Hello and welcome to the Fairfax Cryobank Family Forum!
The forum has a new look and the Fairfax Team is so excited to create the best experience for our users.
To Note:
Private Donor Groups and Private Sibling Connection Groups are now located under the category "Groups". Search the donor number in the search box and you should find exactly what you're looking for!
Questions about your forum access? Email forum@fairfaxcryobank.com
Follow these steps to join a private donor group:
1) Press "Join" at the right of the group
2) Once prompted to confirm your request please list this information so we can verify your information:
Name (under which the vial was purchased)
Email
Clinic Name
Donor number
Child Date of Birth
*If you are looking to start a private group for a PRS donor please email forum@fairfaxcryobank.com with the above information and that you are looking for a PRS group*
If you have any questions about the verification process please email forum@fairfaxcryobank.com
The forum has a new look and the Fairfax Team is so excited to create the best experience for our users.
To Note:
Private Donor Groups and Private Sibling Connection Groups are now located under the category "Groups". Search the donor number in the search box and you should find exactly what you're looking for!
Questions about your forum access? Email forum@fairfaxcryobank.com
Follow these steps to join a private donor group:
1) Press "Join" at the right of the group
2) Once prompted to confirm your request please list this information so we can verify your information:
Name (under which the vial was purchased)
Clinic Name
Donor number
Child Date of Birth
*If you are looking to start a private group for a PRS donor please email forum@fairfaxcryobank.com with the above information and that you are looking for a PRS group*
If you have any questions about the verification process please email forum@fairfaxcryobank.com
Dazed and Confused
va_mommies
Junior Member Junior Member
Hi,
My wife and I have been trying to conceive since Aug 2014, we are using Shady Grove for treatment, first we started out with a donor from California Cryobank, but the shipping charges, and having to FedEx back the tank with the FedEx employees stupidly thinking the tank was a propane tank, they would put up a fight saying they would not mail this back to California, we had to explain what the tank was, and inside of it (empty) they still thought it would blow up the store?! So we switched over to Fairfax Cryobank, we had no clue how close it was to us, we just pick up our tank saving in shipping fees.
We started out using Donor 2776, we’ve had no luck, and 4 failed IUI, 3 natural, one medication and trigger. We switched over our insurance during November open enrollment month, we were paying everything out of pocket, and getting scared if we have to go to IVF, we would like to be somewhat covered. Switching caused us to miss a month with Shady Grove, while we took off that month, our OBGYN recommended we try an at home insemination, she gave us 100mg clomid and progesterone, we bought 3 ICI vials, during ovulation we did it 12, 24, 36 hours after, also using preseed. That also failed.
We talked to Shady Grove, our RE put in for us to do IVF, we were going to take off January while they settle the paper work with Kaiser, we just found out on Monday, Kaiser did not approve us, reasoning, taking the eggs out is not covered? Reason we switched to Kaiser Federal insurance, they cover IUI and IVF 50%. Shady Grove found out that Kaiser will not cover IVF with donor sperm....so we are going to do another home insemination with 4565. We still are approved for 3 IUI's until May so we may go back, but right now just angry at all the doctors.
We feel so down, not sure what to do, scared about doing another IUI in fear of wasting more of our money, also scared to do IVF for the same reasoning. We are going to do another home insemination, taking recommended vitamins, eating healthy, lots of dog walks. We aren’t sure why we’ve had 5 failed attempts. Everything on paper shows that my wife is healthy, she does have a retroverted uterus, when we did the at home insemination, she flipped onto her stomach to help the swimmers. Any help or suggestions or positive thoughts would be great.
My wife and I have been trying to conceive since Aug 2014, we are using Shady Grove for treatment, first we started out with a donor from California Cryobank, but the shipping charges, and having to FedEx back the tank with the FedEx employees stupidly thinking the tank was a propane tank, they would put up a fight saying they would not mail this back to California, we had to explain what the tank was, and inside of it (empty) they still thought it would blow up the store?! So we switched over to Fairfax Cryobank, we had no clue how close it was to us, we just pick up our tank saving in shipping fees.
