After we had the results of my test and our treatment plan we decided to start our next cycle of ICSI in early 2020, which at the time seemed like a great idea!!. Everything was running very smoothly and the clinic had been fantastic, we were now in February and Covid 19 was still lingering in China, it wouldn't come to Europe, would it?. We were able to get a large number of eggs during this cycle and I felt good about my general health, so I was hoping my little boys could get the job done. We decided to do all of the tests we could including PGS, so the embryos would be left until blastocyst and then have a small sample taken to be sent away and tested before the surviving embryos are then frozen. We started with 8 eggs that fertilized, but that number quickly dropped to 5 on day 3 and then to 3 by day 5. We were abit upset, but 3 was not a bad number...it only takes 1 after all. After PGS we ended up with 1 single embryo that has healthy enough to freeze, my high DNA fragmentation had struck again. I was gutted, this gives us one go for this round.
So whichever theory you believe, a man eating a bat, 5G masts or chemical warfare, Covid 19 hit Europe. We had planned to go back to Madrid in March or April, but his became the epi-centre of the virus in Europe so was a definite no go area. We were heart broken, or embaby was out there waiting for us and she (I think its a girl) is still there waiting for us.
Covid has put life on hold for so many couples going through IVF and my heart goes out to each and every one of you.
We decided to keep trying naturally as much as we could. I was put on furlough from work during March, so this gave us the perfect chance to have lots of well timed sex :-)
We are lucky to have a garden and we live close to a very large park in central London, but trying to keep fit as we had no gym was hard. Both my wife and I struggle to keep weight off even if we just eat healthy, our bodies need proper gym work, so the weight just piled on unfortunately.
I had 3 months off work in the end and nothing came of it, I think we either missed my wife's "peak period" or my little swimmers just still weren't working. I haven't had any sort of sperm or DNA fragmentation test not for about 8 months, so I have no idea where I am.
Both my wife and I enjoyed my furloughed period, it gave us some time to reconnect and spend some quality time together which was amazing. It was difficult to see what was going on outside in the wider world, the poor people who were getting sick and the death toll.
We wondered what would happen and we both kept an eye on the figures in Spain, I contacted the clinic a couple of times via Instagram just to keep in touch and both times we have a lovely response - "we cant wait to see you back again, take care of yourself". I went back to work in late May and we have never been busier at work, which is a good thing so the money keeps coming in. My wife is still not at work, so we only have 1 wage packet coming in to pay the bills and also to save for our next cycle once required.