Perhaps this is the start of something good?

Well, D. had her appointment with the clinic today to get the CD3 ultrasound done. Because she's already 37 and some personal issues in late 2006, there was some question as to whether she would still be considered a viable donor. I had spoken to the doctor back in October and she assured me that they have the same results with donors who are 37 as those who are 36, but that she'd likely transfer 3 embryos if we got to that point. So it was important for D. to get into the clinic to get retested to see what they said. She'd already spoken this week to the nurse who looks after the egg donation at the clinic, and she was going to have all the documentation prepped for V. and I so we know what bloodwork and tests they need redone. (He mentioned in his last post we were going to need to bring our blood work and such up to date before we began.) So of course, knowing she was going in for her appointment had me on pins and needles waiting to hear from her. :)

So D. called me this morning at 10:23am after she'd left the clinic. One of the doctors had done the ultrasound, rather than a technician, which I think is good because then you're getting a medical opinion of what's being seen rather than being told that the doctor will review the results with you. Anyway, D. said that the results were pretty good. She has 8 antral follicles on one side and 6 on the other. This is good especially at 37. Antral follicles are small follicles , usually about 2-8 mm in diameter. The number of antral follicles correlates well with ovarian response. A normal total antral count is between 15 and 30. If the count is less than 6, the prognosis is poor. This site says that a total count of 14 falls under "Normal (but intermediate) count, the response to drug stimulation is sometimes low, but usually good. Slight increased risk for IVF cycle cancellation. Pregnancy rates as a group only slightly reduced compared to the "best" group." So I'm optimistic with D.s results for this. The ultrasound back in September/05 showed a total of 15 antral follicles so there really hasn't been a huge change. However, the doctor said that there was one follicle was larger than the others and because of this they really wanted her to get the CD3 bloodwork done today. Normally she'd have gone to the CLSC which is the free clinic run and maintained by the provincial government, but because they were anxious to get it done, she had the blood work done at the clinic. If she'd called to say what should she do, V. and I would have told her to do exactly what she did which was get it done there. We don't mind spending the money for the tests she needs (the ultrasound costs there too), if it means getting a quick, accurate result. They had told her that the FSH (follicle stimulating hormone) and the estradiol level would tell them if she was still going to be able to be our donor.

With the FSH levels each clinic is different as to what they consider normal and such, but basically if the FSH is under 10 that's considered good whereas over 20 is considered poor. As for the estradiol level, they want to see it under 80. This site has some information on FSH and estradiol.

So, basically, we haven't gotten the go ahead yet. We're waiting for D.'s bloodwork to come back. She's supposed to get a call this afternoon. If it's good news, she'll be overnighting the list of required tests for V. and me so we can get them done next week and she'll be heading off to the local clinic for one more test on Monday.

Here's hoping for a good news call later today. I'll post an update here when we get it.