Back after a LONG time ***Update, Beta #3 on page 2***

It's been so long since I've been here, between the monkeys and my *real life*! I have missed this place and checking up on everyone.

After a long, horrible, tedious, ridiculous 2 years, I'm currently on my last cycle of IVF / PGD ('m 37 now). The last round went so horribly (7 follicles but only 1 egg!) that my guilty-feeling doctor gave me a free round this time. You know you're responding poorly when that happens!! :-)

So this time we got 5 eggs, 4 fertilized, 3 grew, then we batched it with the one little embryo from last time and sent to PGD. Results Saturday night: only one normal embryo out of all four, and it was a girl! Transferred it yesterday (already hatching) and now I'm just waiting for Saturday to test.

I am hopeful, but realistic too. I've only had 2 transfers out of all my cycles but both were BFN. You just never know what's going to happen! I stayed on the couch most of yesterday but did get up to do a few things, today I'm just going to take it easy but get back to cooking and moving around normally. The studies on bed rest are funny - it seems to make it even LESS likely to get pregnant (some of them), so who knows what's best anymore?!

This is our last cycle. We move overseas in July (Foreign Service) and I'm hoping to go with a baby on board. If not, we're either going to stick with our really wonderful family (my GD is only 10% of what it used to be, and totally livable - my boys are amazing and great fun as they get older (especially the 6 year-old)), or look into adoption from the Democratic Republic of Congo - my heart is drawn to Africa.

I'm glad to be back and will be checking up on everyone from now on!

Hi i remember your stories! I think most of the people moved over to the other site but im checking both ;) Fx for you!

TwoSweetGuys:

It's been so long since I've been here, between the monkeys and my *real life*! I have missed this place and checking up on everyone.

After a long, horrible, tedious, ridiculous 2 years, I'm currently on my last cycle of IVF / PGD ('m 37 now). The last round went so horribly (7 follicles but only 1 egg!) that my guilty-feeling doctor gave me a free round this time. You know you're responding poorly when that happens!! :-)

So this time we got 5 eggs, 4 fertilized, 3 grew, then we batched it with the one little embryo from last time and sent to PGD. Results Saturday night: only one normal embryo out of all four, and it was a girl! Transferred it yesterday (already hatching) and now I'm just waiting for Saturday to test.

I am hopeful, but realistic too. I've only had 2 transfers out of all my cycles but both were BFN. You just never know what's going to happen! I stayed on the couch most of yesterday but did get up to do a few things, today I'm just going to take it easy but get back to cooking and moving around normally. The studies on bed rest are funny - it seems to make it even LESS likely to get pregnant (some of them), so who knows what's best anymore?!

This is our last cycle. We move overseas in July (Foreign Service) and I'm hoping to go with a baby on board. If not, we're either going to stick with our really wonderful family (my GD is only 10% of what it used to be, and totally livable - my boys are amazing and great fun as they get older (especially the 6 year-old)), or look into adoption from the Democratic Republic of Congo - my heart is drawn to Africa.

I'm glad to be back and will be checking up on everyone from now on!

 

Best of luck to you - you're tenacious! May I ask, if it's not too personal, how much all these IVF have cost you in total? Was it hard physically? Emotionally?

Not too personal since you don't actually know me! :-)

We had insurance coverage for the first few rounds including meds and monitoring and the harvests and transfers (not that there were any - that helped keep costs down)! After that ran out, the coverage still covered meds and monitoring and we paid 6K for harvest and transfer plus 4K for PGD (we always had to pay for PGD, even when we had coverage). The last cycle was free.

We live frugally and have always had a savings account. We've been able, mostly, to "cash flow" our treatments - paying them off as we go with my husband's salary and the income from our rental properties. It's been a lot of money, at least 30K by now, probably at least 40K, but I refuse to think too much about it. Life is short, very short, and I'd rather spend money on this than on a nice car (mine's 15 years old and running great!) or designer clothes or shoes. They mean nothing to me. And since we're vegan, we already eat a lot of cheap rice and beans. :-)

I didn't find it hard physically at all. The meds didn't mess with my emotions, either, except for the progesterone which turned me into a lunatic. Fun! The waiting and hoping was hard, but in truth I love my boys so much, and I'm so grateful for them, that it wasn't as hard as I'd expected it to be. If it works, great. If not, things will work out overall. My life is blessed and I damn-well know it. I refuse to wallow (much) over what could have been. I'm just moving forward, trying to keep my spirits high, and knowing that we will be okay whatever happens.

Good luck to you!

Did you have to do IVF with your boys? The reason I ask is my insurance policy says it will not cover infertility treatments for gender selection. I never really thought about it until I've seen a few people comment that the insurance covered everything except the pgd. I may need to contact the insurance company to see what they say. Good luck!

No, no IVF with my boys. My doc is a "regular" fertility doctor who is willing to do family balancing in a few cases. I think he just coded it that I needed fertility treatments, frankly. FWIW, I probably did anyway: my egg response has been so dreadful that I probably couldn't have gotten pregnant on my own anyway!!

Keeping my fingers crossed for you!

Best of luck!

Can someone please share where this "other board" is that people talk about!  I am just getting geared up to start the IVF with PGD adventure and I really would like to be part of a more active board. Help!

I dont think i can write it here but google gender and ivf pgd that sort of words. The name of the page begins with gender.

Just wanted to update that this morning I got my first-ever IVF positive! I understand the phrase "I can't believe it" a WHOLE lot better now. It's totally unreal. I swear, if it can happen to me it can happen to anyone!

Sarah

Yeay! Hooray! Congratulations!!!

Congratulations!  Was that from an at home test or your beta?

Just wanted to mention that I think your sig should say transfer was 3/4/12.  The 5/4/12 might confuse some people. 

Hi LexiAnn, thanks for the note on my sig. I'll go fix it now. It was from an at-home test; FRER. I wish it was darker, but it's undeniably there. I'll re-test tomorrow (of course!) ;-)

Congratulations!