Meier Madness!: Our TTC Journey

Our long and probably way too detailed story. Have fun!

October 1999- Met Dr Boy and fell in luuuuuurve, though back then he was just Monkey-Boy because he played the crash cymbals in marching band. Awesome friend N said that we were "totally gonna get married and have like a million babies." I wish to keep N from being a big fat liar.

August 2002-March 2006- Long distance relationship, then engagement while Dr Boy was becoming Dr Boy, and I was becoming a Master (uh, grad school).

June 2006- Wedding! Yay! Happy! Pretty! (oh, and Dr Boy graduated med school and started residency. No more long distance! Woohoo!)

August 2008- Decide we want to start TTC in the next few months, start weaning myself off of Lexapro. Officially off in December.

January 1st, 2009- CD1, after my last Nuvaring (side note- if I were ever to go on BC ever again which I'm not, I'd use Nuvaring. It was magically easy. Magic. Like little elves telling your ovaries to stand down. Not that I needed elves apparently.) I had been on some form of BCP for 9 years.

May/June 2009-ish- CD a billion. No period since January. Which is too bad because I wanted to conceive on our trip to Tahiti in April so I could name our daughter Moorea. (not really.... i promise) Dr Lady Parts gave me Provera to induce menstruation. It worked. She said to wait two months to let my period do its thing, and if it didn't come back, take another round of provera.

July/August 2009-ish- CD 60ish. No period since provera two months prior. Took second round of provera.

Late September 2009- Got my period on my own! I attribute it to elevation. I was at Lake Tahoe.

March 2010- New insurance, new doctors (Dr Boy started fellowship and a different hospital). Got wanded. Dr Awful said the ovaries looked fine. But apparently was too busy to even note that he wanded me on my chart. Piss-poor book keeping, hate him. Missed the mass quantities of cysts covering my ovaries and PCOS diagnosis. No blood tests. "Don't worry, you're young."

April 2010- Round of provera then chlomid (100mg). No ultrasounds during the cycle. BFN. End of cycle bloodwork showed weak indication of ovulation, but probably not.

June 2010- Second round of provera and chlomid (100mg). Didn't go back to see Dr Awful because he NEVER RETURNED my FIVE phone calls. And emails. BFN.

September 2010- New insurance, new doctor (Dr Boy finished fellowship and started moonlighting). Went to a general practitioner to get a referral to the RE. She wanted to try and manage it on her own. Because her sister is the top fertility specialist in India, which obviously qualifies HER to treat me. Diagnosed with PCOS (clearly seen on transvag ultrasound), low thyroid, and a bit of insulin resistance. Started taking 75mg synthroid daily, worked up to 1500mg metformin daily. Takes the "sugar is the devil of reproduction" approach, and puts me on a 15g sugar per day diet. And restricted carbs. And tells me to lose 20-30 lbs (11-16% body weight).

mid-November 2010- Got period on my OWN for the first time in 23 months! Also started acupuncture a couple days later.

Nov '10 through Feb '11- Ovulated according to the pee sticks, three BFN's. Menstruated every 7 weeks or so. GP refused to do any additional testing saying "insurance wouldn't approve" or "there's no way you'll get pregnant this fast". Went to acupuncture.

late-Feb 2011- Moved. Switched insurance again (Dr Boy got full time job, I got new job that took me out of shiftwork- big yay!). New doctors again.

March 2011-May 2011- Only tried on our own, pee sticks said I ovulated around CD20ish, cycles lasted 50 days or so.

May 2011- HSG! Uterus clear and shapely, tubes look lovely. No problems there. Dr Boy does SA, everything looks good except for slightly high agglutination and viscosity. Not a big deal though.

June 2011- Get ultrasounded around CD25ish (1st actual appt with Dr K), who says the pee stick LIED. Didn't ovulate in May (wonder if I even ovulated all those other months. Stupid body. Stupid lying pee sticks). Bring on AF with provera, take 100mg clomid. Plan is to do an IUI when the pee stick smiles at me. It never does.

July 2011- LH never surges, no smiley face. U/S and bloodwork show NO response to the clomid. We scoff at clomid. No IUI #1.

August 2011- IUI #1b. Protocol is for Menopur injections with an HSG trigger then IUI. Shot up with 2 vials of menopur for 12 days (CD3-14), then triggered on CD15, IUI on CD 17. Lefty has an 18mm and 14mm follie, and righty had a 15mm (as seen on the CD15 u/s). AF arrived on what would have been CD29, or 12DPO.

September 2011- IUI #2, same as #1b. Shot up with 3 vials of menopur on CD3-5, then 2 vials CD6-14, then back up to 3 vials CD15-20. Triggered on CD20, IUI on CD22. Lefty had a 18.5mm follie, and righty had an 15mm and a 14mm. AF arrived on what would have been CD33, or 11.5DPO. Bitch.

October 2011- Sitting out due to a 22mm cyst leftover on RIGHTY. WTF? Oh, and we're going to be out of town so we would have had to stand down anyways. IVF consult at the end of the month, decide to go ahead with it! BCP started at the end of the month

November/December 2011- IVF #1

10/28: Start BCP (Reclipsen)

11/3: Saline Sono (all clear)

11/17: Last BCP

11/22: Suppression Check! CD1, Check!

11/23: CD2, start stims (150 u Follistim am, 2 vials Menopur pm), e2 54

11/26: e2 892, lower doses to 75 u Follistm am, 1 vial Menopur pm)

11/28: e2 2864, hold doses, add Ganirelix

11/30: e2 3673, lower next day doses to 50 u Follistim, no pm Menopur

12/2: e2 4228, hold dose steady

12/3: e2 1866, no am Follistim, rescue afternoon dose of 150 u Follistim, TRIGGER at 8pm

12/5: Egg Retrieval at 8am, 36 Eggs Retrieved!!

12/6: Fertilization Report- 22 mature eggs, 18 fertilized

12/7: All 18 still growing! 1 6-cell, 6 5-cell, 10 4-cell, 1 3-cell

12/8 and 12/9: "most" still growing, getting stellar reviews from the embryologist and RE

12/10: Day 5 transfer of a highest graded blast and a compacting blast

12/12: 8 blasts frozen by 7 days past retrieval

12/18: First Beta- BFN
12/20: Second Beta- confirmed BFN
We used the antagonist protocol, details below.

Click to enlarge

The little embryos that couldn't.

January/February 2011- FET #1
12/25: Start BCP (Reclipsen)
1/17: Start Lupron
1/19: Last BCP
1/24: CD 1
1/27: Start Estrace tabs & twice weekly delestrogen shots
2/6: Switch to administering Estrace tabs as suppositories
2/8: Last Lupron shot
2/9: Start PIO (suspended in ethyl oleate)
2/15: Transferred two AA day 6 embies
2/22: First Beta (13dpo)- Neg
2/24: Second Beta (15dpo)- 7
2/26: Third Beta (17dpo)- 14
3/1: Fourth Beta (21dpo)- 50
Chemical Pregnancy. Stopped Meds.