geminigirl: Congrats to you and your partner as well! This is all so crazy, and I'm still in a bit of denial about being pregnant after 18 months of trying! We are very excited! We are also in the Bay Area!
Riley: We are very happy with our choice! I didn't notice that his other family members were tall, so thanks for pointing that out.
LOL about the spreadsheet. I thought only I was that anal (and analytical). 12434 was our second choice...but only because he was not available when we picked our first donor. Our first donor had less than ideal sperm counts and after two failed IUI's and two returned vials, we hit the drawing board again. It looks us weeks to decide on the first one and my unlimited sub was running out in 2 days and we were leaving for a trip the next day (and CCB was unwilling to extend my subscription). We both liked the first donor, but weren't in love with him. I think my partner settled a bit on that one. So, we started looking again and stumbled on to donor 12434. I immediately thought he looked great on paper. His pics were adorable. But when we listened to the audio interview we KNEW he was the one. We looked no further. When they asked him what his fav book was (I was hoping he'd say my favorite book) and when he did, I was sold. Not to mention the fact that he had all the right answers, was super, super smart, athletic and attractive to boot. CCB also rated him very high on their attractiveness scale. His only downfall is his height and I'm sure that's why he still has vials avail. Most people apparently want donors over 6 feet. I'll be honest, we have 4 vials in storage and will be buying some more after our first U/S on Tuesday just in case we ever decide to have more children. I look all the time to make sure he's not going to sell out.
TDC: It is very crazy and we too are in a bit of denial. It's been about 9 months for us but it still seems like an eternity. Once you finally come to the conclusion you want to have kids, or are ready to have kids, the waiting can be maddening. The waiting for the initial doctors appt, for the referral, for the testing, for CD1, for the IUI, for the pregnancy test. Over and over and over again. And now there's all the waiting ahead of us. For the first ultrasound, first trimester, etc, etc. Awesome you're in the Bay Area!! Very cool!! And you and my partner are only about 2 and half/three weeks apart.
geminigirl - too funny again! It was also the audio interview that clinched it for me. But unlike what "most" people want, I wanted a shorter donor. As a 5'10 woman with a 6'5" father, I really didn't want to make giants.
5'10 would have been great for me, but seeing his brothers/father towering in the 6'3-6'5 range, something tells me this guy is not a producer of short kids. His height is a downfall to me because I don't really think of him as 5'10 ... I think of him as fall of tall genes that I don't really want. But I'll deal :)
Not to scare anyone, but shawnbay suggested on the phone to me that he's going to sell out in about a month by his best guess. I have 5 vials, but that should be plenty for a couple of kids through IVF which doesn't usually needs as many attempts as IUI. For all I know, one IVF attempt could create enough frozen embryos for multiple kids.
I used to live in Bernal Heights. You guys are tempting me to move back there if I get pregnant!
Riley: Yikes about our donor getting close to selling out. We have our first ultrasound tomorrow and will be buying some more after that. My partner had four follicles so we need to make sure we don't have twins. If she had two, we'd probably be done having kids. We're very anxious/excited/nervous for the ultrasound tomorrow.
It seems like a lot of people have been pretty successful with our donor. There's....5 people now that are pregnant? When do you plan on doing your first cycle? How exciting!!!
Bernal Heights, eh? I love that area. We're in the East Bay. What part of the county are you in now?
I'm in NYC now. Good luck with the ultrasound!! Can't wait to hear the results.
I have an appointment September 12 for the consult and at that point I will be just about where I should be to start a long IVF cycle. If he wants to do a long cycle (1 week lupron, 10-14 days of stims) like he did last time, and IF he's willing to start me right away, I would be on track for an early october retrieval. If not, then it would be an early november retrieval. I'm really hoping for October, but I won't know until September 12 whether he's ok to start me right away.
I've already done a retrieval cycle here, but it wasn't with donor sperm. They have a policy of requiring an appointment with one of their psychologists for any donor sperm cycle. That could also hold me up until early Nov :/ since I couldn't get in with the psychogist until Sep 22 and that's certainly too late to start. I guess it's only one month different, but I'm really hoping that I can start shots. I don't know if I have to "pass" the psychology appointment to do a donor sperm cycle, or if it's just a requirement during the process (they say it's moreso to help me be able to answer the child's questions in the future, and not a test of my suitability, but we'll see).
