What is IVF

I have been talking a lot about IVF and it occured to me that so many people are unaware of what it really is and so many people I talk to automatically think of Jon and Kate plus 8 or Octomom..those are rare cases! In the IVF world anything more than 1 baby isn't considered a success.

Here is a link to a description of the treatment and all that IVF really entails: http://utahfertility.com/utah/treatment/IvfCycle.aspx

Here is a link about the risks involved with IVF: http://utahfertility.com/utah/treatment/IvfRisks.aspx


Today I have been doing quite a bit of research on different ways we can get meds paid for or discount programs and such. Luckily our REs office in Utah works with a place called Fertility Lifelines
(link: http://www.fertilitylifelines.com/index.jsp) and many of their patients have recieved free or discounted meds. I have also found a few other similar sites willing to do one free round of meds or sites that offer great discounts to couples who qualify.
Our RE office is also doing a progesterone supplement with IVF study which if we qualify could save us 20% ($1686.00) that would be AMAZING!! Especially if we were able to couple that 20% discount with discounted or free meds we could end up spending less than $9000 all together (of course not including the cryopreservation of embryos..hopefully we have plenty!)

I also don't think that I have ever really talked about a timeline that we would like 'stick' to as closely as possible, assuming that we don't change our minds as far as how many kids we would like to have. Of course there are some variables such as # of frosties (frozen embryos), # of IVF cycles before a successful pregnancy, # of embryos transferred and successfully carried, etc..

But here is a rough idea of what we would like to do (and for the sake of argument we will assume our first IVF cycle is successful):

IVF Cycle #1 - June 2011
EDD: March 2012 (assuming normal singleton pregnancy)
**Nurse for 6 months**
FET Cycle 1 or IVF Cycle #2 (plan to do FET if we have quality frosties): September 2012
***REPEAT until we have reached the desired number of children (probably 8)



I know I know..maybe I am crazy but I have ALWAYS wanted a big family and if we plan for it accordingly we will be able to achieve that and still have some money in the bank though I won't promise we will be totally sane afterwards!! haha..I am trying to be optimistic and look for the good that can come from it all. Its hard to see ourselves with 8 kids when we are still just hoping to be able to concieve 1 but I am confident and I believe in God and I believe that He put me here to be a mom to wonderful kids and make them honest, hard working, productive citezens of this country and world.