TTC for 10 months and the rest! 10 plussers welcome! Thread 3 (the one where we all get our bfps!)

[lucieloos]

New thread ready for us chatty ladies! If you have been trying to conceive for over 10 months pop in and join us. We are a friendly bunch!

[bananafish81]

Marking my place! Thanks lucie

[Trixietwenty16]

Checking in

[loopylou1984]

Thanks Lucie :). Xx

[stealthbanana]

Hello! May I join you? The other banana directed me over here, as I have now (sadly) hit the inglorious 10month milestone. I'm 34 and came off the pill in late March of last year. Ttc#1. Don't know what cycle number as I don't really have cycles.

Up until 3 days ago I was on my 2nd round of IUI. Have anovulatory thin PCOS and am clomid resistant so doing gonal f injections.

Unfortunately I went for my IUI scan on Tuesday and I had 20+ follicles all around 10-11mm and no dominant follicle(s). Doctor was concerned they were all going to grow at the same time and leave me like octomum so he has converted my cycle to IVF. It's likely we will do a freeze all cycle as my lining is not keeping pace (it was at 5.5mm) and I think he's worried about overstimulation, but we'll decide whether to do a fresh transfer depending on how things go.

Slightly overwhelmed and terrified at how quickly this is moving...egg collection is likely to be next week ffs! Also worried that I haven't done any of the good things to prep for IVF and have been eating and drinking crap so probably my eggs will be crap.

Aah! Sorry for rant.

[BorisIsBack]

Welcome stealth. I'm on a similarly timed ivf cycle to you but yours sounds more complicated. Nice to have your company though. I'm also looking to egg retrieval next week.

Lucie my aMH is 17...

[star1980]

Hello ladies!

Thanks for the new thread Lucie. Figured I'd post an update for the new thread.

Star80. 35. TTC since Nov 2015. Mild male factor (low motility and low morphology). High AMH and lots of follicles (polycystic-like ovaries). Bored of ttc and hoping for a miracle before ivf in June.

Welcome stealthbanana. Wow, ivf so quickly and after only 10 months trying. You're in great company here - Sammy, Boris and Lucie all cycling with you. Good luck ladies!

[MPP81]

Hi all! I lost you! I've just had a read through the other thread and now I can't remember half of what I was going to say! I'll have a try though...

Firstly, major congrats to Banana! So lovely everything is progressing well, and I'm so happy for you! :)

I'm not fully versed in all the ivf stuff yet, but wow Boris, 35!!! I hope they're keeping an eye on you.

Sorry for AF Sammy, but good that you can get things moving. I hope you're OK

Great news on the earlier appointment Trixie!

How are you doing, Lucie?

Welcome Stealth. It must be a bit of a shock to be changing to IVF but I'm sure your eggs will be fine. I know it's easy to say, but try not to worry. Hopefully you'll get some great ones frozen ready for transfer.

No real news here (again). Just waiting for ov which should be in the next 3-5 days. Decided to get some of DP'S swimmers in last night in prep, and used a bit of pre-seed, but for the first time, he got stage fright and nothing... happened. I tried to reassure him and tell him not to worry but I'm worried about him because he already feels crap about the mf diagnosis. Im sorry, I can't remember who but I know one of you guys has a partner whose feeling like that atm, and wondered what you say/do to help.

[MPP81]

Cross post with you, Star! How are you doing? I know you said you weren't temping this month but are you still peeing on things? :)

[star1980]

Hi mpp, I'm not temping or peeing on anything. I'm totally chilling out - until it comes to af time and I'm freaking out and knicker-checking and convincing myself
PI'm late. Yep, that kind of chilled out.

My oh had stage fright a couple of times at crucial times. I found keeping my fertile days secret and trying to dtd every other day has really helped. It helps even more not doing opks as I had a tendency to announce the pee stick result. Like it was a bfp or something!

Btw, CORRECTION: I have absolutely been ttc since Nov 2014 not 2015 as I said in my previous post. I definitely qualify for this thread!

[loopylou1984]

Welcome stealth :). Goodness that would have been interesting if the iui had worked on even half those eggs! Think IVF is a brilliant plan, and good idea on the freezing. I have lining issues, and from my experience 5.5 is not enough. My clinics minimum is 6.5mm which is lower than many others (but apparently decided from latest research).

Boris - that's a lot of follies for a normal range amh, was expecting you to say amh was in the 20s at least. Good work on the water and tea, keep going :)

Mpp - sorry to hear about dhs stage fright. Agree with the others about keeping the fertile window secret. Just agree to use the preseed as a lube all cycle and he won't know.

