Mini IVF

Have you heard of the Mini-IVF?

I've never heard of it myself until I stumbled upon it recently while doing what desperate-infertile-women-seeking-fertility-miracles do on the internet.

If you've had to defer IVF because of money problems or you don't like drugs and injections much, you might wanna check out this procedure that was developed a few years ago in Japan. From what I understand, it does have quite a few advantages over regular IVF:

• costs a lot less because less drugs are used
• drugs are taken orally with no or minimal injections
• no risk of ovarian hyperstimulation
• older women or women with high FSH can be accepted for treatment
• there is no waiting time between cycles if Mini-IVF fails because the body does not require a rest period due to fewer drugs and lower dosages used
• fewer cancelled IVFs due to insufficient production of eggs because the Mini-IVF does not depend on high number of eggs

What I find interesting is that the goal of Mini-IVF is to produce fewer but "better quality" eggs. With regular IVF, the goal is to make the woman produce tons of eggs in hoping that a few out of the lot is usable. But here's the important bit that women need to know: 

• women (particularly those above age 35) do not produce more than 2 good eggs in any cycle no matter what drugs were used or how much
• generally, the best egg from any cycle comes from the largest follicle, regardless of what drugs were used or how much

From this, I deduce that pumping a woman with a ton of bank-breaking drugs and forcing loads of eggs out of one cycle is really quite pointless - especially if you're running out of eggs - because only a couple of those are your best candidates for pregnancy anyway. Doctors against Mini-IVF argue that because only one egg is used, then all your $$$ is gone if pregnancy fails to happen, whereas with IVF - though the initial outlay of money is so much higher - at least you have more eggs to work with and you can still use the eggs leftover from that stim cycle later on. The point for consideration is: are any of those leftover eggs any good? If not, IVF actually wipes out more of your money if it all fails.  

The reported success rate for Mini-IVF however is not as good as IVF though. But it seems that this is because of the parameters used - Mini-IVF only transfers one fertilized embryo at a time while IVF transfers multiple embryos at a time, which skew the results a bit. This procedure is also relatively new and there is insufficient data at the moment.

Basically, the main consideration for Mini-IVF is the cost saving for women. The toughest question women will have to answer for themselves is what the odds of success are vs money spent on each of the procedures. And how many attempts they can afford before successive failed Mini-IVFs negate their cost savings. 

Before you jump up and down with excitement, know that very few clinics are willing to provide this procedure. And some clinics may already being using a similar Mini-IVF protocol but don't call it that.

For more info on this topic, you can read about it here (scroll halfway), here and here. For professional opinions on this procedure look here.

Although I am not a good candidate for IVF and am focusing on TCM right now instead to help me get pregnant, I always like to know what my options are. Mini-IVF is not for me, at least not right now, but I hope some of you might find this info useful. I know quite a few women who had to give up IVF because they can't afford it. And it breaks my heart that money might be the only thing coming between them and their dream baby.  So maybe there is an option here for them. 

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Before I go, I want to share with you a funny dream I had recently.

I dreamt that I was pursued by 3 men for the purpose of reproduction:

1) The first guy decided to go for a swim in the ocean and unfortunately, dived off a rock all wrong, and landed splat!... Flat in the water and destroyed any reproductive potential he had in his man parts! So moving on to candidate two...

2) I found out that it was Richard Gere who had the hots for me and was sitting at a cafe waiting for me. I happened to be walking around completely naked which strangely, nobody seemed to be making a fuss of. But then before anything happened, candidate no.3 interrupted the scene...

3) He came out of nowhere and grabbed my completely naked body from behind with his hands. While he tried to drag me off and subdue a frantic me, I was wondering why he wasn't even having an erection from my nakedness. (Yes, it's a good time to be having such thoughts while being kidnapped!) I mean, we were body to body and my butt was right up his crotch while he was holding me! I managed to free myself and ran for my life. He came after me. I lost him after a while and I ended up in a hotel room. I locked the door and waited, thinking I had lost him. But then after a few moments, he found me. I saw his shadow lurking underneath, outside my door. I panicked! He was going to barge down my door! Moments passed, yet nothing happened. Suddenly, a piece of paper was slipped under my door. And he left. I picked up the paper. On it, he said that he would like to make a baby with me. And if I agreed, he would pay me

$201,000,000,000!

