New cycle plan

The appointment went really well today, I had a few questions about the different methods of approaching a FET cycle and was a bit worried about discussing them with my specialist. But he was really fantastic...listened to all my questions, gave straight answers without rushing and allowed me to be involved in the decision process.

We have decided that this time we are going to do a medicated or HRT cycle. This involves taking a tablet called Progynova every 12 hours for the first week, then every 8 hours after that. The idea of this drug is to grow the lining, without needing to also grow a good follicle. A scan in 2 weeks time to check if the lining has grown well enough for transfer, if so then progesterone pessaries twice a day starting that day, continuing with the tablets every 8 hours as well. Then hopefully transfer on the 5th day after that.

This cycle is a lot more straight forward in that there is no need for repeated scans, urine samples for OPK's or trigger injection. Most importantly, it bypasses the ovaries all together so I don't have to worry about if and when I will ovulate. Which obviously makes the timing a lot easier as well - much more control. The down side of this type of cycle is that if I did fall pregnant, I would have to continue the 8 hourly tablets & twice daily pessaries for another 6 weeks.

In my case, because we only have 2 frozen embryos, there is still a good possiblity that they wont survive the thaw process, leaving us nothing to transfer anyway. So we agreed that the most important thing for us it to get to that transfer moment so that we can see what these embryos are going to do.

Another reason for our decision - the blood test result from last week put my progesterone level at 35. He said that he would have liked to see it at around 60, people who don't ovulate at all are usually around 20. So I'm in the middle somewhere. Because of this, I would also feel a lot more confident having the progesterone support after transfer - I just don't trust my body to produce the hormones that are needed to sustain an embryo should it implant.

I feel really good about our decision and much more confident about getting to transfer day. So, tablets start tonight at 10pm, then 10am & 10pm every day until Wednesday next week when they will be at 6am, 2pm and 10pm. We have set alarms on both my phone and my hubby's phone - the nurse has told me that if I miss even one of the tablets, I will have a withdrawl bleed and the cycle will be over. No pressure there!!