In January 2022, Charles and I went for our first embryo transfer! Unfortunately, it was unsuccessful. Our fertility doctor was kind enough to give us a call that night so we could discuss the next steps. At this point, we had 2 embryos left of highly average quality. Our doctor was concerned that if the next transfer failed, we would only have one egg left. Fertility declines with age, so she thought it was a good idea to “bank” more eggs… since I’m not getting any younger.
Egg Retrieval #2
With the start of my next cycle, in Febrary 2022, we started the next egg retrieval. We didn’t really do anything different for the stimulation process (which is the process of trying to “stimulate” as many eggs as possible). This cycle was nearly identical to the previous cycle. They did start me on an additional medication, called cabergoline, which helps minimize the symptoms after the retrieval, so that was nice. I only took one picture during this process, the morning of the retrieval!
Egg Retrieval Results
During this egg retrieval, I had 24 eggs that were retrieved from my follicles. (Previously I had 26). Once again, it’s all a bit nuanced, so I’ll share what the embryologist shared with me about my results:
“We retrieved 24 eggs from your ovaries. We evaluated them for maturity because only mature eggs can be fertilized. Of the 13 mature eggs, 12 showed signs of normal fertilization. During the next few days, the fertilized egg should develop into an advanced embryo called a blastocyst. Some embryos will stop growing during this time. We hope that 50% will continue developing, but that is not always the case. Your embryos will be evaluated again on Day 5 through 7 of development in the laboratory to determine which embryos have developed to the blastocyst stage.”
On Day 6, I got an update which stated: “Of the 12 normally fertilized eggs, 2 developed to the blastocyst stage and were biopsied for preimplantation genetic testing (PGT).” Charles and I opted for PGT, which detects any chromosomal abnormalities. While some abnormalities can result in a successful pregnancy and birth (like Down Syndrome), the majority of chromosomal abnormalities result in a miscarriage. Of our 2 embryos, we had 1 that was genetically normal. This was definitely a disappointment, but now we had 3 embryos and could move forward with another transfer.
Next Steps
Since I had the polyp that led to the surgery about 6 months prior, I asked if we could do another saline ultrasound just to make sure that the polyp was gone. The polyp, if still present, would have been a good explanation for why the embry didn’t implant. The saline US ended up being normal.
Our fertility specialist believed that the only possible/logical reason for the implantation failure was my endometriosis. Having been in the Navy and working at Walter Reed for most of her career, our fertility specialist was very into research. A study that she had read recommended 2 months of medication called Lupron & Letrazole in patients with implantation failure. So, we decided to give it a go. Initially we were disappointed that we would be waiting 2-3 months until transfer, but we made sure to make it worth it!
May 2022
During this time period, life got exciting and we were suddenly on a time crunch! Charles got offered a position with Playstation and his last day at Disney would be the end of May. That meant we would be losing our Disney insurance and therefore our access to the clinic we were at. We also had plans for both Charles’s and my graduation and had to work around those dates. We were able to land on a date for the transfer and if everything went to plan, the transfer would be set for the day before our insurance lapsed! It’s a close one…
[…] By May 2022, Charles was set to leave his job with Disney, which meant losing our fertility benefits at the clinic we were using. We had 3 little embryos left and decided we were going to try to fit in one more transfer before leaving! After our first failed embryo transfer, our fertility doctor recommended that we try using 1-2 months of Lupron prior to the next transfer. We were able to work it out with our clinic that we would plan for the second embryo transter during Charles’ last week at Disney! […]