Yeah right! If only I could!!!!  

Warning: Evil Drug

Did you know that one of the options offered by doctors of western medicine for the treatment of endometriosis or fibroids is synthetic drugs which would:

1)  Make me menopausal (WTF??!)  or

2) Turn me into a man (WTF again??!)

HAR.

HAR.

HAR.

What a great frickin' joke! If menopause leads to pregnancies, 

Hey-Hey-Hey! Sign me up NOW! Better yet, since I'm not having much success getting pregnant as a woman, maybe if I turn myself into a man I'd have a better shot at it! 

[By the way, did you know that another prescribed cure for endometriosis is pregnancy? As in...

"Oh? What's that you said? Endometriosis preventing you from getting pregnant? No problem! Just get pregnant and your endometriosis will be cured!" (I have such admiration for the wisdom of modern western medicine, my eyes are welling up...)

Yeah- OxyMORON! ]

Anyhoo, back to that synthetic drug... Therefore, what's the moronic logic that is driving doctors to dish out these drug treatments while sitting there collecting fat paychecks in their shiny "don't-question-me-I've-spent-years-in-med-school-studying" white labcoats? Well, most doctors trained in western medicine believe that these two diseases are fueled by estrogen, which is the stuff that makes you womanly and what makes you function like a woman, such as painting the town red with Aunt Flo every month and ovulating. So by logical deduction, if you keep estrogen on the down low which manifests as options 1 or 2, your problem would go away. Yes, problem solved! 

And then there's the fine print which says, "Not exactly suitable for women trying to get pregnant but since we got nuttin' else, we'll put you on it anyway so we can make a quick buck from you for a few months. For you to actually get pregnant, we will then take you off it since it's stopping you from getting pregnant. Doing so will cause the disease to return immediately and render you unable to get pregnant. Thanks for giving us the opportunity to not solve any problems for you! Good luck!" 

So what is this wonderful synthetic drug that is raking in $800 million in sales annually and making lots of women weep from joy (or its side effects, I'm not sure)? BTW, these side-effects include increased ovarian cancer, irreversible lowering of the voice so you can sound like your dream guy (Yay-now you can finally sing like Barry White), thinning bone problems, permanent disruption to your normal hormonal levels and many other stuff that f*cks up your health real bad. There are several synthethic hormonal therapies out there but one of the commonly prescribed ones is called Lupron.

If you have endometriosis, you've most probably heard of Lupron.

If you have prostrate cancer, you've most probably heard of Lupron.

If you have fibroids, you've most probably heard of Lupron.

If you're doing IVF, you've most probably heard of Lupron.

But miracle drug it is not. In fact, it's use is very controversial because it has led to permanent damage in people's health, and even death. It's actually more toxic than people are led to believe. Results of Lupron studies have been found by the U.S. Dept of Health and Services to be falsified. A medical officer for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reported that Lupron should be taken off the market. In 2001, the company that makes Lupron admitted to criminal misconduct over the drug, making it the largest healthcare fraud of that time. Yet it's still being pushed by pharmaceutical companies and doctors today. FDA's verdict on this issue is still pending. Some doctors now believe the risks outweigh the benefits. A nurse, Lynn Millican, who has suffered terribly from the effects of Lupron during IVF treatments is now fronting a legal battle against the drug. She also made a testimony to the United States Senate about her findings on Lupron. It reveals a lot of dodgy stuff about drugs in ART that ordinary women don't know about. Her testimony can be downloaded here.  

It scares me that the dangers of drugs like this one are still downplayed.

It scares me that government bodies that are set up to protect people from these health dangers are not doing their jobs.

It scares me that women tolerate the prolific use of this drug because they weren't educated about the severity of the risks by their doctors, or have a misguided notion that doctors know best.

