IVF Update (WTF)

Sorry to be absent, both here and on Twitter, but we have out of town guests and I'm focusing on them right now. Since they are all sleeping in this morning, I thought I'd do a quick update.

We did have our IVF follow up consultation last Wednesday. Basically, no real answers. The IVF team was baffled by my lack of response. All of my pre-testing and my previous injectible cycles were good and gave no indication that something like this might happen. Apparently, sometimes you just have an off cycle (I did have ONE injectible round where my response was slightly lackluster). My RE feels like it was probably a fluke, but rather than waste another shot, he is tweaking the protocol just a bit.

• I started DHEA on Wednesday (75mg/day)
• Lupron is back on the menu (microdose flare)
• BCP are optional*
• I will continue to drink my wheatgrass and minimize my caffeine/alcohol consumption.

The major disappointment is in the timing of the do-over. The clinic closes for the second half of August, so that their employees can take vacation. So I would either need to start right away (not ideal with upcoming travel this month) or wait until September (not ideal as that begins our busiest season at work).

The RE is pushing for September because of the DHEA, which is starting to be used more often as a means of increasing ovarian response. Apparently all of the literature shows that its effectiveness is optimized at three months use. So we wouldn't be likely to see any benefits until September, making an immediate cycle more of a gamble in terms of "WTF was with that poor response?"

So September it is.

*The BCP are only being used to time the start of the cycle to coordinate with the clinic's IVF rotation. If it looks like my CD1 should be in the right range anyways, I won't have to take them, though this still involves a bit of a gamble. If I don't use the BCP and we miss the right timing, I have to wait till my CD1 falls into the correct window. SO... I'll probably end up using the BCP at least briefly.