Update 2: IVF and PGD (Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis)

A Little Set Back But a Move in the Right Direction

Yesterday I had my first milestone appointment in the IVF/PGD process, the egg retrieval. I was put under for the procedure and 20 minutes later I woke up with some cramping, but otherwise, I felt OK. So all in all, I would say the procedure was a success. However, it looks like we will be doing this step again, so it’s Phase 1: Egg Retrieval Part 1 of 2. The reason for doing this in 2 parts is we were a little short on the amount of embryos that Dr. J would like to have before proceeding with the next step. We retrieved 7 eggs, but only 6 were mature and of those 6 mature eggs, 5 fertilized. So we now have 5 embryos that are ready to go, but Dr. J has recommended freezing these, taking one cycle off and doing another cycle of fertility drugs and another egg retrieval to get a few more so we can have at least 8 embryos to start the next phase in this process.

The Rationale for Doing Another Egg Retrieval Prior to PDG and Transfer

Dr. J wants to give us the best odds he can for the embryo testing (PGD). The idea is simple, the more eggs we have to start, then the more we will have at 5-days Blastocyst and hopefully have more embryos to test. Given my history of recurrent pregnancy loss, it is unlikely that all the starting embryos we have will survive to 5-day Blastocyst, so the more we have to start with the better. This will hopefully increase our chances for at least one healthy embryo. Naturally, the thought of having to do more hormone injections and another egg retrieval is rather daunting for me, but after looking at this with a little perspective, I know I can do this again and there are some positives moving forward. Foremost is we have 5 frozen embryos right now! I know people who had less than that to start and they now have a healthy baby. So it’s possible our future baby is already conceived and whether we do the transfer now or wait another month or so is really not the end of the world in the grand scheme of things. After 3 1/2 years and 4 losses, this small delay is not a big deal. Another positive thing is, I really do trust my doctor. With our history, I believe it makes sense to do whatever we can to increase our odds, and hopefully avoid further heartache.

The Next Steps…

The final steps of this process will still be to grow the embryos to 5-days blast, then do PGD and hopefully transfer after PGD, but we are repeating phase one again first. I’m going to call it Phase 1: Egg Retrieval Part 2. I should expect a new cycle to start in about 2 weeks. I will take that cycle off to rest and then go back into the clinic when the following cycle begins. This should occur in the first week of November. From there we will do another round of hormones and another egg retrieval. The good news is we don’t need as many embryos this time since we already have 5 frozen embryos ready to go, so I won’t need to take as many hormones. From there we will proceed with the next phase. Therefore, as soon as the next retrieval is done, we will fertilize the next “batch” of eggs and then grow those embryos along with the 5 embryos we already have, and hope they all survive to 5-day blast! As mentioned above, with my history of recurrent pregnancy loss that isn’t very likely, but a girl can wish! All the embryos that survive to 5-day blast will be tested and the intent is to have, at the very least, one healthy embryo for transfer. If we have more than one healthy embryo, we may have the possibility of another baby down the road, but that is such an unlikely possibility that I’m not really allowing myself to think about it too much at this point. I just hope we have one healthy baby.

So that is where we are now. We are further ahead than we were before. We now have 5 embryos! We still don’t know how many, if any, are healthy but we’re still further ahead then we were a few days ago. Stay tuned for more updates in a month or so!

2 thoughts on “Update 2: IVF and PGD (Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis)

  1. Sounds like a good plan, you are increasing your chances as much as possible. Sounds like you’ve got good advice too. Crossing fingers for you, keep us posted xx

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