What Worked…You Ask???

Many of you have asked me what worked after all of the failed IVF/FET attempts. It was a combination of things.

1. We went BALLS TO THE WALL! All other attempts we only transferred 2 or 3 embryos but this cycle we did four which I had to fight the fertility clinic to do but BOY…was it worth it!

2. I feel the embryos were different. Take a look at the picture I attached of the winning embryos! Do you see the one at the top looks completely hatched and the one directly below it looks like it was hatching? My embryos have NEVER looked like that. They were always completely closed. And this is with no assisted hatching…they did that all on their own. I believe those two embryos were the ones that created these two beautiful babies in my belly!

3. Intralipid therapy – talk to your doctors about this one. A lot of doctors in the UK use this to help people get pregnant but it is still experimental in the US. It is a IV infusion of fatty acids…that’s it. My doc had me go get this done a few weeks before my frozen embryo transfer and I said “what the heck…it can’t hurt and I’ve tried everything else.” You have to get the IV done in the office and I had to pay $55.00 for intralipid prescription because insurance would not cover it since it is experimental. Once I became pregnant, I continued the intralipid therapy every 3 weeks and my last therapy will be next week at 20 weeks! A big shout out to Voula, one of the nurses at my fertility clinic who is THE BEST at doing IV’s. I won’t let anyone else do it!

4. Acupuncture! I hate needles and I said I would NEVER do acupuncture because it was ridiculously expensive and I had to expose myself to enough needles with this whole IVF/FET process. So many women swear by this and I read so many blogs about acupuncture helping with infertility. A good friend of mine recommended an acupuncturist that was super gentle with me (knowing that I scream to holy hell when those needles come my way). I started with the treatments 6 weeks before I did the FET that worked and mid way through, she had to move!!! Fortunately, I found out that my wife’s cousin is an acupuncturist and I started seeing her with the family discount!!! Yeah boy!!! She was great too and I thank God for her and her sister (who coincidentally is an RN and did my progesterone shots every day because my wife was too queasy to do it)! All of this plus my flexible spending program at worked reimbursed me for the cost of my sessions. It really didn’t get any better than this!

5. Visualization & Manifestation – this is hysterical coming from me because I am SO NOT what I call the “crunchy type” that believes in this stuff. I have a good friend who always talks to me about manifestation and how it works for her. Shout out to MJ! I decided to try it but I wasn’t all that good at it. When I started seeing my cousin-in-law for acupuncture, she helped me even more with it. Before my transfer, she told me to visualize myself in a garden. I would plant the seeds and cover them with soil and water the garden…care for the garden. Sounds crazy but I played this over and over in my mind during each acupuncture session and every night before I went to bed. After my transfer, she told me to visualize the seed that I planted starting to grow and to continue to care for the garden and water it and feed it. I continued to picture this with every acupuncture session and every night. Sounds crazy to some people (including me previously) but I truly feel that this helped my body prepare for becoming pregnant!

6. YOGA – I’ve done yoga before but another good friend of mine recommended an amazing Yoga studio which coincidentally was the same studio that my first acupuncturist had a treatment room in. Shout out to Yoga Haven in Tuckahoe, NY! I warn you…this studio is like the MOST expensive studio in my area but I tell you it was worth it. When I went to my first class, I LOVED the instructor. She didn’t just take you through the motions, she actually explained what they meant and why it was so meaningful to the body. I happened to start at a time when they were going through the different chakras. Each class would concentrate on a different chakra and since I made it to the first chakra class, I continued. I tell you I don’t make this stuff up but the 2nd chakra (the Sacral Chakra – Svadhisthana) has been used to care for your uterus and helps with fertility. That is ALL the instructor had to say…I was obsessed. I took two 2nd chakra classes; I started doing my own research about the 2nd chakra and I watched youtube videos at home and did the poses that were developed for the 2nd chakra. I drank the Kool Aid people and it tasted SO GOOD!!!

I really believe that I had a different mind set going into this FET cycle. I had to do things differently and I had to try things that I thought I would never do or that I never believed in. Part of it was out of desperation but another part of it was just putting hope into trying something different and STAYING POSITIVE, which is the hardest thing for me. Prayer helped too but I’ve always done that!!!

I hope some of you ladies out there struggling with infertility try some of these things and that it helps you too!

Love you for reading and thank you!!!