let there be four

I was trying to simplify my life this week. I swear it. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I took a free phone consult with an RE. This would make #4 if you're keeping score at home (although I'm loathe to include the evil first one in the counting, she did take my money and did her best to dash my hopes, so in the count she stays).

Dr. SheRe comes highly recommended by friends and my acupuncturist. She's also part of Dr. HighStims dispersed team. Why did I contact her you might ask? I have got a friend who went to Dr. SheRe but used the Garden State tricks to get to baby #1. I thought it would be a whole lot easier traveling two hours rather than going completely across the country. I also thought the timing would work better and I could still cycle in April.

Now, normally Dr. SheRe uses lots and lots and lots of drugs for poor responders. I researched this way back when. I always thought this might be an option for me-but probably not the best option. I kind of believe that the minimal stim dose might be the way to go, better egg quality, blah blah blah.

Then Dr. SheRe sucked me in. She reminded me I'd never even TRIED a real ivf cycle. We didn't KNOW if that would work better for me or not. She really believes it might. I told her I only had two tries left in me. She felt like we should really try big guns, then we can switch back to the Garden State variety. She quoted me a fabulous 38% success rate for women my age, no matter fsh. She had a rebuttal for every point I attempted.

I said "but I didn't do much better with 4 amps a day than I did with 1 or 2", she said "that's exactly what I would expect. You don't really see a difference until you get to 6 or more...but there's a big difference between 8 and 4, not 4 and 2." I said "but I'm really concerned about quality on that high a stim level", she said "you should be really concerned about aneuploidies at your age and we need to have multiple eggs to weed those out. More really is better."

I emailed Dr. Local just for completion. Give him a chance to step up, see if he'd want to try ivf but I really don't think he understood my email. He didn't seem to understand I was only on an amp or two a day for my first ivf (not the 6-8 he would have tried me on and certainly not the 10 that Dr. SheRe recommends) so he thinks only one ivf is indicated.

Which has me thinking I might as well try cycle with Dr. SheRe, right? Because that WOULD be doing one ivf. My one and only. The first one I did was more like a souped up iui, if you ask me.

I was worried this change would freak my husband out. We had a plan and I wasn't really sticking to it. He sometimes doesn't do real well with change. Of course I should have known better. He reminded me that it was still just two more cycles which WAS our plan, we're just talking about changing the protocol. It also didn't freak him out about another RE because way back when, after meeting with Dr. Evil, I told him there were 2 clinics that could be our last resort. One is the Garden State, the other is HighStims.

I've got until Monday to decide. That's when they'd need the deposit for the cycle. They also cycle everyone together which is a little different to me. Hell, seeing the RE before the retrieval would be very different to me, so what do I know.

Now I need to go find some cheap meds over in garage-sale land. Lots and lots of cheap meds.

Comments

[Suz]

Those are some steep stims! Good luck on the decision.

[Emily]

Good luck Millie, it's so hard to know. I thought about going to Dr. SheRe (of the high stims ideology) but we still just felt IVF wouldn't solve our issues, but I'm a firm believer of bringing out the big guns so you can say you tried.

xxoo,

[InSpring]

We'll all be out here for you whatever your decision. If it's any help, I've got 600 iu's of Follistim in my fridge.

[crispy creme]

10 is too many...I'd go for 8 and I'd go for it. The thing with 10 is, that once you hit the floor with the gas pedal, so to speak, you can't go any faster. 4 is half way there, most would consider 8 the floor. Floor it baby!

xo

[Bee]

Hi Millie,

For what it's worth -- I'd go for it. If I'd had the money, I would have tried a cyle with him. He has worked miracles for some people, and your age is in your favor. And you have DH's support. You'll still have one cycle left of your allocated two, to go with the Garden State alternative!

Beth

[Nina]

I think you should go for it too, Millie. It's true, you really don't know until you try it out. Good luck!!

[millie]

You guys rock! I knew I'd get some good advice and not just what I wanted to hear--but always nice when they're one and the same. We're gonna do it.

Seriously, thanks for all the comments. It means a tremendous amount to me.