After two failed attempts we investigated the IVF route in more detail but in the meantime we thought to try for a third attempt at home while we were waiting. IVF is NOT cheap, but it obviously has far greater success than an at-home insemination. I was also unsure about how things would continue to go given my polycystic ovaries so we decided to take the plunge.
For reasons I’ve mentioned before, we opted for a Danish clinic. To summarise, our main reasons were:
1) Cheaper (I mean much, much cheaper, probably 1/3 of the price)
2) could choose our donor, including an anonymous donor if we wanted
3) no waiting list
4) quite fancied a trip to Copenhagen!
I sent off a query and had a telephone conversation with one of the doctors in the clinic to establish my reasons for wanting to pursue this route, my age, history, results of blood tests etc. The conversation was detailed and I was re-assured that the clinic was indeed professional and used to doing this with non Danish nationals. There are two protocols to choose from with IVF, the long protocol where you are given medication to completely stop your cycle and then further medication to dictate when you ovulate, when your cycles starts etc. This is a lot more invasive and interfering with your body, as well as taking a lot longer for the whole process. The other option that we decided on was a ‘short protocol’ which piggy backs your existing cycle, taking medication to stop ovulating and then pinpointing the exact time you want to ovulate so as to harvest the eggs at the appropriate time, particularly as I was going to have to travel to Denmark to do it.
After our telephone conversation the doctor emailed a prescription for the necessary meds which I then took to my doctor over here to get them to write a local script for me. This is where our first good bit of luck in the process came about. IVF medication is NOT cheap – in the region of £1,000 for a cycle. ON TOP OF the cost of the procedure which in the UK can vary from £6k – £9k. (The clinic we were going to did a package deal where you could have one go for £2k or three for just over £4k, but we didn’t need to decide just yet.)
While we were starting the IVF process we ordered one final batch of swimmers for a last try at home. We ordered them, after waiting a few days they finally arrived as I waited, and waited, and waited for the right time to inseminate using my charting. The time never came and as the deadline for using the swimmers came and went with them still in the tank we realised that my body was not going to co operate this month, and that we’d just wasted £800 and two vials of swimmers for absolutely nothing. It was gutting to have to put those guys in the bin, the most expensive 1ml of liquid gold I’ve ever bought, and the biggest waste of money on any purchase I’d ever made.
We tried to push the money out of our minds and focus on the IVF, thankful that we’d managed to sell a property we’d owned which made us enough money to pay for the process and make the loss of £800 a bit easier to cope with.
I went to my doctor over here to get the prescription for the IVF drugs which had come through, waiting for my cycle to start with anticipation. I dropped it off at the pharmacy where of course they told me only a couple of pharmacies on the island stocked what I needed and of course they weren’t one of them. They had to ring around and finally found where I was supposed to go, but it had to be ordered in and would be a few days, so I’m glad I prepared early!
Three days later I went to pick up the scripts, expecting quite a hefty bill for the three medications. I waited, biting my lip and wincing in advance when the receptionist had a look at the label.
“That’ll be £9.60 all up.” I wasn’t going to argue with that, and escaped as quickly as possible in case they realised they’d made a mistake, and realising we’d just accounted for the money we’d lost, deciding there are swings and roundabouts in this process and that a baby is worth much more than that anyway.
Getting home I checked the meds and timetable for when I’d have to take them, discovering unfortunately they were all injections with needles. Word of advice, if you are squeamish about needles IVF may not be for you!
I needed to have a ultrasound and start taking the first medication (effectively a follicle growth hormone) just after the start of a new cycle, as the aim was to get a decent number of follicles to grow to a big enough size to be able to harvest and fertilise, keeping in mind usually with a natural cycle you have one or two maximum. If you can start with 10 or so follicles to fertilise rather than one, you have a much better chance of getting pregnant!
My cycle started and I had my baseline ultrasound, starting to take the meds on the second day, planning another three ultrasounds in the next week to monitor the size and number of follicles that were growing. The risk with the medication I was taking (Gonal F) is that it’s possible to grow too many follicles to too great a size, particularly if you suffer from PCOS as I do, hence the regular monitoring.
A second ultrasound showed around fifteen follicles growing nicely – 15!!! that was great news, imagine if they could try to fertilise 15 follicles! I bounced out of the ultrasound, starting to think about booking our last minute trip to Denmark in less than two weeks now we were able to pinpoint the days of the cycle we needed to be there. Because of the weirdness with my previous cycle, the dates had moved back a bit but I was lucky enough not to have to teach during the week I needed off, and A and I went about excitedly booking for what we hoped was our ‘baby making holiday’, praying I might come back pregnant.
Lizbian 