Taking the LeapAfter much discussion with the IVF doctor, we dived headlong into planning for our trip. I informed my boss that I would need to take about a month off (I had plenty of vacation time, but my workplace is loathe to allow people to use it in big blocks), and I had to time it according to my menstrual cycle, which was about 31 days. We bought the tickets, made local arrangements for a long stay ... and started reading up on Thailand.
We arrived in late July ... on the plane ride, I got my period, which was a couple of days early (and no, crossing the international dateline had nothing to do with it). Anyway, as soon as we arrived, we were met by two people representing the hotel's international visitors' program, who quickly arranged for me to see the IVF doctor sooner than expected -- the next day.
Our doctor was very straighforward, and provided a good overview of
what we could expect before we started treatments. He had reviewed our
medical histories, and understood that we were there primarily because
of the cost, but also because we knew Bangkok to be a center of medical
tourism, and were confident in the hospital's high standards. We discussed his recommendations for our treatment, including types of drugs. As an important note, I was pleased to see that I was going to be on the same brand of fertility drugs I had tried in the U.S. -- they were simply much cheaper in Thailand.
My TreatmentWe decided to set dates for specific procedures depending on how I responded to treatment. Following is how it went:
Day 3 - 11: Follistim (1 ultrasound on Day 9)
Day 12: HCG trigger
Day 14: Egg harvest / sperm retrieval
Day 17: PGD*
Day 18: Embryo transfer
*NOTE: We opted to do PGD (Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis), as we
had miscarried several times, and wanted to ensure that we were
transferring only viable embryos.
During the drug program, I did my own injections, but the program staff
were only too happy to shuttle me back and forth to the hospital if I
was too squeamish to self-inject. Between daily injections, we had plenty of time for sightseeing, which we did with zeal! Again, the program staff very responsive and helpful in providing local sightseeing
trips and guides for getting around the city. It was great to have
native Thais guiding us, as was less of a chance of getting lost or
ripped off by taxi drivers.
We were all pleased to see that I was responding well to the drugs. I produced 8 follicles, all of which were harvested and injected with my husband's sperm. Out of these, 7 grew into embryos; after genetic testing, 5 were shown to be chromasomally normal. Those were the five we chose to implant. The doctor gave us the option to implant 2-3, then freeze the rest. The cost was certainly viable (less than $100 a year). But I had read that people don't have as much success with frozen embryos, and so we opted to have all 5 implanted.
If you want to hear about the rest of our story, and are interested in traveling to Thailand for IVF, please
contact us.