A new clinic. A new beginning. Cycle #13

A new clinic. A new beginning.

I needed to stop simply filling the pockets of our fertility specialist and try something new. He just kept putting me on the same protocol and same dosage over and over again with the same results. OK, we got "pregnant" again.. but it was over before it started so obviously not a high quality embryo.

I started seeing a recommended fertility acupuncturist.
I never believed in all that "mumbo jumbo".. but it was time to look outside the square and be open to new approaches. She's fantastic. I don't know if she's making a difference to our outcome yet, but she has offered me new ideas and, to be honest, it's just great talking to someone so understanding and caring about me. Not just caring about my uterus, my ovaries, my follicles... but me. I find it relaxing too which I guess is a major benefit. She encouraged me to try a new FS within our clinic, put DH on some vitamins (Menevit), and scale back on work stress. A colleague, whose wife was also going through IVF, told me they were considering trying Bump. They're a new bulk-billing clinic in Mosman, Sydney NSW. They bulk bill. That's all I had to hear! They are associated with Monash so they are reputable. Funny thing is - they decided to try my FS at IVF Australia, and I decided to leave him and try Bump. A change is as good as a holiday, as they say. I also quit my job and have gone freelance. I just wasn't happy there and my boss was less than accommodating when it came to my IVF cycle commitments. Now I can call the shots & say I'm unavailable around EPU time. And I get paid way more. Bonus.

So here we are - cycle number 13! That’s our 10^th cycle trying for baby number two. I never thought I would still be trying at this stage. But I said I would stop by the time I turned 40, and that’s only five months away.

I tried to do some research into the Mosman Bump clinic but couldn’t find any reviews online. They only opened in November and the nurse today told me they have probably performed around 70 egg collections there so far. I was too scared to ask what their success rate was.. ie. how many pregnancies had been achieved. Let’s just hope I can add to their tally. I'll post a more in-depth review of our experience with Bump shortly which may help others in my situation.

Basically they keep cycle appointments to a minimum as they don't deem it necessary. They also communicate with you through a patient portal (private webpage) and have all medications couriered to your home or work. Although I'm an IVF veteran, I felt a bit nervous not having that constant contact with a nurse to keep an eye on me & explain the medications... however I worked it all out fine. They put me on Puregon instead of Gonal-F but used Orgalutran which I was on before. I was excited to try something different, even though it does the same thing.

Today I had my egg pick-up. It was the first time I didn't have it done under a general anaesthetic. I was a bit nervous about it but the nurse assured me most clinics are moving towards this sedation method instead. It actually wasn't too bad. DH also had his testicular sperm retrieval just after my procedure. They retrieved 9 eggs (my best result for quite a few cycles!) and some wriggly sperm. The Bump doctor encouraged us to use fresh sperm again but keep the frozen as a back-up in case they didn't find anything suitable.. but all was good.

Out of those 9 eggs, 7 were mature and therefore injected with sperm. Tomorrow we'll be updated with their fertilisation progress and hopefully proceed to embryo transfer on Friday. For now I'm going to rest as I don't have to work for another three days. I have another acupuncture appointment on Wednesday to hopefully prepare me for the transfer.

As I said, I'll post again shortly with more details about our Bump experience.