Everything was plugging along just fine. We were on microdose Lupron, which had to be compounded at the specialty pharmacy.... no big deal. It is exactly what it sounds like; just a micro, or smaller dose of Lupron. We had issues right from the get go. They put me on a different BCP than what I was accustomed to; this one was called Enskyce and I had breakthrough bleeding from the moment I started taking it. Well, when I went in for my baseline ultrasound and bloodworm, I had a giant cyst on my right ovary. This means the BCP didn't keep me from ovulating, or at least from creating the corpus luteum cyst anyway. We had to wait and see what the blood work showed. If the estrogen was above 70, then I was going to be cancelled out of the cycle right then and there. If it was below 70, then we had to see if it was rising or falling. If it was rising, then the cyst was still growing and I would be cancelled; if it was falling, then the cyst was collapsing and all was good and we could continue with the cycle as planned. Progesterone (P4) is irrelevant at this point, but they pull it anyway for a baseline number. The numbers came back and the estrogen was 50, so we were ok to continue. The cyst was nothing. I started taking the stimming shots and I went back for another US in 3 days. Everything looked good and the ovaries were growing. I continued to stim and went in for US every 2-3 days. On the day of the 4th US and blood work, I got a call from the IVF coordinator telling us we were being canceled out of the cycle and to stop all medications. I was completely confused. When I finally got a hold of her, she informed it it was because my P4 had spiked to 8 and anything over 3 it was protocol for the clinic to cancel out of the cycles. She said it somehow affected the eggs but she didn't know how it affected the eggs. We made an appointment with the RE for the next day to discuss what was going on. I did not stop any of my shots because I couldn't find anything on the internet explaining how P4 affected the eggs, only that it helps prepare the lining for implantation. So the next morning we head to the clinic for our conference with the RE.
Well, come to find out high P4 cooks the eggs. The RE gave us the option of being a case study and continuing with the cycle or going a head and cancelling out. No one had ever gone ahead and harvested on a microdose Lupron cycle with a P4 over 3. They have on a ganarellex cycle, but with ganarellex, it gets the P4 back down below 4; that's how that medication works....it shuts P4 down. For some reason the microdose Lupron didn't do what it was suppose to do and keep the P4 controlled. So I came home and asked God for some kind of sign on whether to proceed with the cycle or stop. Came back to the clinic the next day for US and blood work. Well, I got my sign. The follicles that had been growing nicely had stopped growing completely. That told me the P4 had indeed caused issues with the eggs and we needed to stop and regroup.
So, since we had such issues with all these medications, we decided to go a different route if my AMH allowed us to try again. Blood work came back and my P4 had jumped even higher to 12. There was no way the eggs would have survived.
Fast forward to January period. We pull another OAR test. Those results came back interesting. The AMH was lower as expected. It came back at 0.52. Still above the 0.4 so we can try again. Whew. However, the anticipated egg retrieval score increased. What? Yes. They now anticipate to get more eggs with this harvest than they did with the last harvest. Huh? Yeah. No idea how that works, but something in the numbers. Oh well.
We are now in the Feb/ Mar harvest cycle with PGS Testing and FET.
So we have decided to go a completely different route with the medications. I am back on the original BCP that I was on with Chance. The Desogen; and I am having zero breakthrough bleeding whatsoever. I am on my third week of active pills now. I go in for my baseline US and blood work Feb 16th at 0830 am. We are doing Ganarellex with Gonal-F to stim. Gonal-F is just a different brand of stim drug than Follastim. I still have a vial and a half of Follastim left from the last cycle, so I will use it first. One is made from sheep and one is made from human. Can't remember which is which. Ended up using a different pharmacy this time because this one has a rebate program with the Gonal-F and is a little bit cheaper. We obviously make too much money to qualify for any of the financial hardship programs, so we don't get much of a cash discount. I pharmacy shop for sure. Insurance only pays for the antibiotic and steroid; it doesn't pay for anything fertility related.
So: here we are, in the middle of another cycle, trying to get Sir Chance a little. He is now officially 8 months old. He is sitting up from tummy time, has two teeth, just got over the flu, pulls up in his crib, scoots around backwards, and eats like a champ. He is no longer on boobie juices, and just barely takes any formula he eats so much food. He loves tooling around in his Ferrari and jumping in his jumper. He takes 3 naps a day and sleeps through the night, until he has to fart. He weighs 19.6 pounds and is wearing 12-18 months clothes. Growing way too fast. He giggles when you bark at him, and he loves to bzzzz/blow bubbles; especially when eating.
That is all for now. Enjoy this too cute picture of Sir Chance.
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