Broken Record

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Seriously – I feel like a broken record. I’m getting tired of reporting that yet another cycle was a failure. I decided not to blog about this cycle in detail in hopes that I wouldn’t jinx myself and this would be the successful cycle that we have been waiting for.

Wrong.

Here’s a breakdown of what went down.

• We decided to proceed with the combination of G.onal-F and M.enopur because it worked fairly well during our last IUI cycle as well as during our IVF cycle. 
• I went in for a follicle check on cycle day 10 and found that I had 1 follicle measuring 12mm, 2 follicles measuring 11mms, and several follicles measuring 10mms. My lining was at a 7 and my estradiol level came back at 182. 
• I went back for a follow-up on cycle day 12 and found that the follicles had matured. I ended up with 2 follicles measuring 16mms, 1 follicle measuring 15mm, and multiple follicles measuring 13mms and 10mms. My lining was at a 10 and my estradiol level came back at 400. 
• Because we didn’t want the 13’s and 10’s to mature much more, I stopped the injections and triggered on cycle day 14. It seemed like the drug combination worked a little too well this time around. We feared that the cycle may have been cancelled because of the large amount of follicles. 
• I ovulated on Saturday and started taking the progesterone on Monday morning. 

I decided to go ahead and test the following Wednesday at 11 DPO.

Negative.

I tested on Thursday.

Negative.

I tested on Friday.

Negative.

I decided to withhold the information from E until Friday because I didn’t want to ruin his Thanksgiving. I managed to hold it together until Saturday afternoon when we were out running errands. I had a complete breakdown in the car. Ugh.

So….

IVF 2.0 looms in the not so distant future.

I know I said that we would only do IVF once, but deep down, I’m not ready to give up on having a biological child.

That being said, this is our last attempt. If we want to pursue adoption if this next attempt fails (which I hope it doesn’t), then we have to draw the line somewhere.

I had an anxiety attack the other night just thinking about doing another round of IVF. I have an irrational fear that E will resent me if this doesn’t work again. We talked it out last night and he calmed me down.

Our tentative timeline has my baseline ultrasound scheduled on January 9th. I should begin meds shortly after. Retrievals are scheduled for the last week of January and the first week of February with transfers occurring 3 days after the retrievals.

Our protocol is up in the air right now. I have 2 options:

1) Stick with the microdose L.upron flare protocol

or

2) Switch to an antagon cycle where the L.upron would be replaced by G.anirelix

We have time to think about this, so I’m weighing the pros and cons of each protocol.

Also, I’m adding in some supplements that have helped friends during their second attempts at IVF. Let’s hope they also work for me.

Guess we’re back in the waiting game. The waiting game sucks.