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Forty-four or others in a similar situation, are you out there?
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teri-chan
 July 14th, 2006 1:35 PMReport

Forty-four,

I popped into this forum for a little while toward the end of last year, but then I dropped out until just recently. We communicated just a bit. I'm now 42 years old, and I've moved onto donor eggs. But since my characteristics are unusual, we have been unable to find a good match for me in an egg donor. We did however find a good match for me in a sperm donor. So we bought the three vials of his semen that were available. And the idea is to use an egg donor who is a good match for my husband.

I just completed my first donor cycle, but it was a bust. My donor produced 14 eggs, only 4 of which were mature enough for ICSI, only 1 of those fertilized, and there was nothing to transfer.

At least my clinic has offered not to charge me for my next donor cycle. But I find myself very worried about the possibility that I won't ever carry and raise a child. Chances are supposed to be so good with donors, but it seems that there are some issues with my body as well. I know that you are or were in a somewhat similar situation, and I hoped that we might offer each other support. Please let me hear from you, if you are out there.

laura
 July 14th, 2006 5:49 PMReport

Dear Teri-chan,
We are just starting a donar egg cycle. I am a bit worred that our donar is 30 years old. She is a first time donar but she has two children. We had a long wait finding a donar because of my physical chacteristics.
laura

teri-chan
 July 14th, 2006 10:31 PMReport

Laura,

I don't think I'd be particularly worried about the fact that your donor is 30. That's still very young as far as reproductive abilities go. And she has children, so that should offer you a good deal of reassurance.

How long did you wait to find this donor?

I'll probably be waiting for about 4 months for another donor. Because of my nearly unheard of bad experience with my donor cycle, my clinic wants to match me with someone who does very well during the current round of donor cycles, to keep the anxiety down a bit. Somewher out there my donor is probably in a cycle now, then they'll ask her if she'll do a second cycle (for me), after resting for 6-8 weeks.

Please let me know how things are going in your cycle. Most donor cycles go so well. And that should leave you feeling very hopeful going into this. Of course there are never any guarantees, but your chances are good. I wish you the very best of luck with this.

Teri

laura
 July 18th, 2006 6:23 PMReport

Dear Teri,
We waited 7 months for our Donor. We decided to go with a local donor that was found at our clinic. I thought this would be easier for the Donar sence they might not have the support I do with all the meds. This made the search take longer as well as the characteristics we were looking for. Tomarrow I have my starting ultrasound and start Luepron If everything is OK.
Lets keep in touch,
laura.


teri-chan
 July 19th, 2006 11:14 AMReport

Laura,

I'm so glad you wrote. I really feel that it helps to be able to talk with someone in a similar situation. Please keep me posted on your progress! I look forward to hearing how your visit goes tomorrow. What will they look for on the u/s? Will they also be doing bloodwork?

Teri


laura
 July 19th, 2006 5:17 PMReport

Dear Teri,
My ultrasound went great. They look for small or absent folicals. I have been of BC pills for 30 days to syncrinize our(me and the donar) cycles. They will not do blood work untill 8/6 (E2V level and U/S). I stop the BC pills on 8/25. I start lupron at 20 untils today and for the next 10 days, then the decrease this th 10 untits for 14 mor days. I start E2V injections on 8/8 and continue untill we find out if this worked. Progesteron injections start right befor my doars retrvel and continue untill...Is this simmiller to your last time?
laura

teri-chan
 July 20th, 2006 4:28 PMReport

Laura,

It sounds like our protocols were similar, but still pretty different. They never had me on BCPs. The donor was on them and so they just syncrhonized her cycle with mine. Two things really strike me about your protocol. One is that you stay on BCPs all the way through 8/25/06. The other is that you take an injectable form of estrogen. (I assume that's what you meant by 'E2V injections'. What's the 'V' for in 'E2V', do you know?) I didn't know there was such a thing. My protocol had me on estrogen patches and an estrdiol tablet inserted like a vaginal suppository. One of my worries is that on my donor cycle my uterine lining measured only 7mm (and it should be between 8mm and 13mm from what I understand). I wonder if injectable estrogen might be an option I should find out about.

You didn't say the tentative date of the donor's retrieval. Do you know it yet?

It's really nice to communicate with someone else who is going the donor route. I understand from your other posts that you feel you have the funds to try it exactly once. I too feel a lot of financial pressure. I think we can afford one donor cycle in addition to the one that our clinic is giving us to make up for the badly failed cycle. We don't have coverage for IVF in any form--whether with my eggs or a donor's eggs. If I can be of any help, please let me know. I really wish you the very best with this.

Teri

laura
 July 21st, 2006 10:18 AMReport

Dear teri,
E2V stands for estradiol valerate under the brand name delestrogen. I start injections on 8/1 (mistated in my last post) at .28mls. They give these injections every 3rd day and the check the estradiol level on 8/6 as well as an ultrasound on 8/6. Then the dose is ajusted as needed. My donar's retrieval is hopfully 8/14-8/16. They usually do day 3 transfers and freeze blasts. However, we have agreed that if there are at least three 8 cell on day 3, we will try to do a blast transfer. This is our last try. I am gardedly optimistic. I know anything can happen during stimmutation. We were lucky with the 4 IVF cycles financialy. My insurance coverd all but 10,000 $. They do not cover donar anything. This cycle costs 11,300 but this dose not include medical screening for recipients, recipiient medications, semen analysis & freeze, ICSI, embryo cryopreservation, annual storage fee, confirmation of pregnancy, treatment associatted w/ hyper-stimulation an frozen embryo transfer.
How easy was is to get your donar's stimualtion protical from your center?
Is is great comunicating with someone doning the same thing! thank you!
laura


teri-chan
 July 21st, 2006 11:34 AMReport

Laura,

Great to hear from you! Since we seem to be in a one-on-one conversation, I wonder how you'd feel about turning this into an email conversation instead?

Teri

laura
 July 21st, 2006 5:03 PMReport

Dear Teri,
That would be great! My email is arcadiavet@aol.com.
laura