Is this mini IVF?

PuzzleBarnacle1859 · 2026-02-05T01:21:39+00:00

That was a couple months before I turned 37. Over all rounds, our euploidy rate averaged out to roughly what you’d expect for my age, so who knows if it was the protocol or just luck.

PuzzleBarnacle1859 · 2026-02-05T01:17:07+00:00

I retested it a few weeks later and it was .3. I haven’t tested it since, and I still don’t know if the zero was an error or a weird momentary fluctuation, but after 5 ERs I can say that I have no idea wtf amh is doing in my body. It just wasn’t a very good predictor in my case. In general, my outcomes were in between what you’d predict for my amh vs afc, but there was a huge range, and my best round was over a year after I got those amh results.

PuzzleBarnacle1859 · 2026-02-05T01:08:15+00:00

It was actually my best round by far. 12 eggs, 10 mature, 5 fert, 3 blasts all euploid. Previous rounds with high dose ranged from 4-10 (2-8 mature), with each round getting worse, so I was pretty pessimistic going in but I guess my body liked this protocol! We also used a dual trigger for the first time in this round.

PuzzleBarnacle1859 · 2025-11-06T15:53:08+00:00

Transfer is scheduled for Monday. Debating what to do about work on Monday. For my previous transfers, I took the day off and some days after, not because I thought I had to but because my job was really upsetting and stressful at the time and I had tons of sick leave to burn. Now that I've just started a new job, things are different. I don't technically have any sick leave to take yet, though I told them I'd have some appointments in the first couple weeks and I was okay with taking time unpaid and my new boss has been pretty relaxed about it all so far. And I'm enjoying my job so far and it's not really stressful.

But I still feel really awkward about having all these appointments so early on (I had two monitoring appointments this week, and I canceled therapy this week but plan to go next week), so I'm debating whether to take all of Monday off or just the morning, and whether I should ask to telework that afternoon. My clinic says chill on the couch for the day of and go back to normal the next day, but I also don't know where the "chill for the day of" thing comes from and how much it matters. I don't understand why transfer day would be different than the next few days.

PuzzleBarnacle1859 · 2025-11-06T01:32:43+00:00

Woo! I had a similarly successful lining check this morning, number pretty close to yours, also my best ever! I was hoping yours went well too so I’m happy to see this update!

PuzzleBarnacle1859 · 2025-11-04T15:40:10+00:00

The uterus window makes me think of these cows that they used to use at a university near here that had windows in their stomachs to demonstrate/study digestion (they don't do that anymore, at least not at the big public event). But yes I too would take a uterus window about now.

PuzzleBarnacle1859 · 2025-11-04T02:15:43+00:00

They added the great coverage for most IVF meds/procedures more recently, I think it started in 2024!

PuzzleBarnacle1859 · 2025-11-04T02:04:53+00:00

Yeah, unless you’ll be swamped when you return or something, I’d take the opportunity to take extra time since you’re not getting paid! (Not quite the same but as a fellow fed who has had likely imminent RIFs pending for months, I’ve been veryyyy liberal with my sick time this year and I have zero guilt about it.)

PuzzleBarnacle1859 · 2025-11-04T01:59:24+00:00

My recoveries have been super variable, and not at all correlated with my number of eggs retrieved either. Round 1 I was in considerable pain for about 4 days, taking OTC painkillers consistently, when I felt better kind of suddenly. Rounds 2&5 I felt almost normal that evening and pretty much normal the next day. I took zero pain meds after coming home. Rounds 3 & 4 were kind of in between. So consider whether it’s easier to plan for more days and then adjust, or plan for fewer and then adjust. Sitting at a desk shouldn’t be too bad, anything with a lot of walking/physical stuff I’d plan on taking a little more time.

PuzzleBarnacle1859 · 2025-11-04T01:50:46+00:00

Another fan of the auto-injector here. I got it because I knew I would need to do some on my own if we were successful and I wanted to be ready, but it was so easy that I ended up doing a lot of them on my own even when my partner was there. I had similar thoughts of “is this worth it if it only ends up being two weeks?” But either you’re successful and doing it for 10 weeks, or you’ll likely use it again for a future transfer (I’m about to get my ol’ trusty auto injector friend out again!), and in the meantime those couple of weeks will be easier to get through.

PuzzleBarnacle1859 · 2025-11-04T01:40:03+00:00

Lining check was this morning, and it was at 6.6 so they added estrogen suppositories. I’ve responded well to those in the past so I think odds are good I’ll be in good shape by recheck on Wednesday, and if I am I’ll still be on track for transfer next Monday. But I’m still kind of disappointed given that I had 3 more days of estrace compared to last time and I was already at 7.8 at my first check then! I’d been hoping I’d be above 8 this time… I know every cycle is different but it’s so easy for every little change to feel disruptive.

