IVF vs. Insemination

I thought I'd try to give everyone who reads my blog some information on the differences between IVF and Insemination (K and I tend to talk about it like everyone knows the difference!) so here goes it!

INSEMINATION: (per Bellingham IVF - other clinics may do it differently)

Go about the monthly cycle as usual with a few vaginal ultrasounds to see how ones eggs are growing. On about day 12-14 you get an HCG shot to "make" you ovulate within the next 24+ hours. You then have an appointment the next day to be inseminated (the sperm is put into a tiny syringe type thing that and threaded into the cervix). You don't really feel anything other then the speculum (which a man HAD to have invented!) Then you wait 2 weeks to see if your period starts......and/or take a blood test. No testing early as HCG is what pregnancy tests detect.

(We have done insemination's and also added some medicine to create more eggs....but still the same protocol, other than.....more money)

IVF = Invitro Fertilization

This starts with birth control pills to take over ones cycle and then a month full of medicine to create more eggs, etc. This is pretty much the cycle where the doctor takes over your whole body to make it prime nesting grounds for a baby. They allow your body to make lots of eggs (mine can make 25+) and then they put you out and take a needle into your ovaries and draw out the eggs. They then "cook" them in a petri dish for 3-5 days and then put the now embryo's back in. Bed rest for a few days and then wait 10-11 days to do a pregnancy test.

This is the basic route of it all...... but hopefully that will allow you to understand a bit more.

As for our baby plans.......

We're planning on October and we're going to do IVF :) We are very excited, anxious and for me - I just wish it would get here! :) It is very exciting to tear another month off the calandar, knowing it is a month closer! :) This year at work we have to use up all of our vacation (no carry over) and so there are a lot of people with LOTS of vacation and we're getting down to the last 6 months of the year and so people are trying to get all their vacations in and so K and I have been trying to figure out when would be best to start the baby stuff. We scheduled October 17th - October 31st off! I should get a call this week from Bellingham IVF to make "tentative" plans............ YAHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!