Answering some questions/comments on earlier FET posts and an informationless update

There were some interesting questions burried in the comments to this post and I'm finally getting around to addressing them. Sorry it took me so long; I seem to have spent the past several weeks in something of a black hole.

Junebee asked: So how come you didn't just go to the U.S.?

For the initial IVF we didn't consider going to the US until we ran at least one cycle here to see how things went. There is so much stress and emotional turmoil in an IVF that I really didn't want to do it 6 time zones away from R if I didn't have to. Nor did I want to add an international flight and extended hotel stay to an already expensive procedure (which may be the one thing I've found that is actually cheaper in Switzerland, by the way). And how would I explain my long absence to the in-laws? With a fairly straightforward male factor diagnosis it didn't seem urgent to find a clinic that was allowed to use all the tools in the IVF toolkit, since in theory we don't need all the tools in the IVF toolkit. So we started here in Switzerland with Dr. L, who came highly recommended by my beloved OB/GYN Dr. Fantabulous. And we were successful on the first IVF, with frozen eggs in storage; naturally it made sense when we came to FET time to go to Dr. L again. It wasn't until half way through FET #3 that I fully realized the restrictions he's working with and at that point, well, in for a penny in for a pound. I'll be honest, at 38 I'm not interesting in running a fresh IVF cycle in any country - the first cycle was pretty rough and I over stimulated - and as I've said before my emotional reserves are running low; we're nearing the end of this road one way or the other. I don't think I have a fresh cycle in me. And of course, with the Small Boy cycling in the US now becomes a logistical and financial impossibility; or a nightmare at least.

Elizabeth said: Presumably these laws are to ensure that there is absolutely no movement toward "genetic engineering", no chance that parents could select embryos based on testing for genetic flaws?
and asked: Does this change your feelings at all about transferring two embryos?

Elizabeth, yes the restrictions are specifically designed to rule out any possibility of genetic engineering. Embryo grading, even waiting to see if they stop developing in the lab on their own, is perceived as the first step on a slippery slope. It's a bit inconsistent, though, because amnio to test for genetic conditions is legal in Switzerland and it is legal to abort a fetus based on amnio results. But we can't make the same decision about the pregnancy at the 8 cell stage. Huh?? How exactly does that make sense?

Our new understanding of frozen fertilized eggs v. frozen embryos didn't change our feelings about the number of embryos to transfer because at the end of the day R and I are still mildly terrified at the prospect of twins; and it turned out to be irrelevant anyway since we didn't have two to work with in the end.

Colorsonmymind asked: Now if neither looks good by day two will they defrost 2 more so you don't miss the cycle?

Yep, as seen by our bus crash, they just kept defrosting until they had something to transfer. So at least there's that.

And as for the update, I'm one week into the dreaded two week wait - that means the blood draw is a week from today - and I couldn't begin to guess what's going on down there. We'll work on the no news is good news theory for now.