Hi Vanilla pod, Hi Wishababy,
I am still in MSP. I teach here, so I don't have the luxury of just taking off anytime I want to.
Earlier this year, I was pretty sure I will be coming back to Sg for my 2nd cycle, but that was only because I didn't think there was another fertility facility in MSP which I found at the beginning of this month. To come back to Sg for a cycle is rather troublesome for me since I reside outside Sg and also hard to take leave from work unlimitedly in case I need to stay in Sg awhile more for whatever reason due to the cycle. If I am coming back to Sg to do the cycle, it will probably be around June however.
The clinics here offer a warranty program, sort of like pay for 2 cycles, get 3 instead, and if by the 3rd round you don't succeed, they will refund you 80% of the money. Of course, it has some requirements to qualify. Age has to be under 39, husband's sperm count must be at least in the 500,000 range, female FSH cannot be more than 10, and female cannot be ovarian reserve challenge. If female make less than 5 eggs, the cycle will be cancelled. I don't think I will qualify since both my husband and I are fertility challenged. We will go through some pre-testing to determine that in the next weeks to come. If we do qualify, it is a no brainer that I will do my 2nd cycle here.
Wishababy, according to the doctor, FSH reading is the protocol they will go by, however, this reading is not as sensitive as they would like to be. How your body react is still the best truth of your true condition of your ovaries. According to the doctors here, even I am ovulating, doesn't mean that my eggs are good. In fact, he said, even if I can make 5 eggs compare to 2 before, my eggs will still be bad. This doctor I have met last week is a senior scientist in a certain research program, and wrote several books already. I asked him if he can tell me in his own opinion why didn't my 2 embryos implant in Dec. He said, most likely is because of the quality of my eggs. Because of the poor quality, there would be some chemical deficiency, which would probably be the reason why they didn't do their thing.
Later, I called my previous clinic and talked to the embryologist if they perform "assisted hatching" to my embryos. I am not sure if you are familiar with that term, if not, to sum it in layman's words, it is to scrap off some outer layers of shells of the embryos so they can implant better. Usually the outer shell of the eggs from a more advance maternal age women is alot harder. For the embryo to break through this wall and implant would be really tough, hence assisted hatching would helped the embryo implant better by doing some of it's job.
However, in the first clinic which I did my first cycle, they only perform assisted hatching on embryos which have 6-8 cells at least to prevent from damaging the embryos. My 2 embryos were only 4 and 2 cells, hence they didn't perform assisted hatching.
I am drinking TCM daily but only do once-a-month acupunture. It is rather expensive here in the US, $64 per session, and both my husband and I needed it.