Surgery

The original schedule for our IVF cycle looked like this: trial transfer on May 6th; egg recovery the week of May 31st -- June 4th; embryo transfer sometime in the range June 3rd -- June 9th. As a part of this schedule, we went in for preliminary testing on April 22nd.  We each had a test done: semenalysis for me, sonohysterogram for Sarah. 

A sonohysterogram is a test in which the technician inserts a catheter through the cervix, then pumps water into the uterus to sort of inflate it.  In the meantime, she uses an internal ultrasound to scope out the shape and texture of the uterus as it inflates.  This allows the tech to detect any defects in the uterus or its lining. 

Well, by now you know where this story is going: they found such defects.  Specifically, they identified rough patches in the uterine lining that they figured were likely to be endometrial polyps.  These are common in PCOS patients, and usually benign; if you're a woman with irregular periods, you may have them and not even know.  For our purposes, they;'re troubling for a  simple reason: the polyp occupies a region of the uterine wall and renders that region useless for embryo implantation.  So, if 10% of the uterine wall is covered by polyps, the chance of successful implantation is reduced by 10%. 

Obviously when you spend $10K or more on an IVF cycle, you want to maximize the chance that it will work.  So, when we heard the news we scheduled surgery to remove the polyps. The surgery is minimally invasive; they insert a endoscope into the unterus by way of the cervix, and the only cuts are the ones that separate the polyps from the uterus.  That surgery was performed on Friday, May 14th.  It was entirely successful; the polyps (which I have pictures of; I may post them later if Sarah agrees) were removed, and as I write this (on Sunday the 16th) Sarah is more or less fully recovered. 

So now we're on again.  The new schedule looks like this: trial transfer on Thursday May 20th; egg retrieval the week of June 14th -- 19th; embryo transfer sometime between June 16th and June 23rd; a yes-or-no pregnancy test soemtime around the first of July; and a one-baby-or-two ultrasound (as needed) in late July. 

I'll add descriptions of each of these procedures as we go.  It's going to come fast now.