IVF Transfer Plan: Decision Made

I think we finally have a solid plan in place for our embryos. It's been a really tough decision to make but I think we're going to go ahead and give our first frostie, Embryo A, a chance to stick before we go through a third IVF cycle. When Embryo A successfully implants, because they will! and we deliver our healthy baby, we will have to wait a little bit before we can cycle again. I originally wanted to nurse our babies for at least 2 years since I feel really strongly about breastfeeding but that might not be possible since they won't let you cycle while nursing. It will also be a lot tougher to cycle with a young baby and a mortgage since we're hoping to buy a house as well, but I think it's the right decision.

Even though I have a wonderful showing of antral follies, there's no guarantee they could fit me in for an IVF cycle now with the holidays coming up so quickly. And since it's me, who knows if I'll have good follicles next month. The transfer protocol is a little lighter on ultrasounds and easier to schedule right now and they can definitely fit me in for a mid January transfer.  

Another IVF cycle right now would also mean a lot of money.  I'd probably want to order my meds overseas again to save on cost and international shipping is dicey right now with the holidays. We've also far exceeded the amount of medical expenses we can write off this year so we'd get no further return on our taxes. I'm not sure what we'd need to do to try and get PGD coverage for another cycle but I'm sure there's no way we could do it that quickly and storing biopsy samples for long periods of time can lead to degradation. We're just not prepared. 

As soon as the decision was made, E, who knows me so well, suggested I create a flow chart. I'm so glad he accepts my crazy because I was already thinking the same thing. And thus, our IVF Transfer chart was born:

I think it's a solid plan that examines most possible outcomes.  It does make the assumption that a third IVF cycle would yield 2 healthy embryos, which is a big assumption, but not outside the realm of possibility. If/when Embryo A sticks, I'm not sure if we'll go right to a FET of Embryo B or do a third cycle first. Those decisions are still a little way off but I think we're definitely set on a third cycle if Embryo A fails.

Unexpected Decisions

I finaaaally got my period after what feels like forever! I know it's only been one month off but man did it feel like a long month, especially because my period was a little bit late too. Now that it's here and I feel like my cramps are attempting to compact my insides, I gave my nurse a ring and she brought me in for my baseline ultrasound and labwork.

E and I went in together for this visit and took care of the thaw and transfer consent paperwork. This set has to be completed in person with a witness so we had to wait for a day when E had enough time to come in. We also filled out our financial commitment paperwork and gave them all our credit card information for the FET fees.

Everything was going pretty smoothly until we got to my ultrasound. I don't have any cysts or issues that could cause problems with a transfer but when she waved the wand over my ovaries I saw way more antral follicles than I usually have. I asked her to go back and count them and to my surprise, I have 19-20 antral follies! That's a crazy high number for me, I never have that many, it's a basically normal number. I was floored.

I mentioned the high count to my nurse in passing as I was leaving the ultrasound room and the first thing she did after confirming the number was ask me if I wanted to do another IVF cycle. I was both surprised and not at the same time, that's an amazing AFC for me and could potentially yield a really nice number of embryos. But it would mean starting from the beginning again, IVF, medications, PGD, PGS, the whole shebang all over. It would mean putting off a transfer for at least 2 months. Spending all that money right after we finish paying for the first two cycles.

I told the nurse E and I needed to discuss it further and that we'd proceed with the FET protocol for the time being. The first part of the procedure is the same, two weeks of birth control, so we have a little bit of time to figure things out.

I really wasn't prepared for this option. My last cycle was such a junker it didn't occur to me that I might be perfectly primed now. E and I have been waiting so long to hold our baby I really don't want to delay.  Then again, it's likely we'll need IVF again in the future since we didn't get quite as many embryos as we were hoping for to have multiple children, and doing another round of IVF now would be a lot easier than doing a cycle with a young baby and a mortgage.   It's such a tough decision I'm not sure where we'll go from here.