HI

Hi, I'm new. I have a son that's 4. We conveived him naturally. Now we've been trying for 3 years. After finding out I have PCOS and 2 RE's in 2 yrs. I'm currently on my 3rd medicated IUI. I did one round of clomid and 2 with follistim and ovidrel. If this one fails I found out I can move to IVF. Can anyone tell me the process of IVF. I see all these 5dp5dt ETC I no clue what any of this is. How do they retrieve? Do they put you to sleep. Then what happens? I'm so confused about all of this. I can use some guidance

Re: HI

basically for IVF you follow a series similar to this:
-suppress your own cycle (usually BCP or lupron - this part can last up to several weeks)
-stim cycle - (usually follistim or gonal-f) - can last anywhere from 7-14 days generally.
-trigger - (HCG or lupron) - youll trigger at a very specific time usually approx. 35 hours before retrieval
-retrieval - yes you are put to sleep, it usually lasts about 20-30 minutes, fairly painless - after eggs are retrieved you find out how many you have. the next day you find out how they fertilized and how they are growing
-transfer - this is similar to an IUI, takes place either on day 3 or day 5 after the retrieval. at this point you put the embryos back in and pray. the day that you put them back depends on the quality of the embryos and the RE. some REs prefer 3dt (3 day transfers) but most prefer 5dt (5 day transfers) of blastocytes. good quality embies that are leftover after transfer are frozen for future cycles/FETs.
-the wait. if you have a 3dt you can generally test 8 or 9 days later which is the equivalent of 11 or 12DPO (8 or 9dp3dt). for a 5dt you can test 6 or 7 days after transfer which is is 6 or 7dp5dt or the equivalent of 11 or 12DPO. Betas are generally around 14 days after transfer but every RE is different.

there are more meds then what i listed, but depending on your DX and your REs specific protocol there are a lot of variations.

For more details
here's my IVF journal

good luck!

Message edited 7/22/2011 10:27:09 AM.

Re: HI

Thanks for the response. I have a question. Does anyone know much about E2. I just had my IUI today and I'll have one tomorrow. I had 3 follicles yesterday morning at 19, 18, and 17 which the doctor was very happy about. But....Friday my E2 was 91 then yeesterday it was 173 which I guess is good because it almost doubled. But I'm concerned that's too low for 3 mature follicles. I triggered last night. Does E2 climb even more after the ovidrel.?????I'm hoping because it doubled in one day that it doubled again today. I wish they took blood before an IUI. I guess my question is has anyone had growing follie but lower e2 and had success? My doctor seems to not be worried at all because my fsh levels are great.