As the Nurse Practitioner at my RE's office aptly observed, I am (and always will be) an over-achiever. So, why should I expect my ovaries to be any different?
After discussing the results of Monday's ultrasound with family, Tom and I made the decision to go ahead and switch to In Vitro Fertilization. What does this mean you say? HOPE IS BACK! SHE REALLY DOES FLOAT!!! YAY!
In the spirit of education, I have outlined the process below. Warning, this is some major "Weird Science" kinda stuff:
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On Friday, I will undergo a surgical ultrasound-guided procedure where they will retrieve my eggs. Thankfully, I will be "under" through the use of anesthesia and should not feel any pain. During the procedure, a needle is placed through the vaginal opening and into my ovaries. There are no abdominal incisions or suturing. The follicular fluid is drawn up into a test tube to obtain the eggs.
While I am "out" Tom will be busy preparing his, shall I say, sample. After the specimen is produced, the sperm will be prepared for inseminating while the eggs are evaluated. All the eggs that are retrieved will be inseminated to maximize the number of embryos available for transfer. They will be allowed to incubate (aka court one another) overnight. Saturday, each egg is evaluated for evidence of fertilization. If no eggs are fertilized, the laboratory staff will re-inseminate the eggs or perform intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) in hopes of obtaining embryos for transfer. If this is done and fertilization still does not occur, the eggs will be discarded and the remainder of the procedure will be cancelled. (Boo.) The eggs that have fertilized will be allowed to develop for two or more additional days under controlled laboratory conditions before they are transferred back to me. The unused fertilized eggs/ embryos will be frozen and stored for future use if necessary.
Monday, I will return for the embryo transfer procedure. Embryo transfer is a much simpler procedure and anesthesia is not required. The docs will, however, prescribe low-dose anti-anxiety medication to assist me in keeping calm that day. During the procedure, a long, thin catheter containing the embryos and a small amount of fluid will be passed through my cervix into the uterus, where the embryos will be released. 12 days later, I will return for a blood test to see if the procedure took!!!
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As you can see, this procedure is much more involved and thus more costly than our original plan of artificial insemination. However, when we considered the cost/benefit of going directly to IVF, we decided that it was well worth the extra money:
1. The Doctor warned that it could take several cycles of Follitsm to find the right dosage for me. Just as I overproduced on 150 CCs this month, I could have under-produced on a lower dosage next month. These medications cost anywhere from $1000-$1500 for a twelve-day supply. And no, insurance does not cover any of the costs.
2. Artificial Insemination carries with it only a 20% pregnancy success rate. The same as intercourse. Accordingly, it would theoretically take 5 attempts to approach the 100% mark for pregnancy. Each attempt costs approximately $1000-$1500 (in addition to the costs of medication). And no, insurance does not cover any of these either.
3. Although I responded poorly for IUI, my response to the medication was perfect to pursue In Vitro. They want to have as many follicles to choose from as possible. Seeing that I produced over 15 nice, big, mature follicles, it would have been a shame to waste them.
4. IVF's success rate is largely dependent upon the number of embryos transferred and the patient's age. If we transfer 2 embryos, our pregnancy success rate jumps to as high as 65%. As you can see, these odds are a good deal better than that of IUI.
5. All together, the IVF is going to cost us somewhere around $12,000 (looking at this number makes my stomach drop a bit). But this amount includes the medication, initial procedure, AND a second transfer with the frozen eggs if necessary. But, compare this with the success rate and cost of IUI, and this makes alot more sense.
7. As the nurse said, I am an overachiever. I don't like doing anything half-way. I figure if we are ready to do this, we need to get going. We need to give it our very best shot right off the bat. Going in half-torqued never did anybody a bit of good.
6. I feel alot better about this procedure. With the IUI, I was always waiting for the other shoe to drop. I just had a really bad feeling that it wouldn't work out. I feel exactly the opposite about this. I truly believe everything happens for a reason, and this is what we were meant to do.
So, I am super excited but I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much. There is still alot of work to be done, and alot of opportunity for things to go astray. Finally, we are still awaiting word on whether we have been approved for the financing yet (unbelievably, we didn't just have $12,000 sitting around the house ;)). But overall, I feel really positive about this and am looking forward to see what the next few weeks brings!
Thank you again for your prayers and well wishes. Your support and kind words have helped me tremendously over the past few months.
I'll check in Friday (if I'm not too loopy)!
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