My doctor filled out the pre-operative information sheet on what would be happening to me. Cycle 5 — Day three embryo. My little warrior. During sleep, our bodies repair muscles, consolidate memories, and release hormones and chemicals that regulate everything from energy to appetite.
And what this means on a fertility aspect is that the hormone prolactin increases with sleep loss. Apparently its common to find that women with fertility issues have suppressed ovulation due to elevated prolactin. You would never think that or expect that your sleeping habits be one of many sources for infertility. Before we got started on a new cycle, the doctor had me booked in for a laparoscopy, which was actually the day after my birthday.
Happy birthday me! Laparoscopy is a way of performing a surgery. Instead of making a large incision or cut for certain operations, surgeons make tiny incisions and insert thin instruments and a camera into an area, such as into the abdomen, to view the internal organs and repair or remove tissue. When I woke up from my surgery I remember I was so hungry I had to fast from the previous night and I was the last patient that was operated on that day — surgery was at 3. Oh I badly wanted my two rib pieces of chicken with chips extra KFC salt, please.
My darling husband went and bought that for me luckily it was just around the corner from the hospital. When he came back with the food, I basically breathed in those rib pieces and chips!
Om nom nom nom nom. I was told to rest for a week. And let me know just tell you, after the second day of surgery my stomach got so bloated that I practically looked like I was six months pregnant! I am seriouslynot joking. It even hurt to pass gas sorry for the TMI — cue in the awkward shoulder shrug. Two weeks later after the surgery I had a follow-up appointment with the doctor to get the results.
I was told there was no endometriosis but it was confirmed again that my left fallopian was blocked and the right tube was now partially blocked. IVF was certainly needed if we wanted to have a baby. The doctor wrote up my new cycle and IVF drugs were collected. There is no scientific proof that NKC actually does exists. With this second clinic I pretty much did five cycles. These are the cycles and what IVF drugs I had to take and what the results were from each cycle:.
At the start of each cycle I was always excited and convinced myself that this was THE cycle that our miracle baby was going to happen. At every ultrasound I would get so happy because I would see that I had at least between 13 — 15 follicles and they were all of good decent sizes. Even the IVF nurse would be impressed that I was still able to produce that amount for someone my age.
Then after egg collection, having around 6 or 7 eggs collected I would feel so positive because this old chicken was still laying so many eggs haha!
But once the current cycle would end and sadly it was unsuccessful, I fell into a deep hole of depression. I gave myself at least a six weeks off after every cycle before starting another one.
Detoxing from each cycle. IVF drugs stay in your system for at least a month. It is only by having the facts that we can make good decisions. To help you I have developed a checklist of questions you can use when speaking to potential clinics.
Simply download them below. At first look it seems an odd question. You undergo IVF to have your own family, right? So, success is surely giving birth to a healthy baby?
Not all clinics seem to think so…. Well, pregnancy rates are always much higher than live birth rates. Understanding this is important because even these give different results. Some measures show higher percentages but are much less likely to lead to a live birth. It is no surprise, of course, that fertility clinics want to present themselves in the best possible light. There is nothing wrong with that as long as they make things clear.
The problems come when the statistics they publish are misleading. Unfortunately, this is quite common. For example, in a report the National Institute for Health heavily criticised fertility clinics for the way they used success rates. This is a very early stage pregnancy, detected around days after an embryo transfer. This is how home pregnancy test kits work. If a biochemical pregnancy has been detected, about weeks later the timing varies depending on the clinic an ultrasound scan will be carried out.
If both of these are present and healthy it is called a clinical pregnancy. Depending on the timing of the scan a heartbeat may also be heard. Assuming everything is ok with the previous scan another will be performed, usually after at least 12 weeks.
The purpose of this scan is to ensure that the baby is healthy and developing well. Fortunately, whilst there are a few definitions of pregnancy, the key thing that we are all interested in is much more straightforward. Getting a positive pregnancy test result — or a BFP Big Fat Positive — showing a biochemical pregnancy is a big step in the process.
To say it is a joyous event is a massive understatement. But, it does not necessarily mean you are going to have a baby. This is the big issue that my wife and I had with clinics that only showed pregnancy rates.
Of course they are of interest but they are nothing compared to live birth rates. No one has IVF just to become pregnant. We put ourselves through it to become pregnant AND have a baby. So, why do clinics use pregnancy rates to demonstrate success? The only answer we could come up with was that it gives clinics higher percentages to put in their glossy advertising. The issue is made worse when clinics use biochemical pregnancies as the pregnancy rate measure instead of one of the others.
