Success with a FET (Frozen Embryo Transfer)
Our first daughter, now three, was conceived with the help of CNY Fertility Center. She was an IUI/injectable baby and we thought that would be the same protocol to get us lucky with baby number two! Well, my body had other surprises in store. I was put on the injectables/IUI protocol but, to my dismay at the time, my body wasn't responding. We ended up having to convert to an IVF cycle, as I eventually over-responded to medication (par for the course with PCOS sometimes). We ended up retrieving over twenty follicles. I was ecstatic! However, my happiness soon turned into despair when I received an update on our embryos. I was told that out of 20+, only 10 could be fertilized and out of those 10, only four were growing. I was heartbroken that we lost so many! Eventually, one stopped growing and we were left with only three. I was sure the cycle was a bust. We set up a three day transfer of two good looking embryos. Once again, I was filled with hope for those two little ones. I was so sure it would work. After all, I got pregnant last time with much less assistance. Why wouldn't it work? Turns out my two "good looking" embryos didn't make it. And I took some time off to regroup and cope with the disappointment. I was, however, told that we did have that last little embryo make it to blastocyst stage and it was frozen. The embryologist cautioned that, while it was able to be frozen, the quality was only fair. Within six months, we were ready to try again. I sought advice from the doctors about whether we should do another fresh cycle or implant our last little frozen blastocyst. It would be an understatement to say that I held little hope for the little guy to grow into a baby. But Dr. Kiltz and Dr. Greene both felt that we should go ahead and implant our frozen blastocyst first before moving on to a fresh cycle. So that's what we went ahead and did. I really had no hope for our one last blastocyst to make it-not only was there just one, but it was frozen AND only fair grade. It seemed like we had three strikes against us already. Dr. Kiltz did our transfer and I remember him telling me that it's not about "how pretty" the embryo is, but about how much it "wanted to live" about how "passionate" it was. Turns out Dr. Kiltz was right. Our last little blast, our frozen, fair grade embryo is now a beautiful, healthy 18 day old little girl. Thank you to all the staff at CNYFC! You helped make our dreams come true of completing our family and you kept the faith for us when we didn't think things would work out! Sincerely, Dan and Amanda (Big Sister Alexandra & Hayden too)