The IVF Transfer

So the IVF transfer was scheduled for September 22^nd. They flew me up the day before the transfer, and I was able to have dinner with my IPs. Oh yes, I forgot one more medication! That night, the night before the transfer, I had to put a special vaginal antibiotic gel in right before bed. Then I had to be at the clinic at 6am for monitoring. Starting a few days after the Lupron shots began, I had to go for monitoring almost weekly. They found an IVF center near me locally, and I go there for bloodwork to check my hormone levels, and prior to transfer, ultrasound, to check the lining of my uterus, to make sure the IVF can go ahead when planned. So I arrived at the clinic at 6am for another monitoring appointment to make sure we were all set for the IVF that afternoon. I was, and they gave me a vaginal progesterone pill to insert a couple hours before the procedure. Due to the time of the morning, I had trouble finding a cab service to bring me back to the hotel. But the hotel was just half a mile or so from the clinic, so I decided to walk back to the hotel at about 7:30am (though I had been done for an hour and just read a magazine). Then I took a nap since I was up at 5:30am, and a little while later my IP mom picked me up for lunch before heading to the clinic for the procedure.

When we got to the clinic, they asked us if we wanted to do laser acupuncture as well. They advised us that studies have shown that both normal acupuncture and laser acupuncture (which is faster than normal and doesn’t actually involving sticking needles in you!) increases the chances of success by 2%. Basically, helping to increase the blood flow to the uterus helps increase the chances of success, and acupuncture does that. Massage does that as well, and I actually had a 15 minute massage at Newark airport while I waited for my flight the next day!

I also want to add that the clinic we are using has significantly better success rates than the rest of the world because the researchers and doctors there have discovered a way to test the frozen embryos. These tests can tell you almost everything that an amniocentesis can tell you. The embryos are only 5 days old, but these tests can even tell you the gender. My IPs did not want to know the gender. That’s not the purpose. The purpose is to determine which embryos are healthiest and most likely to implant. I remember learning in college that 50% of first trimester miscarriages are due to chromosomal abnormalities. These tests can rule out those abnormalities. There are still other things that can go wrong, as we later learned. But these tests significantly increase the chances. Everywhere, the success rates are around 45%, I believe. Our clinic’s success rates for all IVF, which includes fresh or frozen (and you can’t test fresh embryos) as well as mothers or carriers, is 66%, I believe. And theoretically, healthy carriers combined with frozen embryos that are tested for abnormalities, should have even higher success rates, though they don’t have those documented. So basically, we were already going into this with pretty good odds, and added another 2% with the acupuncture.

The procedure itself was quick and painless. It was like having a pap smear in a surgical room. I did feel a little more exposed. With a pap smear it’s just my doctor or midwife. For the procedure, there was the doctor plus a few nurses. No biggie though. Once you’ve gone through childbirth, you don’t really care that much anymore about overexposure! At least not for me. They had a video monitor above me so I could watch them prepare the embryo in the catheter (not that I could actually see the embryo; I assume the person doing it had a microscope), and I had to confirm the correct names with it. Then they changed the feed to the ultrasound showing the insertion of the catheter and therefore, the embryo. And then it was done!  It took about 5 minutes or so.

The nurse came in and gave me specific instructions until the pregnancy test, which was 9 days after the transfer. I was on bedrest that night, and for the rest of those 9 days, I had to keep my heart rate down, so no exercise or any activities that would increase it. I flew home the day following the transfer, and then the waiting began, though the waiting was accompanied by the continual progesterone injections and estrace pills. As you know, 9 days after the transfer, we received a positive confirmation on the pregnancy test and were very happy. It proved to be fleeting, but it was still a success, which I think can only be a good sign for the next attempt.