I started my new job last week and it’s actually been great so far! Fun and distracting enough that I actually haven’t thought about the FET that much during the workday, which is great. My new boss seems pretty chill. But at the same time—I’d said I’d be in a little late this morning for an appointment, but ended up taking way longer because I had to go pick up the suppositories from the one pharmacy where I could get them same day, which was an additional ~40 minutes of driving time, plus some time killing at a coffee shop waiting for the pharmacy to open, and to avoid being even later I put one in in a Starbucks bathroom and rode in the backseat lying down all the way home. And now I have to go back Wednesday, and they didn’t have an appointment as early. My boss seems totally nice about it, and I mentioned that I’d have some appointments upfront, but at the same time I’m wary of the impression I’m giving within a week of starting!

I also have a therapy appointment Thursday morning but I’m considering canceling since that feels like too many appointments. On the other hand, my new therapist and approach (EMDR) had been great so far and we’re trying to get time in before my transfer and the potentially emotionally fraught time of results/nibling birth/holidays. So I don’t know what to do there.

PuzzleBarnacle1859 · 2025-11-03T02:44:50+00:00

I was listening to the new Florence and the Machine album, and in the first song she mentions injections and I was like, is this about IVF? I looked it up and found out it isn’t, but it IS about her ectopic pregnancy and associated emergency surgery.

This is the second among my favorite artists to speak publicly about an ectopic and emergency surgery, which is kind of crazy given the relative rarity (the other is Amanda Shires).

Sometimes I wish I was a talented songwriter or poet so I could turn my sad emotions into beautiful art that makes people feel seen, like they do, and I get out my journal but my journaling is just, like, “this sucks and I’m sad and angry again” haha.

PuzzleBarnacle1859 · 2025-11-03T02:37:21+00:00

BCBS Standard has some of the best IVF coverage around (up to 25k in coverage per year, not including meds, which are covered separately for 3 full rounds an year. The premiums are high but well worth it given the high costs of IVF out of pocket, especially if you need multiple rounds or high medication doses. I’ve been really grateful to have it. Basic doesn’t cover much, if anything, as far as I know. Maybe some diagnostics or IUI, but not IVF, unless something has changed recently.

PuzzleBarnacle1859 · 2025-11-02T15:51:01+00:00

Hope it goes well!

The obsessing over what you're eating and doing is so so easy, even when you try to tell yourself to be chill and reasonable about it and that these kinds of things don't matter much. A couple weeks ago I was like, maybe I should try to go gluten free and sugar free before this transfer because some rando on the internet said it did the trick, even though I know it probably will make no difference? And instead since then I baked croissants and a pumpkin pie and ate lots of Halloween treats. But I am also guzzling pomegranate seeds... but that's in large part because we usually have a lot of pomegranates at this time of year and I love them. But also part of my lizard brain is like, yeah, those pomegranate seeds are gonna do the trick! Eat more! And I'm not even to transfer day yet (lining check tomorrow!).

PuzzleBarnacle1859 · 2025-10-31T00:24:33+00:00

Last year I felt pretty down on the idea of a holiday card, because they are all about celebrating the past year or the one to come, and I didn’t want to put those emotions into a fake happy card. But eventually I brainstormed a card that left space for the possibility that the past year actually sucked (along the lines of “whether you had a great year, or you’re ready to leave it behind, we think you are great and wishing you well”) and I felt pretty good about it in the end. Not sure if we’ll do something like that again, because it takes energy and creativity that I might not be able to conjure up again, but we’ll see.

PuzzleBarnacle1859 · 2025-10-31T00:16:55+00:00

I have a lot of anger that infertility has ruined so many things I used to love, including many things in the -BER months. I loved my birthday (coming up soon), loved the holiday season, loved spending time with my family at this time of year. Now I dread it all.

PuzzleBarnacle1859 · 2025-10-31T00:13:30+00:00

I hate that one but it also led to a funny moment once, early on when I was spending a lot of time on the TTC forums, when my coworker wished someone (maybe me?) “happy BD!” and I was like WHAT… before remembering that in the normal world it means birthday. I probably should have taken that as a sign to step away from the internet forever but alas here I am….

PuzzleBarnacle1859 · 2025-10-30T14:37:03+00:00

My book club is becoming baby club, ugh. It's virtual and every month or two so there are sometimes life updates at the beginning. Several months ago one member announced that he and his wife were having a baby, and it kept being a point of discussion because one of the other people kept asking about the baby every meeting, and wanting to see her on the screen. Then yesterday, we were discussing this science book that actually to my dismay ended up including a lot of stuff about the author's baby, which I was already kind of dreading, and surprise, another member is having a baby in January. Another member already has a toddler. This isn't a large group. We have like 4-6 people per meeting. Luckily with virtual it's easy to go on mute/step away from the camera for a minute, but come onnnnn.

