IVF; Failed Fresh Cycle As Told By Someone Actually Doing The Work
Before raising the child, the whole village needs to help make the child
By my wife:
My Husband and I agreed to move on to IVF after we failed our sole IUI cycle.
The decision for IVF meant that I had to find a time to take a long stretch of leave, which must coincide with the start of my menstrual cycle.
To predict when my menses would start a few cycles down the road, I trended data of my last few cycles and consulted tea leaves.
In Singapore, you get subsidies for 3 fresh and 3 frozen cycles.
For the uninitiated, fresh means a cycle with the whole works - hormones to stimulate egg production, with an egg retrieval procedure, possibly an egg transfer and hopefully with embryos left over to freeze.
If there are frozen embryos, a frozen cycle can be done, which involves preparing the womb to receive the embryo which has been frozen earlier.
At the end of the cycle are 3 doors. Behind one door is a baby, or two. Behind the other two is a kick in the ovaries.
Baseline Scan and Stimulation
I called KKH IVF centre once I got my period to initiate proceedings.
Baseline scan showed all systems are go. I was good to start stimulation jabs.
My protocol was the short antagonistic protocol. I was told to inject for 7 days, and add a second injection after around 4-5 days.
The first type of injection came in a pre-filled pen with a short needle; not too painful.
The second injection was individual pre-filled syringes, this was slightly more painful.
My husband helped with the jabs.
I kept second guessing myself at every step. Things like - was I far away enough from the belly button? Did I leave the needle in long enough? - things not entirely rooted in logic.
Kudos to my long suffering husband who bore the brunt of my cray.
A week flew by and I was back in KKH with legs spread wide open for the sonographer.
I had a number of follicles growing on each side, and was told to jab for a couple more days and return then. After about 9 to 10 days of stimulation jabs, I was told that I was good to go for egg retrieval.
Egg Retrieval
The next part involved a jab which had to be very precisely timed.
I had to administer a jab precisely to the hour, so that exactly 36 hours later, they would be mature for pick up. Once again, hubby stepped up to the task.
If you are not up to all these jabbing by yourself, there is a package at KKH for the jabs. Some GP clinics are willing to help you jab as well, especially the triggering one when the hospitals are closed for the day.
Egg retrieval was pretty ok for me. It was done under moderate sedation, and the sedation was very well done. I think it was done with propofol and it was thoroughly enjoyable.
Egg retrieval comes with roughly 2 weeks of hospitalisation leave. I didn’t utilise it all, but my downtime was definitely less than that. I got 17 eggs from the procedure which was decent.
I had a case of mild OHSS (ovarian hyper stimulation syndrome). OHSS usually happens when many eggs are retrieved, such as in patients with PCOS. In extreme situations, the bloat can be so extreme that it requires tube drainage, or lead to multi organ damage.
Thankfully, mine was just feeling bloated and nauseous and ran its course in a few days.
Egg retrieval meant that the physically painful part was over, and the start of the mentally excruciating part. Unlike other hospitals, KKH does not provide daily reports. Hence I was basically in the dark about how my embryos were doing. The nurse said, come back on day 5. But be prepared to come back on day 3 (presumably because the embryos are not developing well enough to make it till day 5). This did not sit well with the Type A in me.
I basically spent all my free time obsessing. It did not help that I was off work, so I was free to obsess.
Egg Transfer
Day 3 came and went without any phone calls from KKH. I went to the IVF centre on day 5 as scheduled, and had a single blastocyst transferred. The procedure was straightforward. I needed a full bladder, an ultrasound was used to visualise the uterus, a tiny tube was placed into the opening of the uterus and the doctor flushed the embryo in.
It was over in a matter of minutes.
The Wait
The dreaded two week wait
And now the hardest part, the two week wait. Kkh typically plans the blood test 17 days after the transfer.
This is the stage where I second guessed myself at everything. I worried about exercising as I was scared the embryo could fall out, though I knew that was irrational. I read many papers on how to increase implantation chances - nothing very conclusive there. I was essentially a nervous wreck. Not fun to be around but my husband assures me otherwise.
During the two week wait, I was prescribed progesterone support as well. Progesterone in all its various forms is a crowd favourite drug when trying to conceive.
Different hospitals / gynaes have their various favourite regimens.
Kkh prescribed crinone twice a day. It is a white gel in a thin tube that is stuck up the vagina, and the end is pressed to released the gel. Because so much gel is inserted, it gradually discharges in dried clumps of various colours.
On day 9, I noticed that the clump was slightly pinkish. My heart sank. I continued inserting crinone as prescribed but the discharge became more and more red. I held out hope that it could be implantation bleeding.
The next day was a Saturday and I was shopping at Raffles City with hubby (to take my mind of things) when I checked my pad and saw bright red full flow bleeding. I remember crying and telling my husband that it was game over and to bring me home. So I knew I was out on day 10.
I went to KKH for blood test early the following Monday. When embarking on the IVF cycle, I was made to consent to a blood test at the end of cycle (partly for statistical purposes I suppose?) I had to do the blood test no matter how futile I felt it was.
At the same time, I went to the embryologist to check on the results of the remaining embryos. The phone call from the nurse came as the embryologist was giving me my results - that beta hcg was 0. I broke down in front of the embryologist.
Hearing that the beta hcg was a big zilch made it more real, that it was a complete failure and there wasn’t even a hint of implantation or a chemical pregnancy. The embryologist was very nice, said comforting things, and I went back home and continued to mope and be an emotional wreck.
