My Journey to IVF in the United States: A Record of the Whole Journey of Seeking a Child Across the Ocean

🌏 At 3am, I curled up on a bench in the waiting hall of Shanghai Pudong Airport, and a notification popped up on my phone: the flight was delayed for six hours. At that moment, as I stared at the words "Los Angeles" on the screen, I suddenly realized that this trans Pacific journey to find a child was more like a migration with no way out than any business trip. 🛫

My name is Lin Lan, born in 1985, a pharmacist in a tertiary hospital. I am familiar with the half-life of all hormone drugs, but I am unable to prescribe a "good pregnancy" prescription for myself. In the sixth year of marriage, hysteroscopy, laparoscopy, ovulation induction, and artificial insemination have all reached the end of the ladder of options that can be tried in China. AMH 0.8，FSH 15， The fallopian tubes are extremely obstructed, and the husband's sperm abnormality rate is 97%. We stacked the failure reports into a thick stack, like an old notebook of incorrect questions. 📚

In July 2022, I took my annual leave and officially embarked on an IVF journey in the United States with three years of savings and two 28 inch boxes. There are no intermediaries, no packaged packages, and the entire process is booked, coordinated, and accounted for by oneself. This article is to split the 172 day real experience into seven tables and give a replicable roadmap to sisters who also want to "go west". 🗺️

🗂️ Table 1: Hospital Selection Scoring Table (out of 100)

🖊️ Explanation: Rating dimensions=40% technical skills+20% Chinese support+20% transportation and accommodation+20% cost. I ultimately targeted INCINTA, firstly because Dr. James P. Lin was willing to personally join the group, and secondly because I found out that they were in 2021

🗂️ Table 2: Visa& Entry timeline

🗂️ Table 3: Domestic Pre Inspection Checklist (INCINTA requires within 90 days)

🖊️ The total cost is ¥ 7780, which saves $1200 compared to doing it in the United States. However, please note that all Chinese reports need to be stamped by a reputable translation company, and INCINTA only recognizes "original documents+translated documents with saddle seals".

🗂️ Table 4: Revenue of 172 Day Charges in the United States (USD)

🖊️ Tips for saving money: 1. Let the clinic prescribe the medicine directly, go to Costco pharmacy, and use GoodRx coupons to get 25% cheaper than the clinic pharmacy; 2. The apartment can be rented for a long time through Booking, with the original price of $140 per night reduced to $131 per night; Renting a car for 90 days is considered long-term, and Hertz will directly reduce it by 0.3 dollars per day.

🗂️ Table 5: Schedule Promotion and Sensory Diary

🖊️ One hour after the surgery, Dr. Lin came in with a small pink piece of paper and said, "11, 8 mature." At that moment, my tears woke up faster than anesthesia.

🗂️ Table 6: Laboratory follow-up process

🗂️ Table 7: Record of the first transplant within 72 hours

🖊️ The official health score is on the 9th day, HCG 12，Progesterone 28。 Dr. Lin said 'borderline but promising'. I returned to the apartment and threw all the test strips into the trash can, deciding to wait until the 14th day to draw them again. The final HCG 342 confirms clinical pregnancy. 🤰

🌈 Easter eggs: those little things no one told you

1. 🚗 In California, turning right at a red light can stop and then turn, but pedestrians must be allowed to do so, otherwise a fine of $490 will be imposed.
2. 🥑 Trader Joe's organic avocados, 4 pieces, cost 3.49 dollars and are hard to hold on the windowsill for 3 days.
3. 💉 Using a 22G needle for progesterone oil injection, changing to 18G after pumping and then pushing can reduce pain by 30%.
4. 📱 T-Mobile tourist card costs $50 per month, with unlimited data usage, but the hotspot only has 10 GB.
5. 🧺 The apartment washing machine does not have hot water. For blood stains, soak them in cold water and 3% hydrogen peroxide for 5 minutes, and they will fall off with just a rub.
6. 🛂 Perform nucleic acid testing at LAX before returning to China, with a turnaround time of 2 hours and a cost of $215, which can be paid via WeChat.

📌 In conclusion

In May 2023, I gave birth to a Xiaolongnu weighing 6 pounds and 4 taels in a red house in Shanghai. Her American birth certificate is on my passport, and I have 172 days of Pacific memories. Someone asked me if I regret it? Spending over 300000 yuan and resigning for six months, is it worth it? I thought of the day when Dr. Lin handed me a small piece of paper with "8" written on it for egg retrieval. The sunlight from Torrance outside the window fell on my arm like gold powder. At that moment, I knew that the most cost-effective investment in life was to give myself a chance to never regret it again. 🌻

May all the sisters who cross the oceans to ask for their children land safely with their own "little notes". ✈️💕

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