.3rd times a charm?.

so, call us crazy, but cameron and i are gearing up to try ivf #3. this time we were a little smarter about it. first, we have changed drs, we'll be seeing dr. fisch in las vegas..who deals specifically with egg quality problems. he thinks the protocol i've been on is "ruining" my eggs from the beginning so they don't stand a chance to make it past day 3. with our first cycle, i had 9 eggs retrieved, 6 mature, 0 fertilized. with ivf #2 i had 14 eggs retrieved, only 9 mature, 5 fertilized with icsi, only 2 made it to day 3. we did a day 3 transfer of 2 8-cell embies, grade 1. but still bfn. second change is that dr fisch is going to put me on their a/acp protocol, an antangonist protocol, which he thinks will give me better eggs, with better fertilization rates. third change that we've made to maximize our results is that we've purchased a buy 3 cycles and if you don't take home a live baby, you get a portion of your money back. good deal if you ask me, because that includes everything except meds. it even includes all associated fet cycles if we have frozens to use.

as for this cycle, we're looking forward to having much better results on the antagonist protocol

so here's my schedule...
12/30 bcp (yaz) starts
1/20 add dexamethasone and lupron
1/24 stop bcp
1/27 stop lupron, add 0.25 ganirelix, continue this thru to hcg trigger
2/2 start follistim 375 for 2 days then drop to 225
2/4 first luveris dose 1 vial
2/6 second luveris dose 1 vial
2/10-2/11 possible hcg trigger
2/12-2/13 possible egg retrieval
2/15-2/17 possible embryo transfer

once again, this is mostly for journaling purposes, since i don't write this all down. if you're interested, then that's just a bonus.

ash

.i think explains it.

From an article by Dr Aniruddha Malpani, MD:
"The third group is perhaps the most difficult. These are women who grow a sufficient quantity of follicles in response to superovulation ; and have high estradiol levels as well. Egg collection is usually uneventful ; and the doctor often retrieves 8 to 16 eggs for them. If IVF is done, when the fertilization check is performed the following day, much to the embryologist’s surprise and the patient’s dismay , it is found that the fertilization is very poor even though the sperm are fine and actively motile. If ICSI is being done, the embryologist often finds that the eggs are morphologically normal ; or are very fragile. For example, these eggs have granular cytoplasm ; or vacuoles in their cytoplasm ; or dark areas within the cytoplasm. Since normal eggs are simple spherical formless blobs, these subtle cytoplasmic abnormalities are often missed or overlooked. The embryologist may also noticed that the eggs are fragile, and the cell membrane offers little resistance to the injection pipette. Many of these eggs may die during the ICSI process.
Unfortunately , because egg morphology has not been adequately studied , we still do not have good descriptive terms , when talking about these abnormalities. Since the eye only sees what the mind knows, often these abnormalities are not picked up. The patient is often subjected to repeated IVF or ICSI cycles , with the same poor results each time."


we're just a "hard egg case."