Well here we are again in the 2ww!

This is the 5th time we've been in the two week wait (2WW) - although more correctly it will be the 10 day wait this time.

We arrived back from Bangkok this morning after a very long, but largely uneventful flight.  I always hate overnighters.  I am one of those people that just can't sleep on planes - even with chemical intervention.

Our egg retrieval was scheduled for Monday the 25th of November.  To provide us with plenty of time, our flights were book for the 23rd - ensuring we built in plenty of time for any delays that may arise.  However, on Thursday the 21st the clinic sent us into a panic as the ED was showing signs the egg pick may be sooner than scheduled - perhaps on the 24th - with her 25 follicles (per the Thursday scan) suggesting the right time might be on Sunday.

Naturally, we started looking at changing flights or re booking new flights as if we had to be there on the morning of Sunday the 24th - our arrival on Saturday night (actually 1 am Sunday morning) would result in a very slim margin of error should our flights be delayed.  Particularly given we had to transit through Sydney and do the hellish domestic-to-international transfer with a 1 hour 45 minute window.  After getting a bit frantic and stressed, the news arrived late Friday afternoon that Egg Retrieval would be Monday 25th as scheduled.

We stayed at The Eastin Grand Hotel in Sathorn/Yanawa - joined by a pedestrian bridge at Surasak BTS station.  It was an exceptional hotel - and we're pretty hard to please.  Here's a pic of the infinity pool on the 14th floor.

Pool at the Eastin Grand Sathorn Bangkok

This hotel is one stop away from NewLife - but also has easy to access the All IVF clinic (where the "magic drop" happens) which is near Phloen Chit station.

On Monday morning we headed to All IVF.  Unlike our Indian experience, this was a far more organised, clean and sleek operation.  The staff were efficient but pleasant - and were very informed of what was going on.  Our details were on hand, they were expecting us and they had things moving along well. They seemed to be in control.  When we were in India last year - the only person who actually knew what was happening was Jay from SI.  I know in India the doctors had no clue what was going on or who they were "treating".  In India we never really knew what was happening next - but Thailand has been a completely different experience. 

So following our ED's retrieval on Monday, the numbers were as follows:

Astonishingly, 49 eggs were retrieved.  Of these

• 3 were GV (germinal vesicle) stage (very immature)
• 44 M2 (mature)
• 2 MI (less mature)

The next day, we were advised that 41 eggs had fertilised.

That same day we went to the NewLife offices to meet with Stephanie and Na to finally put some faces to names - but also have the privilege of meeting our ED and SM.  Our ED was lovely, had a wicked sense of humour and was just a lovely girl.  The SM was somewhat more shy, but assured us she was very confident of getting pregnant and was so pleased to be doing this.  Let's hope she's right. Both were elated when we presented them with some gifts of perfume.  If anyone reading this is going to Thailand for Surrogacy, a gift of perfume (we gave them both CK) will be a guaranteed winner. Here are some pics:

GB and the ED

GB and our SM

By Thursday (Day 3) the embryos were still trucking along, with a total of 27 embryos exhibiting a combination of grades 1 & 2.  The other 14 were still growing with good grading, albeit at a slower rate.  On Saturday we were informed that of the 41 embryos - 27 had reached blastocyst stage - with the 2 best being transferred and 25 frozen.
We're trying to steer clear of google as studies around the probability of success against number of eggs retrieved throws up some interesting results.

This time we're just relying on the skill of the embryologists and the luck of the universe that this time will be the one.

After our Bangkok duties - we headed down to Hua Hin for some reflection and R&R for the remaining few days in Thailand.  I don't think we'd go back to Hua Hin (for the simple fact that there isn't a great deal to do there and the beaches there are nothing compared to Ko Samui and Phuket), but at only 2.5 hours from BKK it offered a nice way to spend our last few days before heading home.

Devasom Resort Hua Hin (actually Cha Am)

So - once again, we wait for the outcome of our latest transfer. 

Fingers crossed!!!

A new direction

It has been some months since we last posted.

This was partly because we were unclear about which direction we were going and partly because we were a little disenchanted with the whole process of trying to have a baby.

Financially we were very hard hit by the failure of India.  All up there wasn't much change from $40k AUD. 

During the months waiting to see if anything would change in India, we decided to look at options domestically.  Having been lucky enough to have a close friend willing to be an egg donor here in Oz, we proceeded to get cost estimations from a number of Australian IVF clinics to see how much it would be to do "altruistic surrogacy".  If you think international IVF clinics are expensive, Australian clinics blow them out of the water.  Not to mention to the two tier pricing structure for infertile couples vs couples pursuing surrogacy!  And that's before taking into account any Medicare rebates, legislated counselling, legal fees and court costs.  Their profits also maximised by not allowing more than one embryo transfer at a time (not without significant reason to do multiple embryo transfer).  Nevertheless we continued to research with the final barrier being to find a willing surrogate.  This proved to be the most difficult part and eventual failure of us deciding to undertake surrogacy in Australia.  Despite the apparent "altruism" aspect of surrogacy in Australia (as commercial surrogacy in Australia is illegal in all states except the Northern Territory) our estimation of costs would have exceeded $60k.  Sadly, the only people making money out of surrogacy in Australia are the IVF specialists.  The selfless women doing all the hard work stood to gain very little - and in a number of cases, were actually out of pocket for doing someone else a "favour".

So we looked abroad again.  The US was still out on financial grounds as were a number of European countries only offering surrogacy services to married couples. So our final option - like most same sex couples - was now limited to Thailand.

In previous posts, we touched on concerns and our reluctance to go to Thailand mainly because of the influx of clients following the visa changes in India and the absence of IP protection afforded through legislation.  However, the visa situation in India has taught us that the situation around surrogacy can change quite quickly.  Given Thailand has a draft bill on the table, so to speak, we thought now is a good a time as any to move forward with our plans before we were pushed out of the market altogether.

We have chosen NewLife as our clinic.  They have a number of years' experience doing ART in India, Georgia and the Ukraine and a solid history of making IPs become parents.  So in November 2013 we, once again, embark on the surrogacy journey and head to Bangkok.  This time it will be in a country we're familiar with, a process we know all too well and have the benefit of hindsight to guide us on our way.  So far, the experience with NewLife has been entirely different than dealing with Surrogacy India.  The simple fact that we're not berated for asking questions and responses don't come from their receptionist is a good start.  The responsiveness is very good and their process and pricing structure appears far more transparent than SI's.  Here's hoping the next part of the journey goes just as well.

So here we go again.  Let's hope the second time around is far less disappointing than our first experience.

xx GBLC.