Begin at the beginning. Again.

I began microdose Lupron and Saizen injections and .5 mg dexamethasone yesterday and will start the stimulation medications (150 Menopur and 300 iu Gonal F) tomorrow.

IVF #7 has officially begun.

The plan, as it was last time, is to gather as many eggs as possible, with the hope of getting as many blasts as possible, followed by the hope that with microarray we can identify one or two blasts that are chromosomally normal. Major bonus prize to the Denver clinic if any of the blasts fertilize normally, develop normally, AND are chromosomally normal. Now THAT would be something.

Because the testing takes six weeks-ish, we'll be freezing everything. Again.

Some of you have asked if we might thaw the normal blastocysts we've got frozen in Denver from IVF #6 and put them back while we're out there. Good question.

We've considered it. Truly. I mean, really, it would be good to get this show on the road after three grueling years of treatment.

But much as I'd love to be pregnant as soon as possible, we decided against transferring at this time for a couple of reasons:

1. Because I have stage III endo, as well as some other uterine lining abnormalities, Dr. Schl. wants me to take lupron for 2-3 months prior to transfer to improve chances of implantation.

2. Some folks believe that the stimulation medications themselves make implantation after a fresh cycle less likely than after a frozen cycle. Don't think there are any studies on this, but it kind of makes intuitive sense...

Our chromosmally normal embryos were really hard to come by. Six fresh IVF cycles hard. So we are going to do everything we can to improve our chances that they will stick. Much as I would love to get this babymaking business truly moving forward, there's no way that we'd do anything that might reduce our chances.

So our plan is to transfer the best two (or possibly three if we include two or more of our wonky blasts), probably in September.

And so we begin. Again.

Mo

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