Part 4: Embryo Transfers + PGS Testing

We immediately turned around and began preparing for a frozen transfer. This involves taking estrogen pills for a few weeks, then adding in progesterone in oil injections. Those injections go into your hip muscle, and they suck.

The first transfer was absolutely magical.

I was not prepared for how emotional it would be, but it was one of the most incredible moments of my life. Our embryo was super active and was moving all around the petri dish.

And...negative.

WHAT.

I hadn't even considered the possibility that it might not work.

I felt hopeless, confused, and abandoned.

It sucked.

But, we decided to keep moving on. So we turned around and did another frozen transfer.

Transfer number two was not as smooth as the first one. I got a call before we left for the clinic saying that they'd already thawed two embryos trying to get one for us, and both had not survived. They needed permission to continue trying to thaw other embryos. I was shocked, but told them to do what they needed to do so we could transfer an embryo that day.

They ended up thawing 4 embryos in order to get 1 that survived. This happens occasionally, but the thaw success rate tends to be around 95%, so it was definitely weird.

In one day we went from 14 embryos on ice to only 10. (Only?) We still had more than most people do, but it was unexpected.

See those faint second lines? This little embryo tried so hard to hold on, but didn't make it.

We had some insane decisions to make. We had 10 embryos left, and we were having this weird issue. I had a call with the embryologist, who said that he thought it was an issue with egg quality since my estradiol was low at trigger, and that all other embryos would also struggle to survive the thaw. We wanted to do another retrieval. Our RE disagreed.

We decided to thaw all 10 remaining embryos and get them genetically tested for chromosomal abnormalities. This is super risky because these embryos have to survive TWO thaws - one to test, one to transfer. Six survived the testing thaw, and three were normal. All three were boys, and the other three abnormal were all girls.

We did a mock cycle to perform an endometrial receptivity assay (ERA) and endometritis testing. The ERA also served as an endometrial scratch. This test told us that I actually needed to start the progesterone shots earlier.

Through those few months, I learned that decisions are much easier to make when you have more information. Although information is difficult to come by in infertility, it's worth it.