Day 13: The puncture

Today we performed probably the most physical part of the ICSI procedure. We arrived at the hospital nice and early (we expected there to be terrible traffic due to local road works, but it turned out to be eerily quiet in the streets) and got straight to work on producing a sperm sample.

Normally, the production of the sperm sample is not particularly fun. The hospital has a sterile little room set aside for the male partner to cough up his deposit, but the whole affair is normally a bit seedy. However, on this occasion (and the previous one too), Flo joined me in the room and assisted with ceremony, which made for a much more romantic, intimate and fun event which, most important, yielded a fruitful outcome.

After handing over the specimen to the lab, we found ourselves a spare bed and cubicle in which to perform some DIY acupuncture. The last time Flo went to see her acupuncturist, she showed her where and how to insert a couple of acupuncture needles in order to relax Flo's uterus prior to the puncture procedure. Flo showed me where and how to insert the disposable needles into her belly (normally I would be a bit hesitant sticking needles into bellies, but I must say that I've become quite accustomed to it now!)... so I did just that and for the next half hour, Flo rested on the bed and relaxed, letting the needles do their work. I don't know if it was the needles or whether Flo was just tired from a restless night and early rise, but she certainly seemed quite relaxed when we returned to the waiting room and... waited.

About twenty minutes later we were up. We shuffled into the now familiar procedure room and the doctor and nurse prepared for the procedure. It started with a quick look to see how things had progressed. Flo's follicles had continued to grow a little, but all five were still present. The doctor informed us that the results from the blood sample taken a couple of days ago indicated that Flo's hormone levels were a little high, indicating that the decision to stop the Menopure hormone injection a couple of days back was a good one.

After administering Flo with a mild sedative (which had the amusing effect of making Flo act a little drunk, slurring her words when she spoke), the puncture began. The procedure did not look at all comfortable for Flo, but I must say she handled it very well indeed... she was strong and brave and she almost crushed my hand because she squeezed it so hard. The procedure entails guiding a long hyperdermic needle (connected to a hose and a vacuum pump) using the ultrasound device that was previously used to view Flo's follicles. Having lined up the needle with the follicle, the doctor gives the needle a quick, sharp push and pierces each follicle in turn, sucking up it's contents through the tube and into a glass bottle on a side table. The contents of each follicle is predominantly fluid, but in each one it's hoped that there's an egg.

The puncture is painful, described as feeling like a hard punch to the stomach. Flo explained that it is more like a hard punch to the ovary. I hope that this is not as painful as a hard punch to the testicle, since not having ovaries, I'm not sure what a punch to these feels like. I know what a punch to the stomach feels like though... not as painful as a punch to the testicles, but painful nonetheless.

The procedure itself went surprisingly quick; about 10 minutes in total. Flo was then transferred from the gynecological chair (complete with stirrups) to a hospital bed and wheeled next door to a recovery room (to the same cubicle we'd used earlier for the acupuncture routine... so familiar surroundings in which to recover!). It took about 30 minutes for Flo to recover from the sedative, which was perfect timing for me to go and visit the lab for the preliminary results...

Two eggs were successfully recovered from the five follicles. Both Flo and I were a little disappointed with this outcome as we'd hoped that at least three or four would be recovered. However, we're both aware that we only need one good embryo to be returned, so there's still optimistic. Expressed mathematically (if you find maths boring then ignore the italic text)...

...the doctor informed us that there's an 80% chance that a suitable extracted egg will be fertilised and suitable for returning back to the womb. Therefore, since we have two eggs, there should be 96% chance that at least one of them is suitable for being put back (since there's an 80% chance that one will be OK, but if this one fails, then there's an 80% chance of the remaining 20% that the second egg will be suitable). However, there's only a 64% chance that both eggs will be fertilised and replaced.

There was good news however! I enquired as to the quality of my sperm sample... the lab guy went off and had a look and came back telling me that it wasn't very good, with only 400,000 (or 0.4 million) sperms. What he didn't realise however, is that all my previous results from the last three years have been hovering around the 20,000 mark (0.02 million), which actually means there's been a pretty big step change in the amount of sperm that I'm producing! I'd like to think that this is a direct result of the actions Flo and I have undertaken as part of "Project: baby making". These include: eating healthily; stopping drinking (except champagne of course); regularly exercising; eating organic food; taking the right supplements; undertaking alternative medicine to improve our body functions. Of course, it might just be the fact that Flo helped me with the specimen?

It's a really good feeling to have some real, measurable feedback that indicates an improvement in fertility... this has encouraged me to try even harder to control what I do and eat and improve things even further. However, it's still important to bear in mind that an average sperm count is 20 to 120 million, so even with my improved count, I'm still at best only 2% as fertile as average. So there's still lots of room for improvement!

Also, if this change in lifestyle has had such a positive response on my fertility (a 20 fold improvement), then it will undoubtedly be having a similar effect on Flo. I'm pretty amazed how quick Flo has recovered from her operation only a couple of months back and I'm surprised that we have got so far with this round of treatment. I'm very confident that if we went through the treatment again then we'd perform better, but given how well Flo has been doing now, I'm confident that there's a good chance of things working when the embryo is returned to the womb at the end of the week.

We find out tomorrow if the eggs have been successfully fertilised. Regardless, we start work on preparing Flo's womb for the embryo tonight with me continuing to inject the hormone Pregnyl into Flo's belly. Although we're both mentally strong and confident, we're both tired (mentally and physically... and Flo also has to deal with the soreness following today's procedure) and very anxious about finding out the results tomorrow.