Skip to main content

TTC timeline

2009 - stopped all contraception (never pregnant)
NB: we are both healthy weight, non-smokers. I have always had regular periods. I do have Hashimoto's thyroiditis, but my hypothryoidism from this is very minimal and I have only needed to start taking thyroxine over the last year.

2016 February - visited Fertility Specialist.
- blood tests show AMH 23pmol/L
- Sperm all within normal parameters
- Dye studies show fallopian tubes are not blocked
- diagnosis - unexplained infertility

2016 July - first IVF round
- 17 eggs collected
- 1 embryo fertilised
- embryo at morula stage by 5 day transfer
- none frozen
- not pregnant

2016 September - further tests on Sperm. FISH studies estimate aneuploidy for all chromosomes to be 11%. Studies suggest normal rates are between 2.3-9.2%  My FS suggests this FISH measure is new and still under investigation as to whether it is useful diagnostically.
DNA fragmentation 21%-  normal limit is between 5-20%
Decision that future rounds to use ICSI and PICSI

2016 September- second IVF round
ICSI and PICSI performed and embryoscope used
- 12 eggs collected
- 9 eggs were mature enough for ICSI to be performed
- 4 embryos fertilised
- 1 poor quality blastocyst, 1 morula to transfer at day 5
- the embryos transferred all had adverse events during development and were considered to be poor quality
- all other embryos failed to develop past a couple cells, not able to freeze
- not pregnant

2017 January - third round IVF
ICSI and PICSI performed and embryoscope used
-13 eggs
-9 eggs mature enough for ICSI
-5 embryos
-1 poor quality blastocyst, 1 morula to transfer at day 5
- the embryos again had adverse development
- all other embryos failed to develop
- but then because we used embryoscope it seemed that there was at day 6 an embryo that was at blastocyst stage, but that it has developed unusually (single pronucleate 1PN). Scientists consult literature to determine whether this is viable. Scientists tell me "Essentially we can’t find in the literature a live birth in the last 20 years from a 1PN embryo from ICSI origin, but we can find pregnancies and live births from 1PN embryos of IVF origin.  Current dogma is that if the embryo is haploid (half the chromosomes present) or activated through parthenogenesis (activation without the sperm present) then it should stop growing after a few days and not make it to blastocyst stage, which your frozen embryo has…" 
- Suspected chemical pregnancy--- Positive urine pregnancy test 10 days after transfer and 11 days after transfer, but negative on 12 days after transfer. No HCG trace at all by blood test at 2 weeks.
- not pregnant
- the weird "don't know if it's a really an embryo" was frozen

2017- March -- performed an "endometrial scratch" prior to round-- it's supposed to increase chances

2017 March - fourth round IVF
ICSI and PICSI performed and embryoscope used
- 13 eggs
-10 eggs mature enough for ICSI
- 9 embryos
- one good quality blastocyst, 1 morula to transfer at day 5
- this time - the good quality blastocyst developed normally, yay!
- all other embryos failed to develop and/or had unusual growth
- Not pregnant. None frozen.

2017 June - hysteroscopy and endometrial biopsy - - as expected there was no endometriosis found

2017 July - 5th round IVF
ICSI and PICSI
- 12 eggs
- 11 eggs mature enough for ICSI
- 8 embryos
- one blastocyst, one morula to transfer at day 5
- not pregnant. None frozen.

2017 October - 6th IVF round, with a new doctor
ICSI
New protocol for stims
Meant to be "freeze all" protocol, but we changed the plan so that we could opt for fresh transfer if needed (changed the trigger)
Taking clexane, prednisone, aspirin and special compounded vitamins..
- 20 eggs
- 15 fertilised
- 10 embryos
- one blastocyst, one morula to transfer day 5
- none frozen
- pregnant!!!
 but then... no baby to be seen at the time of the 7 day scan,  emergency laparoscopy to check for possible ectopic and had to get D&C. Not ectopic.

2018 January - 7th IVF round
ICSI
same protocol as in October 2017, since it seemed to work
-18 eggs taken, 14 mature enough for ICSI
- 8 embryos
- none reached blastocyst stage
- two "poor quality morulas" transferred
- no pregnancy


2018 May - 8th round IVF with THIRD doctor
ICSI
Long down reg protocol with addition of human growth hormone
- 10 eggs, 6 mature
- 2 embryos fertilised
- at day 5 only one poor quality blastocyst - transferred
...waiting

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

the stories that are out there

It seems to me that the happy-ending story that is so often "out there" about infertility is this: "Here is a couple who struggled and struggled to have kids, and then, finally, they had a baby. The end"... I think something about this story feels like a lack of honouring of the losses felt along the way for infertile couples. I know life goes on, and I know it does no one any good at all to get stuck in grief or pain. But surely there is some kind of transition for people to adjust from infertility to parenthood? Maybe there is a certain loss that is always felt? Transitioning to parenthood seems like it would be a hard process following infertility battles, and different somehow from a "normal fertility" transition to parenthood which I am sure would be hard enough (and I think is spoken about a lot). Something about the "...and then they had a baby" part of the story seems a bit dismissive about the infertility dramas, or gives a message of-...

belonging or be longing somewhere

I heard a great radio segment the other day on the importance of belonging.  Belonging is a pretty core and pretty basic human need I would say, and we certainly don't feel great, in fact we probably do things like turn to drugs and alcohol or other addictions or avoidant behaviours, when we don't have a strong sense of belonging somewhere in the world. These notions of belonging got me thinking about the infertility/trying to conceive journey. I guess getting online and reading and writing a blog has been all about gaining a better sense of belonging in this process. But even in this lovely online world there is a sad kind of aspect to it that... some people move on to the world of having kids and it doesn't feel like I "Belong" with them in the same sense. Some move on to have no kids, but as I am still trying to have kids, in a sense, don't "belong" there either. I can perhaps feel that I belong wholeheartedly with other people in my position, bu...

a few thoughts on where am I at

I'm getting over it. We have recently had the results of our 7th IVF round... which are... negative. sigh. I'm not surprised of course. It's starting to feel a bit ridiculous. Plan is to meet with a third doctor, who we have been waiting to see for months, to see what light he would shed. The thing I'm frustrated about is that IVF... it's not treating the problem at all, as far as I can see. I'm not a doctor but it seems to me that there's something up with the fact that our embryos are not hardy. IVF is just trying to maximise numbers, not helping to fix whatever is causing the problem with the embryos. But the thing is that the medical professionals don't actually know what the problem is for us... so IVF is all they've got to offer. I'm feeling a bit silly to continue with it, because who knows how long it could go on for, and who knows if for us, with whatever our problem is, whether it even could work. Well a few questions for the new do...