Test Results are in

So, after about 6 months of planning to go to Sydney and get these tests done, it finally happened in early January and I got the results back today. As follows:

NK cells: normal at 12% (High is over 18%)
CD69 activation test: normal at 6 (high is 8-10)

In light of this, Dr Sacks says he can’t recommend steroid treatment as a possible solution to my problem, because my problem doesn’t appear to be NK cells. I guess this is good news, since I wasn’t all that keen on taking steroids during a pregnancy anyway. What my problem is, however, still remains to be seen.

I asked if he thought donor eggs might help, and he concurred with the three other specialists I saw last year: you are producing normal embryos (only a few, but admittedly some) with IVF and there is no reason to go for donor at this time. In his opinion you only go for donor when you repeatedly get no eggs of your own from IVF cycles. He reckons the ectopics are not being caused by dodgy eggs, they are just plain bad luck.

His advice: persist with IVF and you may get lucky.

One thing did come back slightly high, though, and that was the thromboelasticography test I’ve been wanting done for ages (but you can’t get done in my state). In light of this, Dr Sacks went back on his original position of ‘asprin is a waste of time’ and said that for me, he would recommend taking asprin, but only when I found out I was pregnant, not necessarily all the time.

I did take asprin for four months last year, but as I didn’t get pregnant in any of those months I kind of stopped bothering. I didn’t notice any bad symptoms though, so I might just put myself back on it full time. This way if I do get pregnant (and I’m not planning to TTC this year, but hey apparently accidents happen *snort*), and something goes wrong, I don’t have to go “oh! I wish I’d got on that asprin sooner, maybe it would have made a difference”. It’s the second guessing I hate the most.

Anyway, as far as testing goes this is officially the end of the line. I have now had it ALL done, and the only things that have come back are positive for heterozygote (ALA677VAL) for the methelyne terahydrofolate reductase mutation (aka ‘MTHFR’) and a slight clotting factor. Is this really the problem or just a red herring? Will I ever find out? Who knows.

As for IVF, at this stage I fantasise about being ready early next year. I can’t take another loss right now, but maybe with a year of meditation up my sleeve things will look a little different. The lucrin wrecking my joints has also really put me off, but according to Dr Sacks there is no reason for me to use it again: I can do an ANTAGONIST cycle instead. Sheesh. Be glad if someone had have told me that sooner. Granted, I could have looked into it further myself, but also: I’ve done this whole journey and search on my own so far, and my ob/gyn could easily have brought up the option when I mentioned to him my dissatisfaction with lucrin at the end of my last cycle. (!!!)

I am so ready to change my IVF ob/gyn, who has never given me any of this useful advice. I have open referrals for a couple of other folk in Perth, so my plan is to get appointments with them sometime during this year, and grill them for the job interview, and then be ready to go with the one who makes me feel the most comfortable, (and has a handle on all my options!) maybe Jan 2010.

But now, it’s lunch time.