My Secondary Infertility

[art]

I'm now finished overseas for now, which is much nicer. MWW is a week into the "down reg" injections. No noticeable sideeffects.

Celebrated our wedding anniversary a couple of weeks ago, and this weekend we're away for a family weekend. MWW had a lovely spa night last night, and we said how nice it would be to do one together. However, if we're successful she can't do one due to pregnancy...and if we're not successful then I shouldn't do one given the effects of sitting in jacuzzis and saunas on my sperm quality! Oh well, one day we'll be able to!

It's nice that a few of us are all going through it at the same time. Check in again soon guys!

[chrisd]

Good luck Art, I have everything crossed for you.

Chris

[matthew]

Good luck, Art.  Best wishes to you both

[art]

Where to start?

As you know, we've been going through our first cycle of IVF, with MWW downregulating and then starting on the Gonal F injections since this time last week. Also MWW's been a bit ill (feverish, achey, stomach troubles) since Saturday, and we're not sure how much of any aches, pains, tiredness, grumpiness etc. has been from the hormones and how much from the illness. I'm fairly sure that the illness can't have helped MWW at this time, and that some of the discomfort she's been in has been because both are happening at the same time.

However, there's been a lot else going on our lives too, as a couple of weeks ago MWW's mother was diagnosed with a form of cancer which is almost certainly terminal in a matter of 6-12 months, meaning that:
(a) MWW is going through even more of an emotional rollercoaster than normal for IVF
(b) This cycle of IVF is really important to us, as if it doesn't work out, MWW's mother might never even know about the grandchild we'd like to give her, let alone be able to meet him/her
(c) MWW (and I) will be spending every free weekend driving across the country to spend as much time as possible with MWW's parents, rather than relaxing and doing what we can to help the process along

We're all very upset about it, as MWW's mother is a wonderful person (I get on better with her than my own mother, to be honest) and she's not even 60 yet. In fact, her own mother is still alive. There's another stressor, as MWW's grandmother is in a nursing home, seemingly going downhill every few months and yet somehow confounding medical science by recovering each time, outlasting almost all of the other residents there. MWW's mother and MWW have power of attorney over her accounts, and are having to go through the process of moving money between bank accounts and then sorting out and selling off her bungalow in order to pay the nursing home bills. With MWW's mother being ill, this is now all going to fall on MWW, again adding to the stress levels during this IVF round...

...speaking of which, MWW's been being scanned every day this week, and as we suspected might happen, has had high response to the drugs, with at least 20 follicles ripening, possibly as many as 40, so we've been told that actually we can't go ahead with the current cycle due to risk of Ovarian Hyper Stimulation.

However, what is going to happen is that on Saturday they are going to harvest those eggs, take my sample and try to fertilise as many as they can. They'll then freeze any resulting embryos, and in a couple of months we can try implanting some.

So that's where we are. My mind's all over the place right now, and I just don't know what to think.

Hopefully it's a good thing as we'll get lots of eggs and can pick the best one(s) to try and implant in a couple of months time. Also, that couple of months might be enough to help get through some of the things I mentioned above, putting us in a better place at that time, although it increases the chance of MWW's mother never knowing the outcome.

Thanks for the best wishes Chris and Matthew, and good luck with your own processes at the moment.

[chrisd]

Hi Art

I am sorry to hear that you wont be able to go ahead with implantation this month but hopefully you will be left with lots of embryo's for future use, you never know if you get enough then you will be able to store them and get your entire brood from this batch.

I am sorry to hear about everything else that is going off in your life, treatment is stressfull enough without all the added problems you are experiencing, it never rains but pours eh?

I know the feeling as we encounter similar problems and are experiencing them now.

All the best to you both.

Chris

[matthew]

Art,

Can't imagine how much stress and upset you've been through recently.  A terrible situation to be in and then to have a delay on your treatment is awful.

I hope that your mother in law is able to meet her grandchild.  I hope the actual prognosis is much better than has been said.

Thoughts are with you all at the moment.

Best of luck

Matt

[art]

Thanks guys.

Had egg collection this morning, which wasn't particularly troublesome+, but we've got 9 eggs and been told it looks like 6 of those may be mature enough to fertilise through ICSI. Should find out tomorrow morning how many have taken.

However, we're really unsure how to proceed at the moment. As mentioned above, we'd been told that very high risk of Ovarian Hyper Stimulation Syndrome (OHSS) meant that we'd have to freeze any embryos this time and try again another time. However, after the eggs were removed, the doctor came to talk to us and said that they class people as high risk for OHSS if they meetat least two of  three conditions:
- Greater than 30 follicles responding (we met this one)
- Greater than 25 eggs collected (didn't meet this one)
- Estrogen levels greater than 15000 (didn't meet this one either, estrogen was only 5500)

So they're now saying that we can go ahead if we want, but there is still a slight risk of OHSS. In some ways we'd love to get on with it, and know it's working, hopefully while MWW's mum is still around to know about it. However, OHSS can be very serious indeed, possibly even fatal....but there's a really low chance and the clinic has said we only met one of the three criteria...

Just don't know what to do right now, but need to decide today...

[matthew]

Tough one to call! Risks with both ways: OHSS or the freezing process.

Doesn't sound like they're too worried about OHSS but then they don't have to live with the risks!

Hope you're able to make a decision you're both happy with.

Matt

[art]

Decision....deferred!

Phone call just now to say that five eggs have successfully fertilised. More than we expected, given that we were told four eggs were mature and two nearly mature, and they only have a 70% fertilisation rate...

So, we've decided to try and get to blastocyst stage and will proceed as though we're going to implant then, but if MWW gets any more symptoms of OHSS then we'll freeze at blastocyst stage (well, technically it's a different process then, called "vitrification", but it still gives us frozen embryos).

So now we just keep waiting and hoping that all five get through the next few days.

[art]

Four out of five progressing well towards blastocyst. Fifth one might still catch up, but may not...

Still looking positive, we're just keeping everything crossed right now!

[chrisd]

I've everything crossed for you both.

[matthew]

Yeah, thinking of you all at this time.

Encouraging news with the embryos. Long may that continue!

Matt

[art]

Thanks guys.

As of yesterday there are still three embryos, so today is implantation day and then the 2WW...

Just keeping fingers crossed at the moment!

[chrisd]

Good luck Art. All the best to you both.

[art]

Well, there's one embyro (blastocyst) floating around inside MWW at the moment, and either two or three which they hope to freeze tomorrow. Now we just have to wait ten days....

Apparently the blastocyst was graded "3BB" which makes it pretty good. Fingers crossed for the next two weeks really!