Post-ectopic and FET discussion

Today was our post-ectopic/FET discussion with our RE. It seems like it’s been forever since I was in the hospital, but really it’s only been 7 weeks (I would have been 14 weeks this week… would have…) 

As I mentioned in my post-op update, my RE has been adamant that I continue to monitor my cycles for the rest of my pre-menopausal life. There is always the chance we could conceive on our own. We need to be mindful of the risk. Once you have an ectopic, you have a 15% chance of having another one. Before that, the odds were only 2%. Lucky us. Too bad it wasn’t the lottery. 

The most interesting thing I learned was that ovulation does not in fact follow a back and forth pattern. He said that typically within a year your ovaries will have both ovulated the same amount of times, but that doesn’t mean they consecutively switch month to month. He also mentioned that – although rare – it is still possible to conceive from the left ovary (the one with the missing tube). The human body is fascinating. 

As for the FET, we’ve decided to start the protocol with my 1st period in January 2015. I need to call the clinic when I get my next period (early December) to give them a definite confirmation for January.

I will start Estrogen on CD2, followed by a baseline scan and blood work approximately 2 weeks later. If all looks good, I still start Progesterone. A few days after that, we will fly back to clinic ideally somewhere between CD 21-25. We only have to stay locally for 1 night post-transfer before we can fly home. We’re thinking about heading out a few days early to get away from the harsh prairie winter and enjoy a mini-vaca.

Most of our conversation was focused on the reasons and causes of ectopic pregnancies. Simply put, it is VERY difficult, if even possible, to diagnose WHY you had an ectopic. We discussed the possibility of immune issues, but my RE suggests we proceed with the next transfer before investigating that route further. I won’t be doing Intralipids this time, as he doesn’t think the extra cost of flying out for a pre-transfer dose is worth it right now.

Ultimately, there is no proven method to prevent another ectopic. He mentioned they will place the embryos lower in my uterus, but there still doesn’t offer any guarantees.

You caught on that I said embryoS? 

Our RE prefers singleton transfers, but he is open to us transferring more than one, particularly because we have Day-6 embryos frozen. He said since they were slower to grow and are likely to have a lower survival rate. The choice is ours to transfer one or two. My husband and I both agree we want to transfer both embabies.

And let’s hope this time, we have one or two beautiful babies in our arms next Autumn.