OUR infertility 101

OUR infertility 101

This post chronicles what we've done up until now to have a baby. Please email (or call) if you have any further questions, or want more details. There are always more details!

(please click on the links for more information about that particular term)

After my first miscarriage in December 2005, I talked to my ob/gyn about perhaps starting Clomid. I had thought that I might have low progesterone, and Clomid is supposed to help that. Before starting Clomid, we did bloodwork for 3 months/cycles to see if I did indeed have low progesterone, and if I was ovulating at all. My Dr. gave me the prescription to start Clomid, but they didn't do any monitoring. Fearing high order mutiples, I started going to the RE.
My RE wanted a bunch of tests done first. Bloodwork and an HSG to see if my tubes were open and if there were any uterine abnormalities. All clear. With the clomid, they did do the monitoring to see how many eggs I had, then I got a trigger shot of HCGt to aid ovulation.
We did that for 3 cycles.
It didn't work.

The next step was to try the clomid with an IUI. We did that for one cycle.
It didn't work.

Since Clomid is a peculiar drug, most doctors only recommend being on it 4-6 cycles, but since it hadn't produced great results, our RE recommended moving on to Injectibles.

We did one cycle of injectibles. 150iu of Follistim with another IUI, which got me/us 4 eggs.
It didn't work.

Then we decided to do more extensive testing on D. That's when we got the first really bad news. The genetic testing came back fine. It was the morphology that was the deal breaker. Only 2% normal, using the WHO guidelines. Motility and count were also bad, but not serious. The RE said it would be a waste of our time and money to continue w/ the IUIs or Clomid, and he suggested going directly to IVF w/ ICSI.

Oh, and then I got pregnant... but that only lasted a week. Highest beta was 580.

I started the meds for the IVF cycle in December for the February cycle. I did the long lupron protocol that time. That got us awful results w/ only 4 mature eggs. Only 2 of those eggs even fertilized, so they put them back 48 hours after the retrieval.
It didn't work.

Then we took some Time Off. I said I was only doing IVF one more time...

IVF #2 started in June. Let me just say that this was a very rollercoaster cycle! We did the microdose lupron flare protocol this time. was on the meds for a particularly long time-- 16 days. Read this for more info on poor ovarian response. So, onto the cycle details; The first ultrasound is supposed to show your antral follicle count. That number is basically how many eggs you have to work with during that cycle. I had NONE. The second ultrasound is after 5 days of the meds. I only had TWO follicles growing. By the time u/s 3 came around, 5 days later, I fully expected the cycle to get cancelled, because by all measures it should have been. Magically I had 10 follicles then, and we kept on going. Better results, as far as quantity goes, but the egg quality was similarly bad. The embryologist suggested doing assisted hatching because of the dark zonas on my eggs. That means the shells are hard and once an embryo starts to grow, it can get stuck in the shell b/c it can't 'hatch' out of the thick shell. Read this for more info on poor ovarian response. But because of that, we had more to play with and 3 were decent. We transferred 3 embryos 72 hours after retrieval and were given a 1 in 6 chance of triplets.
It didn't work.

So here we are... trying to figure out what to do next.

We have a consult with one of the best clinics in the country next month--Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine.