IVF #2

In December we made an appointment with the fertility doctor to tell her we finally had the money to pay for the next IVF cycle. Unfortunately, I am past 40 years old now, so she said our chances of success were 5%. Not great, but I wanted to at least try one more time with my eggs. The official start date of the IVF cycle was 5 February 2016, but I had to take a bunch of supplements and medications to prepare for it. I posted pictures on our instagram account of all the medications and supplements.  

I only had three injections this time.

Ganirelix is a pre-filled syringe which prevents the eggs from prematurely leaving the ovaries. I had to take this at the exact same time everyday for 8 days, which cost $1000.

Because of all the hormones I was taking, I felt amazing at CrossFit. I was finally able to do a box jump and a non-scaled burpee. I started doing CrossFit after the last failed IVF cycle. Since I am a Certified Athletic Trainer, I know that hormones are on the banned substance list for athletes. Good thing I am not competing because I could have seriously kicked someone's butt. Now I know why they are banned. 

This was my last day of CrossFit before all the procedures.

The last egg retrieval also took place on a Sunday. Again the anesthesia made me tired, but this time I felt bloated. We were able to get to 2 mature eggs! This made us so excited about the possibility that this might actually work and to have twins! For the embryo transfer, my Mom took me last time and Dave drove me to the fertility clinic this time. I really wanted Dave to be there because it is such a awesome spiritual moment seeing the embryo for the first time. 

The orange arrow is pointing to our embryos on the ultrasound screen.

I did acupuncture this time. I found that research showed acupuncture increases IVF success rates.

Two weeks later we found out it didn't work, I wasn't surprised because I had no pregnancy symptoms, but we were still devastated of another failure. After I got the call, I walked over the the cemetery to sit with my Mom's headstone and cry it out. We decided to name our embryos to help with the healing process. IVF #1 embryo we named Darcy (character from Thor) and IVF #2 embryos we named Blair (after Dave's favorite British Prime Minister Tony Blair) and Kyle (after the Batman character Selina Kyle, Dave is a huge fan). 

We do have names already picked out for actual baby(ies) if it ever works. During our follow-up visit with the fertility doctor she suggested the next step is either egg donation or embryo adoption. I was surprised that egg donation can cost from $8,000-$10,000, but embryo adoption will only be the cost of a Frozen Embryo Transfer which can be from $3,000-$4,000 if we can get an embryo from the fertility clinic which can take up to a year on the waiting list. If we do the embryo adoption outside the clinic it can cost up to $7,000 just in adoption fees. 


I belong to an infertility support group on Facebook. The other women mention how thoughtless, rude, mean, callous, etc their friends and families are to them during this infertility journey. I read these comments and I think; Why am I so lucky to have supportive friends and family? I really thought about this, maybe because both my Grandmothers had fertility issues. Grandma Riding had about 10 pregnancies with only 3 adult sons and 2 daughters that lived 3 days. The rest were either stillborn or miscarriages. Grandma Jensen had an accident on mission plus her and Grandpa's Patriarchal Blessings don't mention children and they had two years of marriage with no children, so they adopted my Uncle Geoff then my Mom was born two years later. I guess if you are familiar with infertility it can be easier to be supportive to loved ones, which I am grateful for. One less thing to stress about during this journey. Thank you.