We started out using Donor 2776, we’ve had no luck, and 4 failed IUI, 3 natural, one medication and trigger. We switched over our insurance during November open enrollment month, we were paying everything out of pocket, and getting scared if we have to go to IVF, we would like to be somewhat covered. Switching caused us to miss a month with Shady Grove, while we took off that month, our OBGYN recommended we try an at home insemination, she gave us 100mg clomid and progesterone, we bought 3 ICI vials, during ovulation we did it 12, 24, 36 hours after, also using preseed. That also failed.
We talked to Shady Grove, our RE put in for us to do IVF, we were going to take off January while they settle the paper work with Kaiser, we just found out on Monday, Kaiser did not approve us, reasoning, taking the eggs out is not covered? Reason we switched to Kaiser Federal insurance, they cover IUI and IVF 50%. Shady Grove found out that Kaiser will not cover IVF with donor sperm....so we are going to do another home insemination with 4565. We still are approved for 3 IUI's until May so we may go back, but right now just angry at all the doctors.
We feel so down, not sure what to do, scared about doing another IUI in fear of wasting more of our money, also scared to do IVF for the same reasoning. We are going to do another home insemination, taking recommended vitamins, eating healthy, lots of dog walks. We aren’t sure why we’ve had 5 failed attempts. Everything on paper shows that my wife is healthy, she does have a retroverted uterus, when we did the at home insemination, she flipped onto her stomach to help the swimmers. Any help or suggestions or positive thoughts would be great.
Comments
Just try to stay calm and have positive thoughts, I know that's sometimes hard to do though. I'm trying IUI with donor sperm because I'm single. I thought this whole process was going to be a piece of cake because all that was missing was the sperm! I did the first IUI all natural with no drugs because that's what my doctor insisted on. I kept explaining that my cycles were never regular, I never know when I get a period and my cycles are always waaay too long. She ignored all that though and I tried the first IUI with no medicine, and it resulted in a BFN. The next time I insisted that I have clomid, but she put me on the lowest possible dose! In that cycle they told me I had PCOS and again it resulted in a BFN. The next time I did an IUI they increased the dose and it still didn't work. The next tiime that I did an IUI I insisted that they put me on metformin and give me a trigger shot. I took the metformin for a few months before trying the IUI. I was soooooo sure it was finally going to work!! I mean how can it not? I thought I was on all the right medicine for once. Well, it ended in a BFN as well. I met with my DR again and said something had to be changed. I tried a different drug (Femera) the next two times. My doctor explained that femera was an off label drug for infertility and that it usually worked better than clomid. Well those tries didn't work either! The last time I tried I did Gonal F injections, metformin and the trigger shot. Everyone talks about how great injectables are so I was really positive it was going to work! I got conflicting answres about if I had one follicle or two follicles. I really wanted two because all the other times I only had one. I thought two would increase the chances! The ultrasound showed 2 but the bloodwork only supported one good follicle. I found that out AFTER that cycle failed. I just tried another IUI round dec 31st and I'm praying it will work!!! They increased my gonal F medicine, and I took the metformin and ovidrell. I started out having two follicles one was 15mm on the roght and the other was 12mm on the left. The next time I went in for an ultrasound the 15mm follicle SHRUNK!!! The other follicle began growing though and became the dominant follicle. I took gonal f at a dose of 112.5 for several nights. The last two nights they increased the dose to 150! When I went back in for an ultrasound they said it was 19mm and they gave me the trigger shot in the office just 24 hours before the IUI. I'm nervous about that because I always took that shot 36hrs ahead of time and I keep hearing that 36hrs ahead of time is best. I just keep trying to be positive and thinking that one of these times it will really work! I keep reading all these posts on here from other woman who it has worked for. MKy insurance says once I have 12 IUI's they will cover IVF. I'm just afraid that by then I will have a different insurance company. I really wish they would just cover the IVF now. My bills just keep on adding up now at this point. But please hang in there and try to be positive! It will eventually work.
