowing your body to detox and rid itself of all the drugs puts you in the best physical state to achieve a healthy and successful pregnancy. We're not quite sure how long we will have to wait to do the transfer, it could be a month, it could be three. Obviously the doctors are looking to do what is in everybody's best interest and all we can do is trust them. We've waited this long, what's a couple more months?

Will update again after our appointment tomorrow.

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The In Vitro Journey: Cycle #1 - Check up Ultrasound

Well here we are.. 1 week into hormone injections. I'm feeling very bloated and crampy, slightly irritable but nothing unmanageable. I had a mini melt down yesterday when the bar stools I shopped for for 6 months arrived and were assembled. When we put them together we discovered one had a hole drilled in the wrong place causing it to wobble. A few tears laters, David had taken it apart and fixed it; all was right & well in the world.

Today we went in for a check up on our growing follicles. The doctors hope to see follicles around 14mm and a uterus lining of 7mm or higher. We found a total of 6 follicles on the left side and 9 on the right. My uterus lining was 7mm. The doctors are very happy with our results and instructed us to start taking the Cetrotide tonight to prevent my body from ovulating. My blood work showed that my estrogen level was a little high (1593) and will need to be monitored, but again, nothing to worry about too much. 

We were told that we were probably looking at a Monday (8/17) egg retrieval! We go back to the clinic on Friday morning for another ultrasound and after that we'll have an even better idea of timing. Everything is right on schedule so far. We're both so excited to be moving this process forward and hoping for continued success and good health for all.

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Top Ten Tuesday!

"Top Ten Tuesday" is a weekly event hosted at 

Broke and the Bookish. They give us a topic, and
I give you a list! This week's topic is:

Top Ten Authors You Have Read The Most Books From

1. Lurlene McDaniel (15) McDaniel was the only thing I read in middle school.. All of her books are about kids with cancer and for some reason, as a kid, I thought that was really interesting.
2. Richelle Mead (12) Vampires and really well developed characters and relationships.
3. Ellen Hopkins (11) Poetry and tough subject matter
4. Kiera Cass (10) I've read everything she's ever written and will forever. 
5. Colleen Hoover (10) The cutest relationships.
6. Cassandra Clare (10) Best fantasy worlds.
7. Jennifer L. Armentrout (10) Really not one of my favorite authors; really hyped up books. Surprising that she made this list.
8. Sarah J Maas (9) One of my favorite series. Awesome world building & character development.
9. @SororityProblems (9) Hilarious, relateable short books. Easy to read.
10. Lauren Oliver (8) One series + novellas.. Not my favorite.

Share your top ten with me!

The In Vitro Journey: Cycle #1 - Day 1 & 2

The "shooting up" has officially started! Yesterday was our first injection night and we were more nervous than was necessary. It ended up to be a breeze; no pain, no side effects. I gave myself the first shot and David gave me the second one. At first he was timid and didn't want to hurt me but once he realized it didn't hurt he was excited to do it again today.

The Follistim pen is so easy and convenient. The Menopur injection stung a little bit today but nothing I can't handle. 

Don't mind my crazy beach hair... Spent the day riding jet skis at the bay :)

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In Vitro Fertilization Fact of the Day

Normally a woman's ovaries are the size of a walnut.

After a cycle of hormone stimulants, a woman's ovaries are the size of a grapefruit.

I think I'm gonna need to get some bigger pants!

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The In Vitro Journey: Cycle #1 - Stimulants

Yesterday we went into the clinic for our baseline ultrasound and blood tests. The purpose of the ultrasound was to confirm there were no cysts on my ovaries, check the position of my uterus, and count how many follicles are present in each ovary. We counted 9 on my right ovary, and 10 or 11 on my left ovary. These are great numbers and everything looks perfect & normal in my uterus.

Tomorrow is the day that makes this whole thing even more real than ever before... We start injections! Some people have been asking me why I have to take stimulants when I'm not the one with the fertility problem. But here's the thing... Infertility is a medical diagnosis. We, as a couple, are infertile. These stimulants are part of the process. Our clinic does not give the option for a "natural" IVF cycle.

In a woman's natural cycle the body releases one single egg. The hormone stimulants I will be taking will force my body to create multiple eggs in the follicles that will be retrieved when they are matured. Multiple eggs means maximum opportunity to create healthy embryos. If we were to do this without the stimulants, we would be working with one egg at a time, significantly decreasing our chances of creating any embryos let alone healthy, growing, multi-cell embryos.

Let's also keep in mind that not all eggs retrieved will be mature and not all mature eggs will be successfully fertilized. The doctors could retrieve as many as 30 eggs but maybe only 20 of them will be mature and only 10 will fertilize. Of those 10 maybe only 5 will grow to 5 day blastocysts. These hormones stimulants are absolute imperatives to the success of our IVF cycle. 

Now lets talk about what exactly I'll be injecting. For the first week I will be doing nightly injections of Follistim & Menopur. Follistim is a man-made form of the hormone FSH which occurs naturally in the body. The injection is administered through a 
pre-filled, pre-mixed pen which allows the user to dial a specific dose and inject by pushing in on the plunger. 



Menopur is a highly purified preparation of naturally derived gonadotropins. It comes in powder form and is mixed with sodium chloride to be injected daily. Both medicines help to stimulate egg production in the follicles and assist in ovulation.

After a week I will stop taking the Follistim and will begin taking Cetrotide and decrease my dosage of Menopur. Cetrotide prevents eggs from being released too early by blocking the hormone that causes woman to ovulate. 

I will have monitoring appointments 3x a week during all this and the doctors will closely monitor the size and count of my follicles. My meds will be adjusted if necessary and when everything looks right I will be scheduled for egg retrieval. I will be instructed to take my trigger shot 36 hours prior to the ER.  

We are so excited for the next step in our journey. As always, it may not be easy but it will always be worth it. More soon...

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