Sorry if that's TMI - anyway, assuming I'm successful within a few months, I think we'd all have children in the same grade in school. Can you imagine 6 or 8 half-siblings all in the 4th grade or something? What a get together that will be! Considering this donor is open ... imagine the year they all turn 18!
Geminigirl: Hope your ultrasound was good today!! Seeing the heartbeat certainly helps calm the nerves.
We are probably not going to buy any more sperm. I'm tempted, but we did an IVF cycle and have 6 frozen embryos currently. We used my partner's eggs this time and implanted the embryos in me. The only reason I would want to buy more would be to try my eggs again in the future with the same donor.
We didn't even listen to his interview and picked him! I guess we should purchase and listen since everyone really liked it.
Hi! 13 Weeks pregnant on first IUI from 12434! I had grim predictions from every specialist, so I think those must be some super swimmers! I would love to stay in touch via email as well if anybody else does.
Best of luck and please let me know how things turn out!
Sorry, third post....didn't see the second page on my phone. Congrats to all the pregnancies; that's amazing! I am also looking forwards to meeting half-siblings.
Like a lot of you, I did the whole spreadsheet thing, and was rather lukewarm about all the choices-they were good, but nobody stood out, and this is one time where I absolutely don't want to settle. I totally stumbled across this donor a few days before I had to decide, and I knew it was the right decision. Like a lot of you, I also am drawn to the open donor option. I think it can answer a lot of questions my child might have and provide comfort.
There are many reasons I think this donor is absolutely wonderful, but what really, really decided it for me were his comments at the very end of his oral interview about the beauty in all families, whether traditional or a bit unique. Maybe it's the pregnancy hormones, but it totally makes me well up every time.
Okay, last post of the day, but it's just a thrill to find you all!
Our ultrasound went fantastic. We got to see the baby and hear the heartbeat. It was very, very cool. Everything looked great and the baby is measuring 7 weeks, 4 days so about right on schedule, just a little bit bigger. Heart rate was strong, it all looks great. It was a really neat experience. We bought a fetal doppler but have yet to be able to find the heart beat yet. We'll try again in another week.
Riley, you are right around the corner for your consult. I bet you are getting excited for that. I know how we were for every IUI. IVF is pretty exciting though. Your odds are sooooo much better than ours were. We went into each cycle hopeful but knowing that our chances weren't that's great and we'd just have to stick it out until we got a BFP. Interesting that you have to meet with a psychologist. We didn't have to do anything for ours. I was expecting to have to do SOMETHING...but no one asked any questions. We did have about a 12 page questionairre to fill out though. I've heard that the psychologist appt is pretty routine though. A half sibling get together would be very cool someday. I hate to count my chickens before they hatch but I think it's really neat and hope that is going to be an option in the future. My partner was really lukewarm about half-sibling meet ups someday but she's definitely come around to the idea. I think all the documentaries and spots on TV about the DSR have helped that process. Have you seen Donor Unknown? It was at the Tribeca Film festival this summer. And yes, if I were a donor I'd be trolling the message boards as well. I know I'm curious about our donor and what drives a person to donate. And if I were a donor, I'd be very curious about donor offspring. But maybe I'm a minority. But, I have a feeling that talk is taboo here...
TDC, what you are and your partner is doing is very, very cool. If money wasn't a concern, my partner and I would have done something similar. I've got fantastic insurance through work so insurance is covering most of the cost of this process luckily. The largest cost has been sperm. We decided for my partner to have the first one, and for myself to have the second one with the same donor. It would have been awesome for her to use my eggs and me to use hers though. Modern medicine is amazing. You ought to listen to his audio interview. If I wasn't sold on anything else, his interview would have sold me.
Rachel, congrats! I think his swimmers must be incredible. So far folks have been very successful. I'm glad you've beat the odds by the specialists and am wishing you a happy and healthy pregnancy. I've also emailed you back and hope you'll keep in touch. I'm thrilled you found us! So far the women here seem super, super nice. I think the fact that we all think that our donor is wonderful says a lot about us and what we value in life and hope for our children and their future. I can only assume other people feel as strongly about their donors as we do about ours. And yes...his comment at the end of his audio interview brought tears to my eyes.
Just got back from my consult. Doctor said no to IVF because he says I have all indications of being very fertile and IVF is too aggressive. He wanted to do a natural IUI cycle, but I convinced him to at least let me do chlomid to up the chances. And he agreed that we wouldn't do a year of IUIs or anything - and we could switch to IVF after 3 tries.
