The Idea of Eleven

Longtime readers of the blog may recall that during my second IVF cycle, my Reproductive Endocrinologist described me as a "woman committed to the idea of eleven" because I had about eleven follicles developing on either ovary.

Well, my current embryologist agrees.

To review, of the 32 eggs retrieved, 28 were mature, and 26 fertilized normally.
Of those 26, 18 developed normally to Day 3.

Of the 5 embryos who journeyed to Colorado in a tank, all 5 survived the thaw.

Day 6, yesterday, the CCRM embyrologist call to say that of the 18 from the fresh cycle, 9 embryos grew to good-quality blastocysts and of the 5 frozen, two continued to develop to blastocyst.

So that makes 11 blastocysts total.

Committed.

These blastocysts are now made up of about a hundred cells apiece and have already differentiated themselves into the fetal pole and trophectoderm, or what will be the placenta. The embryologist biopsied 2 or 3 cells from the trophectoderm and sent those off for the Comprehensive Chromosome Testing. (They do this with PCR at CCRM.) The embryos themselves have been vitrified.

So now we wait.

The good news is that I have lost four pounds of water weight since I came back from Colorado, so I think am safe from the dangers of hyperstimulation.

A Different Sort of Two Week Wait

Today we spent the morning at CCRM. I had my IVF physical at 9, and then ultrasound and bloodwork at 9:30.
At 10, I had an excellent massage right in the clinic.
At 11, we met with a new genetic counselor, Mary. (She is not to be confused with Danielle, who helped me through a misunderstanding during our last consult.)

Our meeting lasted an hour, and, because my brain is not working, I am not sure I remember everything she said, but the big news is that on July 1, CCRM has changed its method of Comprehensive Chromosome Screeing from CGH (Comparative Genomic Hybridization) to something called PCR. While the CGH testing would have taken 6 weeks, the PCR testing will only take 2 weeks. So we will know whether any of the embryos are normal in 2 weeks!!

To review, CCRM will let all the embryos grow to blastocyst, biopsy them for testing, and then vitrify them. I will go home to Oregon and wait for the results. If there are normal embryos, I will come back for transfer at a later date.

This afternoon, the nurse called to tell me my estradiol level, at 7200, was too high, so I need to "coast" for another day with no stims. According to various sources on the internet, my estradiol should be between 200 and 600 per mature follicle (those over 18 mm). I think the ultrasound tech said that I have around 27 follicles nearing that size.

This explains why I feel so nauseated and bloated.

Good times.

Tonight: 5 ml Lupron! Trigger tomorrow.