fertility clinics « lifeslurper

Lifeslurper resides in a big brown land called Auuustralia. Her early years remain a mystery cloaked in a veil of depression.

Age 42 Lifeslurper meets the vague but gorgeous Wobbles. “What took him so long to arrive?” She asks.

They make their way together in the world just fine, but are not fine to make a baby – not without some outside help. Enter ART and 2008 the year of 4 IVF cycles & one lousy big fat negative.

Lifeslurper is now 47 years old! Time for a baby is running out fast, so too is her sanity. Now it's 2011 - Lifeslurper & Wobbles have moved into top baby making gear. Donor Egg Cycles are the way to go, after a long pause to take stock after a glorious donor egg BFP & the subsequent loss. This year saw 2 cancelled FET cycles, & and menopause causing delays.

Where to from here? After 10 cycles Lifeslurper & Wobbles now await their WobblyBub who is due in May 2012 - actually make that...um....*sigh*...what's the point?

The agony of the agonist…a cycle by any other name

Since moving into this crazy world of infertility treatments, I have caught a bad case of a related habit: the obsessive compulsive quest for information. It never ceases to amaze me just how many ways there are to make a baby (or not!)

Sure, if you are not fertility challenged there is one sure fire way to do this. For the rest of us poor deluded souls, there appears to be an infinite number of permutations on what seems to be a few standard ideas. Lifeslurper is slowly becoming convinced that endless array of ART protocol and medication names are put forward by fertility specialists, clinics and pharmaceutical companies the world over just to astound and confuse us the unfortunate recipients of these less than standardised treatment names and terms. Continue reading The agony of the agonist…a cycle by any other name

Counting the cost of ART

There are a number of prime considerations about the decision to undertake ART treatments and how many IVF cycles to attempt. Apart from the ever increasing overlay of emotional and physical factors, there are practical issues as well. Arranging treatment around work schedules; allowing for travel time; and the extent of the waiting list to see the fertility specialist of choice.

We consider ourselves to be fortunate to be seeing our third specialist. Dr Loverley is young and keen and largely undiscovered. Our ability to see him for a consultation at short notice is almost unimpeded.

Beyond the practical, emotional and physical factors there is one almighty consideration that needs revisiting with the dawn of each new cycle; the financial cost. Continue reading Counting the cost of ART

The Pointy End

This current IVF cycle has been very low key. Very quick. Almost painless.

IVF life without Synarel seems much easier. Better still is the hope of a new fertility specialist offering a brand new protocol with lots of bells and whistles. How could an antagonist cycle with two daily doses of FSH plus 5 days of Clomid plus latter days of Orgalutran to ward off ovulation possibly go wrong?

Now we stand before that horrible precipice, where a wrong move could see us make a sharp fall to cycle cancellation. Tomorrow is that critical ultrasound and blood test. I catch the train this afternoon to be there on time. Once before, this round of testing has brought us unstuck. On that occasion it lead to cycle cancellation. I had ‘under’ stimulated, yet one follicle had managed to ‘over’ stimulate and at over 35 mm it was considered a cyst. That in turn led to months of delays and a five month absence of menstruation. What fun! Continue reading The Pointy End

IVF and the 116 year old princess

Once upon a time in a fertility clinic waiting room far far away Lifeslurper was drawn to a picture book sitting atop of the children’s toy box.

The beautifully illustrated book told the tale of Sleeping Beauty, a princess who at birth was honoured with precious gifts from fairy godmothers. And where one wicked fairy cast an enchantment over the princess deciding how on reaching adulthood, the princess would prick her finger on a spindle and die. Fortunately a good fairy was watching over the princess and commuted her sentence to one hundred years of sleep. From there she would only awake after the kiss of a prince’s son.

Continue reading IVF and the 116 year old princess

lifeslurper

New to Lifeslurper?

6 weeks 1 day

Cycle 10 – Day 33: Day 10 Post 5 Day Transfer

10/01/11

The ART of Legislating Against Parenthood

Little IVF earthquakes

Mother’s Day

“Which way to BabyCo?”

Now…..where were we?

Aiming for the IVF stars

Because I did not wait to have children

The Loneliness of the Long Distance IVFer

Day One Mk IV

Message to My Baby

Profile