All that said ... we're a go for October!!!!!! Based on current timing, I expect my first IUI to be October 4 or 5. I cannot believe this is happening!! Please please .... I need baby dust.
(anyone know what IUI success rates are when there are no known issues? I've read general success rates of 10-20%, but my RE said "those are women who have issues ... you don't. Your odds of getting pregnant through sex in a given month if perfectly timed are 25% ... and we'll be using chlomid and placing the sperm in the uterus itself - so it should be better than that")
Anyway, I am flying right now. I was so nervous he would not give a go-ahead for October.
Ladies, we should make a mailing list - even if we use fake names and dedicated email address - up to each of us to decide - and anyone proven pregnant with 12434 can decide to be on the list or not (how can we "know" if each of us is really pregnant with 12434? Gotta figure that one out to keep the list appropriately private ...). If/when I get my positive preg test, I will take initiative to create this mailing list.
just bought 5 of the last 11 vials. we are soooo broke but hopefully that will be enough for our family. we now have 9 vials...
riley, the problem with using frozen sperm is that it only lives 24 hours at most... so even with everything perfect with the IUI, the egg and sperm might not match up. my RE says 15-20% chance if everything is perfect.
we'll be doing our second IUI (both with 12434) a week from wednesday.
i was thinking a private facebook page (like the ccb one) would be a good idea. if people want to stay super anonymous they could always make a different email address and facebook account.
good luck bayne! with 9 vials, if you have repeated failures, maybe you could switch to IVF if you get down to only 3 or 4 vials .... one IVF round could be all you need for a few children if you have frozen embryos ...
Are you doing Clomid / injectibles / natural IUI?
Another good thing about us all keeping in touch is that many of us have more vials than we'll need and some of us may have fewer. After my appointment today where my RE said he wanted to do IUI for 3-6 attempts before moving to IVF, he said I needed more than the 5 vials I already had and that I should have a dozen vials if I wanted a child and a sibling. So I just bought some more today too, per my RE's advice. But if I'm particularly lucky, who's to say I won't have some extra vials down the road? I mean, maybe I won't ... but I know if I had 2 or 3 children and still had vials, I would definitely share them back to other people with a child from this donor ... we're all sort of family ... right?
IVF just isn't an option for a high school teacher and small business owner! we each have a uterus so one of us should be able to get pregnant.
the first go we did 50mg clomid and this time we're doing 100mg. last time we had one good follicle so obviously we're hoping for more this time. my wife does have pcos but our RE isn't worried about it at all.
we have a friend who got pregnant on the first try both times, a friend who got pregnant after 8 months, another who finally got pregnant after 18 months of trying only to lose the baby at 8 weeks, and another who did IVF and has twin boys. (all using CCB sperm)
the person who took 8 months didn't have any health issues, the person who took 18 months needed room in her uterus (got pregnant first time after the procedure) and the one with twin boys didn't have enough room in her tubes. they actually still have embryos left but are probably just going to have them destroyed.
i would also sell my vials if we had three kids. my wife only wants one but i want a couple. if we can't get pregnant by the 4th or so try we'll probably sell our vials and find a different and less popular donor!
Now, especially if your wife has PCOS, she can be a high egg producer. I am borderline PCOS and when I had an egg retrieval, I got 31! eggs, of which 27 were mature and normal. That is a really high amount, and if those had been fertilized (I just froze them directly), I probably could have ended up with 2-3 kids just from those eggs, and only used vial. I am saving those eggs for now because I am just 35 now and for kid 2 or 3 I may need them, but I'm still ok now.
An IVF attempt can have an over 50% success rate, AND you can end up with enough frozen embryos for multiple attempts, with each attempt with frozen also have near 50% success rates and costing a couple of thousand dollars. With IUI, you could have a 10-20% success rate, and you need a new vial each time. As far as I can calculate it, if you want 2-3 kids, factoring in all costs including sperm and chance of success, it's less expensive to do IVF if you know you're a good egg producer ...
Sorry, rambling, but you follow what I'm saying? IVF can be cheaper in the long run because of much higher success rate per attempt and frozen embryos. That's all.
