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Hi wannabemommy!

Well, my story is very differnt from yours, but like you, I am using an egg donor. There are a few of us that post at Shared Journey. Check out the posts at the "surrogates and donors" section of this forum.

It sounds like you have been through a lot with seven years of TTC! I agree with your new doctor (for whatever my opinion here is worth) that your second doctor wasn't doing something right. With 24 eggs from your donor yeilding one fresh and two frozen cycles so far, it really does seem like if s/he were doing her job right, you'd have had a BFP by now. You must be so glad to be in better hands now. With a little luck, the three frozen embryos you have left will give you a BFP in your next FET! And if not that, surely another round with a good donor (could you use the same one?) will give you success.

My journey has been a relatively short one, but full of heartbreaks of its own. I had never had any trouble getting pregnant before TTC. In fact, it was too easy for me to get pregnant. After an unfortunate incident when I was in my 20s, I took the morning after pill, but still got pregnant. I wound up having an abortion, which was very hard on me. Many years later at 38.5 years old, my husband and I got pregnant while taking the pill. I very much wanted that child, but given our situation at the time, it did not seem right to me to bring a child into the world. Everyone (including those who should have known better) told me I'd have no trouble getting pregnant again, if my circumstances changed. I had another emotionally difficult abortion. At 41 years old, I felt that the time was right to have a baby. But it wasn't so easy anymore. I tried one IVF using my own eggs. That resulted in a chemical pregnancy (that is, a very early miscarriage). My insurance didn't cover IVF, so I couldn't see trying again with my own eggs, given the bad odds. Finally, $35K later, I'm nearly 18 weeks pregnant through the use of donor egg (and donor sperm). With a little luck, I'll be the 43 year old mother of a newborn this summer!

I wish you the very best of luck at your appointment on February 22nd! Let us know how it goes.

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Terri-Chan, what a great story! Woo hoo for you!
Wannabeamommy - I echo what Terri-Chan says, and want to add that if my (last and recent) IVF doesn't successfully go to term (I got a BFP but with low-ish levels to go the whole way), we're definitely going donor eggs. And Terri-Chan is correct, it's pricey, nothing short of $35,000 and insurance doesn't cover it. :(

But, think of it this way: if suddenly you ran your car into a tree and you HAD to have 2 cars in your family, you'd simply take out a loan and pay the next 5 years for that second car. Our neighbors took out a $30K loan for their baby, and it's a simple as a monthly payment that you have to make room for.

Lastly, about donor eggs and agencies, I've done so much research and have found that some are agencies, and some are the one-stop shop (use their own exclusive donors, but they also act as your RE). These are in fact $10k less expensive, and I've already lined up two in my area that have success rates of 86% and 72% respectively! And there is no limit to how old you can be to be a recipient of donor eggs! As long as you have a uterus and can produce a lining (which they have drugs to help you with.)

Good luck!

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Thanks for all the information Teri-chan & Zoecalifornia, this has been a very long road to travel, but I am certain we will get to the end of it. Zoe, I know what you mean about expenses for DE. We have shelled out so far (2006 year only) over $48,000.00 for 1 fresh and 2 FET using DE. Donor fees here in Indiana are $3,000.00 to Donor plus medication cost for both of us then you have the rest of the expense. I was lucky enough to be able to do "Shared Risk" and we did get $15,000.00 back which we will use towards the new Dr. that I am going to. Our medical Insurance does not cover ANY Fertility Treatment whatsoever, they claim it is experimental studies. Go figure, the one state that we live in does not make it mandatory for Insurance Companies to cover Fertility Treatment (UGH!!) Update on your HcG Level yet Zoe????

BABY DUST TO ALL

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Oh that sucks suck sucks that Indiana doesn't cover IVF!! Here in CA, altho insurance tries to cover as much as possible (depending on whom you have, of course), the donor fees are, get this: minimum of $6,000 and all the way up to $20,000! That's just what the donor takes home! I can remember being a donor 4 times (some 13 years ago) and each time I was elated to get $1,500! haha!

