Follow-up

I wouldn't say I was anxiously waiting for today. I wasn't expecting much. I doubt many women worry about this appointment--not after all the other stress they've been through. Today was our follow-up appointment with the doctor for our IVF failed cycle.

Thomas and I talked about it last week, we both had many questions, ideas, theories. And today, nothing. I kept looking at Tom for input because nothing was coming to my mind to ask. There really isn't much to say. It was a failure. We get to try again for less money. And honestly the statistics aren't nearly as good as the first time. So what's to be excited about.

Well, I won't linger any longer.

The doctor chalks up the failure to two bad eggs. Once you get to the embryo stage, it mostly has to do with the quality of eggs according to him. So these embryos must have just been bad. That's great. I'm not sure anyone could prove it. He said good embryos can grow just about anywhere, they are very invasive. Which makes me think maybe I don't want an alien invasion.

Moving on, there is no reason to assume I have poor quality eggs just from this cycle. He said maybe if we don't get pregnant with the remaining four embryos he might decide to revisit that statement. He also said it didn't have to do with any male issues or endometriosis.

So, great. I've decided that's good news. Both my sisters, my mom, my maternal grandmother have been pregnant, naturally, in either their 30s or 40s - so I have good genes for at least decent eggs that should be able to make it to my grand old age of 30.

The doctor said we have two good tries with these four embryos -- two each time. Assuming they all survive the thaw. The chances for surviving the thaw he said was very good -- about 70% each. So this fall, we will go back to transfer two more blastocysts. They froze two of them together, and then the other two separately. Something I didn't know and hadn't read anywhere was that they could tell very quickly if an embryo would not survive a thaw; in just 10 minutes. If one of the two isn't going to survive, they pull another one to thaw before the transfer.

So according to the doctor, each of the next two trials give us a 30% chance of pregnancy each. Overall, he said about a 50% chance of pregnancy between the two cycles. Our chance will of course dwindle if an embryo doesn't survive a thaw.

Which is about where I was last month - at best - 50/50.