I get what you're saying... but both of us will be carrying babies. For us to shell out $20,000 would put us in a hole for a very long time. It is entirely possible to get pregnant without spending all that money. Not to mention the toll egg retrieval does to your body.
Did you have eggs retrieved because of a medical reason or just to save them?
Crazy to see that the donor is sold out already. We purchased as many vials as we wanted so hopefully that will be enough! And if I was the donor, I'd be on these boards for sure.... but guys think differently than women so who knows if it would even cross his mind!
I had eggs frozen at 32 because the technology was out there and I thought it was a pretty cool thing to do. There's a really strong chance I'll use those eggs for child number 2 or 3. As far as the toll on my body - it really wasn't so bad ... but I know some people have issues.
So we think he's reading this, eh ....
Hi donor 12434! I think you're awesome. Sure, I wish you had some girls in your family and didn't have so many tall relatives (since I'm already tall myself) ;) and I'm blonde/blue eyed myself so wasn't looking for brown/brown necessarily (sorta better if one's kid looks like her I think) - but you're just really stellar in all the things that matter. Some friends think I should have picked someone less "mathy" as I have a similar math background/scores/aptitude as you do, along with engineering graduate degrees, etc, and work in technology ... I hope there's isn't a math-gene overload. Though you seem well rounded enough to avoid creating an infant whose first words are to tell me what the log of the tiles in the ceiling to the base of the bars in his crib is ... so I think it'll all be ok. Anyway, thanks for the sperm!
Does anyone have extra vials from this donor? I had decided on this donor - and now his vials are sold out. Would appreciate it if you can help me. thanks.
I'm trying to count the pregnancies, is there 5 or 6? Geminigirl, glad to hear your ultrasound went well! I broke down yesterday at work and used the doppler to hear our little bean! It was awesome, and helped relieve more of my anxieties! We are 12 weeks tomorrow! I'm up for some kind of email group, or are any of you on babycenter? We could create a group there as well!
Best wishes everyone! I'm glad I got my 1 vial that worked, before he sold out!!
Hi TDC. I'm not pregnant yet*, but actively TTC with 12434 and my doctor seems sure I have enough vials for (at least) two children and that I will get pregnant quickly.
I am up for an email list, but totally understand if the list is kept to people with already confirmed BFPs, which hopefully I will have soon. You can reach me at rileyccb@gmail.com
*actually, my current hopeful "joke" is that I'm 4 days pregnant, because if this cycle works, the counting works from the last period, which was 4 days ago for me ;)
this guy was my favorite loved is interview first donor that i listen to that sounds like a sweet heart if any one have any vials left i would totally like to buy one pretty please my email is staciebaptis@yahoo.com
We had our second iui with 12434 today and his count was 16 million!His motility was 55%. Our dr. is pretty excited so we're hopeful but not overly so.
With my wife being a teacher, this would be the perfect month to get pregnant!
Good luck Mojo, Riley and Bayne and whomever else is trying at the moment. I'm definitely in for a mailing list of some sort or even baby center. I personally don't think you'd necessarily have to have a confirmed BFP, Riley. Even trying with the donor might be sufficient? I don't think the DSR is even able to confirm anything. What I don't like about these forums is that CCB allows spidering which allows for searches with google to return results from these forums. If we had something more private that wouldn't happen. I don't think you need a BFP to start up a group Riley. I think you are plenty invested in donor 12434 and I would be happy to join your group. I sent you an email as well so you had my email addy.
tdc: we're on BC but mostly lurk. How nice that you have a doppler at work! We bought one but have been unable to find the heartbeat yet. We have heard it at the dr office but I just can't find the darn thing myself. I may try again in a couple of weeks. Have you had any early guesses as to the sex of the baby? We're going at 14 weeks to one of those "entertainment ultrasound" places to hopefully find out the sex. This guy is a licensed sonographer who's been doing this stuff for 30 years. He's supposed to be really good. We are very anxious to find out. Time just seems to be standing still tho!
Hope everyone is well and either enjoying pregnancy or getting ready for their BFP!
Concentration: 70 million/ml Motility: 58% Total Volume: .4 Total Motile Count 16.2 million (this is the "at least 10" guaranteed number) Forward Progression "2+/3+" (whatever that means)
Also, my sample was frozen June 2010. Good to know :P
Comments
Riley: We are very happy with our choice! I didn't notice that his other family members were tall, so thanks for pointing that out.
