BFN Confirmed

As I suspected, the beta HCG bloodwork confirmed that I am not pregnant. Thankfully, I can stop taking the meds and maybe all these cramps I feel will quickly turn into a period. We have a follow-up meeting with the RE on the 22nd to discuss next steps, but I already know that she thinks we should do another FET with one of our two remaining embryos. The embryos are from eggs that are two years younger than I am now and there is no reason to think they aren't high quality. I'm game if it means avoiding IVF. I will discuss again with the RE whether or not we should do assisted hatching. We did it when we had success with Ian and we didn't do it for this failed FET. We'll probably end up deciding not to do it again (to avoid increasing our chances of having multiples), but I want to talk about it again with the doctor. Overall, it's a bummer, but as the nurse told me on the phone today, the success rate is only 40% in general and so the odds are stacked against us. We just got very lucky the first time around.

The silver linings of the BFN: (1) I won't have to bring needles and drugs with me on the plane to Baltimore this weekend; (2) I can drink lots of beer with my brother this weekend; (3) I can drink alcohol at an upcoming party and avoid all questions as to why I'm not drinking (something I wasn't able to successfully navigate 2 years ago when I was pregnant with Ian); (4) I can get back on my exercise schedule without worrying about getting my heart rate too high; and (5) I will have been at my new job for over 1 year by the time I deliver.

As an aside, when I went to get my blood drawn this morning, I told the technician that I thought it was stupid that I had to get poked to confirm what I already knew - that I wasn't pregnant. He then launched into a story about a friend who was going through all sorts of infertility treatments and failing and how she got pregnant naturally the first month after stopping the infertility treatments. Sigh. Why would anyone ever assume that these stories bring comfort to someone suffering from infertility?