May I please have more antral follies???

Today's appointment was good, well, for the most part. I'll describe what the process was like and point out the good and bad highlights as we go.

So the appointment starts like most GYN appointments with the good old speculum...always a fun contraption (yeah right!) The trial transfer was done - basically the RE inserted a catheter just like the kind that will be used to transfer the embryos into the uterus on transfer day. Every woman's cervix is slightly different so this kind of tells them the path they're going to take (also beneficial to find out any issues now instead of on transfer day.) So this went well! I was a bit worried about my scarred up cervix, but the catheter went in nice and smooth so we're all good there. Cultures were also taken to check for gonorrhea and chlamydia as is routine.

The saline u/s (sonohysterogram) consisted of them inserting a small catheter through the cervix and running saline solution into the uterus while performing a vaginal u/s. So you feel like this little tube is falling out of your hoo-ha while at the same time a condom covered probe is poking around in there. God, this is all so much fun! The good news from this test - my uterus is free of polyps and fibroids so we're good to go.

Now the not so great news. Back in July, my antral follicle count (resting follicles) was 9, which is pretty good for my age considering I only have one ovary. The antral follie count is used as part of how they gauge ovarian reserve and gives the docs an idea of what they're up against (if you have lots of follies, you may over-stimulate so they may have to watch you closely for that; if you have too few follies, you may end up not getting enough follicles during the stim portion of the process and have to cancel mid-way through.) Today's antral follie count for me was 4. Four is pure crap!! It truly sucks!!

To explain why this could be an issue further - as I do the stim injections, the goal is to get multiple, good-size follicles on my ovary in the hopes that there will be a mature egg in each follicle. That's right, just because there is a follicle, all big and juicy in there, does not necessarily mean there is an egg in it. So lets say there are 4 follicles that are nice and big and plump. On retrieval day, they aspirate each follicle and then see how many eggs were retrieved - so it's very possible that you get less eggs than you had follicles. There is also the possibility that an egg they retrieved isn't mature enough - goodbye to any of those.

So the "mature" eggs retrieved are put with DH's sperm to see if they fertilize. Typically, only a portion of them will fertilize. Then those that do fertilize, need to continue to grow to 3-day, 4-day, or 5-day embryos in order to be "healthy" enough to transfer back into me. So you could have a scenario where we have 4 follicles, 3 have eggs, 2 fertilize, but only 1 makes it to transfer. Or perhaps all 4 make it. Or perhaps none.

It is possible that when I go for my baseline u/s & start stims on 10/8 that I will have more than four antral follies, but it's possible that I won't. I know the docs are planning on loading me up with stims to maximize whatever I can get out of that ovary. So I can only hope and pray that whatever I am able to produce is great quality since I'll be lacking in the quantity department. I know everyone says "It only takes one" so say a little prayer that that stands true for us.