Follicles are not growing fast enough

I did a scan after 9 days on 300 units of Gonal F and it is apparent that my follicles are not growing fast enough.

I have one follicle at 14, two at about 12 then another three or four at 10.

And we need them to be at 18.

Dr Yu wants me to stim for three more days to see if the smaller ones can catch up.

I don't know why my body isn't responding to the Gonal F. Was it the long 2 week supression stage?

I'm worried because there have been studies that show a lower success rate when the woman stims for more than 12 days. This is because egg quality peaks at about 9 - 12 days then it drops from there. So if one stims for more than 12 days, egg quality will definitely be affected.

Yet the alternative was to just trigger and get that 1 - 3 eggs. Which isn't quite enough for IVF because with three eggs, none may turn out viable.

Some ladies get 20 - 30 eggs! Why is my follicle count so low? It's not like I'm 40 and my egg reserve is low. Could it be due to the consecutive use of clomid and my ovaries need a rest? I really don't know.

Just quite bummed over how this is progressing.

Headache and self pity

The headache is getting to me. My head hurts like it's being clamped hard after every jab.  It hurts for a few hours in the morning after my lupron jab, and a few hours at night after my gonal f jab. As a result, I've been really cranky in school and don't really feel like talking to anyone.

I also realised that my right lower abdomen heals faster than my left lower abdomen. Because I'm running out of places to jab on the left side. It looks all... dotted. Makes me wish I'd asked Melvin to inject in neat rows... At least it doesn't look so messy. I think the injection marks all over my tummy contribute to the headache.

OK. I'm just whining now. I realise I've done nothing but complain on this blog since the IVF process started.

I have been reading publications on pubmed on how sperm morphology affects pregnancy rates for IVF and was quite worried to find out that sperm morphology doesn't affect fertilization rate with ICSI BUT... there is a higher miscarriage rate for embryos fertilized by abnormal sperm.

*sigh* I suppose it does kinda make sense. We are essentially forcing defective sperm to fuse with an egg cell in hope that a normal child will be produced. Naturally, quite a number of such fertilized eggs won't be viable. Plus the fact that the male DNA doesn't kick in until after day 4, it probably makes it even harder for the embryologist to pick out a good blastocyst for implantation. So if the male side is 'weak', I suppose the miscarriage will happen.

I really really hope we can get this over and done with the first time around because I haven't really given thought of what is next. Between finances and how difficult it is to get time off work, there may not be a second IVF for me.

Nightmares

I had a nightmare last night.

Melvin didn't get prepare the needle correctly. First, he forgot to disinfect the pen. Then it was something about bubbles, then it turned out he has the wrong meds. Then I took over and somehow my gonal f had turned a gooey pink.

What a dream.

Beginning to think this twice daily injection thing is starting to stress me out.

I can't wait for my ultrasound scan on Wednesday!