So ends my first failed fresh cycle.
From another ie. husband's point of view
By my wife:
My Husband and I agreed to move on to IVF after we failed our sole IUI cycle.
The decision for IVF meant that I had to find a time to take a long stretch of leave, which must coincide with the start of my menstrual cycle.
To predict when my menses would start a few cycles down the road, I trended data of my last few cycles and consulted tea leaves.
In Singapore, you get subsidies for 3 fresh and 3 frozen cycles.
For the uninitiated, fresh means a cycle with the whole works - hormones to stimulate egg production, with an egg retrieval procedure, possibly an egg transfer and hopefully with embryos left over to freeze.
If there are frozen embryos, a frozen cycle can be done, which involves preparing the womb to receive the embryo which has been frozen earlier.
At the end of the cycle are 3 doors. Behind one door is a baby, or two. Behind the other two is a kick in the ovaries.
Baseline Scan and Stimulation
I called KKH IVF centre once I got my period to initiate proceedings.
Baseline scan showed all systems are go. I was good to start stimulation jabs.
My protocol was the short antagonistic protocol. I was told to inject for 7 days, and add a second injection after around 4-5 days.
The first type of injection came in a pre-filled pen with a short needle; not too painful.
The second injection was individual pre-filled syringes, this was slightly more painful.
My husband helped with the jabs.
I kept second guessing myself at every step. Things like - was I far away enough from the belly button? Did I leave the needle in long enough? - things not entirely rooted in logic.
Kudos to my long suffering husband who bore the brunt of my cray.
A week flew by and I was back in KKH with legs spread wide open for the sonographer.
I had a number of follicles growing on each side, and was told to jab for a couple more days and return then. After about 9 to 10 days of stimulation jabs, I was told that I was good to go for egg retrieval.
Egg Retrieval
The next part involved a jab which had to be very precisely timed.
I had to administer a jab precisely to the hour, so that exactly 36 hours later, they would be mature for pick up. Once again, hubby stepped up to the task.
If you are not up to all these jabbing by yourself, there is a package at KKH for the jabs. Some GP clinics are willing to help you jab as well, especially the triggering one when the hospitals are closed for the day.
Egg retrieval was pretty ok for me. It was done under moderate sedation, and the sedation was very well done. I think it was done with propofol and it was thoroughly enjoyable.
Egg retrieval comes with roughly 2 weeks of hospitalisation leave. I didn’t utilise it all, but my downtime was definitely less than that. I got 17 eggs from the procedure which was decent.
I had a case of mild OHSS (ovarian hyper stimulation syndrome). OHSS usually happens when many eggs are retrieved, such as in patients with PCOS. In extreme situations, the bloat can be so extreme that it requires tube drainage, or lead to multi organ damage.
Thankfully, mine was just feeling bloated and nauseous and ran its course in a few days.
Egg retrieval meant that the physically painful part was over, and the start of the mentally excruciating part. Unlike other hospitals, KKH does not provide daily reports. Hence I was basically in the dark about how my embryos were doing. The nurse said, come back on day 5. But be prepared to come back on day 3 (presumably because the embryos are not developing well enough to make it till day 5). This did not sit well with the Type A in me.
I basically spent all my free time obsessing. It did not help that I was off work, so I was free to obsess.
Egg Transfer
Day 3 came and went without any phone calls from KKH. I went to the IVF centre on day 5 as scheduled, and had a single blastocyst transferred. The procedure was straightforward. I needed a full bladder, an ultrasound was used to visualise the uterus, a tiny tube was placed into the opening of the uterus and the doctor flushed the embryo in.
It was over in a matter of minutes.
The Wait
The dreaded two week wait
And now the hardest part, the two week wait. Kkh typically plans the blood test 17 days after the transfer.
This is the stage where I second guessed myself at everything. I worried about exercising as I was scared the embryo could fall out, though I knew that was irrational. I read many papers on how to increase implantation chances - nothing very conclusive there. I was essentially a nervous wreck. Not fun to be around but my husband assures me otherwise.
During the two week wait, I was prescribed progesterone support as well. Progesterone in all its various forms is a crowd favourite drug when trying to conceive.
Different hospitals / gynaes have their various favourite regimens.
Kkh prescribed crinone twice a day. It is a white gel in a thin tube that is stuck up the vagina, and the end is pressed to released the gel. Because so much gel is inserted, it gradually discharges in dried clumps of various colours.
On day 9, I noticed that the clump was slightly pinkish. My heart sank. I continued inserting crinone as prescribed but the discharge became more and more red. I held out hope that it could be implantation bleeding.
The next day was a Saturday and I was shopping at Raffles City with hubby (to take my mind of things) when I checked my pad and saw bright red full flow bleeding. I remember crying and telling my husband that it was game over and to bring me home. So I knew I was out on day 10.
I went to KKH for blood test early the following Monday. When embarking on the IVF cycle, I was made to consent to a blood test at the end of cycle (partly for statistical purposes I suppose?) I had to do the blood test no matter how futile I felt it was.
At the same time, I went to the embryologist to check on the results of the remaining embryos. The phone call from the nurse came as the embryologist was giving me my results - that beta hcg was 0. I broke down in front of the embryologist.
Hearing that the beta hcg was a big zilch made it more real, that it was a complete failure and there wasn’t even a hint of implantation or a chemical pregnancy. The embryologist was very nice, said comforting things, and I went back home and continued to mope and be an emotional wreck.
So ends my first failed fresh cycle.
From another ie. husband's point of view
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