I see FET in our near future... or WTF apt - Take 2

I guess we are doing FET with my next cycle if it is not too delayed as Dr. H will be away at certain times over the next two months.

For the first time in 4.5 years of us TTCing DH was very impatient and while we were waiting for our RE DH suggested we do another IUI if we have to wait for FET for a few months. I was shocked that he brought it up as I was thinking that after 5 IUIs we were done with them. DH's argument was that we haven't done them at the new clinic and may be they use different technique etc.

So, it wasn't surprising when at the first opportunity DH asked about his sperm count at IVF. The answer stunned us both, it was was 22 mil!!!! with motility of about 80%. Which is unheard of for us, as the last IUI it was the highest at 15 mil with motility of just 30%. DH was so proud - you should have seen how his face lighten up (even though he says that he is not bothered by all this IF stuff :D )

Dr. H. did say that our blasts looked great and he was really surprised that they didn't take. He reviewed the tapes and it didn't appear that there was anything wrong with the transfer itself. As he was reviewing our file, I saw that he made certain notes of how to improve the transfer technique for the future, and really appreciated that. If we assume that I am healthy (which I should be) then the only other reason that he can suggest is that the lining was at 1.6 cm which apparently is too thick. It was due to my Estrogen level which just before the retrieval hit over 24,000 (they actually didn't measure by how much over). We did get 19 eggs and with a cyst, I should not be surprised that E2 was so high. The RE said that since naturally the lining doesn't reach such a size, it might have impeded the implantation and he has seen cases where FET was more successful than fresh IVF. (Oh, G-d, let this be our case PLEASE!!!)

A e-friend of mine who also goes to the same clinic told me that for her FET Dr. H puts her on 7-10 weeks BCP. I was mindful of that when I was trying to plan our summer thinking of FET at the end of the summer or beginning of fall. It turns out that in our case, Dr. H does not recommend going on BCP or any other suppressants and we can start as early as my next period. Yei?!? Definitely didn't expect that.

So the plan is to do FET first. Hopefully my little snowbabies would thaw nicely and we would only need to use 2, although Dr. H was not that optimistic and he did say that not all of them will make it through the thawing process. The good thing is that nice people at the lab froze each of the 4 separately. So they can be defrosted one by one until we have 2. If 2 good blasts are going to be transferred on FET and it is not successful, we will do much more testing to ensure that there are no other problems with me personally, like my immune system or with embryos themselves.

I don't know if I am ready for another IVF soon, but if DH's numbers are going to stay as high as they are right now (which is getting close to a "normal" range), we might try another few round of IUI before going into IVF#3.

We then talked to our nurse, and as she was explaining the cycle the word "biopsy" came out. I wanted to ask Dr. H about a biopsy as many girls on the forum had great success with it, but forgot all about it. So, I thought it was a mistake which I pointed out to her, to which she said that when Dr. H was preparing our FET protocol she actually asked him if he wants to do something different before transfer - like a biopsy, and he agreed. I am so happy that all staff at our clinic know what they doing. I told our nurse that I was thinking about a biopsy too, and she said that we should always bring up everything that we know or find out, as the IF world is always evolving and many times the patients who are active on different forums (GUILTY!!!) find new information contemporaneously with the REs.

As we were going through my FET protocol and dates, it turned out that if my AF does not show up when it is supposed to, being the first week of June, we would have to reschedule FET to the following cycle as our RE will be away from the clinic during a few weeks in July. So crossing my fingers and toes that AF cooperates. I know that after my 1st IVF my cycle was not affected, so hoping beyond hope that the history will repeat itself.

The good thing is that on average from the day I call my day 1 it will take approximately 20 days to complete the whole cycle, as at this point my RE does not recommend that I go on BCP prior to the cycle (good for me - less chemicals in my body). The only drugs involved are estrace and prometrium which I have left over from our last IVF cycle. And the monitoring is much less, if I remember correctly – day 3 u/s & b/w, 1 time for biopsy, and I think another 1 or 2 times before the transfer to check lining.

Another good thing is that the day of the transfer may be manipulated by a day or two by starting to take one of the hormones a bit later or earlier. The reason is that I want the transfer to be on a Friday, so that I can take Friday off and take it very very easy over the weekend (and to give my boss an excuse that we are going to a cottage and not come into the office on Sunday either :) ). I would note be able to use this excuse (or take more than one day off), if the transfer is going to be in the middle of the day.

The next meeting was with the financial person, and a pleasant surprise was that the RE adjust his price down a bit for the transfer as he strongly feels that we should have gotten pregnant from the IVF. Another good thing is that for FET the full amount is not due until the day of the transfer, which is amazing, as we paid the full amount for IVF BEFORE starting stims. The reason is that there might be a little tiny chance that none of the snowbabies make it through thaw, but I am not letting this thought to enter my mind. We will have 2 perfect blasts on the transfer date - PERIOD!!!

So here it is in a nut shell. Entering an uncharted territory with FET and as always praying for a miracle!!!