Questions for the ladies that have had IVF

oneandonlyyou

Hi ladies, I just got back from my SHG and everything looked good.  My RE talked to me about DH's last SA that he had done last week, She only told me that he had 3mil.  And that his daughter from a previous marriage was a miracle.  My questions are. With IVF do you need medications? What are the basic protocols? I know these are questions for my RE but i trust and value your answers.  DH has to go for another SA to make sure his numbers dont decline which is scheduled for the end of April and then we are supposed to set up the protocol for IVF i am a little nervous i thought we would have started with IUI first. Any input will be great...TIA

MAH123

Your right, there are many protocols. I'm on my 3rd round of IVF and my cycles have gone like this (approx):

CD 1-33 a z-pac for DH and I on CD1, then some combo of bcps and lupron (an injectable)

Then a suppression check (sometime around CD 30) which is an u/s, bw and my office does a physical exam. If all looks good, you start stims some time that week.

I do stims (injectables) for around 12 days (give or take) during that time and smaller dose lupron. The office sees me 4-5 tmes to monitor E2 levels and u/s. They decide when I'm ready to trigger and then I inject ovudril and have my egg retreival in 24-32 hrs.

After that I take dexamethasone for a few days for swelling, tetracycline for a few days and start progesterone injections (those are daily until the day of the beta).

ET in 5 days and beta in 10. The whole process is approx 60 days.

If you have no insurance coverage for fertility meds, they run anywhere from $1500-2500 (depending on dosages). Also, I found The Infertility Survival Handbook by Elizabeth Swire Faulker to be helpful when I started IVF.

Good Luck!

 

 

Deanne Shehane

I had IVF in February. All of my levels were really good and I don't have any known fertility issues except that I am 40 and my husband's sperms are a little misshaped. Due to his misshaped sperm, we had to do ICSI which is where they actually inject the sperm into the egg to fertilize them. I took a combo of Follistim and Menopur for about 10 days. They give you Ganirellex shots(to keep you from ovulating) for a few days before retrieval. They want the follicles to all keep growing but keep them from ovulating til they are ALL ready. Then you take the shot to make you ovulate, Gonal for me. While you are taking the injectables, you go to the dr every 2 -3 days for vaginal ultrasounds to measure your follicles. They will change your dosages of meds as you go based on your follicle growth. Sometimes increase, sometimes decrease. Then they remove your eggs with about 15 mins of anesthesia. They call you every day telling you how your eggs are doing. You are pretty much on call form here on out. I had a 3 day transfer but they also have 5 day transfers. Transfer day takes about an hour or so. They gave me a valium to relax me and inserted a catheter and injected the eggs which you could see on the ultrasound screen. It looked like a flash of light. I tool a steroid for 4 days, I took Estrace(estrogen) twice a day, an antibiotic that you start the day of retrieval and take for 6 days and the progesterone shots start too. Your injectable meds are in your stomach and really easy to do. The progesterone shots are in your butt/hip muscle. After a while with these, your hip gets pretty sore. They eventually will out you on progesterone pills after the shots. This is probably TMI but I hope it helped. D