I have had just about the MOST number of babies and pregnancies in my world this week - none of them mine...obviously!!
1. On Tuesday my lovely friend (who's had a terrible time with her fertility) had a little girl - Anastacia (gorgeous name).
2. Then another good friend - who I really didn't expect to be ready for babies just yet, told me she's 20 weeks pregnant.
3. Yesterday, close friends of Mr G - a lovely couple - had son number 2.
4. And last night, I found out from a v close friend that one of our mutual friends is due in August and hadn't yet told me! We haven't spoken in a while and I guess she's just a bit scared now to do the deed.
5. Today I had yet more pregnancy news - a friend of a friend pregnant with her third!
Add to all of that, my sis-in-law and 2007 will be another babytastic year! I thought last year was bad enough, when three of my closest friends had babies in 3 months of each other, but perhaps that's just how life will be now. Hope some baby dust rubs off on me!
I was grumpy and angry and then thought I must reframe this or i'll go crazy. I'm now trying to think of it as good, because when I get pregnant i'll have lots of friends with little ones and they won't all be on to toddler or school age stage... I'm really trying to keep it positive.
Second thing to report is yesterday's visit to our specialist - Mr Big Hair. He thought he'd take advantage of Monday's HSG to see if he could get into my cervix any more easily. He kept us waiting 45 minutes (and Mr G - heavy with man flu and v grumpy) was really cross. By the time we got in there my bladder - full for the mock transfer - was BURSTING!
I stripped off my jeans and underwear and climbed up on the couch - I've lost count of the number of different people i've done that for this month. And no, don't be getting the wrong idea - it's all above board, in the interests of fertility treatment!
Anyway, Big Hair scanned me with his state of the art scanning wand and mapped out a cm by cm route in. He then got on with the mock and wadderyaknow - straight in there with the soft catheter, no probs at all! He almost punched the air and shouted "Yessssss!'. It was very funny and actually quite exciting. I almost felt as elated as if i was actually pregnant - i know that sounds odd, but we've perhaps crossed another hurdle. Another move up on the roller coaster ride.
BIg Hair also agreed that I could do the short (flare) protocol if I want. He says he prefers the longer one, but if I feel strongly, he thinks the results are much the same. To me, it seems a no brainer....why do a 4/5 week protocol which you only start on day 21 of your cycle when you can do a 2 week one that starts on day 2? I could be having my next treatment in about a week when my period comes! Big Hair said to go away and think about it. Mr G and I will decide over the weekend.
I don't want to go with the short protocol if it's going to give me less chance of success, but i'd love not to have to do the down reg again - i HATE that stage. I'm all of a tizzy with indecision...Does anyone know anything about whether the short protocol is less succesful?
xx
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5 comments:
Matthew M. F. Miller says:
Found your site via Reproductive Jeans - you do good work.
And I totally know how you feel - my sister is giving birth this week, and although I was pretty jealous at first, now I'm beyond excited.
Good luck, and I'll be checking in often. Come visit my blog sometime - I'd love to hear from you!
Sorry to hear about all the babies and pregnancies. I know how hard it can get. The rest of the world is still pretty fertile. Infertiles like us are still in the minority so we are always surrounded by the rest of the world who seems to get it so easily.
I actually did both but don't know if I'm the best example since all my IVF"s have failed. I've always had the long protocol where I had to take Synarel the cycle before my stims. But my very last cycle, I did a antagonist protocol (which I believe is the short protocol) where I just started on stims and I had to take a separate injection drug in between my cycle (so one down fall was that you had extra injections to do). I ended up getting the most eggs with this cycle but the results ended up being the same. The Dr. always prefered the long protocol too - they think there is more control and you will get more eggs. They tried something different because nothing seemed to work for me but I ended up with just as many eggs or more. SO I don't know which is better. Hope that helps.
Sorry about the influx of new babies/pregnancies. That is so hard to deal with.
I am glad to hear about your mock transfer going so well! Another hurdle passed.
I think everyone's response to the different protocols varies... but I think it makes sense to be trying something new to "see what happens." I hope this makes all the difference for you!
The research initially said that the long protocol gave better results. However, as clinics get more experienced, the results come close to parity, if not the other way round. The challenge is that if your clinic is not used to this protocol, they may not do it as well as if you were on a long protocol.
Key lessons from my experience:
1. Start the antagonist on day 5 of stimms, regardless of whether follicles seem to be the right size or not. The antagonist does not interfere with stimming but does prevent premature ovulation, which used to be a downside of the short protocol.
2. The E2 measurements on an antagonist cycle are not as indicative of how follicles are doing, so don't obsess too much about them, they will need to go more on scans and less on the E2 numbers.
Other than that, there is no reason not to do the short protocol.
Btw I have one set of cyclogest that I now don't need (think it's 15 days worth, but I need to check) would you like it?
Lots of the B word and P word, huh? I am sorry you have to be surrounded by it all...never easy is it?
Whoo hoo for a good mock transfer--I hope mine goes as well!
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