IVF #6 embryo report

ER (egg retrieval) was on the 20th and ET (embryo transfer) was on the 22cnd

As stated in my last entry I had 16 follies at trigger. E2 ended up being 2,655 the day before I triggered.

They retrieved 10 eggs. At first I was a tiny bit upset with that (since I had 16 follies) but first of all they almost never retrieve eggs from all the follicles. The other reason might be because they used a different kind of HCG for trigger. it was 1/2 the dosage I normally get (I think). So that could be another reason.

Out of the 10 eggs 9 were mature and 6 fertilized on ICSI.

By day 2 (transfer day) we had 5 remaining. To my surprise 2 were great quality. Both had 4 cells, all cells were the same size and each cell had 1 nuclei! The 3 remaining embryo's weren't to good but they were MUCH better then my last IVF. Here are the stats on those:

embryo's kept to grow in lab:

day 3:

embryo 3 7 cells uneven cells no nuclei present
embryo 4 5 cell even cells no nuclei present
embryo 5 5 cell fragmented no nuclei present

Day 5:

embryo 3 morula by day 5 but poor quality and not good enough to freeze
embryo 4 made it to 10 cells & arrested
embryo 5 arrested at the 5 cell stage

Most of the time my embryo's arrest (stop growing/die) around the 5-7 cell stage. The fact that I had a 10 cell AND a morula (that is what it should actually be by day 4. By day 5 they should all be a blastocyst) was GREAT. even though the morula was poor quality and a day behind schedule I am still excited that I had an embryo make it that far! None survived to freeze though but I'm ok with that. What I'm excited about is I had NO embryo's that were multinucleated! Multinucleated embryo's are a LOT worse quality wise then embryo's with no visible nuclei.

the nuclei holds the DNA so it's important that each cell have ONLY one nuclei. Embryo's with more then 1 nuclei in each cell is chromosomally abnromal and usualy don't survive very long before they arrest :(

Looks like the new protocol worked great for me. I'm so happy that we had 2 good quality embryo's to transfer. My RE and my embryologist are both very excited and hopeful for me. I'm not as hopeful as they are but how am I supposed to feel after all the failures? At this point I don't get excited. I'm just taking it day by day.

Even if this IVF doesn't work at least now I have renewed hope. And here I was thinking this would be my last IVF. Knowing that I DO have a chance and I CAN make goood quality embryo's gives me the hope I needed to keep enduring.

on a not so good note my husbands count was VERY low. It was 33million when I normal count has around 80 (I think don't quote me on that) However his results have always proven to be linked with stress. When he was not in school and just took a summer off to work his results were MUCH MUCH better. I just need to get him on a suppliment. I want him to go on fertility blend for men but it's kind of expensive. Worth it though because I've seen lots of woman on FF (fertilityfriendonline) tell success stories.

I should probably get back to work. A lot has happened in the past few weeks. My BIL and his wife and 13 month old are staying with us. I'm on vacation from 6/27 (my b-day) and don't return to work till the 7th of July! Unfortunately however my husaband stil works at his campus job (still looking for work now that he's graduated) so he doesn't get paid time offf. I will probably still have him take a Friday or Monday off though so we can do something together. At least I have Jon, Beth and Owen around to hang out with and go on day trips....now if I could only convince my mother in law that she had to take a day off to go flower shopping and yard saleing (not even sure that's an actual word)