A long road ahead

I had my WTF appointment with my RE on Thursday, and while nothing earth shattering came out of it, it confirmed how long this process is going to be. 

We agreed to stick to the same protocol (long lupron) since I responded well last time (14 eggs retrieved), but she was open to doing an antagonist protocol if "the length of the protocol was too long or I was uncomfortable with the number of shots".  As much as I would like to cut down on the length of the process, we don't know how I would respond.  I don't want to turn this into a test cycle.  The low dose (125 IU Follistim + 75 IU Menopur) seemed right on target.  I think the only thing I would like to improve is the number of eggs that fertilitized (8 of 14).

We also discussed doing a freeze all cycle, which I am okay with as long as we can have some flexibility.  It would be unfortunate to prepare for a freeze all cycle, and then find out too late that I had a chromosomally normal embryo that couldn't be frozen, or that was unlikely to survive the freeze/thaw cycle that could have been transferred fresh.  The next question is whether it's worth the $700 rush fee to not have to wait two weeks to find out whether there are any normal embryos in the bunch.  I'm hoping that when we get to that point, it'll be easier to make the decision based on the information we have about the embryos. 

If we do the freeze-all cycle, then I would need to take a cycle off she is highly encouraging me to do a natural FET.  Maybe if I thought I was going to ovulate (and if cysts had resolved themselves by then), it's possible that I could do it the cycle after the IVF, but I don't know how likely that is.  The reason for the wait is that because as she put it, the stakes are high.  It's unlikely that I would sign up for another fresh cycle.  And because I miscarried a euploidy embryo, she wanted to try to create the most natural environment possible for the embryo.  We'll have to see about that one.  I have never been pregnant on anything other than a clomid cycle, so I am definitely biased.  We'll see what happens.

So what does all this mean?  Assuming that things are similar to my IVF in the fall, it translates to a frozen transfer in the middle of July.  Ouch.  That's four months away.  This is going to put my patience to the test!  Honestly, I can't help but wonder, do I really have a better chance by going through all this and having one chance to get pregnant in the next 4 months vs. trying via some other method?  Unfortunately, my egg quality is not that great (~15% normal?), so the answer may be yes. 

AF should start in the next week and a half or so, which means that I should have a calendar for the first part of this process soon.  And once I have that, I'll have something to work off.  At least it appears that I am moving forward.  I also stopped in for a blood draw while I was at the clinic and my levels have returned back to zero.  It's too bad because I would much rather be 13 weeks pregnant than planning out an IVF cycle!