Approximately four and half weeks after the blood samples
were submitted for feasibility testing I emailed the embryologist to check in
and see how things were going. They responded that the feasibility report had
come through fine, and they were in the process of planning a cycle of IVF treatment
for me. At this stage, they just needed to determine how it could work around
the time they are shut down over Christmas and New Years, but they would be in
touch very soon! I’m not sure if I was more shocked or excited that my treatment
will be starting sooner than we had expected, but we’re keen to get started.
About a week later I had a call from one of the nurses at
Fertility Associates in Christchurch. They were in the process of narrowing
down dates to book in our initial appointments, they just needed to plan with
respect to my menstrual cycle and the holidays. They ended up needing to call
me back the following week to confirm dates, as there are a whole chain of
appointments that need to be carefully scheduled in sequence, and some things
just weren’t lining up. The outcome was that we are booked to go the Christchurch
FA clinic for a day in early December for our initial appointment, with me
likely starting medications/injections in early January, and egg collection in
late January. My understanding is that the PGD testing takes approximately 4-6
weeks, so if all goes to plan and there is a viable, healthy embryo, it’ll be
some time around February that it can be implanted.
During our initial visit to the clinic in December, we are
scheduled for three appointments across the day. The first is to see their counsellor,
as all couples undergoing fertility treatment including IVF are required (or at
least strongly recommended) to do so. The second is to see the fertility
specialist who is overseeing our treatment. During this appointment I will have
a baseline ultrasound to check that everything looks normal, healthy and ready to
go. Finally, we will see the nurses for our drug education, where they will discuss
the medications I am to take, and how to administer them. At some point during
the day, Dave will also submit a semen sample for testing. We will also need to
take our consent forms for treatment with us to the clinic, where we will be
talked through everything and they will witness us signing each page.
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| The information booklet published and distributed by Fertility Associates. |
In the meantime, for some light reading they sent out their
official information booklet (also available online, it’s called Pathway to a Child) and our consent forms for treatment, which we have
received. There are three consent forms that we both have to sign, one to
consent to IVF treatment overall, one for this particular cycle of IVF, and one
to consent to embryo biopsy for PGD, totalling 20 pages in all. I have also
been advised to start taking folic acid at this point (recommended for anyone
intending to become pregnant, to be taken until the 12th week of
pregnancy). I have also started trying to take better care of myself by watching what I eat and drink, and increasing my exercising.
So things are getting very real.
Our current timeline as I understand it (all going well):
- Early December – initial consultations with FA counsellor, fertility specialist, drug education
- Early January – begin IVF medications
- Early-mid January – blood tests and scans
- Late January – egg collection and fertilisation
- Late January/early February – embryos biopsied for genetic testing and then frozen
- Some time in February? –hopefully thawing and implantation of a healthy, unaffected embryo, followed by blood tests to detect pregnancy.
