Frozen oocyte

The Countdown

187 days, 17 hours, 23 minutes, and 08…07…06…seconds.

Thanks to a nifty countdown app, that’s how long my husband and I have until we leave for Brno, Czech Republic to undergo donor egg IVF at a clinic called Reprofit International. I can tell you, I am practically crawling out of my skin right now, waiting for January 4th, 2015 to arrive. 6 months. I can do this, right?

I don’t have a protocol for meds yet, but I will post here when I do. I have searched all over the kingdom of Google, but I must really suck at specific searches, because I can’t find information on what protocol women have done while leading up to frozen donor egg IVF. You read that right. We have chosen to use frozen oocytes as opposed to a fresh donor cycle. The upside?

  1. The clinic has one of the largest cryobanks in Europe (more donor choices).
  2. I don’t have to sync cycles with the donor.
  3. DH and I don’t have to worry about something going awry with our donor (and, therefore, having to cancel our cycle).
  4. It’s cheaper (€4000 (roughly $5477 as of this writing) for a frozen cycle and €4500 (roughly $6162 as of this writing) for a fresh cycle.).
  5. And – most importantly – ASRM (American Society for Reproductive Medicine) recently stated, “clinical pregnancy rates are similar between fresh and frozen cycles, but that that frozen cycles are more cost-effective, with a shorter time to cycle start and significantly lower cancellation rates.” (You can read the full press release here.)

The downside? We are guaranteed 8 good quality oocytes with a frozen cycle, where with a fresh cycle, we may get anywhere from 7-12 good quality oocytes, depending on how the donor responds (unlike US donor protocol, where up to 25-30 oocytes might be retrieved, the Czech clinic uses low dose stimming. It’s less impact on the donor, and in some cases, produces better quality eggs.). Then again, that number is just an estimate. We could retrieve just 5 eggs from a fresh donor.

But I digress.

The countdown continues…and I need to find a way to keep from going insane. I think this blog will help, and hopefully not just me. When searching for information on my diagnosis (fragile-x premuation carrier, fxpoi (fx-associated primary ovarian insufficiency) and how women were able to get pregnant with it, I found a frustratingly SMALL amount of information. If I can get my thoughts out of my head, and help someone else out in the meantime, then I’m hoping these next few months will be a little easier.