Regarding my HcG levels, they won't test that anymore. Next Wed I'm supposed to go in for my first ultrasound and they want to see a nickel-sized sac with half a grain of rice in it. We'll see. I had some AF-type cramps yesterday morning when I woke up (actually, they woke me up), but then felt nothing all day, and feel nothing today. I'm being realistic here and not expecting this one to be anything. So, anything we find out next week will either be just what I suspected, or great news.

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Zoe, I will keep you in our prayers for the u/s and finding the nickel-size sac with half a grain of rice in it (weird way to put it). I sure hope you have good news. I am getting a little restless waiting for my next Dr. appointment on the 22nd to see what steps the new Dr. wants us to take to ttc. I am actually missing all those fun shots (not really!), and I am not looking forward to the "waiting list" to find a new donor. We are not going to use the remaining 3 frozen embryos because you have a better chance at transfering fresh than with frozen, and who knows, the remaining three might not make it through the thawing process, I know our last FET it took 7 to just get 3 good ones (at least that is what we were told) to transfer, and come to find out from the new Dr. the last 3 that we had transfered in his opionion and as per his Biologist they should never have been transfered to begin with, they were TERRIBLE QUALITY. We are finding things out from this new Dr. that just floored us that the prior Dr. did/didn't do, we just decided to move on and forget the past, I think that is all you can do. Well hope to hear some good news next week. Take care.

BABT DUST TO ALL

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Well we seen the Dr. last night for my post-op and he wants to do a FET (using our frozen embryos that we have left from the previous Dr.).The Dr. has HIGH HOPES for us now that the enod has been removed and he thinks this was the cause of the last 3 attempts not "Sticking" to my uterus. We have 3 or 4 embryos forzen and he will implant any and all that unthaw and are good quality that way it gives us a better shot at conceiving.. This new Dr. we just love him, he is awesome! Our FET will be the later part of March if all goes as planned. If we do not conceive this go around, we will be put on the Egg Donor List and as of right now, they are 6 months out (YIKES), but the Dr. did say he would try and push us through as fast as he could... I guess we looked desperate or something (ha,ha).

Hope everyone has a nice weekend!

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Wannabemommy

I just logged on and am most intrigued by your journey since we share several similiar issues. I too live in Indiana, have gone through 2 IVF cycles with different protocols to try to get more than 5 eggs each time. After those failed, my husband and I opted to go the egg donor route. The donors were setup through the RE's office. The first bowed out, the second did not respond to meds as well her previous cycles and was therefore cancelled. So the third we decided to go shared option, thinking there would be ample eggs. The third turned out to not respond well also and since we were the first couple we received the only eggs that matured (3). Out of those 3, 2 fertilized. When the RE did the transfer (5 day 1-9 cell, 1-10 cell), he said they were great quality and did not see why this would not work this time. But again, it didn't. I am 33 and each time, he seemed hopeful. However, now I am wondering if the issue may be similar to yours with sticking? I also wonder since we are in the same vicinity if the RE is the same? Or, who your new RE is that seems to be a little more thorough and agressive? My husband and I said last time would be our final time to try, but if there is a chance I would like to explore it.

Thanks for listening and I hope to chat with you soon.

