Friday, September 4, 2009

SET, PUPO, and other pertinent acronyms

Those of you who know the lingo will see SET (single embryo transfer) and think to yourself, "Oh, too bad the infertile breeder's embryos petered out and she only has 1 good one to transfer." I would appreciate your sympathy, but the real story is way more cheerful!

Mr. Foxy and I went in for our procedure yesterday, expecting that the clinic would pick the best 2 embies for transfer, as is standard for us 35+ ladies. We were surprised to learn that we had 2 blastocysts that were at the top of the scoring system (AA's). They were so good that the doctor gently tried to steer us toward a single-blast transfer to reduce the risks of multiples. I should mention that Dr. Snaggletooth wasn't in the office yesterday, so we had one of the other senior docs, let's call him Dr. Koop. Unlike Dr. Snaggletooth, Dr. Koop has a warm bedside manner and spent a lot of time talking us through the issues. And it took us a long time! Here's what our decision came down to:

1) If we transfer just 1 blast, it will have a good chance of implanting, due to its high quality and my previous success. Even if it doesn't "stick", though, we haven't hurt our overall chances. The other grade-AA embie will be saved, so we can do a frozen embryo transfer in another month. There's no risk to us in this scenario, only some potential delay.

2) If we transfer 2 top-quality blasts, though, there is a strong chance that both will implant and we'll have twins. This isn't a bad scenario, in and of itself, however the risk of triplets (which is much more dangerous than twins) becomes a possibility. Each of the two embryos have a 1% likelihood of splitting into a twin. Dr. Koop noted that we would be taking on an unnecessary risk if we took this route.

After a lot of discussion, we started leaning toward the SET, even though it seems so crazy for a 39-year old! In the end, Mr. Foxy asked the doctor what he personally would do. Dr. Koop says to me, "If you were my daughter, I'd tell you to transfer 1." Having lost my own father 9 years ago, I was a total sucker for this logic.

We transferred one embryo, froze the second one, plus several others will be frozen (maybe today?) after the embryologists decide which ones are "keepers". We are now, as they say, pregnant until proven otherwise (PUPO). Hee hee.

My biggest challenge in the 2 week wait (2WW) is to avoid picking up Waffle Girl. I mean, she's a skinny girl, but my lifting restriction is just 10lbs! My mom was a big help yesterday and this afternoon we have the girl's beloved auntie coming over. Yay!

Our pregnancy test will be on Monday, Sept. 14th. Ideas for fun distractions in the meantime are most appreciated!

2 comments:

  1. Good luck with not holding Waffle Girl! I only made it one day without picking up Little Bub (he loves snuggles) as I had the weight restriction too, and he is in the 97th percentile for an 18 month old (in other words, he's HUGE). It was too hard to resist him staring up at me with arms raised. :)

    Fingers crossed for the 14th!

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  2. 10 pound limit to lifting?! Ok, I may have to re-think this whole IVF thing. Hhmph.

    But, on the other hand, you give me hope. I am so happy to hear that an ... um .... older chick (like you & me) has the potential for an SET. I'm a bit (overwhelmingly) terrified of twins, so this is good news.

    Your situation sounds great! I'm glad you have two such great little embies, and that you have one on reserve for the future. GOOD LUCK!

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