For Rent: Empty Uterus. 9 month lease. Utilities Included.

After 33 cycles, 3 miscarriages, and a diagnosis of Unspecified infertiltiy, Hubby and I decided to go ahead with IVF. Needless to say, I've become a little bitter ( I've been known to make visibly pregnant woman uncomfortable in grocery stores as I stare intently at their baby bumps like fertility is contagious or something). Last friday, Hubby and I sat in an ice cold room watching the "Is IVF right for you?" video in our doctors office. We decided yes. Yes, it would be worth the second mortgage, the nightly self injections, and insanity caused by the meds all because ultimately this would be our best (and probably only) chance to create the family we've been dreaming of since before we got married.

I began to search the internet for videos and research about young women and IVF ( I'm 25), but it turned out there aren't very many 25 year olds who have the stable relationships, the disposable income or the fertility issues to warrant IVF. So I'm going to try my best to document everything as completely and unapologetically as I can. I won't spare a single TMI detail in the hopes that someone will be able to read these posts and get a real picture as to what so many of us young, fertility-challenged women may have to go through just to have the family  "happily ever after" has always promised us.

So far, I've been taking a concoction of pills including prenatal vitamins, folic acid, baby aspirin and birth control pills. (I know, the BCPs seemed counter-intuitive to me too... but supposedly they "quiet" the ovaries in preparation for stimulation) I stop the BCPs on sunday, then start nightly Gonal-F injections for 8-15 days with ultrasound appointments every other day or so to monitor how my eggs are growing. Once the eggs are ready to be retrieved, I give myself a trigger shot and plan to go under 36 hours later for egg retrieval. 3-5 days later I go back for the embryo transfer and ::fingerscrossed:: I get knocked up and stay knocked up. Well, that's the plan anyway.
Tomorrow is my injection class where they teach me to give myself the Gonal-F shots.  I'll let you know how that goes...