IVF Journey: Second IVF day 43

This is my IVF diary. My husband and I have been trying to have a baby for nearly four years now, and have a diagnosis of 'unexplained infertility'. We have finally reached the top of the waiting list for IVF - a form of assisted conception. I'm blogging about what happens as it happens, as a kind of therapy for me and as an awareness raising exercise of what IVF is all about.

After taking HRT for two weeks, today I was getting my womb lining measured to see whether I was ready to move on to the next phase of IVF. After finding out that some people take six weeks on HRT I had mentally prepared myself for being told to take more HRT and come back in a week.

It was an early start again, leaving the house at 7.10am (eek) to get across town.

Today a different doctor was doing my internal scan - a man this time. He seemed a little flustered, I think it was a busy morning. He collected me from the waiting room and pointed to a consulting room and told me to go in. I put my stuff down and wondered if I was supposed to get undressed. The door was open so I thought no, but I knew I was there for a scan so I thought yes. But did he want to talk first? It would be embarrassing to be naked from the waist down and for him not to be expecting that! I decided to go with yes and went across to the door to shut it just as the nurse and doctor came back in. "Oh" said the nurse, "are you going to the ladies room?" "No" I replied, "I was going to close the door before I took my trousers off." The doctor seemed embarrassed that he had failed in this basic task to protect my dignity.

I got undressed, got on the bed and prepared myself as my usual doctor requires, but the new doctor wanted me a different way with my legs and arse in different configurations. Weird.

He didn't confirm my date of birth which the other one does, and the first thing he said was "you have seven embryos" which I had to get him to repeat three times as he had a very strong accent. Confusing. I think he was just making polite conversation.

Ah, change! Disconcerting. It is strange how you get into little routines without noticing.

So the doctor said he was looking for my womb lining to be 8mm, and the actual measurement was 7.6mm which he pronounced to be "very good" and said "all was well". In this picture of my womb you can see the linked crosses which is the 7.6mm measurement. The doctor finds the lining on the screen, clicks on two points (presumably the outside and inside of my womb lining), and the machine gives the measurement. I can never tell the difference between lining and other bits when I look at these things.

I then got dressed, and was sent back to the waiting room. Weird again, I am usually taken straight into a nurse appointment.

Back in the waiting room I started wondering if 7.6mm was enough or whether they would keep me on the HRT for another week. I hadn't thought to ask because the doctor had been so positive.

Well after about five minutes I was collected for my nurse appointment and given three boxes of progesterone pessaries and was instructed that I needed to be taking them for five days before my frozen embryo transfer. It turned out that yes, I was able to move on to the next stage.

But!

Not immediately. Nothing to do with my womb, I have to wait until a slot becomes free with the embryologist. Here's what happens. The nurse will go to the embryologist and see when I can get a slot, at least five days from now. This may be next week, or the following week. She will then call me and let me know today, but if she doesn't I have to call her tomorrow. Depending on when the appointment is, I might have to keep taking the injections. Or not. But if I do, I will need more drugs and needles and I will need to come in and get them. And I will need to come in tomorrow as otherwise I will run out by Sunday. Gah. Inconvenient. It was all very vague.

Hopefully the appointment will be sooner rather than later. Firstly it is inconvenient to travel the 1.5hrs each way to the hospital so I'd rather not have to do that to pick up extra drugs. But mainly I'm keen to press on with this thing and get the wee embryo safely in there. It is funny, but last time the whole IVF process felt important as I was growing and fertilising a mammoth crop of eggs, and then one was put in for me to incubate. This time I just feel like I'm treading water and waiting for them to do the transfer. Spending a month shrinking my womb lining then growing it back seems a bit... pointless. I do get it, they are stopping me ovulating and creating the optimum conditions. If not actually pointless it is certainly tedious with not much for me to do. I'm itching to get on with it. I'll say it again, I can't believe the frozen ("soft") cycle takes longer than the fresh cycle. It just seems weird.

So. Today. In some ways progress, in other ways no news.

Which like last time is a pain in the ass for my work, as I am already holding off scheduling work and meetings which I really need to get in the diary for the next fortnight. If the frozen embryo transfer is the same as the fresh transfer it will only be a 30 minute appointment, but it is likely to be in the middle of the day and will involve 3hrs of travel time so it will certainly be a half day off work at some point soon.