Upcoming doctor appointment

This Friday I will go to St. Louis to have my first ultrasound done and also have blood drawn to measure my hormone (E2) levels. The purpose of this ultrasound is to look at how many follicles my ovaries are likely to produce this month so my doctor can get an idea of how many eggs to expect when he does the egg retrieval sometime the week of August 18th. Yes, I did say "follicles" as in plural. All healthy women of reproductive age produce multiple follicles naturally (as many as 10 to 20) each month. Of those follicles only one of them matures into one egg that is released each month (or, in the case of fraternal twins, two). Because we are doing IVF, I will take a follicle-stimulating hormone called Follistim to help ALL of my follicles mature and develop into eggs. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we hope to have lots of eggs retrieved for fertilization! This does not mean we will have 10 to 20 embryos when all is said and done. Some of the eggs retrieved will not be fully mature, even though that is the goal, and unable to be fertilized, and then, of course, some eggs once they are fertilized will not develop at all or start to develop and then arrest. So this is really a case of survival of the fittest. Our hopes are to grow at least two really great embryos to put back that will result in a healthy pregnancy and healthy baby/babies! I will post another blog after my doctor's appointment so we all know how healthy and productive my ovaries are.



Roger and I have had this question asked many times: "What if you have four or five babies?" I can assure you this will not be the case. By doing IVF you will only have as many babies as embryos put back into your uterus. It is a very controlled situation. For example, if we decide to put back three embryos, the maximum babies born would be three, but more than likely two, one, or none. There is that very, very unlikely chance we could get one more than expected IF one embryo divided after it was put back and resulted in identical twins, but neither Roger nor I have identical twins in our family, so that is the least of our worries at this point. As of right now we have no idea how many embryos will be used in our embryo transfer. We have to wait and see (right up to the day of transfer, even) to find out the quality and quantity of embryos Roger and I make together and what the appropriate number to put back will be.



If you've ever watched "Jon & Kate Plus 8" on TLC or have heard of the McCaughey septuplets from Carlisle, Iowa, those children were born through a fertility treatment called IUI (intrauterine insemination), NOT through IVF. Doing an IUI is a lot less expensive than IVF but also less controlled. Basically the mother takes a fertility medication (Clomid) to stimulate her ovaries to produce multiple eggs and then her doctor will inject sperm directly into her uterus at the opportune time of the month in the hopes that at least one egg will get fertilized and then implant successfully. The chance of having high-order multiples (four or more) as a result of an IUI is incredibly slim, but it does happen. And when it does we all hear about it which makes everyone paranoid about fertility treatments. It's a little misleading. But what isn't misleading when the media is involved?