When I left off last, we had just had our second failed transfer with our clinic in Orlando and knew we were moving to Boulder, Colorado. I scheduled 2 visits at 2 separate clinics. The first clinic was able to get me in for a virtual visit the week before we left Orlando. We had packed up all of our things in our Pod except for basics that we were going to take with us, so I did the visit on the floor with the computer stacked on some boxes! Whatever works, right?
I met with the doctor, went over my history, and got instructions for the next steps. I had already been to 2 clinics by this point, so I was pretty familiar with the next steps. The doctor also sent over some resources for supplements and dietary recommendations to get started. I really appreciated this as many clinics (including the 2 I had been to previously), don’t address how you can improve fertility outside of the clinic.
The thing about infertility treatment is that it moves SO SLOW! You bascially have to wait for your cycle to start, get testing, and then wait for results, medications to be delivered, set up labs and procedures, and then finally, wait for the start of your next cycle again to keep going. Since I knew it would be a long process, I was happy to get the headstart.
I liked this clinic and their vibes, so I decided to cancel the appointment I had with my other clinic (which was still abut 5 weeks away). I knew I made the right decision when I called to cancel and they transferred to an entire line dedicated to new patient cancellations… So, the next week, Charles and I hopped in our car, with our cat, in August 2022 and moved to Boulder, Colorado!
Next Steps
The first step in an infertility workup is getting labs done. While I’ve already had these done in Florida, it had been a while and it was a new state, so I had to repeat all my labs. I got these done the week after we arrived! Since they were normal, they scheduled me for my annual well-women visit at the clinic at the end of the month. Once that came back all clear, we met with the doctor again to discuss the next steps.
The doctor was very thorough and discussed all the results and how he thought it was best to proceed. We would first need to do another egg retrieval. My clinic in Colorado doesn’t accept “outside transfers” of embryos, so we had to get some more! The procotol that he chose did vary from my 2 previous egg retrievals, but we decided to put full trust in the doctor! I started to have so many medications that I needed to organize!
The whole egg retrieval process from start of my first medication to egg retrieval day took about 6 weeks. At one point, I was doing 5 shots per day + all my supplements! While the drugs & doses varied, the process was pretty similar to my previous egg retrievels, which I talk about here! Due to my risk of Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome, I was also given an antbiotic to take for a few days after the retrieval, which was new to me.
Egg Retrieval Results
Rather than using a portal, the clinic in Colorado would call on Day 1, 3, and 5 to give updates on the little embryos. I had 23 eggs that were retrieved and ultimately I had 5 embryos to send for testing! That was the most we’d ever had with 1 retrieval. The doctor met with us after the retrieval to talk about the next steps! I had all 5 of my embryos genetically tested and 4 came back normal and 1 came back a “no-call” (essentially there wasn’t enough sample to test, so we don’t know if it was normal or not).
The doctor, Charles, and I talked a lot about additional testing, protocols, and medications during that visit. Ultimately, we decided to go ahead and move forward with the next frozen embryo transfer as soon as possible without any additional testing! By this time, however, the holidays were coming up and we wanted to make sure to travel and spend time with our families, so it was tentatively scheduled for January 2023!
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