Sorry I've been MIA. This birth control thing makes life really nice. I am remembering what it's like to not be TTC-stressed all the time.
First, the good news - I bought a 2008 Rav4 on Sunday! My 1998 Altima is on it's last leg, so I used up all our IVF money to get a Rav4. Didn't want to spend our IVF savings, but I DID need a new car badly.
TTC news:
My RE wants me to buy 2 900iu pens of Gonal-F, plus another 450iu one. WTF!!!!! That's $2500! I didn't even use half of my last Menopur amount she had me buy. I think she's ordering too much. They will want me to take 225iu per night for up to 10 days. I asked WHY. I only took 150iu of Menopur for 3 days before I got a supersized 20mm follie.
They said "well you only had one follicle last time." I think they are totally missing the point. I had a leading follicle, because I wasnt on birth control. and it grew to 20mm after 3 days of 150iu. I feel like if I'm on BC now, and I take 225ius, even with multiple follies - they will be HUGE. ill have too many and they'll be huge.
Now here is where I need your advice!
I had my last IVF phone consult today - this is with the clinic we think we want to use. he said I need to get another SHG and some immunology testing done now, which I will do. He said he thinks I will end up getting IVF anyway, since the IUIs have all not worked. He feels very confident that it will work for me - so much, that he offered the shared risk package. He said to go ahead and try one more IUI with meds, but then to seriously consider IVF.
i am afraid of IVF. It seems like a big scary monster to me. An EXPENSIVE monster. After this IUI cycle, I will have about $8k left in my lifetime fertility benefits. I want the 2-round IVF plan, so that's $20k (if you include meds for both cycles) I just really want to get pregnant with IUI, without all the heinous procedures.
Those of you who've done IVF, can you talk me down from the ledge? Also, do you think I should do 1 or 2 more rounds of IUI with meds? I've done one so far, without BC - and it was a disaster. I still feel like I could get pregnant with IUI, if we find the right timing with BC, meds, etc.
I don't know what to do.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
What do you think?
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14 comments:
I can't say that I blame you for wanting to avoid IVF. But I can say that it is not as hard and as scary as you think it will be. IVF just becomes another list of daily tasks: you can do it! However if your heart tells you to do some more IUI's go with that.
Congrats on the new car!
Yay for the new car!! Sorry I don't have any advice about IVF or injectables but if you are not ready for IVF and the new dr thinks you can try another round of IUI maybe that is an option. Maybe you can see how BC works for your follie production and go from there? Hope things become clearer this month
if you have the sperm for another iui, i would do it.. bc otherwise you will feel guilty about spending that huge amount of money on ivf.. if potentially you could get pregnant on the iui. if you have doubts on ivf at the beginning already, i would go ahead and get the iui done.. especially if you have the sperm..
Sorry I can't offer you any advice, but I just wanted to say that I know you'll make the right decision. Good luck with this cycle and congrats on the new car.
well, ill dissent from the pp'ers and say if it were me, i'd do this final round with injectibles and then move on to ivf (especially if you are depleting your fertility coverage).
this opinion is based 100% in my own experience - injectibles/iuis didnt work for us, ivf did & i wish we had moved on sooner.
ivf really isnt that bad. it's much more controlled and monitored than iui cycles. i'd be happy to answer any questions you have along the way (as would other bloggers who have been though it, im sure).
good luck with this cycle, i hope the bcps do their job and this debate becomes a moot point!
No advice on IVF Carrie, just love and support in whatever decision you make. So many decisions, so many drugs. For what its worth, I would be scared and excited for IVF as well...
Well, I have to chime in as someone who is depleting her insurance coverage and has attempted IVF. If I had to do it all over again (oh how I wish I could...) I would've gotten more aggressive from the beginning and done IVF much, much sooner. I think if you have the money left to do it and it's going to give you that much of a boost percentage-wise, it might make the most sense. Just my opinion!
We can talk more about this off line if you want to.
Hey there! Big decisions for you. I would go for IVF. I was completely freaked out by the process before I started but am so glad I did it. Everything felt more controlled and precise and I had an overall better feeling about doing it than our iuis. Of course, this is based on my long history of failed iuis. I think I knew in my heart of hearts that iui was not the way we were going to create our family. We debated about injectables but then ultimately decided, if we are going to be using the same medications, why not increase our chances? For us, and please hear that I am only speaking for my situation, iui with injectables felt like a bigger gamble.
With all that said, follow your heart. I think it's really important to have trust in your RE in this process. You won't make a wrong decision.
I will be rooting hard for you, whatever way you choose.
Good luck, my dear and congrats on the new car!
seems like you have had the questions about your RE's decisions come up a few times. and i can understand why. have you asked her why she would INcrease your gonal/F after your large follie size? my RE was still sounding positive even after i only had one follie, because it was 17.5 the day before i triggered. (i was on follistim- high dose.) are there other RE's in this clinic if you don't feel like this person is making the right decisions? also, my RE wanted to do my IUI at a different interval than i felt like i should- i followed MY gut and went in a day earlier...this was when i got pregnant. as far as the IUI or IVF decision. i was going to give myself 3 months on fertility drugs (i'd already done 6 non-medicated IUIs and prior to that 7 at home attempts with frozen and then fresh sperm). i was really afraid of injectibles, but then got over that hump. i think i would have the same fears when it would have been time for IVF, but then would have somehow made it through that stress to the other side, too. i put off the injectibles for months and went back to trying at home out of fear. maybe your IVF is like injectibles for me. you need a little time and to talk to more people it's worked for to feel comfy and be able to get "back in the game". it's so hard to keep going sometimes. i think you should definitely blast some of your favorite tunes in the new car and roll the windows down and cut loose. you deserve it!!! follow your heart and do what you feel you can handle, that's all you can do...
It took me 7 rounds of injectibles to get pregnant, but it DID work! I have NO IVF coverage, but the majority of IUI and meds is, so we kept going that route. I swear we had the timing off the first six tries, and I must have been right because once the timing was right (in my mind) we got pregnant.
I could not be fresher from IVF since I did retrieval today. Things have gone well for me but I didn't always think it would be that way. IVF scared the hell out of me too. Truth is, it's not as scary a monster as you originally think. The first couple of weeks when you're just taking the pill (if you're on a pill protocol) are weeks that ease you into it. The injections become a nightly ritual that's honestly not bad.
I wish we had gone STRAIGHT to IVF. The thousands we threw away on IUIs still makes me mad. The odds are just so much better with IVF. Of course, there are never guarantees but I'd recommend getting off the IUI rollercoaster and going straight to IVF... if you can afford it. You've got some big decisions to make, but don't let fear of IVF be a determining factor. Humans are amazingly adaptive and, no doubt, an IVF protocol will not be the monster you think it is.
Hi there - my vote is that you go with IVF. The fact is that, stastically speaking, your odds of getting pregnant are so much better with IVF.
There's no debate - it's undeniable.
Good luck :)
If you can, absolutely, positively, do the IVF. Why do two more IUIs with meds when you could just jump to IVF (and to the much, much MUCH higher success rates of IVF). I'm in the middle of my first cycle of IVF, and my partner has done two cycles, and really once you get past the needle thing, it just isn't that bad, and personally, I love the intense level of monitoring (no "timing" issues here--that's what I hated about IUIs). Do it!
my advice is to jump right into ivf. we had the option of trying iui, but we chose to forgo that because ivf has *much* higher success rates and, since i don't have insurance coverage for if, i didn't want to spend money on iui that i could save for ivf. i have never regretted what we did, and i got a bfp on my first cycle. :)
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