Cycle with me, Part III

It’s Thursday, AKA Day 12 of my cycle, AKA the 5th day of blood draws & ultrasounds.

Five different women have explored the cavern that is my reproductive system in 5 days. The sonographer I had today has been my fav so far. She had a radio playing in her exam room. Roz and Mocha; Kiss 92.5. At one point she even hummed along. I hope I get her again tomorrow.

Yup, I said tomorrow.

After my new morning ritual of needles and probes, I go see the nurse. She charts the ultrasound results and tells me how we’re progressing (we meaning my follicles and I).

Which brings me to everyone’s favourite part of the blog: teaching time!

Above is my chart. Down the left hand side is the date (D/M), and the day of my cycle. The next columns list information about my follicles: right & left ovaries, and the follicle size in diameter by centimeters – remember, 1.8 to 2.2 cm is ideal.

E2 is estrogen. LH is luteinizing hormone, which we covered in a previous post. Pop quiz coming later, so study up!

ENDO is the thickness of my endometrial lining. The endometrium is the tissue that lines the inner cavity of the uterus. It thickens and thins over the course of a menstrual cycle, but thickens considerably leading up to possible fertilization (preparing the body), and then during pregnancy. Embedded in the lining are glands that can secrete a fluid that helps nourish a pregnancy until the placenta is formed. For pregnancy to be successful, the embryo (fertilized egg) must implant itself into the thick, vascular-rich uterine lining. Who knew, right?!

Either I missed a whole lot of sex ed classes, or they didn’t cover much past sperm, egg, Fallopian tube, penis. Clearly, the entire class we wasted perfecting how to roll a condom onto a banana could have been better spent teaching us about our own internal functions… show of hands, ladies, how many of you put condoms on men so frequently that it required actual training?

Here, honey, allow me.

Ha! Not in my experience. It always seemed to me that men like to take that matter into their own hands, no pun intended. Maybe that’s why I’m single…

She’s great, but she makes me put the condom on myself. Deal breaker.

As you can see from my chart, my right ovary has 2 follicles, only one of which is developing. This is the norm – most women release 1 egg per cycle (month); when they release more: multiples!

Around day 14 (this varies from woman to woman, depending on the length of her cycle), LH suddenly rises. This is called the LH surge, and its function is to wear a hole in the surface of the follicle. This breakdown in the surface of the follicle allows the egg to extricate itself and burst into the Fallopian tube, the slide to the playground that is the uterus.

The nurse told me this morning that it was possible I’d be ready to go tomorrow, but they would know for sure when they got my blood results back and saw my LH level. Looks like we’re not quite at maximum surge yet, since my instruction email for tomorrow says (again) blood and ultrasound.

From what I can see, what I’ve been told, and what I’ve Googled, it could very possibly be Saturday. Which, even though we’d have to alter the timing of our plans slightly, would be kind of fitting, since I’m going to the Baby Show with one of my pregnant besties and our moms.

As my friend C would say, good baby juju.

As I move forward in this process, I’m not only learning more and more, but also becoming amazed by how often people actually manage to get – and stay – pregnant!

Then again, fertility issues are so rarely openly discussed, one wouldn’t know how many of those people are ones I’ve been seeing every morning. Because I can tell you, this fertility clinic is a constant revolving door of women. The place is always busy.

Speaking of busy, the worst thing about this so far hasn’t been the daily needle in my arm, or even the repetitive deep sea dives into my lady bits.

The worst thing has been the damn traffic leaving the clinic at 7:30 to get to work! I’m usually at my desk by 7:30 – and there’s a reason for that. It’s way too busy out there after that time.

Here’s hoping I’ll have early success and get back to my easy, spoiled commute sooner than later.

Science-speak and technical explanations courtesy of http://www.early-pregnancy-tests.com