It's Like DeJaVu All Over Again

The phone call from SuperDoc on Day 4 explaining the outlook and the options. The apologetic tone in his voice. The determination to push forward. The sense that maybe things aren't quite as perfect as he'd like them to be. I feel like I've lived this life before. I've been down this path, I know where it leads, and it doesn't lead to the perfect single embryo transfer on Day 5.

In fact, that's pretty much what SuperDoc told me this morning. Things looked "great" on Day 2, but apparently not so great on Day 3, and even less so on Day 4 (today).

Embryo #:	Day 2 Report:	Day 3 Report:	Day 4 Report:
1	2 cell, no fragmentation	4 cell, no fragmentation	6 cell
2	2 cell, no fragmentation	4 cell, no fragmentation	4 cell, no change
3	2 cell, no fragmentation	4 cell, no fragmentation	6 cell
4	2 cell, no fragmentation	3 cell, 15% fragmentation	8 cell
5	4 cell, no fragmenation	4 cell, no change	4 cell, no change
6	4 cell, no fragmentation	4 cell, no change	7 cell
7	4 cell, no fragmentation	4 cell, no change	4 cell, no change
8	4 cell, no fragmentation	6 cell, uneven growth	compacting embryo

Note, SuperDoc gave me no information about fragmentation - but said that the embryo quality today wasn't nearly as promising as he'd hoped. He believes that we'll likely have a [singular] good quality blastocyst to transfer - but he thinks it is unlikely that we will have it by tomorrow and that I'll more likely be pushed to a Day 6 transfer.

This seems to be a chronic problem of mine - the slow growing embryos. This is the same thing that happened to me last time, essentially. By Day 4, I should pretty much be looking at morulas. I should have had 6-8 cells on Day 3. The reason that clinics don't do Day 4 transfers (usually) is that it's difficult to differentiate quality between morulas, so they let the morulas mature to blastocysts by Day 5. But it's unlikely that my almost-morula (Embryo #8) is going to be a blast by tomorrow (Day 5). It'll need the extra day. This is the same thing that happened last time. I did end up with two blasts on Day 6 (none on Day 5), but one was clearly the winner. None of my 9 embryos in IVF#1 made it to freeze. None. It is unlikely that any of these 8 will either.

So what do you do about slow-growing embryos? Not much. According to Dr. Licciardi, from NYU Fertility Center, they really don't know what to do about it. They'll try different things in the protocol to see if it fixes anything, but they never know whether it was the change in protocol that fixed the slow growth issue, or whether it was just luck. Probably just luck.

Since we've always known that PCOS isn't my sole issue with getting (and staying) pregnant, it makes me wonder whether my slow-growing embryos contribute to the issue. But then again, maybe they're only slow growing in a lab. This is one of those places where the science is simply too immature to help answer these questions. We just don't know. So we keep trying.

I have long said that I am grateful to live in a time when the science and the medicine have reached a point that I know, with a reasonable degree of certainty that I can get pregnant with assistance. I went through five years of infertility, countless monitored cycles, 11 medicated cycles, 6 IUIS, and a late miscarriage before having my beautiful babies. But a hundred years ago, even fifty years ago, I wouldn't have been able to push through all of that knowing that there was always a next step available to me. There just wouldn't have been options (regarding getting pregnant, that is), period.

I am incredibly grateful that I live in a time where the science and medicine are so advanced. But I think it bears noting that we are still in the (pardon the pun) infant stages of this research. We have so far to go before we really understand how a lot of the embryo development works. How and why certain embryos are more likely to implant than others. Why, in the absence of chromosomal abnormalities, killer cells, a clotting disorder, etc., recurrent miscarriages occur. It is important to recognize and appreciate how far we have come ... but also to recognize how far we have to go to ensure that our sons and daughters, grandsons and grandaughters, friends and families have less heartache and more hope.

I have hope that we'll have a little George, Jr. on Day 6 this cycle. And that George, Jr. will want to cozy on up and stick around until 40 weeks gestation and make his or her appearance into the world. I have hope that this will be the case.

But I am also making plans. A girl needs to make plans, you know. I'm making plans to start my next cycle in August. It will be my last covered at YOFC. I wonder whether I'll need to use the category, "IVF#3" in my blog posts. I hope not, but I'm making my plans, just in case, because that's what I do.