Its been a while since I created a post so I figured it was time to finish the story from our last failed IVF attempt. My last blog talked about the process of transferring 2 embryos, so let me pick up from there to finish the update.
After the embryo transfer you wait 2 weeks for a blood test to be preformed to find out whether or not your are pregnant. I could feel some unusual sensations in my stomach and wonder could that be the embryos implanting. Could it be working?I tried my best to stay busy during this time so I would not be 100% consumed in whether or not we where pregnant.
One thing that always amazed me is seeing ladies in a facebook support group that I am member of taking the urine style pregnancy test prior to the end of the 2 week wait. The fertility clinic specifically tells you not to do this because you could get false results. These women will either be excited or crushed by theses results and they may not even be accurate. I never felt the need to test during the 2 week wait. I think for me I did not want to face the fact that it might not of worked.
The 2 week testing date arrived and I had arranged plans to have the blood test done in Elizabeth City, so I would not have to make the hour drive to and from the fertility clinic in Virginia. I was able to get the test done at my local OBGYN office. I asked how long before they would have the results to the Jones Institute and they told me it could be a few days. I was ok with that because no news was better than bad news. Later that day the Jones Institute called to see if I was able to get the blood test done that morning. I told them yes, but that the OBGYN said it could take a couple days for the results to be returned to them. The nurse from the Jones Institute said they know this test is a rush and that she would contact them right now. It was less than a a few hours and the Jones Institute called again with the results. Unfortunately the transfer had failed and we where not pregnant. Even though going in we knew our chances where low it was still upsetting to have come this far and still have nothing to show for it. I was told to stop the progesterone shots and patches. They where no longer needed.
After the failed IVF round. I thought there would be a follow up appointment scheduled by the clinic to discuss future options, but that appointment was not scheduled, so after a few weeks. I called to schedule my own.
My husband and I met with Dr. Bocca in November 2017 and she said that the reason this cycle had failed was due to the quality of my eggs. The eggs where just not strong enough to do what they needed to do to make a viable embryo. She also mentioned that it could be millions of reasons why my eggs where such poor quality and the chances of figuring out the reason would be like finding a needle in a hay stack. Dr. Bocca proceed to tell us our options from here.
1. Do another round of IVF, but she could not guarantee any better results next time.
2. Use an egg Donor and my husband sperm.
3. Adopt an embryo
4. Adopt a baby.
Don and I talked about the options on the way home. I did not want to spend the money on another round of IVF since it was costing us between $20,000 to $30,000 a round and the odds of success was not in our favor. Using an egg donor would be about the same amount, so I did not want to spend that amount of money either since we where still paying off the previous round. Adopting an embryo was between $5,000 and $8,000 with a wait time of 6 months. The last option was adopting a baby, I had a coworker go through this process recently and it took them 2 years to get there baby and I believe it cost them around $25,000. To do normal adoption I would want to pay off the existing failed ivf round which would take at least 7 months and then we would need to save additional money to money forward with adoption. In my mind I was thinking this could take up to a year or longer.
I have set a deadline for myself, If I can't have a baby by the time I am 40 years old, then I am going to give up on this dream. I am currently 37 years old, so time is ticking away.
With all that to take into consideration we decided to move forward with being on the wait list to adopt a an embryo. I had a little money in savings and felt like we would have most of the latest IVF failed cycle paid off with in 7 months. That led us to choose embryo adoption since it was the cheapest and quickest option.
