My IVF Pregnancy Journey Part 10

I survived the aftermath of Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome. It's the complication from all the medications injected into my belly to prepare myself for the egg retrieval procedure as the initial part of the IVF treatment process. To know more about this, you may click this link → My IVF Pregnancy Journey Part 9.

After the minor surgery where the fertility specialist collected 20 egg cells from my ovaries, I was almost bedridden for 2-3 days. As I mentioned in my previous post, just to walk to the toilet was a struggle, but gradually I got better and better as days went by. After a week, I was already back at work, as if I never had a problem like that.

Each day after the egg retrieval procedure, the fertility nurse would call me to ask how I was going to make sure that the complication was not progressing. The fertility lab technician would also update me with regard to the status of the fertilisation process of our reproductive material, and that is, my egg cells and my husband's sperm cells being observed and cultured in a laboratory until they reached the blastocyst stage (5-6 days after the eggs were fertilised with the sperm).

Below is the summary of my first IVF treatment cycle based on the report by the lab technician:

So basically, my husband and I had 8 embryos stored in the cryogenic freezer after that, which means, we have eight chances of getting pregnant through the IVF process.

We were quite happy about the success of the insemination, and I was so excited about it. All I could think was "Thank God for this glimmer of hope." I mean, we have eight embryos. If conceived naturally, that's a really huge success! Like that's eight pregnancies in total. I couldn't wait for these embryos to be implanted into my uterus.

However, because of the degree of ovarian hyperstimulation that occurred after 20 mature egg cells were collected from my ovaries, I had to wait for two more cycles to stabilise my hormones. They couldn't transfer an embryo just yet to avoid exacerbation of the OHSS (ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome).

The second cycle came and it started on the 7th of September 2019. I had to call the fertility nurse about this so she could give me direction on what to do. I was instructed to take this medicine called clomiphene citrate 50mg (Clomid) for five consecutive days and should also be at the same time each day. Then, I had to take the blood test and ultrasound on the 10th day of the cycle. It was determined that my ovulation occurred on Day 12, which was on the 18th of September. After that, the nurse phoned me the following day and scheduled for embryo transfer. Yay!!! I was really excited about that!!!

The embryo transfer was done on the 23rd of September 2019 (Day 17 of the cycle). What happens during this stage is that an embryo will be taken out of the cryogenic freezer and its thawing process will have initiated on the day of the transfer. I just don't know how many minutes they will have to wait for the frozen embryo to thaw. And as I have explained in my previous post where I explained about the consent forms I had to sign, the specialists cannot guarantee a 100% success rate of the thawing process. Which means, the embryo can be discarded when it is considered as not viable for transfer.

But thankfully, on that day of the transfer, the embryo was thawed successfully. My husband and I drove to Adelaide early morning that day because we had to be at Flinders Fertility Clinic in Glenelg at 8:30 AM. Only one embryo/blastocyst was transferred into my uterus. Below is the picture of the embryo prior before transfer:

My husband and I still have seven embryos remain in storage. If this would fail, then we still have 7 more chances to conceive through the IVF process.

Anyway, the embryo transfer was quick and easy. It was just like having pap smear done. 15 minutes and it was done! I didn't feel any pain at all. I was told by the Doctor that if I experienced bleeding that I should let them know straight away. I didn't bleed at all. I didn't experience anything out of ordinary. We would just have to wait for my next period then. If it comes, then obviously, the first attempt is unsuccessful. And if I would not get my period by the first week of October, then I must proceed to take a blood test to determine if I was pregnant. I was scheduled to take my blood test on the 4th of October.