The path to pregnancy after an embryo transfer involves a
lot of blood. I had three blood draws total. One a week after transfer, one
three days later, and one ten days after that.
One morning as I was in the lab, I went to put my jacket
back on and the tourniquet/bandage slipped off my arm. I bled everywhere! I had
always thought those little gauze pads and stretchy tape were more for show
than anything.
Not so much.
My open vein decided to leak everywhere. It was kind of funny really. Their faces told
me that they were used to seeing blood in vials instead of all over their
floor.
The blood draws were continuing to monitor my estrogen and
progesterone levels, but were now looking for hCG, the hormone that tells us if
there is a pregnancy. The first blood draw is a baseline and the second is to
see if the starting number has doubled, which would be a sign of pregnancy. The
third is to make sure that number has grown exponentially, which would indicate
implantation and continued growth of the embryo.
One positive test does not necessarily mean you are
pregnant. A chemical pregnancy registers some hCG at first, but the numbers do
not continue to grow, which is an indication that something did not take.
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