It scares me that doctors are in denial about the dangers of this drug and have no qualms about letting their patients use this drug since they themselves are not the ones having to deal with its consequences anyway.

I have no doubt in my mind that mainstream medicine today is largely motivated by money~Not compassion. 

It makes me terribly upset that women are led to believe that they have to take such risks with their lives and suffer such hardships on their bodies to have the baby of their dreams, or to be free from the pain of endo and fibroids. 

If Lupron crosses your path, please consider it very wisely and carefully. It is evil, EVIL stuff! 

You Bad, Lazy Egg!

It appears that my eggs have gone on a leave of absence without notifying me! They haven't showed up for two cycles! Today is CD32 and I woke up with some spotting. I guess that throws the possibility of a late ovulation out the window!

I went in for my weekly u/s scan with Dr.NeverGiveUp today, and he confirmed that my eggs had not matured. So yup! There's the proof~those lazy eggs of mine are definitely having a vacation. They're there, but just idling around-not growing or doing much. He believes that my high testosterone levels are suppressing the development of my eggs. That's why I am still having my periods but not ovulating. I told him that I was ovulating regularly last year but it seemed that turning a year older has really affected my fertility. However he thinks that my ovaries look OK and that the bigger concern was the condition of my uterus. He assured me that the medicine I am taking will help to rebalance my hormones and improve the quality of my eggs. And that we will start to see the effects in 3-4 months.

I also brought up my concern about my high CA-125 results which indicate an infection and inflammation in the ovaries. I read recently on a fertility doctor's blog that,

"Endometriosis is a pelvic disease that causes the pelvis to be inflamed. It is thought that this inflammation attacks and kills the egg at the time of ovulation."


That got me into a bit of a panic! Like, "What? Now my own body is killing my eggs too?" How many more disasters could I possibly be brewing in my uterus?!!! 

Being his usual never-say-die self, he said that it's not a very significant problem because the cells in our body are very, very good at adapting to their environment. My eggs will also adapt and find a way to survive. So I stopped freaking out. What I really like about Dr.NeverGiveUp is his unassuming confidence and optimism.

As I was the last patient in the clinic today, I had the opportunity to talk with him a little longer. I brought up the issue about doing acupuncture for me, cos frankly, I'm a walking disaster and I need all the help that I can get! But he told me-again-that I shouldn't worry about that. I can't believe that a TCM doc is not pro-acupuncture! What about all the stuff I've read about acupuncture improving success rates in IVF by 30% and the latest news about Celine Dion conceiving twins via IVF with the help of acupuncture? He explained that statistics are sometimes exaggerated or manipulated, even in the medical profession. He said he attended a world medical seminar on IVF and when it was reported that some clinic claimed a 50% rate in IVF success, the whole room cracked up like it was the biggest joke. Even the most respected and advanced clinics in IVF research could only realistically claim a 30% success rate. Some clinics were also practising the unethical transfer of very high numbers of embryos to increase success rates. Well, I don't know how honest clinics really are about their success rates, but in regards to acupuncture and IVF, he told me that the professor he studied under in China specialized in IVF, and in his hospital, patients who initially failed to get pregnant through IVF would be treated with acupuncture. And even then, they found that the success rate for IVF after acupuncture increased only by 10%, which was minimal. That was quite a startling revelation to me! I was under the impression that the odds were better than that! That conclusion was formed from his own experience anyway, and I guess it must be true because nobody lies about underperforming!

However he made it a point to assure me that TCM herbal medicine itself (as opposed to acupuncture) really helps to improve egg (and sperm) quality. And this is something that Western Medicine does not/cannot address. He made that very clear: At the university hospital he's lecturing at, out of the 5 couples who underwent IVF recently, only one couple succeeded and it was the one that had undergone TCM treatment with him. Their IVF specialist was very impressed with her egg quality. He also told me about another IVF specialist who now refers many of her patients to him. She was astonished at the egg quality she retrieved from patients who had undertaken his treatment. She claimed that the egg quality was "beautiful"! And guess who this IVF specialist is? Dr.Crap! Yes, the fertility specialist I first consulted whom I didn't like at all. I blogged about her here. She's quite prominent in her field and Dr.NeverGiveUp's patients seem to like her a lot! Now that's astonishing to me!

