IVF Round 2 Protocol

Ready or not… round 2 of IVF is underway. Apparently round 1 was just a “warm-up”. Since round 1 wasn’t successful for us (we had two embryos make it to freeze, but both had an abnormal number of chromosomes), our doctor changed the protocol for round 2. And holy crap, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Here is our protocol for this round:

Cycle Day 3 (November 2^nd) – Estrace (estrogen) and Birth Control once daily for 21 days
Cycle Day 9 (November 8^th) – Added Androgel (testosterone gel) which was applied to my stomach for 21 days
November 28^th – Last day of Androgel. Start Microdose Lupron injections (20 iu in the AM, and 20 iu in the PM)
November 29^th – Start 5 (yes, FIVE!) injections a day:

20 iu of Microdose Lupron
300 iu of Gonal-f

20 iu of Microdose Lupron
300 iu of Menopur
.25 mL of Omnitrope (Human Growth Hormone)

Injections will continue for 10-12 days until the follicles are hopefully large enough, and then we will trigger with Ovidrel and have the egg retrieval 36 hours later.

Five injections a day. I’m totally freaking out. The first round was 1 injection for the first 6 days, and then we added a second. But 5 injections. If you cross paths with me over the next two weeks – consider yourself warned!

I’ve had a hard time being optimistic about this round. But I’m working on that. I’ve been so fearful lately that this won’t work. Fearful that we’ll have another disappointment after putting my body through this again. But now that we’ve started the injections, I’m actually filled with hope. I think it helps mentally (and hopefully physically!) that the doctor changed the protocol. Having 5 injections a day, it’s got to be doing something different to my body, right? And hopefully those changes are all we need to create some healthy embabies. I’m hoping and praying that we’re that much closer to a miracle!

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