Awe the drama of my uterus. Here's the low down on a uterus and the IVF process. If you're grossed out by women talking menstrual stuff then just grow up because we are so going there. When a woman goes through a normal "cycle" it usually lasts on average 28 days between periods. During those 28 days my uterine lining is getting nice and think and squishy because it's getting ready to catch a baby. My egg is released from my uterus and goes in search of that one strong sperm to latch onto and become a baby. When you are being synthetically controlled all of that changes and things are intensely monitored. We are able to control my ovaries from releasing an egg and we can use ultrasound technology to determine when my lining is nice and ripe for a baby. Once it's nice and ripe we will then schedule the transfer and they can perfectly thaw those frozen little babies. All make sense? So on to my uterus...
I had a saline ultrasound done on January 22 to determine that indeed I had a beautiful uterus! Those are words straight from the doctor :) I then scheduled my first lining check for the week of February 6. The purpose of all of the hormones I was on was to thicken my lining quickly and efficiently. The optimal lining for an IVF transfer is 10-15mm but our doctor (and most fertility doctors) are comfortable transferring at a 7mm measurement. I went in for my first lining check and we had a measurement of 6.1. I was so discouraged! My abdomen felt super bloated from all of the extra meds so I thought for sure that was because my lining was nice and thick. Plus, every bad measurement we get pushes our transfer date out further. Our doctor called and told me to double my Estradiol intake and start taking 2 pills in the am orally, 2 pills afternoon vaginally, 2 pills early evening orally, then 2 pills vaginally right before bed. So I did. I scheduled another ultrasound for February 13 and the reading was a 6.4. Another blow! By now I'm realizing that every ultrasound is costing my IP's (Intended Parents) $500 each so I'm starting to get anxious for them. This time we decided to wait a couple of extra days and schedule a lining check for February 24. That will give us plenty of time. So we thought. Measurement on February 24 came back at a 5!!! What the heck?! How does that even happen? Even our doctor was confused. There's no way I would go down to a 5 without bleeding and I'd been clean panties for a while. After talking with the IP's we decided to go down to California and see our doctor there for a lining check. We already had the trip scheduled because at this point we thought we would be ready for a transfer.
I leave you hanging because the trip to California is a post all it's own :)
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