Dino's fertility story: part two

Until this time, I had no idea how the egg collection had gone. We didn't even know if the donor had produced any eggs at all. My phone rang on Saturday afternoon. We had 10 fertilised eggs. I was hoping for around six, so I was delighted with this news. We were to go back to the clinic on Monday afternoon for transfer. Now we just had to wait and see how many of the eggs would continue to divide. I had heard somewhere that it took at least six-cell embryos for a good result. Eight would be excellent, for at least one of them. I spent the weekend willing those cells to divide.

Easter Eggs
Easter Monday - another beautiful sunny Spanish day. We got to the clinic at 3.30 and had to wait quite a long time until the doctor came in armed with two photos. They had chosen two eight-cell embryos to transfer. Things were looking hopeful. The transfer was a little uncomfortable, but not painful. Afterwards, we went back to our holiday home to rest (actually I hardly dared to move). I'd been given a list of instructions, detailing which drugs I had to take and what I could and couldn't do. I was to continue with oestrogen patches and progesterone pessaries (which I'd started on the day of egg collection) until week 12 of the pregnancy, if I was to be so lucky enough to get there. Our bodies produce these hormones in a natural pregnancy but, obviously, in my case, I needed the synthetic variety.

I was to have a blood test for pregnancy on Friday May 2nd, just 11 days after the transfer. The doctor told me the hCG (pregnancy hormone) level should be at least 50.