Hi Everyone, I’m here to show my support for everyone going through the IVF process.
Gist of my story is to remain optimistic and carefree through-out the IVF and 2ww, although hiccups are bound to happen.
I’m 35 and have Seen by Dr Yong TT at SGH O&G for 2 years+, tried to conceive naturally but of course didn’t work and during that time I wasn’t quite ready to embark on IVF yet. During 2nd half of 2018, we told Dr Yong that we decide to go for IVF and not IUI. I’m quite glad she didn’t suggest me to go through IUI cause I’m also not very confident on the success % that I briefly read online. We started on the IVF journey in Mar’19 as the dates did not match for Feb’19 due to the CNY holidays.
I am fortunate that I belonged to the short protocol, started taking the morning jabs on 22 March 2019 (Cetrotide) and took Gonal-F starting 25 March 2019. Throughout this period, I just took the jabs as it is and didn’t think about it much cause my mindset was try 1 round first, if this round fail then try after my July vacation. During this jab period, my thigh started to have a rash which was painful and growing so I requested to see the doctor 03 April 2019 on the day of my last scan before ER day. The doctor (I think she’s an overseas doctor who comes here for attachment work / learning) whom I seen and told me there was nothing to worry until Dr Yong & her team saw the “rash” on ER day 05 Apr’19.
So that was the time i started googling about whether it was varicella-zoster virus and if this would affect IVF process. Even Dr Yong had to do some additional reading. Of course, Dr Yong was a little upset with her doctor being that my case wasn’t flagged earlier. On day of ER, I was advised by Dr Yong to go to polyclinic to get the anti-viral medication which I have to take for 7 days in a row, 5 hours gap each tablet to get the virus outbreak under control. Polyclinic doctor diagnosed the rash as shingles and I was initially worried if the anti-viral medication would affect the ET then research starts to assure myself that all will be well even if I took anti-viral medication before/during/after ET.
Out of the 10 oocytes retrieved, 6 matured, 4 got fertilized and I kept giving the embryologist scenario based questions, like most prob will do which day transfer? Ultimately, she told me that if day 3 transfer they will give me ample time to go down in the afternoon but mine might be a day 5 transfer… So Monday 08 Apr’19 they called again and told me left 3 embryos grade 2, 2 doing a little slow and still monitoring the faster growing embryo and confirm will do ET on day 5. On ET day, I was like quarantine patient cause of the shingles, i was the last ET patient, the team showed me the selected blastocyst for transfer and I just jokingly said “oh… hello” to the monitor. So I just asked, so what grade is it? Embryologist mentioned Grade AA, then I thought to myself, wah so good grade. When Dr Yong started talking and distracting me from the full bladder and ET process, I also joked back to medical team that I know very well this is not 100% guarantee, I’m just taking it easy. The 2 other embryos were left to grow for another day and next day embryologist told me that they did not reach blastocyst stage hence will be discarded. So I try not to be too negative, cause I will need to go through another round of jabs if this round fails.
During my 2ww, I basically did stuff as usual, vacuum, mopping the floor every other day, walking my yorkie 3 times a day and playing with him every day, having afternoon naps with my yorkie. I think I wasn’t stressed about whether this round will succeed or not because we didn’t tell our parents or friends. Only my neighbor was curious how come I didn’t need to go to work. I noticed my body started to have changes and on the 7-8th day I started to have brown spotting, then I told myself just to relax and enjoy the HL while it lasts. Two days before the BT, I was thinking if I should get a HPT done. Then I told myself don’t waste money cause they gonna do blood test on me. I ended up finding 1 new HPT in my toiletries cabinet then I took it the night before the BT. Got a BFP from HPT, but didn’t tell my husband until the next day when the clinic called me with the results of my BT.
Went for my 1st scan on 6 May, saw the little tadpole and fetal heartbeat and now going 8 weeks.
Honestly, I wasn’t expecting to succeed on my 1st IVF try. Baby dust to all and I hope everyone going through the IVF keep yourself free from worries and take it easy. Just be strong for yourself and not let anything setbacks take you down. Until today, I haven’t even told our parents yet. So no stress still !