So, previously on Self-Made Motherhood Blog, I was working on shaking off a bit of a funk and getting my ass in gear to make a baby over summer vacation. I'd settled on Thailand because it's close to my current home in HK, relatively inexpensive-ish, and they are one of the few countries in Southeast Asia where a single woman can go to get knocked up via IUI with a spermcicle from an off-shore sperm bank that ships internationally. Also, I spent nearly an entire month there about eight years ago and have been dying to go back. The food, the people, the sun, the beaches, the bath-water warm crystal clear beach water, the stunning vistas, the elephant jungle treks, the markets, the super cheap Thai massages...all of it. Yes, please! As long as no tsunamis are in the works, we're all good...
After a lot of research, a lot of inquiries, and a lot of delays, I finally settled on the Blastocyst Center at Perfect Woman Institute in Bangkok. The coordinator, Sudamon, is always so prompt in responding to my questions and cc'ing the doctors into our conversations to get better answers from them, and also to keep them informed of my concerns, etc. So, if the way they handle procedure is at all like the way that they handle client services, I think I feel pretty good about the decision. Now, I was upset that I couldn't find a clinic that does the procedure (either with imported frozen sperm and/or for single women) further south...say, Phuket, for instance. Bangkok doesn't really sparkle with beachy goodness. But it does have an abundance of cultural and spiritual spots and wats to check out, and it's where most of the fertility clinics are located. Bangkok it is then!
I decided to do my first ever medicated cycle. I've never had a problem ovulating, but after two at-home ICI's and one unmedicated IUI cycle at a midwifery clinic, I felt like I should maybe kick it up a notch. And let's be honest, probably more than 50% of the stress of my natural cycle IUI was just worrying about timing and where I needed to be on this or that specific day, and timing my insemination less around when my cycle said it was time and more around the clinic's scheduled hours for performing IUI (my midwifery practice only did IUI's in the morning, before noon). At least with the medicated version, I'm already ovulating, more or less, on their time table. No more worrying about that! For the low, low price of $300 USD (deducted from the $1000 USD total for everything - IUI procedure, sperm thawing, labs and tests, monitoring, etc.), Blastocyst airmailed me 20 tablets of Serophene (different brand name for Clomid). Starting from CD3 of my insemination cycle in August, I'm supposed to begin taking it four times a day (50mg per pill) for five days. Projecting my cycle ahead, I should be arriving in Thailand around day 3 of Serophene (CD5). Then I'd go in to monitor the progress around CD9 or 10 and get an HCG trigger shot to jump start the ovulation process when the doctors think that my developing eggs are just the perfect amount of ripe for plucking. Although, someone on my Fertility Friend chat board just told me that a friend of hers just conceived quadruplets on only 50mg of Clomid daily...I may contact Blastocyst to see if I should maybe take a lower dosage or come in for monitoring earlier than CD10. Hmmmmmm....Of course, my Fertility Friend BB connection was also quick to point out that her friend "responded great to the Clomid", while she herself didn't really respond well at all. I guess from Blastocyst Center's perspective, the idea is that if you're coming all the way to Thailand for your IUI, then there really isn't time to start out on a low dose and then up the dosage next cycle if that doesn't work out. For most of their international clients, I'd imagine, this is the only cycle they'll be doing, so it's best to just start out as you mean to go on. You know, as I'm writing this, for just a flash of a millisecond, I thought to myself, "Twins might not be so bad...it might be kind of nice..." I must be losing my damn mind! Moving on...
Well, just a few more weeks (exactly 21 days, but who's counting?), and I will BE in Thailand getting ready to get knocked up! I should probably get on the phone and order my sperm, huh? Oh wait, I left that part out! Okay, so as you probably already know, I was (still am, actually) very attached to my first choice donor at PRS in San Francisco. However, PRS does not ship internationally. So once I actually made up my mind to go for it in Thailand, panic did in fact ensue. At first, I thought I might go through Xytex or Cryos International, but their offerings of donors of color were slim...and by slim I mean that Xytex had zero donors that were in any way, shape, or form of African ancestry; and Cryos had exactly one. (Or maybe there were more, but not in the open identity category - it's very important to me that my child be able to contact the donor when he/she comes of age.) Then, the every lovely Miss T. suggested I give California Cryobank (or CCB as they call themselves) another look. We had both originally eschewed CCB's super flashy website and decried their gimmicky use of donor "look-a-likes" (with each donor, they list a few celebrities that the donor may resemble). But when it came down to it, they had enough of a selection of donors of color and/or mixed race (with open identity status) for both of our tastes, and they DO ship internationally...CCB it is! Funnily enough, we both zeroed in on the same donor AGAIN right off the bat. She made up her mind almost immediately and stuck with it (she did her IVF with him in Barbados in late June. Fingers crossed! - you can read about it on her blog). After checking out his complete family medical history though, I decided to go with a different donor. So, we won't have sibling babies together, but she'll always be Auntie Tee regardless. I have a few genetic predispositions on my side and, if I can avoid it, I'd prefer not to double whammy my PFC's. Unlike Bachelor No. 1 at PRS, this donor does not look much like me at all (although he does have some similar features to people on my mother's side of the family), but I felt like he was the best match for me. Only time will tell...I'm going to call to place the order as soon as I have a free moment (within the business hours of our current time zone constraints - France is 9 hours ahead of Los Angeles)...a free moment where Frenchy Grandma can't listen in. I seriously might end up doing it while I've got the work babies on a carousel ride and I'm standing on the sidelines waving and smiling...*sigh*
That's just about it for now, my lovelies. I'm in exile with the work babies in France counting the days until I can get on a plane....scheming, plotting, and planning on getting knocked up in about one month's time. Praying, meditating, taking my herbs, trying (and occasionally succeeding) not to let Frenchy Grandma stress me out too much, and looking around for a very reasonably priced, non-gender specific French baby gift to give to my baby (and maybe one for Miss T, too!).
Stay tuned...
