1.) I had the consult with my Dr.
He did not see a need for a repeat Day 3 FSH/LH test. He said he would increase my medications were I to try again. He admitted that, even though I had 18 eggs, that was considerably less than the previous 2 times and I also got off to a very slow start with their having to increase my medications on Day 8 when I got out there. I don't think this was ideal for egg quality.
He also said, next time, he would test the eggs instead of the embryos. He said that, 90% of the time a normal egg will go on to make a normal embryo. When he initially started doing CGH testing, he was testing the polar body of the egg, but then he switched to testing the embryo. Now he is saying that he thinks testing the egg would be better...at least in our case. He said something about it being less stress on the embryo. I'm a little confused by that and will have to ask him some more questions because I had thought it was the other way around. Unfortunately, this is the problem with taking advantage of new technology. Things are in a state of constant change as the more cycles and testing they do, the more things they discover and that leads to modifications. At my age though, I really don't have the luxury of waiting several years until they know everything there is to know.
Anyway, that was some information that I got out of the phone consult.
2.) I have everything in place now for my current surrogate to go ahead with the transfer of
our embryos at the local clinic in May and the ET will be the week of May 19.
I'm really feeling bad though because she is very hopeful of having it work and I'm just not feeling any optimism. This will be the 3rd transfer from that batch of embryos and we used all the best ones first so are kind of down to the last resort embryos. There are 2 blasts frozen but they are Day 6 and I'm not even sure what the quality is.
3.) I talked with a surrogacy agency yesterday, filled out a long profile for them and faxed over my DH's DQ Alpha results. I've also been making contact with independent surrogates.
The lady who runs the agency works frequently with my Dr.'s patients (she's actually his daughter) so some of her surrogates have already had the testing done. She was going to check to see if there were any surrogates that met our other qualifications that didn't have the match and will send me some profiles. She was nice enough to do this for me before I commit to anything. I'd only have to send in the first half of the fee if there is a surrogate I like and want to exchange information with. The problem here is the agency fee is $ 13,000 and, from my research, it's standard for these agencies to charge anywhere from $ 12,000 to $ 18,000. That's another fresh cycle!
This fee includes matching, scheduling travel arrangements for the surrogate if needed, managing the escrow account and acting as a liason throughout the process. This does not include any of the actual compensation for the surrogate or the attorney's fees to do the contract. Last time I found my own surrogate so, other than her compensation, we only had to pay an attorney $ 1,500 for the contract (we used the same one my surrogate had with her previous couple so the attorney charged $ 1,000 less than normal) and $ 1,000 to manage the escrow account.
The good news is I've been connecting with surrogates on a message board and have been e-mailing back and forth with one in particular who seems like she might be perfect. She actually lives out in Vegas and has done this 4 times (couldn't ask for more experience than that). She is also 38, is married and has two older teenage children and 2 cats. She seems really sweet. So, perhaps something will come of this. Although, it seems too good to be true that I would find the right person that quickly!
I'm just not convinced the agency can do anything for me that I can't do on my own. I have the time and plenty of experience coordinating all of this stuff at this point.
So, that's where things are at right now. I never thought I would have the energy to pick myself back up and do all of this stuff but, day by day, I am somehow getting it done. And, honestly, I have to admit enjoying exchanging e-mails with women on the surrogacy board. These are women who have some amazing stories to tell. It's pretty evident that, while many of them can use the money, it's not their primary motivation for doing it at all. They really enjoy developing a relationship with the IP's (Intended Parents) and being able to help them bring their child into the world.
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