Traveling for IVF

[trace]

Has anyone done this? We are moving out of state soon and I'm starting to freak out more and more the closer we get to moving day. My RE made it sound like it was no big deal, that I just find a local clinic to do my monitoring and coordinate with his office and then fly in for transfer.

ETA: This is for a FET.

[pooh8402]

G22 did. She's the only person I can think of.

Fwiw, I just moved too, about 8 hours away from my old RE. She said the same thing, have a local clinic do the monitoring and then do the transfer with her but I don't see the point. I just made appointments with new REs (first one is next week) and had my records transferred over. I plan to have all my embryos shipped here as well.

[scm1011]

No advice, but I'm sad you're moving before we got a chance to get together and have a meeting of the Calvins!!

I'd be a little freaked out too, but I'm sure this isn't unusual and all will be fine.

[trace]

May 8, 2017 19:45:26 GMT -5 scm1011 said:

No advice, but I'm sad you're moving before we got a chance to get together and have a meeting of the Calvins!!

I'd be a little freaked out too, but I'm sure this isn't unusual and all will be fine.

I know! I'm bummed about that! We just made the final decision like a week ago. Lol. We have so much to do. I could probably squeeze in a weekday lunch if you're up for it though.

[trace]

May 8, 2017 17:43:36 GMT -5 pooh8402 said:

G22 did. She's the only person I can think of.

Fwiw, I just moved too, about 8 hours away from my old RE. She said the same thing, have a local clinic do the monitoring and then do the transfer with her but I don't see the point. I just made appointments with new REs (first one is next week) and had my records transferred over. I plan to have all my embryos shipped here as well.

Thanks. Good luck with the new RE consults!

I would feel better about shipping them if I had multiple but we only have one and cannot do another de cycle so this is it. I've heard some people split the shipment so they're not all in one batch? As much as I'm freaked out about the long distance and travel, I'm way more scared that something goes wrong during shipping and we're out. Mine would be going all the way across the country.

[King26]

Well I had to drive 2 1/2 hours to my clinic during my first year which was a PITA but I did monitor much closer. It worked out fine. They sent all my info to my clinic within a few hours and then both RE's talked so we knew when I would have my ER and ET. I know that driving is different then flying but I liked boht clinics and they worked well together. I think you just need to make sure your monitoring clinic has a decent relationship with your other clinic and make sure they get info to them on time.

[trace]

Thanks, King. I'm going to take a few weeks off before getting serious about the job search and I think researching and going for consults will be at the top of the to do list. Luckily, we'll be in a major metropolitan area and we'll be OOP (boo!) so I should have lots of options.

[G22]

I did. We lived in Montana at the time we did treatments and I drove out to Washington for my IVF cycles.

I did all my monitoring out in Washington, so I was out there for 3 weeks at a time for each IVF cycle. I actually liked that I travelled for it, because I kind of viewed it as a "vacation". Throughout my monitoring, I found things to do to keep me busy and take my mind of dwelling over our cycle.

We still have embryos out in WA. We currently live overseas, but have started TTC again. If we don't get pregnant on our own before moving back to the states, I've tossed around the idea of flying out to WA and doing FET there. I loved my REs and we only have 2 embryos, so like you, I don't have a bunch to take a chance on shipping.

[shauni27]

I had a similar situation to King26. Our clinic was a couple of hours away. I would drive up every other day for monitoring and then for the procedures, etc. If I just needed simple blood work they would call it in to a lab down by me.

It sounds like the clinic has done this before; you just need to be prepared to not be in control and be able to travel as necessary.

[trace]

Thanks for sharing, G22 and Shauni!

We are definitely increasing our FET budget since we'll have to purchase airfare at the last minute.

[pooh8402]

I guess I never really thought about risks of shipping. The thing is that my old clinic only holds onto embryos for 3 years, which is up this October. So unless I use all my embryos before October 1, I would have had to ship them to long term storage anyway (from Houston to Austin). So I'm planning to ship them a few months early, and a few hours further west.

Andplusalso, I just started a new job and they're not yet aware of my IF/TTC status. It would be very difficult for me to just up and travel to Houston from the TX Panhandle with no notice.

So I personally have a lot of reasons to take the risk of shipping my embryos (although I wonder about shipping them in 2 batches; I have 3, ranging from 4BC to 3CC in grade). E was my highest quality embryo at 4BB.

[cactuscookie]

I had to travel for monitoring and the transfer. I was working full-time and wasn't open about IF at work. I told my boss that I had "a medical issue that isn't life-threatening." My RE was a 4-hour drive away, in the city where my parents live. I considered taking the whole three weeks off, but didn't want to miss that much work, so I drove back and forth every day. It sucked - I would have been grateful to have an opportunity for monitoring to be closer!

So one question I have - the local office does the monitoring, and then do they send the pictures (video?) to your RE? Because I'd think you want your actual doctor to be the one to adjust the medications if necessary.

