Tender Leaf Tea

My husband and I had our consultation today.  We asked about the DNA fragmentation test for Handsome and the results had just come in and showed that any fragmentation is well below the minimum and the sperm quality is good to excellent.  What can I say - he's awesome ;P  We didn't find out much new during this appointment but I think Handsome was able to get some questions answered that I had not been able to communicate effectively and a better understanding of what the doctor feels. 

The doctor said that our journey (I hate when people use that term) had been long and he understood that at  this time we were frustrated and impatient.  We decided that we would like to try one more superovulation/IUI cycle to see if I responded with more eggs instead of one large follicle.  We spoke to him again about the laparoscopy to get a better understanding of what it would entail and what it could fix.  In this procedure they would put a tube with a camera through my bellybutton to look for endometriosis and/or tubal scarring that could inhibit the fallopian tubes ability to pick up the eggs.  Any surgical corrections for endometriosis would be covered but and surgical corrections for scarring not from endometriosis would not be covered and could cost upwards of $7,000.  Dr. Moffitt said that we needed to look at the possible cost risks.  He said that we would need to decide how many clomid cycles or superovulation/IUI cycles we would want to do after any possible corrections from the laparoscopy (and remember we don't even know if the procedure would find anything or be able to correct it); if we only wanted to do a few then it might not be worth it.

As I said before our patience is running out and our frustration is getting higher so I think regardless of how the treatment cycle goes or what could possibly happen during a laparoscopy we would only do 1 or two more non-IVF cycles so it doesn't make sense for us to do the laparoscopy.  On a positive note  the doctor did say that based on our ages and all the diagnostic tests they have done that the quality of my eggs and the quality of Handsome's sperm should be good if we can only get them together!  He expects good quality embryos.  He also said that new studies have shown that frozen IVF cycles show comparable or better pregnancy rates so that is good to know.  He also was able to break down the numbers (which if you know me you know I always like the nitty gritty numbers).  He says that if I had 20 follicles their egg retrieval rate is about 70% so I would have about 15 eggs (my math said 14 but we'll go with the expert).  Then out of those 15 about 70% fertilize which leaves us with 11 - 12 (again my math says about 10).  Out of the fertilized eggs 30%-50% develop to the blastocyst stage which would be 3 - 6 according to him (and 3 - 5 according to my math).  Protocols that they adhere to would indicate transfer of one blastocyst and the others frozen.

Handsome and I are still discussing our options but I think if we have to go to IVF we are leaning towards the multi-cycle (2 fresh, 2 frozen cycles, no refund) AttainIVF plan.  I will keep you updated.

I finally located my camera charger YAY!!!  Unfortunately I need to wait for it to be mailed to me since apparently I left it at the house we rented in Sedona.  I am so thankful to the rental owner for finding it and sending it back to me.  Today's title comes from a song Mom used to sing to me and the fact that I am cut off from caffeine right now - I miss my Chai Tea Lattes :(  - but I have found an acceptable replacement with Tazo Passion Tea which is herbal and caffeine free (it is also purple which just makes it better in my opinion).  Now I can sing the song as "Passion Leaf Tea" instead of tender leaf tea :D

"I love my sweety, my sweety loves me,
I feed my sweety on tender leaf tea,
My little sweety goes *kiss* *kiss* *kiss,
And my little doggy goes bow wow wow,
And my little rooster goes
 -cock-a-doodle-doodle-doodle-doodle-doodle-doo"