Post Consultation

I met with Dr. Slowey about the transfer. I'm a little more informed and have done some reflecting since leaving the office...

He likes the way everything went with the IVF, besides the outcome, and says we shouldn't give up hope yet. He says I need to remember I was pregnant...although I did miscarry. (It was called a biochemical pregnancy because they were able to tell I was pregnant by the HCG in my system, but they were never able to see it on an ultrasound because it was too early. The link does a great job of explaining a biochemical pregnancy.) We still don't know why I miscarried, but it is most likely due to the number of chromosomes and was probably genetically abnormal. He said he doesn't think it is because of my uterus. In fact, he said if he went to Vegas he would bet money on my uterus. It was kind of hard not to laugh when he said that.

I started to reflect on this IVF and some of our other fertility attempts and began to wonder if I could have had early miscarriages and not have known it. Several days after our transfer I started to feel really hungry and was even waking up in the morning starving. I only discussed it with Michael because I thought it was probably just a symptom I was making up in my head, but I was pregnant at the time so it makes sense. It lasted for a few days and then it was gone...most likely because the embryo, or whatever the technical term is for it at that stage, wasn't growing and therefore was going to result in a miscarriage. I've had the same feeling before with a couple of our IUI's so it makes me wonder how many early miscarriages I've had. It is very common for woman to have early miscarriages and not even know it because it is just like a normal period. Michael has always said he thinks I've had early miscarriages because I will report early symptoms to him and then they go away. I'm sure some symptoms have "appeared" just because I've wanted to be pregnant so bad, but others could have been due to an early miscarriage.

Anyway, we discussed the frozen embryos and what I have to do to prep my uterus/body. I will be on birth control pills, estrogen, and progesterone, but NO INJECTIONS!!!!! It will all be oral. Thank goodness because the syringe on the progesterone shot is HUGE...several inches long. Not only no injections, but I only have to go in for one ultrasound and no blood work.

I asked what the chances were of the frozen embryos surviving the freezing process. He said that there is a 10% chance we will only have one to transfer and a 1% chance we will have none to transfer. I will take those chances!! He also said they do about 100 frozen embryo transfers a year and my chances of it working are about 40-50%.

So having processed all the information we are going to do the transfer. It will probably take place the second week of July. I don't really want to wait that long, but as I keep saying..."we've waited three years, what's a little longer?"