I’m sitting here wondering how we could possibly be doing this test so far down the line? It really boggles my mind…

I was chatting to the lovely Sam the other day, she was telling me about her follow up appointment with Dr V and said that he has suggested that her and her hubby go for Chromosome blood tests, we also discussed IVIg, intralipids & HLA bloods. They too have just had their second fresh cycle fail. I was concerned since Frank and I have never been for these tests and by the sounds of things, it’s quite an important one….see here: http://www.pregnancymd.org/genetics-and-infertility.htm & http://www.dnadirect.com/web/article/testing-for-genetic-disorders/infertility/140/chromosome-disorders

I mailed Dr V, asking him if Frank and I should go for the chromosome tests, I also asked him to clear up IVIg vs Intralipids and whether it was a embryo quality issue or an implatation issue with NK Cells we were dealing with….here’s his answer:

Intralipid is ostensibly for NK cells and other immunological issues. As discussed previously I do think that we have not had a good outcome due to embryo quality. This is however intelligent speculation and nothing more. Chromosomal evaluation is an option. The likelihood of an abnormality is around 3% – 4%. In the past we use to wait until the 3rd failed attempt before doing chromosomes due to the costs involved. I have recently started doing the after the 2nd attempt and was going to address the issue with you at the next appointment. You are therefore welcome to do it in the meantime should you wish to do so.

I hate seeing the words Embryo quality even tho he says it’s just intellegent speculation because they can’t really test embryo quality but think about it, we’ve had 16 eggs - only 5 suitable for transfer on day 3, then we had 15 eggs – almost 100% fert rate but only two usable blasts on day 5. I then start to wonder if we’re beating a dead horse. Yes, we’ll do intralipids and maybe that is the answer but maybe it’s not, maybe it’s our embryo’s and then maybe we’re wasting our time.

I phone Frank in tears and tell him that I’m not sure that we should keep on doing this, he tells me that we’ve known all along that it may be a quality issue but seeing it in writing is different. I ask him (because I can’t remember) if embryo quality it likely to change, he says he doesn’t think so but embryo quality depends on the eggs and sperm at the time. He gets annoyed with me because I’m opening another can of worms and we’re not supposed to be thinking of this now…..sigh

I suppose we’ll see with this next one, if this next one fails and the embryo quality is bad again then maybe it’s time to hang up our gloves. Of-course I told Frank that all we need is one good blast to make one (just one baby - that’s all I want) but if this third cycle doesn’t give us that then the writing is pretty much on the wall. The stats show that your chances of success go down after your 3rd Fresh cycle fails. I suppose we’ll decide if that happens but I must be honest and say that I’m peeved! We only have a 3-4% chance of there being a chromosonal problem but if it turns that there is one, our chances of having a biological child go out the window. Surely this test should be done sooner? I mean really….I would rather pay R2800 up front before starting down the IVF road than over R100 000 to find this out. Maybe I’m being overly sensitive about this and maybe I’m not in the right frame of mind to deal with any of this yet.

Frank and I will be going for the bloods sometime in the near future, the results take 3 weeks to come back, I have loads of questions for our appointment in June. I want to know if we wasting our time here, it’s not his fault by any means I really do love Vitalab but I’m so tired now, this needs to end…one way or another.