Day 9: second ultrasound

During fertility treatment one talks in days and during pregnancy that changes to weeks. We are now day nine.

We went back to the hospital this morning for another ultrasound. My womb lining is nice and thick and is almost the 10 mm that are required for implantation. It is good to know that there is a safe and healthy environment for the embryo waiting already!

We were a bit surprised to find out that there were actually three follicles in my right ovary, all around the same size and three at the left side. In my left ovary there is one really big one, it looked almost like it was competing with the others. It had definitely won!

At the moment only two follicles would be big enough for retrieval. The chance that an egg cell fertilizes with IVF-ICSI is around 80%. The smaller follicles would still be retrieved, but probably only contain immature egg cells and would not develop into healthy embryos, if fertilized at all. The doctor said it was a lot of effort for a relatively small chance and gave us the option of stopping.

There is also a possibility that we leave the enthousiastic follicle to its own devices and give the other ones a chance to still join the race. This is only an option if stop being lazy. To help them with that, we are still an extra day on the FSH medication. Tomorrow we will have another ultrasound and then decide with the doctor how to proceed. The retrieval is then either on Tuesday or on Wednesday.

Either way, we are going ahead. We have come this far and we remain hopeful. After all, one egg cell is all that is needed to produce a baby and the first IVF baby ever was born from a single egg cell too. We are still positive that we will be talking in weeks here soon!