Monday, February 23, 2009

Genetic couseling

So, my follies are getting huge and my estrogen is climbing but they want those smaller follies to catch up so I am coasting tonight. No gonal-f tonight, no menopur in the A.M.. Instead, just lupron and dex and lets wait it out...for another u/s in the morning.

I went to the genetic counselor today and learned a lot about CGH and microarray. As soon as the nurse gave me the paperwork this morning, I knew I was set up for CGH. Of course, due to recent problems with CGH (see most of the blogs to the right, including Linda's and MamaSoon's), I got nervous and asked if the problems were fixed. The nurse who gave me the paperwork said she had no idea what I was talking about....um, you are kidding, right? So, I called the nurse line and they set me up with the genetic counselor. She was really helpful and taught me a alot (some of which I may post later but I'm on a mini-keyboard here and it isi just too much work). It is somewhat arbitrary who gets CGH and who gets microarray. For future, those of us coming in from out of the country are required to do CGH (not microarray) and those of us who are using donor sperm are also required to do CGH. There are requirements for microarray that don't work with these 2 categories of people. Besides that, it is arbitrary. In any event, they said that the problems with CGH (so glad the genetic counselor didn't pretend not to know what I was talking about) are all fixed and we will be fine. It looks like the average across-the-board success rate regardless of age is 80-85%, with success being higher the younger you are (but not by much). So, al is good. Of course I had to ask about my chances of getting no normals at all and she said it is highly unllikely. She's only seen it happen a handful of times and all of these women were over the age of 40 and only had very few eggs to test. So, I feel just slightly better.

DH is coming in on the late flight tomorrow, probably the same night I am triggering, so I'm wondering how all the timing will work out. I'll update!

Oh and I was supposed to meet up with one of my IF friends who recently had a baby, which I was greatly looking forward to, but CCRM made me do that genetic counseling session in the middle of the day (I forgot all about it and it is mandatory), so I had to put it off....hopefullyI can get out to see her tomorrow. It is really fun to finally get to meet some of the women I've been talking to for years (DH and I hung out with her and her husband in October, it was fun).

12 comments:

Polly Gamwich said...

Good news! And so far so good with those follies! Looking forward to a great retrieval soon!

Polly

Anonymous said...

All great news!!! You are on your way. Everything sounds so positive. By the way my new RE said YIKES to the E-tergrity test because she said there is not enough to data to show it is worth testing. I have to trust her right now. Interesting study that is being released soon by Brigham & Women's Hospital saying that IM shots of progesterone vs vaginal has no impact on pg rates. They studied 400 patients....quite interesting!

Sky said...

Thanks for popping in and commenting on the endo biopsy. Dr. Surrey honestly told me he didn't think I needed it but because I do have endometriosis (though not an enormous amount) and I had that chemical pregnancy last summer from a frozen donor embryo (which was created by a DE cycle), I wanted to make absolutely sure it had nothing to do with a missing integrin and that it really was "probably a chromosomal abnormality" like Surrey said. It's just a lot of money to worry about having that test AFTER I've failed a DE cycle.

But you're so sweet to have been worried for me - love you for that!

I'm actually going to shout this from the rooftops 'cause I think what gets communicated most is when the biopsy is a torture nightmare and those of us for whom it's easy, we don't say it often enough, even though I had a few very lovely, helpful and supportive comments telling me it was not biggie from other ladies - which really helped me out immensely.

I'm just so happy for you - you're moving along and everything looks fantastic! I can't wait until it's YOU with the pic of the two lines on your post and some of the growing baby bump to follow!

Nikki said...

So glad all's going well. Good luck with your trigger shot - hope DH makes it on time! I can't wait to hear about your retrieval!

Angie said...

Glad to hear things are going well for you! Cannot wait to hear about the ER ~ hope DH makes it in time!

DAVs said...

Sounds like things are moving right along. That's interesting stuff about the CGH vs. microarray. I have high hopes for you and your embies!

Linda said...

Ah, coasting. What an exciting time for you now that you're so close to retrieval!

Interesting with what your genetics counselor told you about the CGH. I still don't understand why our CGH resulted in 8 abnormals yet 7 had no results. When we got our 7 no results, my genetics counselor said that it's no one's fault per se. It's the technology. I'm glad that they seem to have the technology fixed now.

Good luck on your trigger and I hope you get lots of good quality eggies! Can't wait!!

Retro Girl said...

Sounds great...I bet you enjoyed a night of coasting. I hope the timing works out well with DH's arrival and the trigger. Hugs!

JJ said...

Excellent that you had such a great session with the geneticist. I love talking to them, it all fascinates me. Hope the trigger goes well - heeheee, the mother of all shots. Good luck, sweetie. Did you book the shot lady?

Wow, it makes me so happy to see that the success rates with cgh/microarray are still 80-85% and that age only makes a slight difference. Woohoo! Hopefully this will work for both of us. Only a few more days to your glass(es) of wine, Sue!

Josée Martens said...

Glad to know all is going so smoothly and that you'll be reunited with DH tonight. So did you get the green light for triggering? And YAY on CGH being fixed and ready for you. This is the golden ticket. Go grow follies!

kayjay said...

Awesome about the follies! I hope that everything checks out for you and all continues to go well.

AFM - I'm in Denver now and I went to my first check today so I'm in town if you want to hook up sometime. Also, if you still want me to do your IM shot for you I'd be happy to do it. Let me know!

Jill M. said...

Great, great, great! Can't wait to hear all about ER!