Fanka8

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Fanka8,
Glad to chat with you about my journey anytime. My journey started out with Dr. Cooper (Associated Fertility) in Fort Wayne IN, I then moved on to Dr. Culver with Midwest Fertility Specialist in Fort Wayne IN. My new Specialist is Dr. Jarrett with JFG (Jarrett Fertility Group) and he is out of Carmel IN. Dr. Jarrett does not have an office in Fort Wayne IN, so I drive to Carmel when needed. All b/w and u/s can be done in Fort Wayne at either a hospital or they have a couple Fort Wayne Doctors that will do u/s and b/w for them on the side. I only have to travel to Carmel IN when I have to meet with Dr. Jarrett or when I have a procedure done, and that is great. I feel 100% confidence in Dr. Jarrett and I am (dh is glad too) that we found him and that he is so agressive about us ttc. Do you have any symptoms of Endo? I knew I had endo when I was with Dr. Cooper, he did my first Laprascopy and found a very tiny amount and burned it out at that time. Dr. Cooper never ever said to worry about it because it was such a small amount, well I never did worry about. Dr. Culver had all my records from Dr. Cooper and there were several years in between Cooper and Culver that I think Dr. Culver should have required a Laprascopy to see if my endo came back, but as you have read, he never even said anything about that. Dr. Culver in my opinion neglected to treat me as if I did in deed have endo. I just about fell off my chair at the first meeting with Dr. Jarrett when he said that he would not do anything as far as IVF until he did a Laprascopy because as per Dr. Jarrett "Once you have endo, you always have endo" I was very upset that we spent THOUSANDS of dollars on the 3 failed IVF's and spent that money for the donor (we opted not to do the shared donor eggs, because we were worried about not getting enough to use). We got about 25 (I think) eggs from donor and we have something like 16 fertilized and we have like 3 frozen that we will be using at the end of this month for our transfer. I would like to hear who your seeing as far as Doctors or who you have seen in the past to compare notes. Please keep in touch. It is so hard to find other in Indiana who are going through this process. If you want we can exchange personal e-mail address's and communicate that way as well.

Take care and hope to hear from you soon!!

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Wannabemommy

Sorry it took me so long to post. I don't check my mail or log on very often. Dr. Jarrett is actually my RE that I've been working with for a couple of years now. I go to his South Indy office. I have never been tested for endo since we originally thought it had to do with my husband's sperm count (1st time) and then my egg quality (1st and 2nd time). So, Dr. J naturally thought that with a donor every thing would be ok. It looks like we just had some back luck with donors. My husband and I were supposed to go to a follow up in January but it hit us really hard this last time, since his Dad passed away right around the same time. After reading your post, we decided it was time to go for the follow up and restart our journey wherever it might lead us. What are some signs of endo that I could look for? Also, I think I might ask him to check just in case. My sister-in-law's friend also went through IVF a couple of times before she tried glucophage with injections. She is not diabetic nor overweight but something in her system was killing off the embryos before attaching. Once she did that, there was no problem. Who knows, everything is different with everyone?! I think it would be great to keep in touch over e-mail. It's nice to talk to someone else who has been going through the same stuff. My email is sjs908@sbcglobal.net. (Just be prepared, because as you see, I only check it once a week or so.)

Talk to you soon,
Fanka8

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fanka8,
glad to hear back from you. This is too neat how we are both seeing the same Doc. My e-mail address is ericas1972@aol.com and I would love to keep in contact with you as well through our jouney. Signs of endo can very, but most common is pain during AF usually like cramps. I did not have any symptoms of endo, Dr. J just wanted to check to see how bad I had it, I guess from what Dr. J said is once you have endo you always will have endo. My endo is/was very small, but I still had it and that is what Dr. J thought was/is my problem. I go in for FET on April 3rd which we have 3 Frozen Embryos to use this time around. Did Dr. J tell you that his donor waiting list is 6 months out (YIKES)? Well I will chat more with you via your e-mail address.

Take care.

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Well tomorrow is FET and the Biologist called this AM and 2 out of the 3 embryos made it to un-thaw, but 1 of the 2 looks the best, but they will go ahead and implant the 2 tomorrow. My Beta should be Monday, April 16th, Please keep your fingers crossed that this 4th attempt is all we need.

BABY DUST TO ALL!!
Wannabemommy

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Well I had my FET yesterday and once we got to the hospital we were told by the Biologist that only 1 of the 2 embryos survived the night, so we only got to transfer the 1 embryo and it was a 9 cell and Dr. Jarrett was happy with it. I have been having a bit of cramping late yesterday and still some today, I hope this is a good sign. I have not experienced this cramping before with any of the other transfers so I am hoping that this is suppose to happen when the embryo is going to "stick". I am now on the TWW, Beta will be Monday, April 16th.

I will keep you all posted and STICKY BABY DUST TO ALL!

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