TTC for ten months, and the rest. Ten plussers welcome.

[MrsGingerbread]

A friendly and welcoming thread full of lovely women.

[TheTravellingLemon]

Just popping in to mark my place. Thanks for the new thread MrsGingerbread.

[loopylou1984]

Marking place - hope all our grads manage to find us.

Toes - what is OSSH? I know it's something to do with the ovaries?

I might have got the letters wrong, but you know what I mean! Xx

[loopylou1984]

OHSS!!

[ToesAndFingersCrossed]

Agh just wrote a long reply, googled a spelling mistake, came back and it was gone - going to write it out in notepad and paste it in!

[ToesAndFingersCrossed]

Hi Sam,

Finally at a computer so can type this out properly:

OHSS stands for Ovarian Hyper Stimulation Syndrome is a pretty rare but serious side effect from fertility treatment. It occurs when your ovaries are hyper-stimulated, usually during IVF but some people can get it with clomid too. It's most common in women with polycystic ovaries and younger women but not necessarily.

It is triggered by the hCG hormone, which is the hormone produced in pregnancy and what your pee sticks are looking for when you test. hCG is also what they use in IVF to "trigger" ovulation. The injections you do in the run up to egg recovery are to suppress and stimulate your hormones at the same time, making many follicles grow on your ovaries, but not be released. The trigger injection you do will cause the eggs to mature and be released, but you will have egg collection before they are, around 35 hours after your trigger injection. This trigger is (often) hCG and can cause your ovaries to become hyper-stimulated.

During your IVF cycle you will be monitored by internal scans and blood tests to see how your follicles are growing, and if there looks like there are many they will keep an eye on you as you will be at risk of OHSS. The problem is that once you have had your embryo transferred, there is every chance you will get pregnant, thus start producing hCG, which will make your OHSS worse.

The symptoms are intense pain in the abdomen, bloating, vomiting, diarrhoea, and feeling generally awful. You could end up retaining water in your abdomen, causing you to become very dehydrated, and your blood to be thick and clumpy and thus at risk of clotting. The water could collect in your abdomen and as high as your chest causing difficulty to breathe.

BUT don't worry, IVF clinics are very much on top of this. Even before I was showing any symptoms I was told they would put me on blood thinners as soon as I had my EC. I was told to drink lots and lots, and keep an eye on how much I was peeing. I felt pretty rotten for the first 3 days, but the blood thinners seem to be doing the job and I feel great now.

As I said, it's serious, but not very common, and the NHS especially are very on the ball with it so will look after you if it looks like you might be unwell.

I hope that's a good explanation but please correct me if I got anything wrong!

[StackladysMorphicResonator]

Hi all, can I join? 13 months TTC, no blue lines so far

DH and I have had the basic preliminary tests, I'm fine so far, DH has normal sperm count, normal motility, but only 4% morphology. Anyone have experience of low morphology? Did anything help? He's taking pycnogenol and zinc, but so far no joy.

[GoneGirl1]

Hello, can I join too? 2 years ttc due to a blocked Fallopian tube, caused by endometriosis. Recently off a 6 month dose of zoladex so now I'm fully back on ttc (wasn't able to whilst on it).

[loopylou1984]

Toes thank you, that was a great explanation!
The very thought if all the drugs and hospital trips terrifies me, tbh I still can't believe we're on the edge if all that. That being said, id really rather have all the knowledge before it happens to me! X

[loopylou1984]

Welcome gone girl and stack

Stack - my dh had low morph based on first SA. It was 3%. He had a re test a month or so later and we were just told it was normal so must have improved. Lots of things can affect sperm (being ill for example) so definitely get a re test. Xx

[Paigesmummy89]

Hey girls! Ttc for well over two yes... I have a 6 year old and was unplanned a young 17 year old I was. Docs put me on clomid I had my first round in January and I'm meant to be ovoulating now! Taken ovoulating tests today what do u girls think on this pic am I or am I not ovoulating.... The last past two days I've had this dull ach at the bottom of my stomach and pressure down below is this to do with ovoulation... I really don't no what to think as I haven't ovoulate do for so long due to low ped... IE why the docs put me on clomid help please :

[Paigesmummy89]

Hey.... Looking for friends who are ttc... Help each other :)

[MissMrsMummy]

Hi paiges is the right hand pic the most recent? If so I'd say you are due to ov soon. I usually do about 3 of those tests a day so I don't miss the surge. You will know it's a positive when the line is as dark as, or sometimes darker than the control line.

