Wow. I’m getting quite a bit of perspective on all my mother went through back in 1983, especially considering the advances in the past 21 years… :eek:
My dearest, darling grandneice and grandnephew are officially 43 days old (and are the cutest, bestest babies in the world ever). We’ve been waiting for them for six years. They were nicknamed Vitro and Petra for a while , my neice and her hubby were going to give the implant method two shots (they’d tried everything else), but it (they?) took the first time around.
The more important news is that my neice had a picture perfect pregnancy (bragging a week before the birth that her ankles hadn’t even swollen). Glowing health, good energy, very little morning sickness, and she carried the little angels full term (both over 6 pounds and 21 inches long). They have the most perfect little baby toes–and I’m not someone overly fond of infants!
Just so you know, it is possible to go through all this and still have a normal, uneventful pregnancy, and deliver healthy, sweet little babies. I’ll send out good thoughts for you. (Isn’t in amazing that I spent a significant portion of my youth praying that various friends weren’t pregnant, and now spend just as much time with my fingers crossed for the exact opposite?)
GrizzWife and I went through three cycles of IVF after eight years of trying without IVF intervention.
GrizzCub is now just over four-years-old.
Conversely, last February, GrizzWife surprised me with a positive pregnancy test. We weren’t even trying! Our new Grizz-she-cub is three months old.
Go figure!
We found that www.fertilethoughts.com is a good resource (bulletin board) for those going through IVF.
Feel free to email me at grizzrich@yahoo.com.
Yay for jarbabyj!
And now I reflect upon the irony of your name in this situation 
I’ve been wondering how your Baby-quest was going. Congrats & Prayers your way!
Good luck, jarbaby. May the ride be as smooth as possible for you.
I know this means a lot to you and I hope I’ll be congratulating you soon.
I woked in a fertility clinic for about 5 years (I’m in a hospital now). As you can see by the reponses to your post, many people have gone before you and you will find plenty of good (and sometimes not so good- always check with the Doc) advice to guide you.
Most sudies that show a higher rate of birth defects should also state that the study subjects are older. Their eggs are frequently older and less healthy to start with. Adjusted results should show a not much higher than average rate of defects. I just threw out all my “Human Reproduction” and “Fertility and Sterility” magazines last week, so I can pull cites for you, but they are probably available on-line somewhere. Discover magazine carried an article last year about egg quality that was interesting.
Do be aware that fertility patients not only have difficulty getting pregnant, but frequently have difficulty staying pregnant (of course- depending on each person’s particular fertility issues) and take very good care of yourself. When successful, don’t worry about being a nuisance and call the Doc whenever you have a question or problem.
That is the nurse in me speaking- the patient population I deal with now is pretty typically an older first-time pregnant fertiltiy patient with complications. I have to admit that my views are skewed by the population I see at work, but extra caution is not unwarranted, I feel.
Best Wishes!
I know! It’s fate!
As far as we know, our only problem is super low sperm count. Good motility, just not enough. The doc said he only needs “fifteen of your best men” so he sounded optimistic. My HSG and hormone tests were all normal.
I’ve told myself for five long years that the day I find out I’m pregnant I’m treating myself to a chocolate donut. I swore off donuts years ago. I’ll let you guys know when I get one
And what’s this business of 20% chance of twins? YOWZA
:eek:
The chance of twins varies depending on how many embryos they implant - I know some couples will implant a bunch hoping one will stick if she has trouble holding on to a pregnancy, but if your only trouble is low sperm count your Dr. might advise only going with as many embryos as you want babies. Some couples choose to only use one or two anyway as they would not consider reducing later if they used a bunch and they all ‘took.’ So it depends on your personal choice as well - obviously if you use 3 embryos you have a greater chance of getting a baby than if you use one, but then you have a chance of triplets or twins too! That’s why you often hear about people using fertility treatments getting twins or multiples, since you often start with more than one embryo.
My friends who have gone though it say the needles are not so bad.