Next Up

It’s been awhile since I have posted on here, so a quick recap to bring you up to speed:

November 2022- diagnosed with breast cancer

December 2022- first egg retrieval

December 2022- started chemotherapy

March 2023- ended chemotherapy

April 2023- double mastectomy surgery

August 2023- reconstruction surgery

December 2024- embryo transfer

August 2025- had our baby girl

January 2026- second egg retrieval

And that brings us to NOW! Lining up to do another embryo transfer, except this one was a little different. The IVF clinic that I work with only do embryo transfers 2 days a month. So they line up everyone’s cycles/hormones to be a candidate to transfer on those specific days. Fortunately, this time around my cycle lined up almost perfectly with the embryo transfer dates and I only had to be on birth control for 4 days to line up my hormones. After being on birth control for 4 days, they scheduled me for a “suppression check”. This looks at your ovaries and making sure everything is “quiet” or “suppressed” and not ovulating. At this point, if everything looks quiet, then you begin taking estrogen pills. Starting in August of 2026 I began Estrace. This is the pill you take 3 times a day, approximately 8 hours apart. (Yes, I have to set reminders). After about 1 week of oral estrogen, then they add estrogen intravaginally for about 6 days. After about 2 weeks of estrogen, you go back in to check your hormone levels and do another ultrasound. At this time they also did what they call a SIS. They do a mock version of the embryo transfer to make sure they have the correct size catheter and there is no scare tissue blocking the path of the catheter to your uterus. Once you are cleared from this appointment, you then begin progesterone. Progesterone is injected intramuscularly 1x per day and inserted vaginally 2x per day. So as you can see my “reminders” list is getting longer and longer as we speak. You continue all of these medications (estrogen 3x per day, progesterone inserts 2x per day and progesterone injections 1x per day) until the embryo transfer date. On the day of the transfer, you have to have a full bladder, you arrive 30 minutes early, wait in the waiting room for about 15 minutes before they take you back. The procedure itself lasts about 10 minutes. After the transfer, you wait to make sure the catheter is clear and the embryo was actually transferred and then you get up to pee and get to go home right away. You are on light precautions for about 48 hours and then can return to normal activities.

Now the hard part. Waiting. You then wait 9 days until you are able to go in for a blood draw to get your pregnancy results.

September 8th, 2026- 2nd embryo transfer

September 17th, 2026- pregnancy lab draw