Just made it over the line

Today I had the endometrial biopsy as planned. AF did start to get going this morning but was very light. When I talked to the nurse, she asked was it spotting and I said, what's the definition of spotting? So she spoke to Dr D, who said we could go ahead as planned. She said she didn't want me to wait another month and this biopsy was really important before we use any more frozen embryos.

Needless to say, I was pretty glad that it was going ahead. Dealing with yet another month's delay would have really done my head in and I was feeling very down about everything last night.

The biopsy itself was very straightforward, although by the time it was done at 1.30pm, the flow was greater. Dr D made a comment about it being more than just 'spotting' so I don't think she felt it was an ideal situation but she was as keen to get it done as I was. It took just 5 minutes and I didn't even have any cramping. I've started to wonder if my cervix isn't as resistant to dilation as it was before pregnancy and so I get less cramping and pain these days.

Anyway, Dr D said this cycle was also worthwhile because we learned that my luteal phase is short and my progesterone levels are not good. She said something like 'A peak progesterone of 16 is very low'. I hadn't asked for any hormone levels this cycle, so I've got no idea what they were. It seems that while my cycles were ok when we first started out on IVF, maybe they now have changed and are not ok.

She said the progesterone levels would not have been enough to support a pregnancy and we would need to go with medicated cycles from now on. We've already done one of those after the first cancelled frozen cycle, so nothing new there. But I definitely won't be asking if we can try an unmedicated cycle as we did when Zoe was conceived.

Anyway, the results of the biopsy won't be available for two weeks, so that puts paid to another cycle until next month. I can't say I'm unhappy about that. It would have happened over christmas and new year, while we were juggling family visiting and having a few days at a beach house at new year, so its a good thing that we will be starting fresh in January.

But at least the biopsy is finally done. Now all I need is for the results to come back clear. If they don't, Dr D says we might need to try antibiotics, or even another hysteroscopy. I'm feeling so pessimistic about things at the moment that I'll be preparing myself for more bad news along those lines in two weeks.

Maybe 2011 will be our year.