Day 15 - it only takes one....

Right on time at 9am this morning, the nurse called with our fertilisation report. It was realy quite good - 9 eggs didn't fertilise, 3 eggs didn't fertilise normally and 7 did fertilise. So we have 7 wee peas growing away.

Judging by my follicle counts and sizes, I think we probably had about 10-12 follicles that would have had a mature egg, and the other 7-9 were too small. So assuming that the small ones were the 9 that didn't fertilise, I reckon we have a fertilisation rate of about 70%, which is what most centres seem to expect.

So all in all, the news is very good. Hopefully at least one will hang in there and make it to blast stage at Day 5.

There is still a chance that the cycle will be cancelled because my E2 levels had risen so high before egg collection. They need to settle back down to normal for the transfer to go ahead. Dr D and the nurse once again emphasised the need to drink loads of water.

I'm still bleeding today and I mentioned it to the nurse but she said not to worry. It is kind of like the bleeding I get at the start of a period, which I now think might be the endometriosis bleeding. If it keeps up tomorrow, I'll give them a call about it. Other than that, I feel fine apart from a bit of bloating. All the pain has gone.

Tomorrow I start Crinone twice daily. It is a vaginally applied progesterone to provide luteal phase support.

In a normal cycle, the follicle that released the egg would collapse on itself and form the corpus luteum, which then produces progesterone that maintains the endometrial lining in preparation for implantation of the embryo. This is the secretory phase of the cycle when the endometrium is transformed ready to receive the embryo.

But in an IVF cycle, this process doesn't work, partly because of high E2 levels and partly because lots of the granulosa cells of the follicle are removed during egg pick-up. These are the important ones for progesterone production.

So there are two options to ensure the secretory phase happens and the endometrium is ready for implantation.

The first option is to give hCG (same as for the trigger), which will rescue the corpus luteum and cause it to produce progesterone.

The second option, that I will be doing, is to supplement with progesterone. The reason for giving it vaginally or by intramuscular injection, is to ensure that a high amount is available for the uterus. Oral progesterone is not available in sufficiently high levels in the blood stream to do the job.

Of course, I've still got hCG floating around in my system from the trigger injection, so that will be contributing towards the progesterone levels until I start on the Crinone tomorrow.

I went to bed last night feeling very low. I think it might have been an anti-climax after the egg pick-up and I just came crashing back down. This morning I was thinking more about work than the fertilisation report, but it might have been preying on my subconscious.

Anyway, I feel much better this evening. We really are into the tough part of the cycle now. I feel like I've jumped so many hurdles: cycle getting started, follicles responding to FSH, lots of follicles, lots of eggs, and finally fertilisation.

But we still have to achieve the really important ones: embryos that are viable enough to be transferred and finally a viable pregnancy that lasts the first trimester. Like everyone says - just one day at a time. I do feel so grateful and lucky that we have already achieved so much. I've read of some couples where stimulation didn't work, or no eggs were collected, or none fertilised and yet we have crossed all of those hurdles.

The nurse also called back this afternoon to say that it will be absolutely fine for me to fly interstate to a wedding after transfer (assuming it happens on Saturday) so that makes me happy too.

Its kind of strange to think that in an incubator not far away, there are 7 embryos that have the potential to become our children. I wonder what they are like - male or female? What other characteristics do they have the potential to develop?

After all, this is the first time that lovely husband and I have any evidence that we have conceived at all and its a nice thought, even if things don't go our way from here on.