[shoeless]

I did for FETs. We used donor eggs at a clinic that was a 2+ hour plan ride away (so not drive-able). I did everything locally (monitoring, blood tests, etc) It was really easy! I just googled radiology centers and found one close by. They were amazing to work with, easy, fast appointments, would squeeze me in, etc. The only hiccup we ever had was on our second FET the flight down the night before got delayed till midnight so we didn't land until 3am for a transfer that day. Otherwise everything was really easy (all things considered).

[shoeless]

May 9, 2017 10:58:53 GMT -5 cactuscookie said:

I had to travel for monitoring and the transfer. I was working full-time and wasn't open about IF at work. I told my boss that I had "a medical issue that isn't life-threatening." My RE was a 4-hour drive away, in the city where my parents live. I considered taking the whole three weeks off, but didn't want to miss that much work, so I drove back and forth every day. It sucked - I would have been grateful to have an opportunity for monitoring to be closer!

So one question I have - the local office does the monitoring, and then do they send the pictures (video?) to your RE? Because I'd think you want your actual doctor to be the one to adjust the medications if necessary.

For mine they sent the pictures and a write up within in hour or two of my appointment.

[trace]

Pooh, I'm sure your embryos will be fine. I hope I didn't scare you! I'm just super paranoid because we only have one and are absolutely done after that. No money or insurance for another de cycle (and honestly, I don't think I have it in myself mentally and emotionally to go through that process again even if $ wasn't an issue) and I have 1% chance of conceiving through IVF with my OE. And 3000 miles makes me way too nervous.

[trace]

Catcuscookie, that is a lot of driving. So worth it though!

[trace]

May 9, 2017 12:59:35 GMT -5 shoeless said:

I did for FETs. We used donor eggs at a clinic that was a 2+ hour plan ride away (so not drive-able). I did everything locally (monitoring, blood tests, etc) It was really easy! I just googled radiology centers and found one close by. They were amazing to work with, easy, fast appointments, would squeeze me in, etc. The only hiccup we ever had was on our second FET the flight down the night before got delayed till midnight so we didn't land until 3am for a transfer that day. Otherwise everything was really easy (all things considered).

Shoeless, that is reassuring to hear you had such a good experience. The flight delay must have been stressful though. How much notice did you have from the time they said you're ready for transfer to the time you had to be at the clinic?

This may sound crazy but I think some of my anxiety about flying out for it is because I had 2 m/c while traveling. Like my brain knows that the flights had absolutely nothing to do with the losses since we found out I was severe DOR, the fourth loss was a confirmed trisomy, and once we fixed the egg issue I had a fairly uneventful and healthy pregnancy, and pregnant women fly all the time but it is so hard to break that association.

[cowgirlcutie]

I did for both my retrieval and subsequent FET. It was across the country. The clinic I worked with has a lot of experience seeing out of town patients so they were really helpful. For the FET, I got my blood draws done at a local lab and had my lining ultrasound done at the Women's Hospital in the city(that was a bit of a pain to coordinate thanks to the Canadian system). I booked my flight once my transfer date was confirmed from the ultrasound. I flew in the morning of transfer then turned around and flew back home that evening. You might want to give yourself more flexibility with that as you never know in regards to flight delays. I did get caught in a snow storm on my way home, but it was a Friday night and I had the embryo on board so I wasn't bothered getting delayed at that point.

It seems more intimidating than it is. Good luck!

[trace]

May 10, 2017 19:48:49 GMT -5 cowgirlcutie said:

I did for both my retrieval and subsequent FET. It was across the country. The clinic I worked with has a lot of experience seeing out of town patients so they were really helpful. For the FET, I got my blood draws done at a local lab and had my lining ultrasound done at the Women's Hospital in the city(that was a bit of a pain to coordinate thanks to the Canadian system). I booked my flight once my transfer date was confirmed from the ultrasound. I flew in the morning of transfer then turned around and flew back home that evening. You might want to give yourself more flexibility with that as you never know in regards to flight delays. I did get caught in a snow storm on my way home, but it was a Friday night and I had the embryo on board so I wasn't bothered getting delayed at that point.

It seems more intimidating than it is. Good luck!

Thanks! So good to hear another positive experience with this! How long was it from the time you got notice that you were ready to the day of transfer?

I think we are going to plan on spending at least a couple days here after transfer. We're a little sad to leave so it'll be nice to treat it as a mini vacation and go back to some of our favorite spots and relax in a hotel.

[cowgirlcutie]

Originally, I had my lining check on a Thursday for a scheduled transfer the following Tuesday. However, my lining was still a bit thin so they pushed back my transfer to the Friday of that week instead.

[shoeless]

trace. I don't remember the exact timing but the first time we waited until the second lining check before booking (so 7 dayish notice). The second cycle we had more confidence in how my body would respond (maybe naively) but we booked our flights at the start of the cycle (21ish days out). We are in a major city and we were flying to a major city so we never had to be worry about not being able to find a flight.

[trace]

Thank you both, cowgirlcutie and shoeless! I've never done a FET so I wasn't sure what the timeline was between lining checks and travel/transfer. Several days notice is much better than I was expecting.