Where we left off...
When I last posted we where weighing our 4 options provided by the New Hope Center.
- Try IVF again with our own eggs and sperm
- Use a donors eggs with dons sperm and I carry the embryo
- Use a donated embryo and I carry the embryo
- Adopt
There's been changes...
We have had some things change since the last blog post. It started a couple weeks after my first failed IVF cycle, my husband (Don) came home and suggested we get a second opinion. My first thoughts where no, absolutely not, I liked the New Hope Center and did not want to change. But I then went online and look up the other IVF clinic closest to us called The Jones Institute. After looking at their website, I found out they where the first IVF clinic in America. I decided maybe he was right maybe we should get a second opinion, so we made an appointment to see what they would say.
We met with the Jones Institute on 4/21/17 and found them to be quite different than our previous clinic. The doctor feels that my egg quality issue that caused us to fail the first IVF round maybe be able to be improved by doing a shorter medicine cycle. She feels the quality will improve on a smaller amount of medicine, but does not feel like I would get more eggs than previous. This doctor also suggested doing a Fresh transfer vs a frozen transfer. A fresh transfer is when you transfer the eggs retrieved back into the uterus as embryos with in 6 days after retrieval. A frozen transfer is when you freeze the embryos and transfer them at a later date.
We where then faced with 2 approaches to choose from. To redo a frozen cycle with the New Hope Center or do a Fresh Cycle with the Jones Institute. Its hard to know which is the better option. If you research online protocols for IVF, every clinic believes something different. Some believe you have better success if your not overweight others believe weight has nothing to do with it. That just one example of the frustrating part of this because you could talk to 20 doctors and each one would have a different answer for you. So you just have to make a gut decision on what you think is best for you and not get bogged down in all the options out there.
What did we decide......
We decided to make a change. We have moved over to the Jones Institute. It was a hard decision because I was happy with the New Hope Clinic and Dr. Robin, but the Jones Institute was cheaper and I felt like the protocol they suggested made more sense for our situation.
On 6/14/17 I had another hystercopy. I had one done previously at the New Hope Center but it was preformed during my egg retrieval. This time it was done before I start the IVF process.
A hystercopy is a procedure used to look at the lining of your uterus. The doctor uses a thin viewing tool called a hysteroscope that is inserted into the uterus via the cervix. The hysteroscope has a light and camera hooked to it so the doctor can see the lining of the uterus on a video screen. The doctor is looking to see if their are any problems in your uterus that would prevent you from carrying a pregnancy and remove any polyps or forbids. Most doctors will also take a small sample of tissue to biopsy.
In my case everything look good no problems from the procedure itself, but the biopsy did show some inflammation. Dr. Bocca said that the inflammation would not be an issue with the IVF cycle as it was located in the cervix area, but still prescribed some medicine to alleviate the problem.
What's Next.....
We wait.. Well actually we save. We are cleared to start again but financially we would like to save a little more towards the cost before we start again. We hope to start the next round sometime this year. I do plan to write another blog soon about the changes I have made in my life in an effort to increase the quantity and quality of my eggs when we do start again. Stay tuned for that post.