So I am really counting on Dr.NeverGiveUp's TCM pills to make me ovulate beautiful eggs. Although I am not going for IVF, I really feel for you girls who are going through it and are devastated when you find that you have issues with egg quality, even with all the drug stimulation. From what I've read/heard and what Dr.NeverGiveUp has told me, Western medicine has no treatment for improving egg quality which greatly impacts success rates for IVF. But do not despair and do not give up yet. There is this avenue down TCM that you can try before resorting to donor eggs or adoption. It appears that women have been getting promising results with TCM treatment. I personally have a friend whose doctor said the same thing about her eggs after she underwent TCM. Her first two rounds produced crappy eggs but her third round produced very good eggs after TCM. She finally managed to get pregnant at age 40 with her third IVF.

Now, I don't really know what Dr.NeverGiveUp puts inside his pills. I never really cared to find out because he has rattled off a whole bunch of names before to me and it still left me clueless anyway. But I did wonder about the efficacy of pills as opposed to boiling the raw herbs like I did before with my previous TCM doc. I always thought that the pills contained herbs that were ground into powder form. Well, silly me! Apparently they're not that low tech! The essence of an herb is extracted by a very high tech process to preserve its medicinal properties, and is sourced from China. Dr.NeverGiveUp has visited the lab and commissioned them to make a blend of his different formulae. I am very happy to hear that I'm not paying high prices for low-tech medicine! And I don't have to extract them the old-fashioned way myself by boiling them for an hour, which inevitably end up in disaster sometimes! So, yay! My days of burning my herbs dry into carbon and having my own smoking Icelandic volcano in my kitchen are over!

And here's another piece of good news. I am not diabetic! I've been feeling thirstier than usual over the past month and Dr.NeverGiveUp said there was a possibility of me getting diabetes "because you are FAT!" Yup! Those are his exact words! Yes, cut straight to the point why don't cha! Well, I never said he was charming! Even though I had a blood test last month I could become diabetic anytime, so he tested me. So that's one less disaster in my body to deal with! Phew! He did tell me that one thing I could do though to help lower my testosterone levels was to lose some weight. OK! Got it! Lose the fat!

First Year TCM Anniversary

Today is the 1st year anniversary of our first visit to our TCM clinic. I can't believe how quickly a year has flown by, and I can't believe I am still going there! Both my husband and I have been diligently going for our treatments every week, except during our one and a half month vacation hiatus. Chugfuls of black, muddy, herbal medicine; thousands of pin-pricks and some USD7,000 later, we still have no baby.

This prompted me to reflect on the past year's progress and assess what the hell we're doing with our time and money. Is it worth it? Should we have put the money towards something like IVF instead?

For those of you who are new here, my husband is being treated for low sperm morphology, and I for endometriosis, hormonal imbalance and a cold condition. Our TCM doc believes that once these problems are resolved, we should be able to conceive naturally. So my husband and I have electroacupuncture twice a week, and we drink a tailor-made herbal concoction everyday. I have upped my treatments with daily moxibustion and electroacupuncture everyday between the end of my period and ovulation during my last 2 cycles.

But has all this been worth it?

I wasn't sure but DH put my mind at ease for these reasons:

IVF does not guarantee us a baby nor try to resolve any of our underlying health/fertility problems. But with TCM,

- my endo is being treated and my symptoms are diminishing, hence my quality of life has improved

- my periods are being normalized and are more manageable now

- my husband's energy levels have increased significantly

- we managed to conceive once, which proved to us that we can conceive naturally and my husband's sperm is working!

- we do not have any bad side-effects from the treatment

Weighing the two, TCM has definitely been more beneficial to us. And so, TCM it is for us. So bring on the putrid potions and gnarly needles Year 2! We're ready for ya!