TDC: It is very crazy and we too are in a bit of denial. It's been about 9 months for us but it still seems like an eternity. Once you finally come to the conclusion you want to have kids, or are ready to have kids, the waiting can be maddening. The waiting for the initial doctors appt, for the referral, for the testing, for CD1, for the IUI, for the pregnancy test. Over and over and over again. And now there's all the waiting ahead of us. For the first ultrasound, first trimester, etc, etc. Awesome you're in the Bay Area!! Very cool!! And you and my partner are only about 2 and half/three weeks apart.
5'10 would have been great for me, but seeing his brothers/father towering in the 6'3-6'5 range, something tells me this guy is not a producer of short kids. His height is a downfall to me because I don't really think of him as 5'10 ... I think of him as fall of tall genes that I don't really want. But I'll deal :)
Not to scare anyone, but shawnbay suggested on the phone to me that he's going to sell out in about a month by his best guess. I have 5 vials, but that should be plenty for a couple of kids through IVF which doesn't usually needs as many attempts as IUI. For all I know, one IVF attempt could create enough frozen embryos for multiple kids.
I used to live in Bernal Heights. You guys are tempting me to move back there if I get pregnant!
It seems like a lot of people have been pretty successful with our donor. There's....5 people now that are pregnant? When do you plan on doing your first cycle? How exciting!!!
Bernal Heights, eh? I love that area. We're in the East Bay. What part of the county are you in now?
I have an appointment September 12 for the consult and at that point I will be just about where I should be to start a long IVF cycle. If he wants to do a long cycle (1 week lupron, 10-14 days of stims) like he did last time, and IF he's willing to start me right away, I would be on track for an early october retrieval. If not, then it would be an early november retrieval. I'm really hoping for October, but I won't know until September 12 whether he's ok to start me right away.
I've already done a retrieval cycle here, but it wasn't with donor sperm. They have a policy of requiring an appointment with one of their psychologists for any donor sperm cycle. That could also hold me up until early Nov :/ since I couldn't get in with the psychogist until Sep 22 and that's certainly too late to start. I guess it's only one month different, but I'm really hoping that I can start shots. I don't know if I have to "pass" the psychology appointment to do a donor sperm cycle, or if it's just a requirement during the process (they say it's moreso to help me be able to answer the child's questions in the future, and not a test of my suitability, but we'll see).
Sorry if that's TMI - anyway, assuming I'm successful within a few months, I think we'd all have children in the same grade in school. Can you imagine 6 or 8 half-siblings all in the 4th grade or something? What a get together that will be! Considering this donor is open ... imagine the year they all turn 18!
We are probably not going to buy any more sperm. I'm tempted, but we did an IVF cycle and have 6 frozen embryos currently. We used my partner's eggs this time and implanted the embryos in me. The only reason I would want to buy more would be to try my eggs again in the future with the same donor.
We didn't even listen to his interview and picked him! I guess we should purchase and listen since everyone really liked it.
Best of luck and please let me know how things turn out!
Rachel
Like a lot of you, I did the whole spreadsheet thing, and was rather lukewarm about all the choices-they were good, but nobody stood out, and this is one time where I absolutely don't want to settle. I totally stumbled across this donor a few days before I had to decide, and I knew it was the right decision. Like a lot of you, I also am drawn to the open donor option. I think it can answer a lot of questions my child might have and provide comfort.
There are many reasons I think this donor is absolutely wonderful, but what really, really decided it for me were his comments at the very end of his oral interview about the beauty in all families, whether traditional or a bit unique. Maybe it's the pregnancy hormones, but it totally makes me well up every time.
Okay, last post of the day, but it's just a thrill to find you all!
Riley, you are right around the corner for your consult. I bet you are getting excited for that. I know how we were for every IUI. IVF is pretty exciting though. Your odds are sooooo much better than ours were. We went into each cycle hopeful but knowing that our chances weren't that's great and we'd just have to stick it out until we got a BFP. Interesting that you have to meet with a psychologist. We didn't have to do anything for ours. I was expecting to have to do SOMETHING...but no one asked any questions. We did have about a 12 page questionairre to fill out though. I've heard that the psychologist appt is pretty routine though. A half sibling get together would be very cool someday. I hate to count my chickens before they hatch but I think it's really neat and hope that is going to be an option in the future. My partner was really lukewarm about half-sibling meet ups someday but she's definitely come around to the idea. I think all the documentaries and spots on TV about the DSR have helped that process. Have you seen Donor Unknown? It was at the Tribeca Film festival this summer. And yes, if I were a donor I'd be trolling the message boards as well. I know I'm curious about our donor and what drives a person to donate. And if I were a donor, I'd be very curious about donor offspring. But maybe I'm a minority. But, I have a feeling that talk is taboo here...
