We go in for the procedure on Monday morning and at this point the three of us have this down pat. This is our fourth round of IVF and the third one where we had a surgery, so we are old pros even though this started out as what I thought would be one round to give me more options.
During IVF prep, they give you an IV to pump in fluids and make you change into scrubs and hospital clothes. My mom and fiance waited with me in the prep room until I was brought into a different room for the surgery.
There, they make you lay down on the operating table and start giving you your anesthesia, which is the part I like least. Luckily I had my iphone with me and put in my earbuds and listened to a Goop podcast as I dozed off. Next thing I know, I was wheeled back into the original room and my mom and fiance were brought in. The embryologist comes by and says they retrieved 17 eggs, which is exactly the same amount as last time.
After drinking lots of fluids, my mom and I head back to the apartment for a lowkey day of wedding planning and binge-watching “Modern Family.” You need to take it easy following the surgery and can’t really go back to your normal schedule until you get your period two weeks later, so no hard workouts etc. (PS: You can read our day-by-day diary of this fourth round of ivf: IVF Diary: Inside My Fourth Round of IVF)
The next day, my clinic calls with an embryo update. Of the 17 eggs retrieved, 12 were mature enough to use and 11 of those fertilized. Over the next seven days, those 11 embryos will be monitored. Some will inevitably die off. Whatever survives, will be sent for genetic testing.
The day after the surgery, we fly to Florida for Thanksgiving with my fiance’s family. I am super bloated and have stomach pain, but all in all, my recovery is pretty easy. I don’t even take Tylenol to ease the pain, and we have a great time with his family despite having to take it easy.
The next check up is six days after the procedure, when the embryos have been monitored. The embryologist calls and says that seven of the 11 eggs have been biopsied and frozen, which is great news! The remaining four will be monitored for one more day to see if any of them make it. The next day he calls again and said none of the other four were good enough to biopsy. Still, we are elated that we will have seven to send off for testing. The last round, we sent six to testing and all six came back as healthy embryos that we plan on using next year! Now, we don’t expect the same results this time (the second round ALL of our embryos came back unusable), but if we get two or three more viable embryos we will be happy and stop freezing eggs.
Now, we wait the two weeks for the embryos to go through testing at Good Start Genetics. Basically, this part of the process is vital, because if any genetic abnormalities are detected, the embryos are destroyed or donated to science. We are hoping that the six months of DHEA coupled with all of my other supplements and changes to lifestyle will create very strong embryos. The rounds that we had trouble, my eggs were poor quality, so we hope that these steps have improved the quality.
When my doctor call about a week later, she delivers more good news. Of the six embryos sent for testing, four came back healthy and freezable! That gives us a grand total of 10 viable embryos once we try to get pregnant. We ask her the sex of the new embryos, and learn that two are boys and two are girls. So, in all, we have five boys and five girls.
We are elated, especially since these results coupled with the last results buy us some time. We’re getting married next year and in an ideal world, we have wanted to take a year after the wedding traveling together before trying for kids. But, based on my awful numbers and egg quality early on, we thought that was a pipe dream. So, we schedule a joint conference call with my doctor a week later to get her views on how soon after the wedding to try for a baby.
On the call, my Doctor says it is totally fine to wait a full year to implant one of the embryos. She suggested implanting over trying naturally for a few reasons. The biggest one is that our embryos that are frozen have already been genetically tested and are good embryos, so there is less of a risk of deformities or miscarriage than if we tried naturally. Even better, she thinks we have more than enough healthy embryos for the two babies we want to eventually have. (Keep in mind: implanting an embryo does’t mean having a baby. It could take implanting an embryo three times or more just for one baby) And, there is no difference in me carrying the babies a few years from now than it would be today because the embryos are frozen in time.
That means, we are done with our IVF journey for now. Once we implant those embryos a year from now, we’ll be back with more IVF diaries on that process and the results.
Read More of Our IVF Coverage:
IVF Diary: My First, Unsuccessful Round of Egg Freezing
IVF Diary: My Second Round of Egg Freezing
IVF Diary: Egg Retrieval, Recovery & Embryo Results
IVF Diary: My Third Round of Egg Freezing
IVF Diary: Results From Our Third Round of IVF
IVF Diary: Inside My Fourth Round of IVF
We’re Pregnant! Inside our Embryo Transfer
The Supplements I Take To Improve Egg Quality
Improving Egg Quality With “It Starts With The Egg”
Eliminating Toxins & Chemicals for IVF
How To Pay For IVF & Egg Freezing