Avleigh's Journey

I have really been enjoying the curiosity and inquiries that have formed with our last blog “When your Genes Don’t Fit”. First of all… No, I’m not pregnant yet! So many, including myself, didn’t know that adopting embryo was even an option. So how does this even work?

The process is actually pretty quick if you don’t have to go through a donor bank. In our situation, our fertility clinic had a family that was ready to donate their frozen embryo. For anyone that is unaware of how IVF works… the biological mother goes through various treatments, including oral and injected medications, to grow a large number of eggs in her cycle. Once the eggs reach a mature size, the eggs are retrieved from the mother’s uterus. On the day of retrieval, the eggs are fertilized and then the growth of the embryos are monitored. Once they reach a specific number of cells either the embryo can be transferred back into the mother’s uterus, aka a fresh embryo transfer, or the embryo can be frozen for a later transfer. In the case of receiving a donor embryo, the embryo is frozen.

Once we decided that adopting embryo was the best choice for our family, we were matched up with a family through our fertility clinic. This was very similar to the profile review process that is experienced throughout the adoption process for a birthed child. After reviewing the donors profile, the donor then was presented with our profile. The wait to hear back from the other family on if they chose us was the hardest part! Once they decided to donate to us the process really started flowing quick. We met with our attorney to complete the adoption contract. This contract goes over the agreement and expectations of both parties on how the embryo will be handled and the openness of the adoption. The big difference in an embryo adoption rather than a birthed adoption is the adoption is final at the time both parties sign the contract. This is the stage of the process we are at now! Our adoption for two frozen embryo is final!

What happens next? Now the planning starts! This week we started my transfer preparation. More paperwork to transfer the ownership of the frozen embryo into Jacob and I’s names, a notarized document to authorize the shipment of the embryo from storage to our facility, and another notarized document to thaw one of the embryo. To prepare my body and to allow for easier scheduling, I’ve began taking birth control which I will continue over the next three weeks. Of course, this could’ve been a shorter time frame, but as most of you know… life happens. To avoid stress of trying to work around business trips, we took advantage of the ability to control the schedule . Three days after we stop the birth control and we will begin a combination of medicines to help prepare the uterine lining. We have an ultrasound that has been scheduled to check on the uterine lining in the last full week of May. If the lining is ready, then I will begin progesterone injections to further prepare the uterus for the transfer.

The projected “Transfer Day” is May 31st!