IVF Continued

As I mentioned in my previous post, we are moving on to the next step, which is IVF. I have to admit, I am very excited about this…or at least, I was when we first got the news, and I still am, but I will say a little bit of nervousness and maybe even a little bit of being scared has crept in since we got the news last week. 

On Wednesday, the 19th, we met with the nurse practitioner from the RE clinic in our state and the meeting went so well! Sarah talked to us for almost an hour and walked us through everything related to IVF. We started with our infertility journey through the current time. I'm so glad that I had prepared for that (at 11:30 pm the night before, while watching the Pretty Little Liars season finale)! Sarah didn't have a lot of very organized information from my current clinic, so she asked me to start from the beginning. Thankfully, I had written out every single cycle date since we stopped birth control, as well as notes about what medications I took, whether or not we did IUI or tried to do IUI with no response, etc. That made it so helpful! I basically just rattled off the key dates and results as she took notes for the first 5 minutes of our meeting.

We talked a little more background and cycle history, and she told me that I have atypical PCOS symptoms. Sarah said in the past, that was never even mentioned, either you had all of the classic symptoms and had PCOS, or you didn't, no in-between. She said I really have none of the outward symptoms, but it sounds like my ovaries have the symptoms with the lack of response in some cycles, and then other cycles lasting so long.

We also talked about what a roller coaster ride I'd been on since starting clomid last summer. It was pretty amazing hearing it from her perspective. She basically said that it is completely understandable why I'm so frustrated and tired of the current process. I'll try to recap how she put what my body has been through as best I can...

• Start your period & all the craziness that goes with that
• Take clomid, which is an estrogen suppressant
• Shock your body after taking the clomid with estrogen
• Get an HCG shot, which makes the body think it's pregnant (and all the side effects that go with that)
• When I don't start, but am not pregnant, get progesterone to make my body start
• Start my period, thus starting the vicious cycle all over again

Sarah was pretty funny in that she basically said it’s amazing people going through that are even able to function given the shock to hormones and such that is going on. 

After discussing all the things IVF entails and some insurance questions, we made a plan to begin the IVF process once my next cycle starts.  Instead of going through what all IVF entails, I’ll just try my best to keep my blog updated each step of the way.

***Please forgive my long gap since my last post.  A couple of 60+ hour work weeks got in the way of me finishing this post, which I originally started 2 weeks ago!!