Tuesday, June 12, 2012

IUI day

My surge (judged by OPK) was close to full strength by around 7 pm last night, and this morning the line had darkened several shades. I went in for the ultrasound and blood draws this morning just because I want the numbers. The doctor who walked in did not even want to do the ultrasound, but reluctantly complied  on my insisting that it be done. She was so eager to be out of there (overall, I really cannot say good things about the practice I'm with now), I did not want to pepper her for details so I did not ask what the lining was at at, but my follicle grew 2 mm to 19 mm. That made me happy because that is largest follicle I've ever had, they have been at 17 mm the last 2 tries.

Not that it should mean much: I've said this many times, follicle size and quantity can never properly translate to quality, these are very likely to be 2 completely separate entities. The only way to ever measure follicle/ egg quality is to:
a)see how well the eggs fertilize and divide as embryos
b) Study of follicular fluid content: I'd think this is an area that really needs to be explored, to understand infertility better. People harp about genetics being the main cause of early (in the first 14-21 days) losses, but, in my opinion, they are looking at it the wrong way.  The fluid in the egg, which provides all the nutrients for the embryo to survive and proliferate for around nearly 8-10 days on its own, is more of the driving force at this early point. There is no reason for the genetics to come into play, because the embryo is just dividing again and again, with very few genes being expressed. In other words, very early losses, probably upto 2 weeks after fertilization are probably are due to cytoplasmic issues, unless the gene missing or damaged is from the small handful involved in  blastocyst formation, hatching, implantation etc. However: there could be a correlation between the two things (cytoplasm and genetics) though- an egg having a crappy cytoplasm is also likely to have had a crappy genetic division with more chances of aneuploidies.

Anyway, away from scientific speculation and back to me--bloodwork just came in.
-Estrogen has plateaued at 235 pg/ml.
Last time, from right ovary, was 265. Question for anybody in the know: what is the estrogen range at peak per single mature follicle? I found one website which said 200-600 pg/ml which makes me very sad, buts most say 200-300 pg/ml
-LH is a whopping 46.2 pg/ml.
Super strong surge, stronger than the last time (that was 31 pg/ml)

IUI is set for 1 pm.Will be saying many prayers as I head, once more, into this very scary breach.

9 comments:

  1. Thinking positive thoughts for you Jay & hoping this one is the one for you!!

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  2. sending you all good thoughts!! May this one be the one!

    Mo

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  3. Sending good vibes!

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  4. Good luck! I'm praying and sending good thoughts your way!

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  5. Love your scientific hypotheses, Jay. Thank you for sharing them with us.
    I'm keeping toe and finger crossed for you, my dear. Let this one be the one.

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  6. Good luck! I'm really hoping this will be the one that works for you!!

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  7. Hope the IUI went well!  Fingers crossed that this gives you your baby!!!

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  8. Hoping for you as you leap into the fray once more. 

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  9. Sending you lots of good heathy baby growing thoughts!!!

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