The first 12 weeks of pregnancy is a critical time when the chances of suffering a miscarriage are highest. As we will see later, miscarriage rates are highest and so the chances of a live birth lowest at the very beginning of this 12 week period. The risk reduces significantly as time passes. So, not only are some clinics using pregnancy rates instead of live birth rates to judge success they are also using the measure of pregnancy that has the lowest of chance of going on to produce a live birth.
How much higher depends on how many weeks have passed and whether certain milestones have been reached. The rates drop significantly at two key milestones:. Gestational sac: at the first scan the sonographer will look for the foetus and a gestational sac. Depending on the timing, they may also look for a heartbeat. However, heartbeats are rarely detectable before week 6.
Different clinics recommend having scans at different times so it may be that your first scan comes before this point. Heartbeat: the second critical milestone in the first 12 weeks is the detection of a heartbeat. Once a heartbeat has been found the risk of miscarriage decreases even further.
For example, one study found that once a heartbeat had been detected miscarriage rates reduced as follows:. The number of pregnancies and live births are one part of the success rate equation. Clarity on the other part is equally important to get the true picture. How do we calculate the success rate? We need another number to divide the 50 live births into to get a percentage.
Anything that reduces the number in the second part of the equation will increase the success rate percentage. My wife and I already had some embryos frozen so this was a key point for us. Getting the facts was not straightforward. I contacted one very well-known clinic to clarify the stats on their website and they refused to do it. They first tried to fob me off with some vague responses so I rephrased my questions.
After several emails it became clear that they did not want to give the full picture. It is not just in the definitions and calculations where success rates can be influenced. Some clinics have strict criteria before accepting patients. This can mean that couples with hard to treat issues are excluded. By excluding certain groups of patients from treatment clinics will boost their success rates. But some people like myself have more than what is considered normal.
NKC are immune cells in your body can reject a foetus, stopping a pregnancy from going any further. Meaning, the doctor took the patient seriously and listened to them. I refused and said no, before any more cycles are done, I wanted a biopsy and blood test done on NKC, to see if I had that. Reluctantly she finally agreed.
At the same time, I had asked if she could also write a referral to the hospital to gynaecology department so I could have done a laparoscopy done, just to see if perhaps if I also had endometriosis.
This part was like pulling a tooth out, however the specialist agreed in the end. Endometriosis is a tissue like that which lines the uterus and cause so much pain every month your period is coming and can be found on the ovaries, fallopian tubes, and some areas of the the uterus. Also areas between the vagina and rectum, the outer surface of the uterus; and the lining of the pelvic cavity.
When the period flows out, the tissue and blood shed from endometrial growths has no way of leaving the body, so this causes internal bleeding and inflammation, which then causes that horrendous pain a lot women around the world experience.
A laparoscopy is pretty much a surgery. What they do is instead of making a large incision or cut for certain operations, the surgeon will make tiny incisions and insert thin instruments and a camera into an area, such as into the abdomen, to view the internal organs and repair or remove any tissue.
The biopsy was done at the IVF clinic itself, in one of their rooms. However, lets just say, I wish my mum was in there with me, because again I experienced pain like I have never experienced it before! FYI: not every woman will have the same experience.
It was horrendous. There was no anaesthetic given. Well, I was given two pain killer for pain relief prior to the actual procedure its self oh thank God for that. The biopsy was pretty much like having pap smear test done. Except the doctor cuts chops out a few areas of your uterus lining which gives a much more detailed result. What was to follow… Let me just warn you first, I was not of sound mind or body because of the pain that was shortly to follow… the pain made me do it.
I started to get really queasy, fast. My body temperature shot up, hot flushes came on thick and fast. I jumped off the bed and sat on the floor, just to feel the cold floor underneath me. Then I had to take off my top. I just had to. Yep, I yanked my top off in front of my doctor and nurse. The nurse quickly brought a bucket to me as I felt I was about to throw up. The pain in my uterus was growing bigger by the second, more… and more.
I was literally withering on the floor in extreme pain. Seriously, I was curled up in the foetus position, moaning in agony. The nurse then went and grabbed a wet cloth to try cool me down. Here I thought the HSG was bad… that was nothing compared to this! Oh minha madre! I pretty much stayed in this state for up to an hour. I could also hear in the back ground the doctor and the nurse, whisper that they have never had anyone have this type of reaction before. My uterus is a very sensitive little soul, OK.
Even though I had my mum in the waiting room, and my husband was at work, I never felt more alone. All those thoughts ran inside my head. And did for a long time. In some sick way, it comforts you. Finally, the excruciating pain went away. The nurse put me in the recovery room and went and grabbed my mum. I explained what had happened to mum, she was left speechless. Believe me, this is a woman that always has something to say and if she was lost for words, well, I pretty much shocked her.
0コメント