We had to wait three months for the appointment, and then an additional 70 minutes in the waiting room, but the Professor has now officially granted us permission to begin IVF. The meeting itself was a bit pointless and anti-climactic, as it was basically an appointment to make another appointment for the end of May, once my insurance has approved IVF. Over here, six egg retrievals and all subsequent fresh and frozen transfers are covered for all female patients under 43 years, after three unsuccessful IUIs. I am so thankful for this.
The midwife talked to us about the process, and mentioned that I can choose between twilight anesthesia and local anesthetic for the egg retrieval. When describing twilight anesthesia to me, she said “so during the procedure you are in pain and are telling us, and asking for help, but afterwards when we ask you if you were in pain, you have no memory of being in pain”. At this description I visible paled and started to panic, my husband trying to comfort me. In this panicked state, it didn’t even occur to me to confirm that they do actually give their patients pain-relief during twilight anesthesia. However, as English is her third or forth language, I am going to put it down to a translation error.
The professor said that our main infertility issues are partly blocked tubes, spontaneous premature ovulation during IUI, thin endometrial lining, and a slightly lower sperm count. Happily, these are all issues that are likely to be circumvented by IVF.
Plus, I get to use a new orifice for medication delivery – over here in Europe, the IVF patients inhale their lupron through a nasal spray four times a day. Fewer injections are just fine with me.
I am on the long protocol. When I get my period in June, I go on the pill for 17-40 days, overlap the suppression medication, then begin Menopur injections. If it all goes to plan, we’ll know the result of our first IVF in August. If that doesn’t work, we’ll have a break cycle and then, if we can, a frozen cycle in October.
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Great news! With funded IVF, do they make you do single embryo transfers?
ReplyDeletePS I did my retrieval with no sedation and only local anesthesia. It was fine (see June 2009 archive on my blog if you want mor details).
Yes, if you're under 36, the first two cycles must be a single embryo transfer. Thanks for the info about your retrieval - I'll check your archives.
ReplyDeleteExcellent! I had the 'twilight' anesthesia for my ER. And I didn't like the way they actually TOLD me after how I was in pain and asking for more medication (and then had the nerve to lecture me about my bp). I have NO memory of it, but being a person who likes a little control and values conciousness, I would have really looked into local had it been an option for me.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that they give you a choice. Nice.
How wonderful to have a plan! It sucks that it takes to so long to get things going, but hooray for insurance coverage. Late summer is going to be an exciting time.
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