Several years ago I had an emergency surgery due to an ovarian torsion. When the doctors were operating they found out that I had endometriosis stage 4. After the surgery was completed I was informed that it would be impossible for me to conceive naturally and that IVF was my only option due to the damage that was caused my endometriosis and the fact that they had to remove part of my left ovary and fallopian tube. My husband and I did two rounds of IVF at Pacific Fertility Center in San Francisco, CA and on the second round we conceive my now 16 month old daughter, Stella. I always knew that I wanted another child, around the time she was 10 months old, I contacted by IVF doctor to ask him what a fresh cycle would entail on my end as we did not have any frozen embryos. He said that I would need to wean before beginning my cycle. I remember getting off the phone with him and thinking "No I just can't imagine weaning my daughter." I contacted my acupuncturist, two family friends who are into eastern/alternative medicine and everyone said it would be better to wean. But this advice never felt right for me, because it wasn't given based upon evidence. I wanted evidence based research to tell me that I had to ween, not someone's opinion who was not well informed. So, I spoke to a lactation expert in Australia via Skype and asked her professional opinion and she said that there was no evidence that I must wean to execute a successful IVF cycle. I then contacted several people at the La Leche League and they provided me with the number of the InfantRisk Center in Texas. I called and inquired about the medications that were on my protocol and doses, please see below: Estrace (orally) Lupron MD (10 units AM and PM) Follistim AQ (425 IU PM only) Menopur (150 IU PM only) Prometrium (vaginal) 200mg Vivelle Dot 0.1mg Patch The InfantRisk Center said that all of these medications fell into categories of L1 or L2 which meant that there would be no risk or negative impact to my nursing child. Once I had this information I knew that I was going to go forward with my IVF cycle without weening my daughter. I talked to my mother and my husband about it and everyone was supportive of my decision, although honestly it wouldn't have mattered either way. I felt strongly that I was not going to sacrifice my breastfeeding relationship with the child I had for a maybe child in the future. As anyone who has gone through fertility treatments knows, nothing is guaranteed. a I decided to increase my acupuncture appointments and take my nutrition to the next level. I also decided to lie to my doctor and inform him that I had weaned when I had not. My period returned at 14 months after the birth of my daughter. I only had one period before I began my fresh IVF cycle. I breastfeed my daughter throughout my cycle and a lot. She was sick and teething so there was an increased need for the boob. I have extremely low AMF .320, so we always knew we wouldn't get a lot of eggs. They retrieved three eggs, two fertilized and two grew out to day three. Those two were grade 1 with 8 cells each. We transferred both of them and I received a positive HCG beta with my levels at 241 and then on my second beta my levels were at 665. I am now waiting my first scan which will be on July 22nd. I think as mothers the best gift we each have is our gut. We have to follow our gut, it guides us. When people were telling me that I had to wean my child I knew in my gut that I didn't. I knew that my body was strong enough to continue to breastfeed and have a successful IVF cycle. Doctors make the recommendation to ween not because of evidence based research. I sincerely believe that I had a successful cycle in part due to the fact that I did not wean. I can only imagine the extra stress that would have caused me prior to my IVF cycle and during. Continuing to breastfeed allowed me to be calm and happy that I was continuing to provide for my daughter.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
June 2019
Categories |