IVF#1 - Still Stimulating
Hi everyone! It's been quite a few days since my last post, so I wanted to do a quick update.
I started out taking 2.5 mg Letrozole, 1 mg dexamethason, 225 IU Gonal F, 75 IU Menopur, and my prenatal vitamins. I was on this combination for 5 days and then came off of the Letrozole. On Day 6, I went for my first IVF monitoring appointment. They did an ultrasound to see how my follicles were growing and took blood to make sure my hormone levels were in the normal range for stimulation. Everything looked good, but my doctor said my body was responding slowly to the medications so we would most likely be looking at 11-13 days of stimulation. This is not necessarily a bad thing during IVF because every body responds differently to the medications.
I added my third injection of 250 IU Ganirelix on Day 8. This is an important one since it keeps my body from ovulating before the doctor is ready to retrieve our eggs. Yesterday, we went in for our second IVF monitoring appointment. Everything is looking great, and I had 11 total follicles! This is such a blessing since one of my original fears with IVF was overstimulating and producing too many follicles. This can be very dangerous, and I am so thankful that my body is handling these intense medications so well. My doctor scheduled our next monitoring appointment for next Tuesday and we will be continuing Gonal F, Menopur, and Ganirelix through at least Tuesday since my body is still growing the follicles slow and steady.
I'm going to be completely honest and say we were a little disappointed after our appointment. A typical IVF stimulation is 8-14 days with most people stimulating 10-12 days. I am currently on Day 10 of my stimulation, and I was really hoping to have a quicker stimulation phase. While two or three days isn't a huge set back in our timeline, three days worth of IVF meds is another $1,600! While this isn't a completely unexpected cost, it's still hard to have another big expense.
Overall, we feel lucky to have the opportunity to do in vitro and thankful for how well it's gone so far. I've had very few physical side effects from my medications, and the injections have been much easier than I expected. The Menopur and the Ganirelix have a slight burning or warming right after injection, but I don't think they are painful. I'm definitely more tired than normal, but other than that and a little bloating, I've felt pretty normal during the last few days.
We would love it if you would pray with us during this time. We are praying for our third IVF monitoring appointment to go well and for my body to be ready to trigger on Tuesday or Wednesday. This would put our transfer during the week of May 1st. My hope is that we will have our transfer before our infertility acupuncturist leaves for vacation on May 4th.
Thank you all for the sweet thoughts and prayers over the last few weeks. It is wonderful to have so many people loving on us and supporting us. And on that note, it's National Infertility Awareness Week (NAIW)! This year's theme is Listen UP, but more on that later.
With Love & Ever Expecting,
Ashton
