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Success after IF
howleyshell
member
Update on my old egg research study...
howleyshell
member
Well.. today I got to meet one of THE top RE's in the country.
The clinic has 9 full time researchers on staff.
Here's a synopsis from an interview explaining where they're headed with the research:
?And then the second area of research that we?ve just hired a new Ph.D. to work on is, for lack of a better term, the egg,? he says. ?Because the thing we?ve ignored over the last 20 years is the aging woman and her aging eggs. We?ve told her we can identify her aging eggs by FSHand AMH levels, and when we can?t use her eggs, we tell her to use donor eggs, but that?s a bypass. It?s akin to 30 years ago when men had low sperm counts or zero sperm counts, it was, ?just use a sperm donor.' And of course that works, but it was a bypass. It wasn?t a fix.??And so that?s really our push in the next five years,? says Schoolcraft.
Basically they're taking eggs of healthy donors and comparing them to the over 40 "sucky egg" donors (that's me.... hee hee) and hoping that they can clearly determine egg quality via examination. He went on to discuss the many markers they're looking to investigate. It was fascinating stuff.
He was explaining that sadly many couples go thru lots of expensive treatment cycles and end up at IVF before they FINALLY get to see and egg and get a solid diagnosis of egg quality thru IVF.
He said that a goal is that one day they can offer a woman a single egg extraction using a smaller needle and no anesthesia during an unmedicated intake cycle while they're doing the rest of the base line testing (HSG, etc). That way they're no long guessing about the eggs and can tell a couple up front a more realistic picture of success via IUI vs. IVF vs. donor eggs instead of them having to go thru agonizing (and expensive) failed cycles just guessing about egg quality based on FSH and AMH alone.
I trigger in 15 minutes. Retrieval Saturday.
I'm so excited to think that some day a woman may be able to get more solid information about the best course of treatment from early in the process instead of being like me and having to endure the hope/misery roller coaster of failed cycles before finally finding what will work to conceive.
I think this is a huge step forward in trying to eliminate how much guess work goes into dealing with female factor infertility and appropriate treatment courses.
Our IF journey: 1 m/c, 1 IVF with only 3 eggs retrieved yielding Dylan and a lost twin, 1 shocker unmedicated BFP resulting in Jace, 3 more unmedicated pregnancies ending in more losses.
Total score: 6 pregnancies, 5 losses, 2 amazing blessings that I'm thankful for every single day.
Total score: 6 pregnancies, 5 losses, 2 amazing blessings that I'm thankful for every single day.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Update on my old egg research study...
Our Thanksgiving Day baby 11/22/07
Pregnant with #2 with LPD, uterine polyp/hysteroscopy, DOR (AMH = 0.17), 2 c/ps
Our early Christmas present 12/9/10
This is so great and awesome that you're participating.
Hope you had an okay time with the trigger shot... I only just now saw the post. It took a TON of psyching myself up to give those shots, but I survived.
GL with the retrieval!
I feel like an idiot for even stressing over it.
I'm sure a PIO is much more difficult. I didn't even feel the trigger. Totally no big deal to do it myself!
I am a bit more concerned about the retrieval with no pain management (well... a local).
I think that's the key to this whole thing. They really will have to make the retrieval of a single unmedicated follie VERY quick and easy to make it a great diagnostic tool IMO.
We'll see how it goes!
They said the extraction itself should take all of 10 seconds.
I'm figuring on 1 minute of discomfort. I think having to be there 30 minutes in advance will be the worst part.
Like you said - the psyching yourself up is sometimes the hardest part!
Total score: 6 pregnancies, 5 losses, 2 amazing blessings that I'm thankful for every single day.
Our Thanksgiving Day baby 11/22/07
Pregnant with #2 with LPD, uterine polyp/hysteroscopy, DOR (AMH = 0.17), 2 c/ps
Our early Christmas present 12/9/10
Very interesting! It sounds like the research is going to be valuable, but also the procedure of extracting one egg as a diagnostic tool would be awesome.
It is wonderful you are participating in this study. I really hope that the new research will be able to help many couples in the future!!!
That is awesome! I'm a complete biology nerd and am in love with this study. So happy you are able to participate. Thanks for your contribution!
I am pretty sure I know who you are talking about and went to that RE facility in CO when I lived in CO and my current RE is enamored with "him" and gushed like a teenager during our first visit though I never met with "him", lol.
After 21 cycles, and severe MFI, we finally did it with IVF #1 w/ICSI! Nico arrived 12/3/08!!!
TTC for #2: IVF w/ICSI #2-4/17/10-BFN; IVF w/ICSI #3; 7/4/10-BFP!!! Beta #1- 96; Beta #2-528; Beta #3- 7371; 6w,5d-blited ovum=D&C
IUI #2 1/10/11-BFN; IUI #3 2/18/11-BFN
IVF #4 w/ICSI & PICSI ER 5/13/11, ET 5/1/118-BFP!! Natalee arrived on 1/23/12!!!!
Pregnancy Blog: Miracles Can Happen
Parenthood Blog: The Adventures of Nico & Natalee
Because we're fancy like that.
Me TOO!!! I was stunned that he took the time to actually explain everything to me. He actually had a diagram of an egg and discussed the different aspects of the egg they would be looking at. This man makes a cr@p ton of $$ and hour and for him to take the time to explain the science to me really impressed me.
And.... I'm a bit like your RE. I was kinda nervous waiting for him to come in and I was thinking to myself: "You know... most women get anxious or excited about a star sighting. Most women would feel like this waiting to meet a famous actor or singer but here you are being goofy about meeting a freaking RE. You really need to get a life!"
Total score: 6 pregnancies, 5 losses, 2 amazing blessings that I'm thankful for every single day.
Lol, I'd be the same way!