As a reminder, Theo and I finished our first round of IVF on February 2nd. We then had to wait to get back on the IVF calendar, and it felt like one of the longest waits in this process. 

During this wait, I got to have a phone call to talk to my doctor about anything I could do to improve egg quality and ensure we had more embryos. While she told me that there is only a little science around this, there were two things that we could try. It was to stick to a Mediterranean diet and to start taking CoQ10. Even without much science, I was willing to do whatever I could to improve results, so we started the new pills and diet. 

On March 30th, we had our first appointment for our second retrieval round. One of our first questions for the doctor was, “What can we do differently?” Thankfully, they had a different protocol that we could try. This would mean that we would add more shots to our process, which would need to be given in my stomach both morning and evening. This new drug stopped my brain from communicating about my eggs and dropping them. I hoped this drug would allow my body to retain more follicles. 

The medication regimen started that day, and so did all the sicknesses that came with the various medications. Thankfully, Theo was always so kind when giving the shots, and my mom still lived with me to distract me during the shots. Plus, this time, we immediately had the anti-nausea medication, which made a huge difference. 

We repeated the shots and appointments for a very long time. According to my doctors, the average retrieval cycle takes about ten days. (Again, it all depends on how one’s body responds to the medications). It took my body ten days to be ready for retrieval! This was four days less than our first retrieval cycle, which was a blessing.

Again, to have the retrieval procedure, the follicles need to be about 18mm or bigger, and they usually like to have around five that are that size or larger. 

My body did not struggle as much as it did during our first round. You may recall that the first time around, I lost many follicles along the way, and this time I kept gaining follicles. To help give some numbers, on March 30th, I started with 20 follicles, which is a pretty good number. By my last appointment before the retrieval procedure, I was up to 28 follicles; about 10 were considered a “good size” to be extracted. Therefore, we scheduled the retrieval procedure. 

Theo and I showed up for my outpatient procedure. I went under anesthesia, and Theo went to produce his “friends” for the eggs that would be retrieved. 

Our doctor retrieved 15 eggs, almost double what was retrieved in our first cycle! The embryologist determined that 14 eggs were mature and could get “friends,” but only 13 fertilized. These numbers were encouraging, but we still had the ‘worst’ in our minds. What if only one or two fertilized like last time? I was dreading having to think about a third retrieval. 

From there, it is a waiting game. We prayed so hard over the embryos and to have good results. Remember, you must wait three days after your procedure to determine each embryo’s grade. Like school, an A is the best grade, and a D is the lowest. These grades are associated with which embryo will most likely become a blastocyst, which is needed for genetic testing. 

Theo and my embryos were graded:

9 – A
3 – B
1 – C
0 – D

This was pretty great news. Based on the statistics, we would most likely lose our C, but our A and B embryos had a 50/50 shot of making it. We got the call on Day 6, and I was sick to my stomach waiting for the bad news. But…there wasn’t any. We had TEN embryos make it to day 6! We had 7 – A’s and 3 – B’s. 

This meant we had ten embryos we got to add to our one frozen embryo, for a total of eleven embryos. Our next decision was to either (a) go for one more round or (b) send off the biopsies of each embryo to be genetically tested. 

Side Note: Your embryos stay in the embryology department, where you retrieved them. Only the DNA taken in a biopsy is shipped off to the lab to be genetically tested.  

This was a tough decision. Based on the statistics, if we sent the 11 off to be tested, we would most likely see:

25% – have Alpers

25% – have my variant of PolG

25% – have Theo’s variant of PolG

25% – neither genetic variant

We also had to consider that they might have OTHER genetic disorders that wouldn’t allow us to continue with the embryo due to the fatality of the genetic disorders that could come back. 

With these statistics, if we sent off 11, we would most likely see a minimum of 3-4 embryos be completely ruled out. But we could see all 11 ruled out for one reason or another. Our doctor and genetic counselors were very clear when they set that expectation. If we did lose them all, we would have to pay not only for another round of retrieval but also for a whole new genetic test, which all adds up.

Theo and I did a lot of thinking and talking about the pros and cons of doing another round or sending them for testing. After a long deliberation, we decided the right thing to do for us was to send the biopsies to be tested. 

Silly me thought we would get the results within a week, but again, I was VERY WRONG about how long everything takes. So we not only had to wait for the results to come back, but we had to wait to get on the genetic counselor’s schedule to have her talk us through the results when we did get them.

So the waiting continued….