Some wise blogger referred to the process of moving on to IVF as 'riding the IVF train' - it felt pretty spot-on at the time, but now that we are doing the same, it feels even more fitting. All I can say -- all aboard!
We met with the NEW Dr. G at the FFF today. He gave us the low-down, and after signing about a million forms, we are on our way..sort of.
This train aint no express.
Since we have been doing everything the 'home-grown' approach I have a ton of blood-work/tests that will be required, CD 3 hormone and STD / genetic to a saline sonogram - fun fun! In addition W needs to get some tests as well, which we found interesting, but I guess we are down for equality and all. Given these loop holes and the fact that we are planning to be out of town for the month of July, we may not be able to start our cycle until August, but I am still really confused on the timing of things (see 1010 questions below!)
In the meantime, we are going to try one more 'live' cycle (this weekend!!) and then maybe an IUI, if thats how the timing falls out. Annoying, we need to go back and meet with the ORIGINAL Dr G to sort out our 'protocol,' timing, etc.
And now a few questions: for those of you who have done this, can you give me a 'rough' timeline. How long were you on suppressants? Did it require monitoring? When did you move on to the gonotropids (spelling?), I assume those DID require monitoring. Did they change-up your ovulation date or try to keep you on your normal cycle timing? NEW Dr G (we need to come up with better names) indicated that we could start this process in late June - with the suppressants (on a normal CD 3) - go away for a month and come back and do the retrieval in early July. Does that sounds right? That would be a nearly 6 weeks between starting BC and retrieval, which seems long to me (!!). I assume that monitoring is required for some of that, but he wouldnt give me specifics as Dr. G (the original) is determining the protocol. Any rough time lines you could throw my way would be lovely!
Overall, we are excited that spring has brought new opportunities..now just watch, we will get pregnant this cycle anyways :)
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Welcome to the IVF train! Seems like we're going to be on a similar timeline. Since I haven't actually gone through a cycle yet I won't say too much, but six weeks seems about what we were told too. I'm not doing BCP's, but I was told I'll start Lupron on CD21, get a period about 10 days later, then start stims after my day 3 ultrasound (and monitoring every other day during stims). Then retrieval and transfer about 2 weeks later. So...that's about 6 wks from CD1.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, hope this is the magic bullet for both of us! When I get more of a concrete timeline we can compare notes :-)
Although it sounds like your train is rolling a little slower it's still pretty exciting that you're making progress in your journey. You never know about the IUI try in between - you could still get surprised!
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ReplyDeleteRight there with ya, babe. I think my train is rolling a bit faster than yours, though, so I'll let you know how it goes.
ReplyDeleteSo far I know I am going to be on BCP until May 29, will go in for baseline monitoring on June 2, and will start stims on June 4. I will be going in for monitoring every other day once I start the stims. Ganirelix will be used to suppress ovulation. They expect retrieval to be around June 16th. I don't know about Lupron because it's not included in my protocol. It seems a lot shorter than what you've outlined, in any case.
They would have kept me on my regular cycle, but I asked them to push it back a few days so that the transfer isn't during the last week of school. I get out June 18th and the transfer should be the weekend or week after. I'm hoping I will be needing all my sick days for a maternity leave next year!
there are so many different protocols, and i find myself second-guessing all over the place, but yours sounds pretty normal. mine will be more like what pom describes -- CD2 start, no lupron or anything ahead of time -- but i think that has to do with my endometriosis or maybe the associated cysts?
ReplyDeleteWelcome aboard! 6 weeks sounds about right. We started suppressing on March 2, starting stimming on March 13, and had retrieval on March 23. I didn't do BCPs and they keep you on your natural cycle at my clinic. I hope you DO get pregnant on your live cycle and don't have to do the whole dance! It's really not that bad, but you have to be willing for it to take over your life for a while.
ReplyDeleteWhat are they testing W for? Interesting...
I did birth control pills for a month, then suppressants for about 17 days (poor memory), then started stimming. While stimming, I basically had scans via dildocam every other weekday. There was no consideration at all for my original ovulation date, as it is pretty much irrelevant to IVF. I simply stimming till my follies were big enough, then had a shot to mature the eggs, and onward to egg collection and vaginal progesterone bullets....
ReplyDeleteIt did feel like it was going to take forever with all the tests, but once we got going it was quite quick!