My health insurance company I get through my work and they cover fertility treatments only "after 12 months of exposure to sperm." It's a joke! In my state fertility treatments is covered by insurance companies because they have to cover it, but that's their nice little loop hole...12 freaking tries! Or if you're 35 or older they will cover it. I'll be 34 in a few months so either 4 more IUI's or one more year and they will cover it (providing my job doesn't change insurance companiers by then). I used cryolab.com for all of my IUI's and then this last one I switched to Xytex. I'm hoping I might have better luck with a different sperm bank. I hope this time will be your lucky month too. That was nice that you had a date night and tried to make it as fun as possible. I don't take the vitamins anymore or even pay too much attention to what I eat, but I did cut back on the coffee. I used to do all that too, but it never seemed to help. This time I'm just going to just be me and do what I normally do and eat and hope it works!
just want to give some comfort to va_mommies. I have a baby girl from IUI with donor 2995. i used washington fertility center in annandale, va in 2012 for her conception. it took 3 tries for her pregnancy - all using various doses of clomid and trigger shot each time. i tried for my 2nd baby with same donor in october but did not conceive - will be trying again soon, but know it may take a few tries. i HAD kaiser here in california where i live now and they did in fact cover my iui at 50%. i have to iui because my partner is a woman.
1) do you have an fertility issues? i do not. just have to live with 10% success rate of each iui try - which means 90% chance of BFN. doing multiple cycles in a row increases to 20 or so %. i skipped a month between cycles for my BFN with my daughter
2) how is the quality of your sperm and are you picking donors with reported pregnancies? my donor has had all +3 sperm each time i've used him (twice, once for my BFN and once for my last BFN). my first 2 iui's my donor had crap specimen and they didn't tell me until the second time i used him! my current donor (2995) is super spermer, lol.
3) my cousin has a daughter thru IUI with shady grove. they are more expensive and recommend back to back insemination. i've talked to several specialists and they all say back to back is a waste. if the sperm is good, it last 24hrs and your trigger shot will tell you when that 24hrs hits. my cousin tried 5 times before her BFP with her daughter. i have another friend who did iui and it took her 5 times before her daughter.
4) on my tries - i used clomid and my body reacts crazy to it. when i use a low dose, i get 1 or 2 follicles only. when i use 100 (50 twice a day) i make TONS of follicles (once i made 4 healthies and once once i made 6 healthies and about 5 that didn't mature). i got pregnant with my daughter when i had 2 healthy follicles but when i had 4 and 6 - and the doctors SWORE i'd have multiples, no pregnancies. all that to say, i think my body likes a low # of eggs to conceive, so that's a factor too.
keep the faith! it is so hard and discouraging. when i didn't conceive in oct, i felt so crushed and like i let us down. truth is, even those having sex every month take time. we are just paying for it.
i suggest a free consult with washington fertility center if you're open to it. if you don't have fertility issues and it's just a process because of donor sperm, you need the right team and the right timing.
i wish you all the best!!!
Our current donor, 4565, we did an at home insemination this time while waiting for the insurance thing to be sorted out. We had a date night where we relaxed, had a nice dinner and some wine. We did one insem on the day of the positive OPK and the day after. We have 3 more vials left for ICI for him and he's had reported pregnancies which is why we picked him. Currently in my 2ww and hoping that maybe the relaxing and break from the fertility drugs helped. If not, we will try again at home next month and then hopefully know our outcome of our appeal. If it's denied we may go back and try medicated IUI again.
Thank you! Wish you the best of luck too!
We also sent in all the paper work to fight our insur. on IVF coverage, we hope to hear back from them soon. If they denied us again, we will go ahead and pay out of pocket.
Good luck on your IUI this week, may you also get a BFP for valentines day too
Just started reading some of these posts and wondering if you ever got pregnant? sounds like you tried lots of things and even switched donors.... we used 2776 in 2014 and 2015 and had "easy" success after a few tries, but now have been trying for over a year again have failed all attempts (meds, vitamins, acupuncture, etc.).... we are down to THE LAST vial of 2776 now after all the failed attempts and our doc wants us to do IVF but our insurance covers none of this (except partial for basic labs and tests).... so IVF is basically impossible financially..... I started the Keto diet shortly after our last failed attempt and have since lost over 30 pounds! I'm convinced IUI would work this time (with meds and all the other extras).... but since we are down to the only remaining vial we are too afraid to try- because statistically it's likely to fail- we want to save a vial JUST in case we find a way to afford IVF (without dramatically impacting all other parts of our lives financially)...... ugh.... fertility issues suck.... I guess we are all on here for some type of fertility issues- I guess I was just hoping to reach out and see if you ever got your BFP?? looking for hope....