I’ve long equated infertility with the grieving process. You go through multiple phases of shock and disbelief, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally acceptance. Personally, I see myself progress through these phases at some level with each loss, each failed cycle, and at a higher level, with the issue of infertility itself. Over the years I’ve observed (always in hindsight) that my grief cycles have become shorter; I am not spending as much time grieving. I think that is because I have finally come to accept that we may not have children, and I am at last feeling ok with that.
But that’s not the end of the story. Years ago, when we first began this crappy journey, I reluctantly agreed to Derek’s timeline of ‘kids by 35’, or we move on. It took me years of painful reflection to agree to this, but I got there. I turned 35 this month, Derek is 35 next spring. Guess who had a change of heart? Derek isn’t done.
So we have decided to continue the pursuit of a child with a vague timeline. Knowing that I am now entering the age of rapidly declining fertility, we’ve decided to hit it with everything we’ve got in the hopes that we can bank a few good quality embryos for when we’re ready to try again. We had a consultation with Dr. Hudson at the Victoria Fertility Clinic last week and we are so relieved that he is on the same page as us. After a thorough review of our infertility history, he outlined his assumptions: inhospitable uterus likely due to immunological issues, and possible genetic issues with our embryos. We fully agree and are on board with the double pronged approach he’s suggesting.
Our first step is full blood panels for both of us, including karyotyping, to identify any easily discernible genetic conflicts between the two of us. Our second approach is Pre-implantation Genetic Screening (PGS). In part because we aren’t in a rush, we will be banking embryos through multiple IVF’s (three in a row) and performing PGS on the lot of them once we have them banked. After each egg retrieval, they will be fertilized, cultured to day three, and frozen. Once we’ve got a few in the freezer, we will thaw all of them, culture to day five, perform the embryo biopsy, and re-freeze while we wait for the results (the biopsy is sent to the U.S.). We will then (hopefully) have a good set of genetically normal embryos in the freezer.
If and when we are ready for a FET, I’ll be treated as an immune patient with a combination of heparin (a blood thinner), corticosteroids (to calm my immune system down), and intralipid therapy (down-regulates natural killer cells that attack a developing fetus). The hope is that the combination of a genetically normal embryo, plus aggressive immune system treatment, will allow me to carry a pregnancy to term.
We will be going in for our lab work in the coming weeks and have a follow up with Dr. Hudson at the end of November. Once we have an understanding of what we might be facing genetically, we will schedule our first IVF early in the New Year, with the hopes of finishing up all three cycles by next summer for PGS on the embryos. And then we decide on next steps…maybe. Stay tuned.
But that’s not the end of the story. Years ago, when we first began this crappy journey, I reluctantly agreed to Derek’s timeline of ‘kids by 35’, or we move on. It took me years of painful reflection to agree to this, but I got there. I turned 35 this month, Derek is 35 next spring. Guess who had a change of heart? Derek isn’t done.
So we have decided to continue the pursuit of a child with a vague timeline. Knowing that I am now entering the age of rapidly declining fertility, we’ve decided to hit it with everything we’ve got in the hopes that we can bank a few good quality embryos for when we’re ready to try again. We had a consultation with Dr. Hudson at the Victoria Fertility Clinic last week and we are so relieved that he is on the same page as us. After a thorough review of our infertility history, he outlined his assumptions: inhospitable uterus likely due to immunological issues, and possible genetic issues with our embryos. We fully agree and are on board with the double pronged approach he’s suggesting.
Our first step is full blood panels for both of us, including karyotyping, to identify any easily discernible genetic conflicts between the two of us. Our second approach is Pre-implantation Genetic Screening (PGS). In part because we aren’t in a rush, we will be banking embryos through multiple IVF’s (three in a row) and performing PGS on the lot of them once we have them banked. After each egg retrieval, they will be fertilized, cultured to day three, and frozen. Once we’ve got a few in the freezer, we will thaw all of them, culture to day five, perform the embryo biopsy, and re-freeze while we wait for the results (the biopsy is sent to the U.S.). We will then (hopefully) have a good set of genetically normal embryos in the freezer.
If and when we are ready for a FET, I’ll be treated as an immune patient with a combination of heparin (a blood thinner), corticosteroids (to calm my immune system down), and intralipid therapy (down-regulates natural killer cells that attack a developing fetus). The hope is that the combination of a genetically normal embryo, plus aggressive immune system treatment, will allow me to carry a pregnancy to term.
We will be going in for our lab work in the coming weeks and have a follow up with Dr. Hudson at the end of November. Once we have an understanding of what we might be facing genetically, we will schedule our first IVF early in the New Year, with the hopes of finishing up all three cycles by next summer for PGS on the embryos. And then we decide on next steps…maybe. Stay tuned.