TDC, what you are and your partner is doing is very, very cool. If money wasn't a concern, my partner and I would have done something similar. I've got fantastic insurance through work so insurance is covering most of the cost of this process luckily. The largest cost has been sperm. We decided for my partner to have the first one, and for myself to have the second one with the same donor. It would have been awesome for her to use my eggs and me to use hers though. Modern medicine is amazing. You ought to listen to his audio interview. If I wasn't sold on anything else, his interview would have sold me.
Rachel, congrats! I think his swimmers must be incredible. So far folks have been very successful. I'm glad you've beat the odds by the specialists and am wishing you a happy and healthy pregnancy. I've also emailed you back and hope you'll keep in touch. I'm thrilled you found us! So far the women here seem super, super nice. I think the fact that we all think that our donor is wonderful says a lot about us and what we value in life and hope for our children and their future. I can only assume other people feel as strongly about their donors as we do about ours. And yes...his comment at the end of his audio interview brought tears to my eyes.
All that said ... we're a go for October!!!!!! Based on current timing, I expect my first IUI to be October 4 or 5. I cannot believe this is happening!! Please please .... I need baby dust.
(anyone know what IUI success rates are when there are no known issues? I've read general success rates of 10-20%, but my RE said "those are women who have issues ... you don't. Your odds of getting pregnant through sex in a given month if perfectly timed are 25% ... and we'll be using chlomid and placing the sperm in the uterus itself - so it should be better than that")
Anyway, I am flying right now. I was so nervous he would not give a go-ahead for October.
Ladies, we should make a mailing list - even if we use fake names and dedicated email address - up to each of us to decide - and anyone proven pregnant with 12434 can decide to be on the list or not (how can we "know" if each of us is really pregnant with 12434? Gotta figure that one out to keep the list appropriately private ...). If/when I get my positive preg test, I will take initiative to create this mailing list.
riley, the problem with using frozen sperm is that it only lives 24 hours at most... so even with everything perfect with the IUI, the egg and sperm might not match up. my RE says 15-20% chance if everything is perfect.
we'll be doing our second IUI (both with 12434) a week from wednesday.
i was thinking a private facebook page (like the ccb one) would be a good idea. if people want to stay super anonymous they could always make a different email address and facebook account.
good luck to everyone!
Are you doing Clomid / injectibles / natural IUI?
Another good thing about us all keeping in touch is that many of us have more vials than we'll need and some of us may have fewer. After my appointment today where my RE said he wanted to do IUI for 3-6 attempts before moving to IVF, he said I needed more than the 5 vials I already had and that I should have a dozen vials if I wanted a child and a sibling. So I just bought some more today too, per my RE's advice. But if I'm particularly lucky, who's to say I won't have some extra vials down the road? I mean, maybe I won't ... but I know if I had 2 or 3 children and still had vials, I would definitely share them back to other people with a child from this donor ... we're all sort of family ... right?
the first go we did 50mg clomid and this time we're doing 100mg. last time we had one good follicle so obviously we're hoping for more this time. my wife does have pcos but our RE isn't worried about it at all.
we have a friend who got pregnant on the first try both times, a friend who got pregnant after 8 months, another who finally got pregnant after 18 months of trying only to lose the baby at 8 weeks, and another who did IVF and has twin boys. (all using CCB sperm)
the person who took 8 months didn't have any health issues, the person who took 18 months needed room in her uterus (got pregnant first time after the procedure) and the one with twin boys didn't have enough room in her tubes. they actually still have embryos left but are probably just going to have them destroyed.
i would also sell my vials if we had three kids. my wife only wants one but i want a couple. if we can't get pregnant by the 4th or so try we'll probably sell our vials and find a different and less popular donor!
