So…I’ve now interviewed all three of the major reproductive endocrinology clinics in Atlanta (except one whose stats are sub par).
Clinic A is my current RE in Atlanta. I like my doctor and I like the staff…but the rate of fertilization of our eggs with ICSI scares me. This could be the fault of the doctor for letting my eggs grow too large, or it could be that my eggs are bad quality or it could be that the lab is bad. A friend of mine recently cycled there and had 50% fertilization. So it isn’t just me. This is a concern.
Clinic B seems a little disheveled. The doctor listened to me, she was nice but I definitely led the conversation – recommended which drugs and she largely agreed with me. I don’t know about you – but I am not a doctor. I know a hell of a lot about this process and certainly how my body responds to certain meds but…I’m looking for someone to lead me – not follow my lead. They do, however, have one of the pioneers of ICSI as their head of embryology so if fertilization is my aim…this is a serious consideration.
Clinic C was warm and fuzzy – brand new offices looked more like I was walking into Goldman Sachs than a fertility clinic. The doctor, also a female, was such a nice, caring person. The clinic’s pregnancy rates for my age are around 40% a cycle which is quite high – but she puts my chances around 25-30% based on my recent failures. She recommends that I try two more cycles with my own eggs and then go on to donor egg…which was a little shocking, to be honest. Donor egg chat already!
So I have decisions to make and I am completely torn for many different reasons.
My current cycle is looking OK – actually I’m please that there are 3 follicles with about 2 or 3 lagging behind. I’m going to trigger tomorrow night (inject the HCG) and C’s sperm will injected into my uterus on Sunday and on Monday. I have already scheduled the surgery for removal of the polyp in my uterus for late November…so that might tell you what I am thinking about this cycle. If it worked, well, it would be great but I just seriously don’t think it will.
I’m giving it my best shot!
WAY too much information. Come on, it won't kill you.... 
Good luck Suzanne. I could say so much here, but I am not sure where to start! Fertilisation is dependent on the quality of the egg and sperm, I have found that I have about 65-70% fertilisation but after a couple of days I am left with about 50% of the fertilised embies. Because you have so few eggs (like myself) I’m surprised that you are doing an IUI, and not IVF. …. Maybe I have the wrong end of the stick. save the follicles/eggs for the more effective treatment, but I am no expert afterall!
Hi Louise – actually I am doing an IUI cycle with very, very low stims and getting a decent response for IUI. I’ve only been on max stims and get usually 6-10 eggs. The clinic I used for my IVF in April and in August had ahorrible fertilization rate on my eggs (50% on one and 20% on the other) in addition to stimming me way too long and made most of these eggs most mature . My IVF last month in NYC was great – 7 eggs – 6 fertilized with ICSI and four made it to grade A blast. Not sure why they didn’t stick around but perhaps had something to do with polyp in my uterus. Or my age….so we keep trying!
Hi Suzanne, it sounds like our situations are similar, altho’ I have had better luck with fertilisation, and at the most have had 3 embryos for transfer (that was a miracle – produced 4 eggs!). It does sound like they over-stimmed you. We are about to switch to Weill Cornell. Is that who you are using? Thats amazing that you got grade A blasts. I haven’t ever done that, I had 1 grade B, the rest… I start my 4th IVF in January after having a break for a year. Its been wonderful. It will be interesting to see how I am received now that I have turned 40! Hopefully when the polyp has gone, you will have more luck, altho’ it sounds like this is a good cycle – who knows what could happen! 😉