IVF#1 at 40, 29 eggs fertilized! Any insight or similar experiences?

[Anonymous]

OP again. Thanks, everyone. We are keeping this very quiet for now, so it is nice to get congrats (even if I don't know who you are)!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi, this is the OP. I was waiting to hear the "freeze report" before posting an update. We had 12 embryos when we went in for transfer Saturday (day 5), but the doctor seemed to think that after transferring our 2 expanding blasts we would have (only) 1 to freeze. (He gave us almost no information about any of our embryos' general quality or stages, which made me anxious all weekend.) So today we learned that they froze 4 embryos. I know that I am lucky, and though I don't know what the future will bring, I'm grateful for this outcome.

This has been quite a learning experience for me; I understand things so much differently than I did a week ago! I knew that my embryo numbers would change and drop significantly, but I thought they would drop off at regular intervals. The pattern that mine followed - no change in numbers at all until day 5 - really threw me for a loop. I definitely took some things to be more meaning than they were. So I'm recapping, in case in the future they are useful anyone in a similar situation...

Follicle Ultrasounds: no dominant or major leaders. Tightly grouped in terms of size. On morning of trigger (day 9) nearly all were 15-19mm, with most being 17-19mm.
Egg Retrieval: 31.
Day 1: 29 fertilized.
Day 2: all still dividing. All 3 or 4 cells except 2 (a 2 and a 6 cell).
Day 3: all 29 still growing. 8 8-celled embryos starting to compact. All of the rest were either 8 or 9 cells, with 3 exceptions: a 4, a 6, & a 7 cell. One 9-cell embryo had 10% fragmentation.
Day 4: "news blackout." (They leave them alone and don't check.)
Day 5: 12 remaining, with 3 frontrunners. (This number made sense to me, as I'd read that only 35-40% of day 3 embryos make it to day 5.)
Final Outcome: 2 transferred, 4 frozen.

I want to thank everyone for their support and suggestions. I have found this board invaluable over the past year. I would appreciate a little more advice on CGH testing. I felt too overwhelmed this round to make such a big decision so quickly, but I see the wisdom of it now, so if we need to do another fresh cycle I want to have a CGH plan already in place. I have partial insurance coverage, but only if I use Shady Grove. Can I stay with Shady Grove but do CGH through another clinic? If so, who do you recommend? Is there any benefit to having it done locally, or am I better off with an out-of-town clinic? (Since the biopsy samples have to be mailed anyway, I'm guessing there's no big advantage to staying local?) I've only done a small amount of research so far - and I plan to give it a break until after my beta! - but the only local program I'm aware of is CFA, plus out-of-town clinics like SIRM, CCRM, & Cornell.

My other question is this: if I had done CGH testing this time, is it almost certain that only my "top 6" (transferred/frozen) had a chance of being normal, or is it possible that the 6 they threw away could have contained a normal egg? (I know that SG has pretty strict freeze standards.)

Thanks again for your help!

I don't think egg quality has 100% to do with the survival of the embryo to day 5. It is a combination of the egg, the sperm and the environment. The ones that survived may have bad eggs and the ones that didn't do well may have good eggs. PGD/CGH makes it clear which embryos are normal.
Congratulations on your beta though!

[Anonymous]

Congrats OP!
As for your question about how to be pregnant, I found the Mayo Clinic's Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy to be the best book out there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think I have been. I did labwork today though with the whole panel and that was one of the tests so we'll see. I had a chemical when i was TTC the first time around but with these last FETs, I haven't even had to much as that.

To this PP: Did the thyroid panel give you any answers?

[Anonymous]

Congrats OP!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think I have been. I did labwork today though with the whole panel and that was one of the tests so we'll see. I had a chemical when i was TTC the first time around but with these last FETs, I haven't even had to much as that.

To this PP: Did the thyroid panel give you any answers?

Hi there - I was the one with the thyroid questions. I got the panel results back and TSH is back down to 2.45! Crazy how it fluctuated that much, but it's much more back in line with what it was when I conceived my son. Nothing else in the panel gave my RE sense to worry - all others were normal. I know it's still not under 2.0 but we're closer. We're going forward with the FET....I'm just glad I tested because I would always be wondering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think I have been. I did labwork today though with the whole panel and that was one of the tests so we'll see. I had a chemical when i was TTC the first time around but with these last FETs, I haven't even had to much as that.

To this PP: Did the thyroid panel give you any answers?

Hi there - I was the one with the thyroid questions. I got the panel results back and TSH is back down to 2.45! Crazy how it fluctuated that much, but it's much more back in line with what it was when I conceived my son. Nothing else in the panel gave my RE sense to worry - all others were normal. I know it's still not under 2.0 but we're closer. We're going forward with the FET....I'm just glad I tested because I would always be wondering.

Glad to hear that you don't have any thyroid antibodies.
When I started my IVF cycle my TSH was 1.7. It shot up to 6 when I tested the week of my positive beta. I had to increase my dose of synthroid to get it back down. If you do get a positive beta, I really urge you to test your TSH right away. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Congrats OP !!

[Anonymous]

Congratulations op! What are good numbers for FSH. Amh, and lh?

[Anonymous]

This is a great news!! Congrats!

And Sleep as much as you can now, as after a birth of baby, mom generally don't get that uninterrupted sleep until he/she is like 18months old. I just started back enjoying that uninterrupted sleep recently.