Here's the way I look at the math and why I would have preferred IVF
IVF cost: ~ $10,000 + 1 vial = $10,700 with 50% success+frozen embryos
IUI cost: ~ $1500 + 1-2 vials = $2500 with 15% success + nothing frozen
Now, especially if your wife has PCOS, she can be a high egg producer. I am borderline PCOS and when I had an egg retrieval, I got 31! eggs, of which 27 were mature and normal. That is a really high amount, and if those had been fertilized (I just froze them directly), I probably could have ended up with 2-3 kids just from those eggs, and only used vial. I am saving those eggs for now because I am just 35 now and for kid 2 or 3 I may need them, but I'm still ok now.
An IVF attempt can have an over 50% success rate, AND you can end up with enough frozen embryos for multiple attempts, with each attempt with frozen also have near 50% success rates and costing a couple of thousand dollars. With IUI, you could have a 10-20% success rate, and you need a new vial each time. As far as I can calculate it, if you want 2-3 kids, factoring in all costs including sperm and chance of success, it's less expensive to do IVF if you know you're a good egg producer ...
Sorry, rambling, but you follow what I'm saying? IVF can be cheaper in the long run because of much higher success rate per attempt and frozen embryos. That's all.
Did you have eggs retrieved because of a medical reason or just to save them?
Crazy to see that the donor is sold out already. We purchased as many vials as we wanted so hopefully that will be enough! And if I was the donor, I'd be on these boards for sure.... but guys think differently than women so who knows if it would even cross his mind!
I had eggs frozen at 32 because the technology was out there and I thought it was a pretty cool thing to do. There's a really strong chance I'll use those eggs for child number 2 or 3. As far as the toll on my body - it really wasn't so bad ... but I know some people have issues.
So we think he's reading this, eh ....
Hi donor 12434! I think you're awesome. Sure, I wish you had some girls in your family and didn't have so many tall relatives (since I'm already tall myself) ;) and I'm blonde/blue eyed myself so wasn't looking for brown/brown necessarily (sorta better if one's kid looks like her I think) - but you're just really stellar in all the things that matter. Some friends think I should have picked someone less "mathy" as I have a similar math background/scores/aptitude as you do, along with engineering graduate degrees, etc, and work in technology ... I hope there's isn't a math-gene overload. Though you seem well rounded enough to avoid creating an infant whose first words are to tell me what the log of the tiles in the ceiling to the base of the bars in his crib is ... so I think it'll all be ok. Anyway, thanks for the sperm!
:D
I'm trying to count the pregnancies, is there 5 or 6? Geminigirl, glad to hear your ultrasound went well! I broke down yesterday at work and used the doppler to hear our little bean! It was awesome, and helped relieve more of my anxieties! We are 12 weeks tomorrow! I'm up for some kind of email group, or are any of you on babycenter? We could create a group there as well!
Best wishes everyone! I'm glad I got my 1 vial that worked, before he sold out!!
I am up for an email list, but totally understand if the list is kept to people with already confirmed BFPs, which hopefully I will have soon. You can reach me at rileyccb@gmail.com
*actually, my current hopeful "joke" is that I'm 4 days pregnant, because if this cycle works, the counting works from the last period, which was 4 days ago for me ;)
http://articles.boston.com/2011-09-15/community/30161121_1_donor-sibling-registry-sperm-donor-donor-conceived
the donor's name is ben seisler... google image him and check out how much he looks like a couple of his offspring. cute!
thanks
With my wife being a teacher, this would be the perfect month to get pregnant!
My doctor is almost certain I trigger tomorrow (saturday) and have the IUI ~30 hours later on Sunday. So our 2ww will definitely be overlapping.
Good luck!
Any of the folks pregnant with this donor have any updates?
tdc: we're on BC but mostly lurk. How nice that you have a doppler at work! We bought one but have been unable to find the heartbeat yet. We have heard it at the dr office but I just can't find the darn thing myself. I may try again in a couple of weeks. Have you had any early guesses as to the sex of the baby? We're going at 14 weeks to one of those "entertainment ultrasound" places to hopefully find out the sex. This guy is a licensed sonographer who's been doing this stuff for 30 years. He's supposed to be really good. We are very anxious to find out. Time just seems to be standing still tho!
Hope everyone is well and either enjoying pregnancy or getting ready for their BFP!
As others reported, nice specimen
Concentration: 70 million/ml
Motility: 58%
Total Volume: .4
Total Motile Count 16.2 million (this is the "at least 10" guaranteed number)
Forward Progression "2+/3+" (whatever that means)
Also, my sample was frozen June 2010. Good to know :P