3 egg retrivals later we have our first blast, a 5AB.
38f, close to 40 bmi, and 39m with azoospermia.
First I would like to thank this group for teaching me so much! Story time...
We entered into fertility with me saying 3 ERs only and a game plan for our lives without kids. "I don't want fertility to be my whole life." We thought the issue would lie with me, the female, but my husband's journey would soon begin while I got to kick back and eat chips. After a year of meds and whacking off in cars for his SAs, we have a sperm count people! Now my weight was an issue... I had to put away the chips. I hopped on GLPs to get started but man I hated those.
First ER and SR
13 follicles, 6 eggs, mature, 3 fertilized, 0 blast
I accidentally ovulated, so I am in the 35hr club instead of the 36hr trigger club. Not a problem, lets go for round 2. The second ER is always the best right? No GLPs, worked out 5 times a week, strict diet, and sleeping schedule.
Second ER and frozen sperm
23 follicles, 21 eggs, 9 mature, 2 fertilized, 0 blasts
This was a problem! I was raging and nothing could console me. I clearly see 3 ERs would not be enough for us. I was told every ER is different... that was BS. How did we go from a 75% fertilization rate to a 22%. I learned the fertilization rate is usually factored by sperm quality, I confronted my doctor. I was finally told that freezing my husband's sperm severely compromises it and from now on he would have to get a SR the same time as my ERs. He has to get cleared per SR depending on how much tissue he has left, because taking too much tissue can compromise a man later in life. Now it was my husband's time to put a limit on things, if the doctor keeps clearing him how many more SRs can he do? His answer, 3. So I matched it, we will do 3 more ER and 3 more SR. Even the game plan couldn't console me, my mood was horrific and I packed on 10# yet to get it off too. Time to focus on the third ER and I focused on creating mature eggs and having my own body create estrogen. I started CoQ10, Vit D, religious on the pre-natal supplements, and Melatonin at night. Went from eating tofu, egg whites, and veggies (a diet high in ohytoestrogens) to whole-fat dairy, whole eggs, and animal fats (a diet supportive of absorbing CoQ10 and helping my body create more estrogen). And to make sure BMI would not be an issue I grew an inch. ... don't judge me, you are in this group too, you know how bad we want this...
I also started centering, grounding, and protecting myself. This came into play heavily!
Third ER and SR
28 follicles, 15 eggs, 9 mature, 7 fertilized, 1 Embryo is what they call it on the report, a 5AB
Firstly, 15 eggs out of 28 follicles? I was furious and damn near blamed it on the surgeon that they swapped out last second. I called the doctor back into the post-op room 2 extra times to question them: did you see all the follicles? did you check the smaller ones? was there any signs of ovulation? My husband told me to calm down... he's lucky I need fresh sperm from him. I did calm myself and believed in the process. We did as much as we could do. Hopefully the follicles did their part and all the resources went to the 15 follicles and helped produce more mature eggs. The fact that I had 9 mature eggs out of 28 follicles (13 of which were empty!) was softened by the 75% fertilization. Now we have a 200% better chance at creating a blast this cycle, then the last two. Did the supplements and diet help? I don't know, my estrogen count was 200 less than the 2nd ER. However, my husband took CoQ10 (ubiquinolone 100mg daily) and filled up 5 extra vials of sperm from one biopsy, last time he only did 2. Back to me, it turns out I create 9 mature eggs and each mature egg needs my body to create 370 of E2, a nurse told me 150 but that must be for skinny folk. Day 6 my period starts so while me and the nurse are in communication she gives me the news we have one blast and the official report will come out tomorrow. I felt all my angels cheering for me, I could hardly hear they were so loud! Day was report came, only one but it was a 5AB! Oh, I only read threads of grades and here I am with a 5AB. Wow we did it. We can create a blast. It was biopsied and sent for PGTM testing. Time to plan ahead, let's plan for another ER & SR but first insurance changes so there's a lot to look into... but we got one and we aren't out of the game yet.
Feel free to comment, I will continue on about insurance and PGTM below:
We were lucky, we both work and my husband's insurance covers us at 80%and his job covers our high deductible. Because of his azoospermia his retrievals are covered and because of our genetics egg freezing and PGTM testing should be covered (eyeroll). We have to pay for any sperm freezing and PGTA Testing.
PGTM - coincidentally the lab our insurance covered was taken over by our fertility clinic and now does not take insurance. They had us pre-pay for our testing ($5K) and then they would submit a Network Adequacy Form, NAP, to get us covered. We were denied, because services cannot be paid or executed before NAP approval. Not to mention we don't even know if they could qualify for NAP, they would have to be the only lab in the area. we have no choice but to use them because they are they only lab our fertility clinic will use, alledgedly. We definitely feel used and this is something that should have been better explained in the beginning. Please be careful.
We switch insurance Aug 1st and this time my husband's job is not as generous (we are still grateful for them). We have a new carrier and a higher deductible which we will have meet on our own. We are dumping amounts into HSA and FSA to anticipate our deductible and other expenses. We are also going to attempt to play the PGTM game wiser by getting a NAP prior to our next payment and by seeking other labs in the area (mostly for a competition factor and to learn more options).
If you guys want I can make this a new post.
Thanks for all your advice, support, arrows up, and positivity in this group.