Tag Archives: follistim

Failed cycles? Plenty of eggs but crappy results? I bet I know why…

Posted in infertility by

I wish I had written this a long, long time ago but it took a friend cycling to make me realize how important the following information will be for those of you going through IVF, IUI….  Do not ever let your follicles get too big.  My former RE likes to trigger when the cohort (most of the eggs) are measuring 17.  The simple fact is that eggs (especially older eggs) often will not have great outcomes if they get much larger than 22.  Heck, even 20.  If you are doing an IVF cycle and you notice that most of your eggs are in the 18 or 19 range then you should have triggered…plain and simple.  Do the research and see what happens when your follicles get too big…  

When in doubt you need to question.  Try a low dose cycle for the heck of it (you can always convert to an IUI).  I find it interesting that I produced the same amount of eggs on 300 menopur/300 follistim as I did with a 150 menopur/150 follistim – sometimes more isn’t better…in fact, sometimes more is not good at all.  Just a little PSA.

Let me know if any of you have had bad results with large follicles (or the reverse and don’t forget your age!).  Good luck to everyone trying….

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The New York Times

Posted in Rant by

Sick of them. Honestly? Used to be one of my favorite rags but the coverage they are giving infertility these days is just sensational garbage. I won’t spend time linking to his malarky – go and search if you really want to know……but honestly? I feel like the IF community is under attack. The whole “designer baby”…creating children with only blue eyes who have genetics that indicate a strength in math is just baloney. That is such a kind word and I am in a cursing mood. The restraint I show, oh it is so amazing….

I know hundreds, maybe thousands of women who have undergone IVF/ART etc. to have their children and not one – not even one who did it for sex selection even. Shocking!

In fact, I don’t even think you CAN choose the color of eyes – the technology exists somewhere but holycrap. A vial of follistim is about 800 bucks can you imagine how much it would cost to test the eyeball of an embryo?

Deep breath.

We do this because we want to be parents. In my case, I have a child. I love him beyond the description of words and thus, I try for a sibling.

“Just adopt?” If you say that then you don’t get it. Why don’t YOU adopt? In our case that is not something that my husband will agree to (and it takes two in a marriage these days)

“Well you have one, just be thankful!” What makes you think I am not thankful? I thank God and the moon and the stars every.single.day for my son. Every single day he gives me a reason to give him a sibling. I’m old. His dad is old (relatively as parents) and one day when he stands over my grave and shovels the last bit of dirt over it – I’d like him to stand there with his sister or brother and not feel alone. Orphaned. I want him to have what I had – a sibling. Even if we are not close in proximity, I know where he is. I get him. I support him in the dark times. I love him. I just want my son to have what I had and if that is selfish, so be it.

Meanwhile, I’m going to get back to sorting my needles for the next IVF and, of course, drop down to my knees and thank the universe for my little guy who most recently told me “mommy, you are beautiful”. All those injections were worth it and I’d do it again and again.

So NYT – you suck. I hope you go bankrupt – oh wait, you already are. My bad.