FET Update

I switched medical insurance plans when I started my new job and just found out today that my insurance company approved our frozen embryo transfer. Woo! So now I'm trying to book a pre-op appointment with my RE so that we can start the FET process after my next period. They didn't have any openings until after the start of my next cycle and so I'm crossing my fingers that the RE will be able to work some magic and fit me in so that we aren't delayed by 1 month. It won't be the end of the world if we are delayed, but I'd rather get this show on the road. I'm not getting any younger and if the FET(s) fails, I'll have to do another round of IVF.

Appointment with RE

I'm back from our appointment with the RE. She was much more pleasant this time around and actually seemed to have a personality. :-) Here are the facts. She highly recommends trying the 3 frozen embryos before doing a fresh IVF round. They are embryos made from 2 years ago and so have a better chance of having good genetics. Given my age, blood work results and prior IVF success, she isn't worried that we are wasting precious time doing FETs. She has no doubt that I will respond well to the next IVF (if we have to do one) and even said that the only reason we had only 4 eggs last time is because she purposely had me on extremely conservative doses of the stimulating hormones. I'm okay with this plan. I like the idea of using up the frozen embies so that we don't have to make the decision of whether or not to keep paying the storage fees!

There is a 50-50 chance of each of the embryos being viable after the thaw. Each of the embryos is frozen in its own straw and the lab will thaw them sequentially. So they will thaw one, wait to see if its viable (i.e., more than half the cells are still alive) and if it's not, move on to the next one. That way, they won't waste any if more than one is viable. Apparently, if an embryo survives the thaw, it has the same chance of becoming a baby as an embryo from a fresh cycle. And transferring more than one does not increase the chances of a round working. So the plan is to thaw one-by-one and transfer back the first one that is viable (if any are viable). I want to stick to my guns and not transfer more than one each time because I really don't want to risk having multiples. I'll have to remind myself of this if we start having multiple failures.

Each FET will take up 2 months of time. So if all 3 embryos are viable (unlikely) and each FET with one of the embryos fails, we're looking at "wasting" 6 months of time before moving on to IVF. I'm okay with this timeline. I want to have another baby 2-3 years younger than my son. If the first FET works, we're looking at the 2 year timeline. If we move on to IVF, we're looking at closer to the 2.5 to 3 year timeline.

So the next step is that I have to get a uterine ultrasound tomorrow (on day 5 of my cycle). This is a requirement for insurance approval (as is the CD3 blood work). They need to make sure that my uterus is still good post-pregnancy and there isn't anything wrong. Then I have to stop breastfeeding and wait 4 weeks for my prolactin levels to fall. They won't do a cycle on someone who is breastfeeding because (a) the hormones/steroids aren't good for the baby and (b) high levels of prolactin can interfere with implantation. I plan on stopping when Ian turns one, which is in only 5 more days! Then after my next period, I can test my prolactin levels and hopefully they'll be low enough so that after the next period, we can start the FET cycle. So this puts us on target to do a FET in mid-May, early June. Wow!!

I think it is very fortuitous that I got my period back this past Monday. It was perfect timing. I was able to get my CD3 bloodwork done the day before my appointment with the RE (which appointment I made months and months ago) and I'm even able to get the uterine ultrasound done tomorrow! I am full of hope right now!

**** Update - My uterus looked just fine.