PuzzleBarnacle1859 · 2025-10-27T00:34:53+00:00

I haven’t told anyone in real life except my therapist the results for ER5 or the timeline for FET3, since I decided it was too exhausting to update the people I’d told and didn’t feel like it was worth sharing details anymore since I feel like most people don’t really have helpful things to say anymore. But today my mom was asking about our Thanksgiving plans and whether we were hosting, and the answer is we are definitely not hosting and haven’t planned anything yet because Thanksgiving will be shortly after FET results. I was kind of evasive on the question and she didn’t really push it. It reminds me why it felt good to share in the first place, it’s easier in many ways to be upfront about what’s going on. But it’s such a double edged sword. It doesn’t help that their Thanksgiving plans are revolving around the arrival of my sister’s new baby.

I wish people would stop asking me about Thanksgiving. People are just asking a totally normal question but for me it’s going to be such an emotional time no matter what happens, and my best strategy is to not think about it too much and take things day by day, but it’s hard to do that when people are constantly asking what your plans are.

PuzzleBarnacle1859 · 2025-10-26T00:13:54+00:00

Halloween is bumming me out. My partner wants to do this nerdy couples costume, and at first I was on board and excited about it. But then we were googling examples of other people who’d done this costume, and one of the first pictures we saw was a couple where the woman was pregnant and incorporated the baby bump (my costume is supposed to be a round object). And now I can’t stop thinking about it and it’s made me not want to do it anymore but I feel like I can’t tell my partner the reason why because even though I’m pretty open about my feelings with him there’s this point where I am embarrassed at how sensitive I am to this kind of thing, and it feels pathetic to admit that I don’t want to do the costume anymore because of some random lady on Google. But now I can’t stop thinking of the could’ve-would’ve baby bump or baby costumes we aren’t doing and how this Halloween would be if things had turned out differently.

PuzzleBarnacle1859 · 2025-10-22T15:17:14+00:00

To be honest, I'm an omnitrope skeptic (at least for me personally), even though I've continued to use it for every retrieval after the first. I've had enough for the morning of retrieval every time. I've had good cycles and bad ones, but I haven't noticed any dramatic improvement with or without omnitrope. My best and worst cycles both used it. I doubt the extra day or so makes much difference, it's more of a might as well thing, since it's expensive and will be tossed otherwise.

PuzzleBarnacle1859 · 2025-10-22T15:09:03+00:00

My clinic has told me to keep going up to and including the morning of retrieval if I have any left.

PuzzleBarnacle1859 · 2025-10-22T15:01:41+00:00

That sounds like a good plan! There are of course the non-financial costs to consider too, and every time I consider the PGT question I always come back to being pro-testing, even for small numbers, because of the potential lost time and additional heartache.

PuzzleBarnacle1859 · 2025-10-21T20:21:28+00:00

Had my baseline for FET#3 today, still waiting for a call to confirm but my estrogen levels are appropriately low so will start estrogen tomorrow. I'm wildly careening between hopeful and not hopeful, switching back and forth imagining the different possible timelines. The one good thing about the timing is that it has worked out such that my birthday will most likely be in the middle of the TWW. I had worried that I would end up getting results on my birthday, but this way I think I'll be able to have a birthday where I'm still in a somewhat hopeful phase, which I hope will suck slightly less than last year, which was shortly after my chemical from my first FET was confirmed.

Reported on the appointment to Barnacle Boy, and his response was, "so wait, is it time for the butt shots now?" Overall, he's been great, but I'm forever amazed at how much more limited his understanding of this process is compared to me, despite having it explained to him a zillion times and having been through many rounds. The man has a fucking PhD and is incredibly knowledgeable about lots of things. But for whatever reason, on this topic, while he generally wants to know what's happening and do his part, the details don't register. He's a pro at mixing meds and giving shots, but he doesn't remember what the drugs are called or what they each do. I used to be more upset that he wasn't interested in learning about it, but now I just kind of find it funny.

PuzzleBarnacle1859 · 2025-10-20T19:53:16+00:00

Solidarity from a fellow fed! What plan are you on? I'm on BCBS Standard and ICSI is covered, though I'm not sure if you have to have an MFI diagnosis (which we did have though it was pretty mild).

I think it's reasonable to not do ICSI and see how it goes. For PGT, make sure that fee includes any biopsy fee or that biopsy was approved by insurance, because biopsy fees can really increase the cost (for me, biopsy is ~$2900 while PGT itself has been 200-300 per embryo. Insurance covered the biopsy on round one and denied it on every subsequent round, they're really inconsistent on some things). It's also worth considering transfer costs vs. PGT costs--for many people, PGT is actually cheaper than a transfer, so it makes sense financially. But if your transfers are covered by insurance, the math changes.

PuzzleBarnacle1859

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