Let's get this party started!!!

So, I am way behind in documenting our Monday RE's protocol apt as it is now Sunday evening, so here it goes.

On Monday afternoon, DH & I met at our RE's office (that's our new RE, as we did decide that we are switching clinics and going with Dr. H). We did end up waiting for over an hour, but I was ok, as I was reading my book and had nothing urgent going on in the office. RE started by reviewing the latest test results. Apparently, my uterus is a textbook example (I am so proud LOL). My AMH was 45.2 which is way above the average, and RE said it shows that I have quality eggs as only good eggs produce AMH. Then we went on to DH and discussed his results being 10% for DNA defragmentation, which is again totally awesome. So he gave us 70% chance of pregnancy this time around. On one hand, I am happy with such prognosis; but on the other hand, Dr. G (our old RE) also was saying that we have very very good chances of success, and here we are doing it again). Dr. H did say that the problem was not with us, but with the medication that was used for stimulation.

RE said that he wanted carefully balance my medications as he was also very concerned with me developing OHSS (i.e. overstimulating me)as potentially I do have lots of good eggs. I asked him what is the worst case scenario if I do get OHSS, and he said that with severe OHSS they would not do a fresh transfer since pregnancy makes OHSS even worse, and all embies will have to be frozen. He said that the rate of success of FET with the labs that he is using is ony 10-15%, which I found shocking as I was secretly hoping that we can get some frosties for the future so wanted a bit more follicles than 4 that we got last time.

Then we actually went through the protocol itself, it is still an OCP - controlled antagonist protocol.

I will start again with the birth control (Alesse, this time around as it is milder than Marvelon - I was told) on the 5th day after AF, which should arrive just around our vacation (not a biggie though). When we were talking about dates with the nurse, she was telling me that they want to see me for a day 3 b/w and baseline u/s before I start BCP on day 5. The problem is that in most likelihood we will be in Mexico by that time, so I asked her if it is possible to skip it, as I didn't want to postpone starting IVF for another month. She agreed to check with Dr. H as I have done tons of tests in the past couple of weeks, and most likely he will say yes. After I emailed the nurse to confirm my understanding she did say that RE approved me not having a day 3 preliminary u/s and b/w. Yei!!! Little victories!!!

I will be taking BCP pretty much for the entire month of March until told to stop by the clinic. I will start stims beginning of April and this time around I am on 187.5 Gonal F and Luveris 75. Dr. H said that Gonal F is a stronger medication than Menopur, which I was on during my last cycle. He did say that that dose is higher with the view of lowering it. It is nice that he actually listened to me as I told him how petrified I am about being understimulated again. He also added Lthyroxine 50 mcg/day, which apparently is a low dose thyroid medication. I've only found out that it is a thyroid medication when I emailed a nurse to confirm my understanding of the cycle and asked her what that drug is. Now, I am a bit nervous if some of my test showed a problem with thyroid, which might suck as I have been tested for it before and everything was clear, but might explain why it is so freaking difficult to lose weight.

I will also take the antagonist at 1/2 of a dose that I took for my previous cycle, as Dr. H also believes that it had an effect on my follies, as he has seen it happen before, especially since I had an allergic reaction to it. Dr. H actually switched me from cetrotide to orgalutran to avoid another unpleasant allergic reaction.

If everything goes according to plan (I did stim for about 9 days last time) the retrieval will be the week of April 11 (apparently this is the week that the clinic does retrievals as they do it in a 3 week cycles, and they only take a maximum of 18 ladies per cycle, but I was told that so far they are not even close to being to a maximum - another good thing!). The transfer (hopefully of 2 nice blasts) 5 days thereafter.

Our RE told us that he will cancel (or convert to IUI)if my estrogen level (E2) is less than 6,500 (indicating less than 6 eggs). We did review my E2 levels from the last IVF cycle and it turned out that my E2 levels were just about 3,000 the same as with two previous medicated (Clomid) IUI cycles, which also indicated that I only had 3 eggs - which was the case. I do get upset when I think about it!!! Nobody took their time to explain it to DH and I at our old clinic, everything was rush rush rush all the time. Always busy busy, tons of people, waiting waiting waiting. Oh, well, I really hope this will be a much more pleasant experience.

Oh, there was another funny moment when Dr H asked if DH wanted his "boys" frozen before the procedure (we were never offered that before). So we asked why would one considered doing that, to which Dr. H replied that some men cannot "perform" under pressure - and we assured him that DH has done it before and will do it again under pressure - no problem :). Then RE mentioned that the only other reasons is if DH got sick since its the flu season, so DH got all worried and asked what would happen if he would get sick, would this affect the sperm quality. RE said that it will not affect the sperm quality just that some men when sick cannot get an erection. DH & I just looked at each other and started laughing - definitely have no problem in that area ;)

Well, it has been a long post, but if not for anything else, I did want to document it for the future.

To my friend in ON, enjoy the long weekend (unfortunately I am going to the office tomorrow, but only 3 full days of work left until the sunny Mexico :) )