[Paigesmummy89]

Hey I took them two this morning and I also took another one about 4 which was darker... I no this sounds so silly... But leading up to ur period I no u have high fertile days and the day U actually ovoulate... So if I'm doing the deed on them days can I still get pregant... Or do I just have to have sex the exact day I'm ovoulating... I plan to take another ovoulation test in the morning but this is where I'm confused as it coming up with two lines today and what if it comes up with two lines tomorrow :/ confused

[TheTravellingLemon]

Welcome everyone.

I've got my GP appointment this morning for all my results. I reckon everything is normal though otherwise they would have got in touch with me.

Surrounded by boxes! Moving Monday then I'm back to concentrating on babies. DM has said that she will help us with the finances if we need it, so that takes a bit of pressure off.

Silly question When I conceived the first time I had a smear test and must have fallen pregnant some time over the following few days. A friend of mine said that it is not unusual. Is that rubbish? I'm due another smear. Should I wait until I'm ovulating or am I being daft?

[TheTravellingLemon]

Good luck Donna. My results were all normal and I've been referred. Clomid? I guess. They said that they are not going to do HyCoSy as they have no reason to think there are any blockages.

[TrixieRay]

Ooh, new thread and some newbies, welcome!

Paiges- sperm can live up to 6-7 days (though usually it's more like 1-2 days) so you can get pregnant from trying in the days leading up to ov.

Donna, hope the HyCoSy was ok.

Lemon, good news re your results!

[MissMrsMummy]

paiges I'm not using opks this cycle as I am following Gp advice to DTD every other day all cycle. Apparently you can't always trust opks and in the past I have stopped DTD after a positive opk when in fact I should have kept trying. So DTD more often around your positive test but don't stop straight after it.

[MissMrsMummy]

Hope your procedure went ok donna and you weren't sore after?

Glad your results were ok lemon I don't know about your smear? I would be wary of having it during the 2ww though as I'm sure messing with the cervix can cause mc.

[loopylou1984]

Donna - I have mine at then end of April, I'm a bit scared .

So if everything's normal what happens next? Xx

[Teagan007]

Hello all you lovely ladies.

I've decided to share my journey with a bunch of complete strangers because I find it hard to tell friends and family that me and my husband have been TTC for 16 months now.

Went to the doctors in November to tell the nurse that nothing has happened and I've finally got my referral date on 16th March after numerous swabs and blood tests.

I have a beautiful 3 year old daughter and she was conceived straight away but I am worried that after her birth, an emergency caesarean, I am damaged in some way which has prevented me from falling pregnant.

I know I am lucky to have my daughter but I now know that world of pain and frustration of longing to see that positive mark on the pregnancy test. It is a psychological battle which I fight.

So, with a referral in sight, I have decided to go all out on the research this month and am trying something which I never thought of before just to see if I can get a positive result before the possibility of bad news from the fertility clinic.

Therefore, I am eating 25 almonds a day and have just received (and taken my first dose) of Manuka honey 20+. I'm going to take 2 teaspoons a day of the most expensive honey I have ever bought...just because I'm desperate and can't take any tablets because I have a thyroid problem.

Sorry for the ramblings...but a problem shared is a problem halved right?

I do wish all of you who are TTC the best of luck and hope we can be journey buddies!

[loopylou1984]

Donna - well I don't actually have it booked, but have appointment with specialist last week of April and he pretty much said that would be the plan! Xx