Tracking Cycle

When I had a chat with my Donor Nurse at the Clinic and I was told I needed to do a Tracking Cycle which is included within my Donor Matching.

So the Tracking Cycle is a as it sounds, its scans tracking your natural cycle to check and see if there are any issues – or things that you may not know about going off inside.

I had to call my clinic on Cycle Day (CD) 1 and get booked in for a scan on CD10.

So CD 10 comes around and I head to the clinic, it was my first time inside the actual clinic department since COVID and it was weird seeing the room all spaced out. The nurse who was doing my scan was lovely, but my left ovary decided it did not want to play ball so she had to go and get a different lady to scan me, and we found it eventually.

I had two follicles growing on my right ovary and none on my left. In most menstrual cycls a follicle will grow on an ovary and get bigger until it ruptures at ovulation and releases the egg. Follicles are good.

On CD10 I had one measuring 13.5mm and one measuring 12mm.

On CD13 I headed back to the clinic for a further scan – the nurse this time questioned why I was having a tracking cycle if I was doing IVF. I told her I was told by the Donor Nurses I needed to book one in, despite feeling like I shouldn’t have been there, she was actually super good with me, she weighed me, she told me I needed to get on with my sperm choices and made sure I had everything I needed for my nurse consultation when it was due.

One of the follicles on the right ovary had grown to 17mm, and she told me about the “three lines” on my uterus which is good for womb lining and implantation – so I was happy that my body was doing what it was doing I was booked in for a baseline scan and to check ovulation 5 days later. Normally follicles are to be 18mm+ for ovulation – so I was happy I was almost there!

So on CD18 (or 19 depending on what my app said!) I headed to the clinic for a baseline scan and to check ovulation – the sonographer was lovely and found both ovaries fine! She showed me that I had a “collapsed follicle” which has a jagged edge – this shows that I ovulated and I said that I thought I had ovulated around CD 14 / 15 whichs she said was probably about right

I still had the 3-line / feathery uterus lining too – so everything was then good to go for my Nurse Consultation!

One step closer!