Fertilization Report Is In

Today I got my fertilization report. Out of 30 eggs, 5 were Atretic (misshapen), 2 were immature, and only 11 fertilized. Now, when i first heard this, i was so upset. How could only 11 have fertilized? I had THIRTY eggs! Definitely wasn't the numbers Justin and I were thinking we would get. We thought we would get at LEAST 15 fertilized. Now we have to wait until tomorrow to get a "grading" report. If the fertilized embryos make it to tomorrow, the embryologist will "grade" them based on how well they are growing and how fast they are dividing. I am so nervous to hear how they are doing - i am praying so hard they are good quality and that they all make it!

I am still in significant pain from the egg retrieval. My stomach feels extremely gassy and like i just did 1,000 sit-ups. It almost feels as if the muscles are being stretched and ripped. It is hard to walk around and lay certain ways. I never thought I would be in this much pain! So, I called my doctor's office to see if I could take anything for the pain other than tylenol. They wanted me to come in and be checked out since I am at a high risk for Hyperstimulation.

When I got to the office, I saw Dr. Scholl and Dr. Hershlag. They saw that I was upset with the fertilization report and they told me that 11 was a great number. They told me that even though the eggs "looked" mature, sometimes on the inside, in the cytoplasm, they aren't really mature. That could be one reason why many didn't fertilize. They also said that in nature, the theory is that the "best" sperm gets to the egg and fertilizes it. Here, were did ICSI (they placed one sperm in each egg, manually). Sometimes, even though the sperm looks good, it really isn't. If a sperm isn't good, then the egg won't fertilize. And, that's a good thing because if a bad sperm fertilizes an egg, the baby could have issues. Also, since i stimmed so fast with the meds, and since my estrogen was rising so much every day, they couldn't let me wait any longer before they did the egg retrieval because then i would certainly hyperstim. Usually, they would have liked me to stim slower, to give me more time for my eggs to fully mature. But, since my estrogen was so high, they needed to have the egg retrieval sooner, thus not giving my eggs enough time to mature.

All in all, i guess we are happy with 11 - i am just praying so hard that they are all good quality and that they all make it!

Please pray for us!