Gent's a Go

Yesterday afternoon Flo and I headed off to Gent's University Hospital for our scheduled appointment with the fertility clinic. The journey turned out to be quite treacherous, since we're currently suffering from heavy rain and strong winds in the Netherlands, so driving conditions were pretty tricky!

After giving our history and medical background to the trainee doctor, we had a good, long chat with the fertility doctor. She was very frank with us. She said that, taking account of all the information that she has, she is inclined to agree with the opionion of the doctors at Voorburg that our chances of success are less than average. However, she went on to say that we're still young and we have time on our side and that she would not recommend stopping at this point unless we either can't afford to continue or don't wish to subject ourselves to further stress that is inevitable with the treatment.

She agreed that Flo appears to be what is referred to as a "poor responder" to hormone stimulation. In order to have a reasonable chance (30-40%) of the treatment being successful, Flo needs to produce about eight eggs during the treatment cycle. Since Flo only seems to be producing about four or five, this straight away reduces the chance of success. However, given that we have been successful in the past up to placing the eggs back, she thinks it is worth continuing.

In Belgium, it's standard practice to have six fertility treatments sponsored by the government, giving an overall rate of success of over 90%. In the Netherlands, the government only sponsors three attempts, giving an overall success rate of around 80%. This alone gives the Belgians a much more positive outlook on fertility treatment and they are far more willing to continue treatment for longer. As a result, the Belgian hospitals are far more relaxed about success rates and are not phased by league tables (showing which are the most "successful" fertility clinics in the country).

The doctor thought that our chances of success were around 20%. However, after the trainee doctor examined Flo with an ultrasound scan, around seven or eight follicles could clearly be seen (along with another small cyst on the left side), which was encouraging so early in her cycle. So it appears that Flo's fertility cycle is a little bit tempremental, peaking and troughing. Therefore, the timing of the treatment could well be critical and so it will likely be worth us waiting until Flo appears to be in a peak before starting an ICSI treatment.

The Belgian doctor advised that, given that Flo does not respond well to stimulation, there is very little risk of her hyper-stimulating. She therefore advised using the full dose of hormones and very small doses of down regulating drugs. Interestingly, she was very suprised that our last treatment was cancelled by the clinic, since, given that it was obvious that Flo was a poor responder, it would have been worth continuing the treatment for another week since delayed responses are often observed in women with conditions similar to Flo.

So, the bottom line is that they'd be more than happy to treat us in Gent. However, it's quite a drive, so it would be easier on us if we could at least have some of the ultrasounds done at a local hospital. Ideally though, we'd prefer to continue treatment at Voorburg. With the additional insight and confidence that they've given us at Gent, we're looking forward to returning to Voorburg to see if they propose continuing with us and to see if they are prepared to be flexible with the treatment that they offer us. It's strange, but, given the experiences that we've had and from talking with a few informed people, we seem to have formulated our own idea of what treatment we want. Unfortunately, doctors don't like being told what to do and don't like their conclusions being questioned... least of all by their patients!

Well... let's see what they have to say when we return to Voorburg next month. At the very least, we now have a plan B. Personally, I'm now much more confident and enthusiastic about continuing to chase our objective to have our own child.

We finished the day with a nice meal at Grade, a restaurant featured in one of Flo's magazines. The food wasn't anything special, but the ambience was nice and the company was excellent! It gave us time to unwind and debrief one another of the day's events.