I FINALLY had my follow-up appointment with the RE yesterday after my FET c/p in March and my RPL panel bloodwork. I am so impressed with my RE. There is a reason that he's one of the best! He had spent a long time reviewing our chart and previous history and had a plan ready for us.
He first went over our RPL results. Everything came back normal EXCEPT that I have heterozygous Factor V Leiden. It's a blood clotting issue that means my blood is more prone to forming clots. He says that he does NOT think it has anything to do with our three loses, though. Apparently it's a big debate in the IF world because 10% of the population have Factor V, but only .5-1% of people have repeat pregnancy loss, so it may or may not be related. He said that our treatment options are taking aspirin or H.eparin injections. He discourages H.eparin, though, because the risks outweigh the gains.
His main conclusion is that our problems are a result of poor egg quality. With an FSH of 11.4, I'm above normal, which could indicate egg quality issues. His goal with our next IVF will be to try and improve egg quality by using "softer" stimulation and by adding growth hormone, which recent studies have shown to improve quality. He is also swiching L.upron to GnRH antagonist which won't give me such extreme headaches. We're hoping to get fewer eggs of better quality. In the past, they've retrieved 23 eggs each time but only about 14 have been mature and 9 fertilized (both cycles were pretty similar), although in the first cycle, my embryos after day 3 had poor quality and poor morphology. So, if we can have fewer eggs that are better quality and more able to fertilize, plus take aspirin for the Factor V, then maybe this is a recipe that will work!
Mr. C and have had our hope restored a bit after hearing what our RE had to say. We're ready to move along with this next cycle (probably in July). Mr. C. is feeling positive and supports this new plan, so that makes me feel so good!
