Preparation for FET

Next week we official start the preparation for the Frozen Embryo Transfer (FET). We’ve made it past all of the Egg Retrieval steps, now it’s time to prepare my body so our little embryo will want to stick and make me its home! We picked up all of the medicine from the pharmacy ($106) and luckily insurance covered some of the medications since they are all hormone based medicines. Since they can be used for things outside of IVF they covered a portion. Normally they would have been around $300-$500. The medications will start next week after my first ultrasound and blood work appointment.

This past week we received the results for the last test that they run on the embryos. Genesis Genetics the company that does the PGS (pre-implantation genetic screening) also runs a mitochondrial DNA report on the embryos. The purpose of performing mitochondrial quantification using MitoGrade is to evaluate the chances of an embryo implanting depending on the amount of mitochondria in the embryo. Mitochondria are small organelles inside cells that provide energy to the cells. A sign that the embryo is stressed is when it produces too many mitochondria to compensate for a deficit of energy. Embryos with too many mitochondria have a lower implantation rate or do not implant.

Our results showed that all of our genetically normal embryos also have a normal about of mitochondrial DNA!

We also received our videos back from Embryoscope this week. When we paid for Embryoscope ($650), we paid to reserve a space. Each space on contains so many spots. Since I had so many eggs retrieved, not all of my embryos were able to be monitored using Embryoscope. I believe 12 were monitored in the Embryoscope while the rest were monitored daily by the embryologists in the lab. Sadly, this means I only have videos for 3 of my embryos, but I was still excited to watch them grow! The other 3 are perfectly fine still, I just don’t have a video of them growing to Day 5.

 Out of the 3 in the Embryoscope, 2 were my boys and 1 girl. Here are them growing from fertilization to Day 5. Baby’s first video…lol

 Video #1 is Boy #1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRXk0BqP3_s

 Video #2 is Boy #2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvjYeQhaD1A

Video #3 is Girl #1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQGbyUVF71Y

Faith, Trust, and Baby Dust

So, as most of you know we got our PGS (pre-implantation genetics screening) test results back earlier this week! We were told it can take 7-10 days to receive the results back and I was happily surprised when we got the results back on Tuesday (when they had only been received by the clinic the Thursday before). We were very happy with the results! Out of the 9 embryos that we sent to be tested, 6 came back genetically normal!!! Since the X and Y chromosome are part genetic testing they were able to tell us what our embryos were: 4 girls and 2 boys! 

Just as an interesting comparison, here are the results of the genetic testing and here are the grades of the embryos that correspond with the tests:

5BC- Sample 4- abnormal

5BC- Sample 7- normal

5AB- Sample 8- normal

5AB- Sample 12- normal

5AB- Sample 18- normal

5AB- Sample 22- normal

5BB- Sample 25- abnormal

4BB- Sample 27- normal

5AB- Sample 28- abnormal

Euploid means the embryos had a balanced set or sets of chromosomes = normal. Regarding the ones that were abnormal, the chart lists off what was abnormal about them. Complex abnormal, means exactly what it says, complex.  Multiple chromosome abnormalities.  The other two had a deletion on the long arms, one on chromosome 4 and the other on chromosome 6.  Each chromosome contains 2 long arms and 2 short arms, one from each parent.  So on those two particular chromosome the long arm on that particular strand was missing. Each chromosomal abnormality can influence how or if the embryo would be able to be born. With most abnormalities it could mean the embryo may not stick, early or late term miscarriages, or severe birth defects (some that would not be suitable with life, meaning there are no chances of survival outside the womb). 

The interesting part is when you compare the grades with the results. My 4BB embryo would be considered the lowest grade and yet it came back to be a genetically normal girl. My 5AB embryos are the highest graded embryos and while most came back normal, one did not. If we were to have transferred without testing the embryos, chances are we would have chosen one of the 5ABs to transfer- this could have resulted in us transferring one that would not make it.

While genetic testing does not guarantee a healthy baby or a pregnancy, it does help give us a better idea of what embryos have the best chance of succeeding. 

So what are the next steps? Right now they have put me back on birth control so I will be on the same timeline as the other girls looking to transfer in July. I will go back to the doctor on June 20^th and July 3^rd for blood work and ultrasounds to make sure everything looks good to transfer on July 10^th. I will start medication again in a few weeks to prep my body for the transfer. In the meantime, Steven and I will meet with our doctor to decide if we will transfer 2 embryos or 1 and we will choose which one(s) we will transfer. 

 

***I will keep everyone up to date on the transfer process but I am not revealing if we decide to transfer 1 or 2 or if we transfer (a) boy(s), or girl(s). We also will not be announcing if the IVF transfer worked until we are ready. We would like to enjoy our success with our family first, or mourn if it fails.  There is so much excitement and surprise that the IVF process takes away that we would like to keep some of it to ourselves. We would like to be like every other couple who gets to surprise their family with the biological sex of the baby.  I already will not get the joy of surprising my husband with ‘We are pregnant’, so I want to be able to surprise someone, dammit!