So remember my post about fertilizing our eggs via conventional IVF vs. ICSI? Well last year, we had 19 mature eggs, and opted for 1/3 IVF and 2/3 ICSI. Last year we had 14 fertilize.
Today I got a call that out of our 21 eggs collected, 13 were mature, and all 13 fertilized via ICSI.
Now I’m a little upset that only 13 of the 21 were mature. I was hoping for more. However, I am so glad that I posted my dilemma about IVF vs. ICSI, and that with your support and sharing of experiences, DW and I decided to go all ICSI.
I am also glad that I spoke to the embryologist yesterday, and asked her how they select when eggs get IVF’d and which ones get ICSI’d. Apparently, they can only do ICSI on mature eggs, but immature eggs can be fertilized via IVF. So if you choose to do a “split” of ICSI and IVF, they choose the mature ones first for the numbers you’ve designated for ICSI, and the remaining (including immature eggs) are used for IVF. So if you choose to do a split, you may have a greater yield of fertilization because they can utilize those immature eggs, which are still capable of fertilizing. However, if you choose to do all ICSI, you can’t use those immature eggs at all.
OHSS update:
Weight: same as yesterday
Circumference at umbilicus: same as yesterday
I have been in progressively more pain as time passes since the retrieval. I have been popping extra strength Tylenol every four hours, which works, but wears off after about three hours. I woke up in the middle of the night with searing abdominal pain (meds wore off), and had to pee, which hurt like hell. I have been asked by the clinic to track my liquid intake and output, which has been very difficult for me. We have a measuring cup in the bathroom for that, and I always forget at the time I start to pee. Plus, the perfectionist part of me hates not having a very accurate system for measuring liquid from things like vegetables. I also dislike how I’m measuring my intake in millilitres, and my output in cups. I know it’s a simple conversion, but it still bugs me.
Things that hurt: walking (a bit), rolling over in bed, changing position, twisting, putting on pants, putting on socks.
Things that really hurt: coughing, sneezing, peeing, pooping.
So far, it just feels like my ovaries are inflamed from having holes poked in them. However, thankfully, my belly isn’t more distended than on retrieval day. From what I remember though, the OHSS didn’t really show until a couple of days after the retrieval.
Anyways, more salty snacks and soup for me!
I remember thinking the OHSS diet was so gross. 13 is the same number we had fertilized too. It’s decent.
It really is gross. I don’t usually eat a lot of salt, and force feeding myself protein might make me vomit. Oh- and the Dostinex- you weren’t kidding about the nausea!
Yes it’s all nasty. I think I took my Dostinex before bed to make it a bit easier.
Yeah, that’s when I’m taking it. Ugh. I feel so gross.
I just hope the nasty symptoms clear up soon and you feel much better for transfer!! Only a few days to go…
Thanks so much Lindsey! I hope you’re hanging in there too.
I hope you feel better soon!
Thank you 🙂
Congrats on the fertilization numbers! And hope you get better soon.
Thank you very much!
I’m so glad ICSI worked out! Hope you feel better really soon.
Thank you Molly!
Congratulations on 13! Sorry you are in pain, hopefully it gets better instead of worse.
Thank you. Yeah I think it should peak at 3-5 days after retrieval, and then again if I get a BFP. I’ll take it if I get a good BFP though!
13 sounds pretty darn good to me! I hope you start to feel better quickly!
Thank you!
Awesome numbers! Hope you feel better!
Thank you!
Congratulations on lucky 13! (Hope it’s the same for me…I have 13 follicles in total). Wishing you painfree peeing and pooping 😉
Thank you so much lol.
I hope you get good numbers too! I’m so excited for your retrieval. How are you feeling?
Mate, I am feeling VERY uncomfortable today! Actually hurts to sit down…it’s like I can feel the ovaries bouncing..does that sound silly? I’m so happy you got so many great eggies! And again, thank you for sharing everything with us.
Oh I totally know what you mean! It wasn’t too bad for me during the stims, but today, my ovaries feel so inflamed! I can feel them “bouncing” when I walk right now. Take it easy, they’re almost out!
This is an amazing result! 100%?! You…or maybe your husband, should be really proud. 😉
Haha, thanks. We can thank the anonymous sperm donor for that 😉
I wish I were closer so I could bring you some homemade Puerto Rican Chicken Soup!! And just generally speaking, so I could come over and harass you until you feel better. Sorry you feel so Uncomfortable…13 is a pretty good number…I’ll be hyper vigilant of your blog to see what happens next…sending hugs and kisses to you both
Aww thanks! You’re sweet. I would love the soup and company. You girls are always so awesome. I’m glad to have you as friends.
Lucky 13! Grow, embies, grow!
I hope you can keep the ohss at bay and survive the icky diet. I am thinking of you and sending my best wishes to you and those embies.
Thank you spiritbaby.
That’s a great number. I’m remembering all of the little things as you write about them. The pain with urination, how I still hate the taste of Gatorade and how I slept for days with a heating pad on low. You might try calling your OB office to see if they have a “hat” you can just stick in your toilet for easy measuring and dumping- then you don’t have to worry about forgetting or converting measurements!
Thanks for the suggestion! The conversion ended up being easy enough- just dividing the number of cups by 4 to get litres. I have a measuring cup beside the toilet, which will never be used for food! Haha.
Ohhh 13 was our lucky number…not follies of course, but this was our 13th try, we got a positive test on 13dpiui & our first positive beta was on the 13th Oct. Hope 13 is as lucky for you!!
Wow! 13 really was lucky for you!
13 is a great number – watching and hoping for more good news xxx
Thanks Rose 🙂
Those are great numbers. I wonder if there is a way that they could have told you how many were mature and then let you decide if you wanted to try to fertilize the non mature eggs the ivf way.
I agree. I was wondering the same thing.