Spoiler Alert: Our transfer on February 12, 2020 was a success - WE ARE PREGNANT!
From the moment we got the first positive beta result (the pregnancy blood test) until we publicly announced our good news a couple weeks ago, we have been in complete disbelief. And let's be honest...I think we still are.
I will talk about all of the emotions and how this pregnancy has been for us in a future post. For this one, I know I am going to continue to be asked what we did differently this transfer to “get it to work” so I am going to cover that. But I want to be clear before I get into that question - there were a lot of things that were different this time around, some of which we “did” and others were “just because”. None of this should be taken as suggestions for what you should be doing, but rather just an overall look at what led to our BFP (big fat positive for those not in the infertility world).
Let’s start with the most obvious difference between this transfer and the other 3 - the embryos. These were 2 completely different embryos and while they were untested, we know at least one of them was the “right” one. (Yes only one of our 2 transferred embryos stuck, but more on that another time). Even with all the different drugs we added to our protocol, lifestyle changes, etc. maybe this one perfect embryo has been the missing piece all along. It's something we will never know for sure though.
Okay on to the medical differences that led to this successful transfer (on top of the usual drug protocol of estrogen, baby aspirin, vitamins, etc.):
Removal of endometriosis: In September 2019, I pushed to have a diagnostic laparoscopy, hysteroscopy and D&C. After our 3rd transfer failed I knew I wanted someone to get eyes in there to see if there was anything going on that could be impacting our fertility. Endometriosis was found and removed (more on that in these blog posts - Procedure & Recovery and Results & Next Steps). But again, like my OB told me after the surgery, women with extremely bad endometriosis can go on to get pregnant with no problem while people with the mildest form of it (like me) can have infertility issues. There is no way to know if removing the endometriosis was a part of the “secret sauce” but it is what started us on a different path to our next transfer.
2 months of medically induced menopause: After the surgery to remove my endometriosis, my RE recommended we do 2 months of medically induced menopause through Lupron Depot (more on how that went and why we did in this blog post). These 2 months led to a total restart of my body (primarily the reproductive system) and maybe that reset was all I needed.
Full menstrual cycle: After the 2 months of Lupron Depot menopause was done, I immediately jumped into prep for our embryo transfer. Unfortunately, as you can read about in this blog post, that transfer ended up getting cancelled just days out due to uterine cysts forming. Because of this cancellation, I had to take Provera to jump start my period (which was terrifying because I had not had a menstrual cycle since the beginning of September 2019 and it was now mid January 2020). Without going into too much detail, this was a very full menstrual cycle and while it was awful to go through I think it was the best thing for my body. Like my acupuncturist said, having this period to shed everything out and completely restart before jumping into the next embryo transfer prep was probably very healing and rejuvenating for my body. Looking back on past transfers, I may or may not have had a full period before starting transfer prep. It wasn’t “required” after stopping birth control to have a period in order to start transfer medications. So maybe Aunt Flo was actually helpful (never thought I would ever say that!).
Adding an auto-immune protocol to my transfer prep: Because our past transfers have not worked (whether due to pregnancy loss or the transfer not working), our RE agreed that for this transfer we would add “the kitchen sink” by adding in an auto-immune protocol. While I don’t have a medical need for these items, none of them would hurt me if I added them in so why not?
Increased doses of Prednisone: For every transfer, I have always taken the steroid Prednisone (20mg) for 3 days starting the day of transfer. For this transfer I kept taking a lower dose of Prednisone after that for a month.
Intralipid infusions: We added 4 intralipid infusions for this transfer - 6 days before transfer, 8 days after transfer, 15 days after transfer and 36 days after transfer.
Daily Lovenox injections: Starting the day of transfer and through the end of the first trimester, we added a daily injection of Lovenox.
Now for the personal lifestyle changes we chose to make:
Adopting a gluten-free, dairy-free, nightshade-free diet a month prior to transfer: Because of my history with inflammation/endometritis/endometriosis, I made the personal choice to remove anything from my diet the month before my transfer to help my body stay as clean and un-inflamed as possible. Except for a couple cheats, I removed all gluten, dairy, caffeine, and nightshades from my diet. I felt great and diet changes are one of the only things I can have full control in this process. And while the diet changes may or may not have helped, knowing I had control over something that was good for my body regardless of whether it helped or not felt really good.
Coasting in neutral during the TWW: Whether it was acceptance after doing this for so long, denial that we were doing it again, or just the ability to coast in neutral (as I called it), I was in a really peaceful state of mind during the TWW (two week wait between the embryo transfer and the beta blood test). I think having this mindset instead of the usual panic and anxiety I usually have during the TWW made a big difference (especially with my mental health). At the end of the day, whether you are worried or calm during the TWW may or may not impact the outcome of the embryo transfer. But I have to say, feeling more at peace than I ever have made a big difference to me. I wrote about it in this blog post if you want more insight into my TWW.
Who knows if any of this, some of it, all of it or none of it resulted in this pregnancy. But I would like to think that the drastic changes we made to my body, our protocol and lifestyle led us to this point.
**This is not meant to be medical advice. Be sure to consult your doctor with any medical concerns. This is the account of my personal journey through infertility**
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