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@Apex: Wow, great news! Looking forward to seeing the updates

@Apex: great news!! Congrats!

@Apex: Yay, great numbers! So excited for you!

@Apex: Yay, great news again! Looking forward to monday's update

Since I've talked about my sister's IVF on this thread before, I thought I would give a little update. Today her cycle was cancelled because her estrogen levels got too high. They were originally thinking retrieval would be Friday and she had a lot of follicles but they weren't getting very big (as of yesterday, she had one at 18, two at 17 and the rest were all smaller). On Friday her estrogen was high and Saturday it was nearing 7000 which really worried them. They took her off all her meds on Saturday and scheduled more bloodwork for this morning. She just got the call that her levels were nearing 10,000 so they are cancelling the whole thing. She is going to try again in August (when my DH and I will be cycling!) so we'll see what happens then. Her dr is going with the same protocol as this cycle but lower dosage. Hopefully it works then. I hope the other IVF girls here are doing well, though.

How are you ladies feeling about Father's Day? We planned our Father's Day festivities (just dinner with my in-laws) for last night so we could have a low key day today. Father's Day isn't as emotional as Mother's Day for me, but it's still a reminder that we aren't (human) parents yet. We did go over to the dog park so we could get in some "dog father's day" celebrating.

Thanks you @spaniellove: for the good thoughts for my sister. We are all devastated for her, but she is trying to look on the bright side. They are watching her very closely for symptoms of OHSS so I hope she'll be ok in that respect.

@Apex: I'm so sorry! It may seem like such a letdown now to have your timeline totally changed, BUT - your chances of success are going to be that much higher! A frozen transfer has a higher success rate than fresh because your body hasn't just gone through an intense stim process and your uterus will be much more receptive to a pregnancy. It's going to work out!

@Leialou: Congrats on getting started with IVF! We will be on pretty similar schedules, although I haven't gotten all my details yet. I'm waiting for AF to show (should be today?) then will start BCPs and baby aspirin. I'll call my clinic when I get home from vacation and we'll get everything else planned out (mock transfer, meds ordered, etc.) We're scheduled to start monitoring on Aug. 19 and proceed from there. I hope this is a lucky summer for us both!!

@Leialou: yay! so excited for you!

Hi ladies, I hope you don't mind my dropping in with a question. I am in my TWW from our 3rd IUI and trying to decide if this doesn't lead to a BFP if we are going to move on to IVF. I am 37 (will be 38 in October) and DH is 39.

My question is how you knew it was time to move to IVF? Did your RE recommend it, did you know due to a specific diagnosis, or did you struggle with the decision?

I had told myself that after this 3rd IUI we would move onto to IVF but we had some timing issues on this one and DH's count wasn't as good as usual. Since this IUI had "complications/issues" I am wondering if we should do another one.

I am also thinking about seeing another RE since this is not the first time that I Od before the IUI. And I just feel they don't give me a lot of info or want to answer my questions at my current office. I have actually scheduled an appointment with another RE but it will likely be too late in my next cycle to actually be treated there for the cycle.

I am concerned about the cost of IVF and want to make every effort before moving to that. On the other hand, I don't want to waste time. I would appreciate your experiences or advice. Thanks ladies!

@kentuckygirl: This is actually a tough question to answer. We had done 3 failed IUIs. My doctor was very frank with me and said that with DH's motility numbers, the best option for us would be IVF with ICSI. She said that we have done the IUI's under the best circumstances possible, and our chances would not get any better by doing more IUIs. She pretty much told me that we would be wasting money and time by doing more IUIs.

This was very hard for me to hear. Logically I could understand what she was saying and money wise, it is a waste to continue more IUIs since we were paying out of pocket for the majority of it. Logically, I was on board with this. I had a really hard time accepting this emotionally. She told us this in February and we are just now starting IVF (going on BC today!). I needed a few months to really work through this emotionally and be ready to accept this next step. It has not been easy.

My suggestion is to listen to what your RE says, and get a second opinion if you want to. You have to be comfortable with moving on to IVF. One thing that we did during our little break was that we went to free seminars that the IVF clinics had. This gave time to decide which clinic we wanted to choose and gave me more confidence in our decision to do IVF. If it takes you a few months to be sure that IVF is what you want to do, take the few months. I know in the IF world, a few months seems like a lifetime, but it may be necessary. I agree with Spaniellove in that you have to be 100% sure that this is what you want to do and that you have exhausted all other possibilities.

I just went to the RE and have officially started the IVF process. I had a date with the vag cam today. They did the antral follicle, gave me the prescription for birth control and let me know what protocol I would be on. I start BC tonight and will hopefully start stimming at the end of July/early August for a mid August retrieval. They will call me in the next 2 days with my exact calendar. Looks like I might be cycle buddies with @Leialou!! I can't believe that we are actually starting this!

@justdarling: Excited for you guys!!

@kentuckygirl: I have family over but just wanted to quickly suggest that you could go on with IUI with the current clinic while starting process with new clinic. You could also do anther iui while you check off all the to dos before ivf, which can be extensive. But you just might not need anything else!

@justdarling: yay! I'm excited for you!

@justdarling: You are right that a few months seems like a lifetime in IF terms. I wish there were more options here in town to visit clinics. I am currently at the only private RE practice here and I have not heard good things about the other RE that is based at the local university. So the appointment I have next week is near Cincinnati, OH and I will be driving at least an hour each way to get there.

I am so sorry that you too have struggled with the decision to move to IVF. I think the past four months that I was waiting (due to a cyst) to do IUI #3 gave me some time to adjust to the idea of IVF but now that this cycle didn't go as planned, I am getting cold feet. I am so excited and hopeful for you as you start your IVF process! Tons and tons of luck and best wishes!