In TTC news, I had my follow-up appt with Dr. Faboo late last week. He called my last cycle "interesting". He said that the lab did grade all three eggs retrieved as mature, which is good-ish, I suppose. It means that possibly I got 3 eggs over 1 egg, which is great. But that my fert rate was 33% as opposed to 100%. He and I are both dubious about the other 2 eggs really being viable, but it was a hopefuly sign that they were close enough that the lab graded them as mature. The other good part is that because my fert rate percentage drops, my insurance will now cover ICSI for future cycles. We don't have MF at all, but agreed that if we could get it covered, we should go for it since I get so few eggs. I thought maybe letting the swimmers go for it naturally could still be beneficial (survival of the fittest) but he said in a small environment like a petri dish, that a deadbeat swimmer could hit the egg as easily as a spunky one, so we might as well guarantee a well-chosen one through ICSI.
We also talked about DHEA and he's not a big fan. He said my levels were fine and that he'd be happy to prescribe my some if I want, but his take is that it's kind of the new, hot thing but he's never seen a study supporting its success. He said there was an abstract once (a "pre" study) but the authors never published, which to him said that they didn't see good enough results to support their argument. Since I already have endocrine issues (Graves disease, hypothryoid), I'm not keen on taking other meds unless I really need to, so I'm opting against it. I truly believe that it does help and that the women in the trenches are ahead of the doctors in this case, but I trust this particular RE, so I'm going with his advice on this one.
I also asked the following:
- about stimming in the AM/PM -- he said no studies support improvement and it'll just mean more shots for me)
- whether PIO might be better for me than Crinone gel -- he said that the two have identical pregnancy rates. While PIO may hold off a bleed for a few more days, it does not result in improved viable pregnancy rates.
- whether I might respond better to Clomid than injectables since I got pg the only cycle I took Clomid, and he said absolutely not. He explained that since I already have high FSH, that Clomid does almost nothing for me as it works to naturally increase your FSH. He thinks it was just a coincidence I got pg that cycle and that he thinks I would have even without the Clomid.
- We also talked donor eggs briefly, I just wanted to know if I need to get on a waiting list if I think I might go that route within a year and he laughed and said they have donors lining up around the block. He also told me that my insurance will cover the DE IVF, all the test and procedures. Though it'll still cost us @ $12k for the agency fees and donor fee.
So, I'm hopeful that he thinks tweaks may help and that he thinks aiming for 3-5 eggs is very realistic. We'll see! I'll post more non-TTC stuff during this week, I promise!
