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.
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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