So here we are. One week in to one of the more aggressive fertility treatments available... We're one week in to our IVF Cycle. Most people who follow this blog may know this by now. What you may not know is that when starting IVF for the first time most RE's will start this rigorous fertility treatment with 3 weeks on the birth control pill. .... Yeah, I'll say that again, cause it took me a double take too. We're starting our IVF Cycle on Birth Control.
This is a mind trip that took me quite a little while to wrap my head around. Honestly, it's the main reason that we have put this off as long as we have. I just couldn't get my head around that being the best option. Even while I understood the science and biology behind it, and it made good sense to me, the emotional burden of being back on birth control while desperately wanting a baby to start your family is a very odd feeling. I still remember the mini-celebration that my hubby and I had three and a half years ago when we ditched the pill. Literally, it was an event we celebrated. Luckily, on all of our protocol sheets that tell me when to take which drugs the doctors have listed the pill as "BCP". Obviously, Hubs and I have re-dubbed this to now mean Baby Care Pill. I'm taking a pill to ensure that our baby will have the most cared for womb possible, before he or she takes up residence there for approximately 9 months. Yeah, that works for us.
Honestly, the medical science behind it does make total sense to us. The two phases of the IVF Cycle are first "Suppression" and then "Stimulation". When doing your first IVF Cycle the birth control pill "levels out" your hormones and will get rid of any spikes that you might have, bringing things to a nice even base line that the doctors can more easily manipulate and control without any surprises - and that's what this whole game is about. Surrendering control to our {amazing!!!} doctor - he gets people pregnant literally on a daily basis.
The other important thing that being on the pill does is prevent me from ovulating. Now, at first this goes against everything that seems necessary to get pregnant. But we're playing a different game with different rules now. Now, we want to stop me from ovulating this month so that there is a "backlog of eggs" of sorts so that we can get as many embryos as we can. We are going through this process hoping to have as many embryos as possible to be able to freeze. The two main reasons are this. First, IVF only has a 30% chance of resulting in a successful pregnancy. However, if we are unsuccessful but have frozen embryos as a result of the IVF we can attempt the process again with FET - Frozen Embryo Transfer - which is much less invasive, involves hardly any drugs, skips the painful egg retrieval and is significantly more cost effective than starting a brand new IVF Cycle. The second reason of course, is to avoid this roller coaster in the future. This way, even if we are successful right away {cross your fingers!} Then when we're wanting to give our munchkin a little brother or sister we won't have another 3.5 year wait, and instead can move to FET.
Tomorrow we have another appointment with our RE. This is where we will sign off on more legal paperwork. {Does the legal stuff ever end??!} We will also learn how to do the injections. And by that I mean, Hubby will learn how to do the injections for me because I am WAY too much of a wimp to be able to be able to inject myself with anything. I will also be starting my first non-BCP drug. Suprefact - which will further suppress things. Luckily, it's just in nasal spray form so we don't have to jump right into injections just yet.
I have to admit, I'm both excited and nervous for the Suprefact. It's exciting because it is the first "real" IVF med that I'm taking so it feels like we're actually moving forward and doing this now after almost a year of deliberating. I'm also nervous because I know what a crazy mind-trip Clomid was for me and I can only imagine the crazy roller-coaster of emotions and hormones this is going to be.
And lucky for all of you, I'm taking you on the ride with me!! ;) Sincerely, thank you for sharing the journey. Here we go....
love you girl! cant wait to read more about your ride.
Posted by: LAni @ Boobie Time Blog | 03/14/2012 at 06:56 PM
I hate to tell you this but VFC generally uses the injectable form of Suprefact.;( The injections are easy peasy though.
Posted by: SIlverdollar | 03/14/2012 at 07:44 PM
Yay! This is so darn exciting, I can hardly stand it! Thanks for keeping us updated.
Posted by: Amy @ Anktangle | 03/14/2012 at 08:11 PM
Silver, Doh... Silly me!! I just assumed it would be the spray since a friend of mine was on the spray with AART in Halifax. Drats... Oh well, I guess I have to get used to the injections soon anyways! Thanks for the heads up!!
Posted by: Arpita of Up, Down & Natural | 03/14/2012 at 08:34 PM
Amy, your enthusiasm means so much to me!! :) Thank you so much!! I'm trying to remain realistic and focus on the 30%, to protect my heart a little bit... But it's really hard to not get a *tiny* bit excited!! :)
Posted by: Arpita of Up, Down & Natural | 03/14/2012 at 08:36 PM
Clomid is the worst of all fertility drugs! You may find these drugs much more tolerable than Clomid!
Posted by: Happy AP Mom | 03/14/2012 at 10:05 PM
I've heard that!! I've been complaining to my TCM Practitioner about how much I'm breaking out on the BCP and she told me that it's the worst of all the IVF drugs. Totally blows my mind...
Posted by: Arpita of Up, Down & Natural | 03/15/2012 at 03:38 AM
I couldn't believe it when we were prescribed the Pill for IVF... very ironic ! FXd for your appt tomorrow xoxo
Posted by: NewYearMum | 03/15/2012 at 11:45 PM
Congrats and good luck!
Honestly, the injections themselves weren't bad at all! They didn't feel like anything! For me, the worst part was the stress of mixing the meds that went into the injection. There were three, and they all had to be measured and mixed in one vial then sucked into the syringe. The puffy my-stomach-is-going-to-fall-off feeling was interesting but not in the least painful.
My fingers are crossed for you!
Posted by: Juliet | 03/16/2012 at 12:22 AM
Thanks Juliet!! We just did our first injections tonight (Silverdollar was right!! My Clinic went with injectable Suprefact!!) I was shocked at how painless it was and Hubby said that he was surprised how easily it went in. (**Immature giggle**) Tomorrow I'm going to try to do the injection myself just cause I feel like it's something I should be able to do!! I am nervous about the mixing for sure!! I'm going to school for nursing next fall so I just keep telling myself this is all great practice for that!! :)
Posted by: Arpita of Up, Down & Natural | 03/16/2012 at 03:28 AM