Before our first embryo transfer, I never would have thought we wouldn’t have a baby from it. I was so optimistic it was going to work the first time and had every right to be as we got our BFP (big fat positive) with our little Baby Hippo. But then we became the 1 in 4 who suffers a miscarriage. And just like that our first baby was gone and we had to figure out how to move forward.
Our clinic makes you wait 2 cycles until you can move forward with your next embryo transfer after a miscarriage. During those 2 months, we had 2 SHGs and ended up needing a hysteroscopy to remove the remaining scar tissue/film from the first pregnancy. After we were cleared it was time to wrap our heads around our second frozen embryo transfer. So 5 months after our first transfer, we went into our second embryo transfer doing a few things differently.
Removing Folic Acid
Part of my protocol since starting infertility treatments was to take daily folic acid supplements. After my miscarriage, I asked both my clinic and my OBGYN to do a blood test to check for the MTHFR mutation. After research and speaking with other professionals, I had learned that if you test positive for the MTHFR mutation, taking folic acid could actually be a potential cause for miscarriage. I don’t know about you, but if there is ANY chance that me taking folic acid caused my miscarriage I didn’t want to do it anymore! My clinic wouldn’t do the test for me, but my OBGYN did. I don’t have the MTHFR mutation, but after both doctors said I didn’t need to be taking folic acid, I made the choice for my own sanity to switch to a prenatal vitamin with folate and added in a fish oil supplement (for the DHA that my prenatal was missing). Why have there be any potential risk when there is a perfectly good substitution that does the same thing?
Focus on Thickening My Uterine Lining
After I was done with the birth control pills, I scheduled my baseline ultrasound to be cleared to begin taking estrogen (to help my body thicken my uterine lining in preparation for implantation). Ideally, after my third ultrasound check they want me to have a lining over 8mm to be cleared for transfer. For my first transfer, we just couldn’t seem to get it over 7.4mm (and somehow they let me transfer anyways). So here is what I did different (on top of the oral and vaginal inserts of estrogen) for my second embryo transfer that resulted in my lining measuring between 8.5-9.4mm:
Drank 1-2 glasses of pomegranate juice every day starting with estrogen (for me, mixing it with a little Passionfruit La Croix made it so much more enjoyable!)
Drank a cup of bone broth every day starting with estrogen
Drank a cup of red raspberry leaf tea every day starting with estrogen and stopping one week before my transfer date
Acupuncture once a week
Take two doses of liquid iron every day starting with estrogen up to a couple days before transfer
Drank a glass of fresh pressed green juice every day starting with estrogen
Drank a glass of fresh pressed beet juice every day starting with estrogen
Drank a cup of goji berry tea (maybe) every day starting with estrogen and stopping one week before transfer
Ate 3-5 Brazil nuts every day starting with estrogen
Ate ½ - 1 avocado every day starting with estrogen
Gave up coffee (I had switched to decaf at this point) one week before transfer and the week following transfer
Ate 1 egg every day starting with estrogen
Added red meat to my diet a couple times a week starting with estrogen
Focused on drinking at least 64oz. Of water every day starting with estrogen
Now all of this may have been overkill and not necessary, but checking all of these things off of my to do list every day was the only real thing I had control over. Besides...it’s not like any of those things were bad for me anyways so why not go a little overboard? The key though was not stressing about checking off all these items. For my first transfer this became a stress for me as I didn’t always “do” everything I was supposed to each day. This time it felt it was more of a choice and part of my daily routine to check off these items. I guess you could say this is all becoming my “normal”.
Transferred 2 Embryos
For our first transfer it was advised that we transferred only 1 embryo. Our doctor does explain the risks that come with getting pregnant with multiples and for our first transfer, we felt it was better to start with 1 anyways. After our miscarriage, we knew we had to reevaluate how we were going to move forward and unfortunately a lot of that conversation stemmed from finances. Each frozen embryo transfer moving forward will cost us around $5,000. With 8 frozen embryos left after our first transfer, we knew we weren't going to do (or be able to afford) 8 more individual transfers so at some point we would have to double up. So why not now? We are okay with multiples (one-and-done pregnancy...yes please!) and our doctor agreed to letting us move forward with 2. Now there is no way of knowing whether that was the right decision since our transfer didn't work, but we stand by our choice to transfer 2 and will probably do so again.
It may seem silly to reflect back on our second embryo transfer since we got a BFN (big fat negative) from it. And it can be frustrating to think that you did everything right...everything looked perfect...and yet it still didn’t work. But as every infertility warrior knows, nothing is guaranteed in this process. So we have to spend the time grieving our last transfer not working, and then figure out how to move forward and just focus on that.
**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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