Jumping straight into IVF after 12 months TTC
My husband and I (M 34, F 34) have been TTC for 12 months before getting diagnosed with unexplained infertility. Every test under the sun showed that we were normal/nothing seemed off. I do sometimes have painful cramps during my period but I’ve never went down the route of checking for endometriosis. With unexplained, our RE advised us to do IVF vs IUI. To be honest, never have I ever considered the idea of IVF so having told that we might need to go that route was honestly so devastating/discouraging.
After thinking it through (and finding out my insurance covers 3 cycles) we decided to jump the gun and do IVF as to not waste any more time because we wanted at least 2 kids. We started IVF immediately for our 13th cycle. I was stimmed for 10 days and then 2 days of trigger shot with lupron because my estradiol levels reached 10k!! The hormones made me really bloated and uncomfortable and with my numbers, I was super nervous about risk of OHSS and basically spiraled just thinking about what would happen after ER.
I just had my ER yesterday and surprisingly, I am feeling fine. I did take a bunch of electrolytes the 2 days before retrieval so I’m not sure if that helped at all. Other than pain killers, my RE did not prescribe me with anything else.
My numbers:
17 eggs retrieved (my RE said this was lower than she expected because my AMH is 4.74)
of the 17, 14 matured (RE said this is normal attrition), one was overmature and the other 2 they are trying to salvage (idk what this means)
of the 14 matured, 13 fertilized with ICSI (at first they wanted to let the sperm get to the egg naturally but after observing lower motility, they decided to do ICSI)
Now with the 13 fertilized, we wait another 5-6 days for the next update on how many makes it to blast. I am super nervous but my RE said I can expect 50% of those to make it to blast, which leaves us with 6-7 for PGT-A testing.
This whole process is so mentally and physically exhausting and stressful and I can’t imagine going though this again. I am crossing my fingers for at least 3-4 euploids from this cycle. I heard 3 is optimal for every one live child so if I want 2 kids, I would need 5-6 but at this point, I might just accept the fact that 1 is all I will have (if I’m lucky enough).
For all the first time IVF’ers, how was your experience and numbers for your first ER? How many children would you like and will you consider doing IVF again to bank more embryos?