Felt like a race against time

41 year old, turning 42 in a few days. I have conceived naturally twice (resulting in our first born and one miscarriage) and both pregnancies were tough on me. I’m just not one of those women who can be glowing and graceful during pregnancy. I feel like a total mess. For this reason, I procrastinated on pursuing IVF. I also have a mild needle phobia, which was another reason I procrastinated. I also hadn’t done sufficient research: I thought that by pursuing IVF, I was committing to go straight into pregnancy. I didn’t understand that the egg retrieval/PGT-A testing is a separate process that was urgent given my age.

So once I realized how urgent timing for egg retrieval-at the beginning of this summer-I got moving and fast! And man, did I feel like a character on a side quest. We needed a medical clearance from my primary doctor, a meeting with a high risk OBGYN, genetic testing and pelvic MRI before we could even get started.

Then, 2 months later, we started round 1. We retrieved 10 eggs, 9 mature, 8 fertilized, 5 blastocysts, and 2 euploids (Day 5 4AB and Day 5 CC). Feeling relieved.

But before I even knew the blastocysts and PGT-A testing results, I committed to doing a Duo Stim back-to-back cycles. One week into this second cycle and hoping to bank one more euploid embryo. Just relieved to sneak this in before things got much harder. My AMH now is 1.9-2.1 and 12-15 follicle count. Who knows what these numbers would be 6 months from now?

If you are like me, don’t procrastinate!