Birth Control Done!

Finally my round of birth control is done! I noticed a bit of cramping each day while on the pills, and as soon as I stopped them I started spotting. I was expecting it, I started on CD 2 just as my period was beginning, so I wasn't too surprised and I'm considering this the new starting line. Tomorrow is my 3rd day off birth control so I start my twice daily Menopur injections on Thursday. Menopur here I come!

These first 5 days of injections will determine how many eggs are recruited. We only have one shot at recruitment so these days will be the deciding factor on whether we do IUI or IVF. If we get lots and lots of eggs, we'll sign the USC Clinic paperwork with ninja speed, complete the cycle with them, and harvest those bad boys. I don't think we'd get more than 6, since they only saw about 6 antral follicles, but I would be ecstatic if we could get 6 embryos. Unfortunately, I think that's a little overly optimistic. Still, positive thoughts!

If we do harvest eggs, the next step would be PGD. This is where things get a bit complicated. There aren't many genetics labs that work with anonymous donor couples because we have no access to lab work. I found one lab, RGI, based on recommendations from other couples in a similar situation, and they said they could build us a probe with genetic profiles and blood from me, my sister and my mother, and two IUI samples from our donor. It would be tricky but it's not impossible, and I expect the biggest issue would come from Kaiser. My RE personally confirmed that Kaiser would cover PGD for me and E, but I'm sure there will probably be some sort of extra charge for semen instead of blood. I can't imagine Kaiser would cover that. This also means we wouldn't be able to change our donor, we're pretty committed to the one we've chosen, but I like the idea of being able to change our minds if we need to. What if his chemistry doesn't mesh with mine? What if we have no luck with this one? What if a better come becomes available?

If throwing the max dose of Menopur at my ovaries doesn't yield more than 3 mature follies, it's back to IUI for us. Last cycle we stimmed for 9 days, but since we're suppressing my ovaries first, we're anticipating needing to stim for 11 days before I can trigger and we can do the IUI. Either way, this will be our month!