The worst thing about infertility is the waiting. SO. MUCH. WAITING.
Even during the IVF process itself, it is one wait after another after another.
It is 31st October 2020 and yesterday I had my Egg Collection where they so wonderfully managed to collect 8 eggs!
This was great news but that wasn’t the end. The most important part was about to begin.
They took my eggs and had to fertilise them with Pete’s sperm. If you have read any of my pervious posts, you will know that Pete has low morphology (quality of sperm) which is why we were told that IVF would be the best option, other than continuing to try naturally. This was sad news but it gave us a reason and understanding about why we were struggling with infertility. If there is a problem with the sperm, often as part of the IVF process, they will use something called ICSI. This is where they choose an individual sperm to inject into the individual eggs…. Mind. Blown. AMAZING! Who was able to create a needle that was small enough to pierce an egg but big enough for an individual sperm?! Crazy!
BUT…. When the embryologist, she told us that she didn’t need to use ICSI because the sperm was good enough. WHAT?! Pete’s sperm had improved so much that we only needed normal IVF where the sperm naturally fertilises the eggs in a petri-dish.
This is amazing! But immedietly I suddenly realised that meant we technically do fall into the ‘Unexplained Infertility’ category. There is no reason for our infertility. Which is really sad.
Side note: Cutting out alcohol, lots of supplements and eating healthily is what we changed and we believe is responsible for helping the sperm quality improve.
So anyway, the Embryologist calls to tell us how many of our eggs have fertilised. We had 8 eggs collected and the normal fertilisation rate is about 50%. Anything 4 and above would have made us really happy.
WE HAVE 7 EGGS FERTILISED….7!!!!! 7 little embryos with our DNA, which already have their gender… 7!!
What. A. Week.
From Monday, having a smaller number of follicles than we hoped for, to Friday having more eggs collected than were expected, to 7 fertilised eggs… and naturally too! (I say naturally, I mean the sperm chose the eggs!)
We are absolutely over-the-moon with this result. We called all our family members and sobbed down the phone to each of them.
We are the proud parents of 7 little embryos and now we just pray, and pray, and pray and pray and pray that they grow!
It is important to mention now that about 40-50% of embryos will be expected to get to Day 5 Blastocyst so it is unlikely that all 7 will make Day 5.
UPDATE:
Today is now Day 3 and we wanted a little update about our little embabies. We have become quite attached to these and love them a lot!
We called the lab and they were able to tell us that today they haven’t and won’t check them but they did check them yesterday (Day 2).
Yesterday ALL 7 OF THEM HAD PROGESSED :D! This was much better news than we were expected. And she also told us that 6 of them were top grade so far.
This is wonderful news and we hope, it puts us in a good position for at least 1 good quality Day 5 Embryo!
We keep praying though :).
Journeying to Family 