Star - I thought you'd been trying longer than 3 months! Lol. Xx

[lucieloos]

Star, I read your first post which said Nov 2015 and I thought I'm sure you've been trying more than a few months haha!!

Boris, your AMH certainly doesn't indicate pcos so I think you're safe on that front you must just be very lucky and have lots of follicles! Did you hear back from reprofit on the next step?

Stealthbanana, hi and welcome! Sounds like you have a brilliant number of follicles there for IVF so I wouldn't worry about not doing any prep beforehand. Keep us posted with how you get on. There are a few of us starting to cycle around now.

MPP, lovely to have you back. All is ok here thanks, just waiting for af to arrive which should be anytime between tomorrow and Sunday and then I'm beginning my first NHS round where hopefully I will have a fresh transfer! My dh used to get a lot of stage fright if I told him we had to dtd on certain nights. He wouldn't enjoy it and said it felt forced and not romantic. It was definitely better when we did it unplanned. The only thing is he doesn't have a huge libodo so we could easily miss ovulation if I didn't say anything. It was a bit of a catch 22 really. We managed though with a bit of both. This month was good as we were away on a long weekend during ovulation and it happened naturally a few times so was a lot easier.

[stealthbanana]

Thank you everyone! Having done exactly no research about IVF (as I thought I wasn't up to that bit yet) I am frantically reading up on it all - so it is lovely to have company.

sammy I have no idea what's going on with my lining - for my last IUI it was at 8mm but I got the lightest period you've ever seen. God knows where the lining actually went. So doctor is not prepared to risk it.

Scan tomorrow so we'll see if anything is growing. Doctor only slightly tweaked my gonal f from what I was on for IUI (ie to grow one follie) so am slightly worried that they'll all still be languishing at the 11-12mm mark, but hey ho.

Boris - did I read you have THIRTY FIVE eggs? Wow! That's amazing.

Everyone else, I will catch up with your back stories - sorry to be so self centred in my first posts!

[star1980]

Good luck for your scan tomorrow Stealth!

[BorisIsBack]

Mpp - my dH had stage fright abit. I had to stop telling him exactly when peak time was and switch just trying to do to every other day. The pressure on him especially with his low sperm quantity really upset him.

Stealth - yes 35. I am an egg factory. I'm only on 200 what sits of Gonal f. I've not done much prep or research other than stalking lucie and throwing out my random questions on here - there's a phenomenal amount of knowledge with these ladies.

Sammy Im peeping every 5 mins - and blaming you.

Lucie the clinic say keep going and call them after my next scan on Saturday. Have you ever called the out of hours number, what ever it is?

[lucieloos]

Boris, I've never called the out of hours number as I've always booked my scans around the weekend. I know others that have though and have found it ok on the whole. Did you want to join our Facebook group? There are so many amazing ladies on there with so much knowledge. You will found out loads of helpful info about Brno too and it's all completely secret so none of your friends can see you are on there. No pressure though as I know some people don't like to put faces to names and would rather stay anonymous but just let me know if you are interested. I have made some amazing lifelong friends on there now.

[MPP81]

Haha Star, I do the knicker checking 'am I late' thing whether I temp etc or not. What I find amazing is that even though I KNOW it's not bloody likely, I still can't stop hoping.

Star and Sammy, Good plan about not telling him anymore. I'll have to give that a go. I announce the pee stick results too. I wave them in his face quite proudly so I'll have to stop that.

Ooooh Lucie, good luck with your first NHS round! That's so exciting! So this is one of the rare occasions where we're wishing af would hurry up and arrive? My DP sounds a bit like yours. He doesn't have a very high sex drive either, so I understand the catch 22 problem. I'll see how not telling him goes.

Stealth, I hope the cramming of ivf info is going ok and good luck with your scan tomorrow!

Boris, I think that's how mine is feeling. He was quite stressed last night after our efforts failed, saying first his guys are rubbish and now this. He isn't looking at it as OUR issue and I don't know how to help him or what to say to make him understand that it's no one's 'fault.' Good luck with your scan on Saturday!

[stealthbanana]

Wow. That's amazing Boris. I'm only on 100iu gonal f (up from 75 for iui) so hopefully that will give me an OK result.

Are you and Lucie cycling at the same clinic? That's awesome!

[lucieloos]

Thanks MPP, yes wishing af would hurry up so that I can plan all the dates in and know what I'm doing and get started with it all. I hate waiting around.

Stealth, Boris is using the clinic that I use in Czech Republic where all my frosties are. This time though I'm having a freebie on the NHS at home.

[MPP81]

Aaaaaannnnndddd another night with no luck. I've been positive and told him again and again not to worry, but now he's fast asleep and I'm wide awake and wondering how to proceed. He feels like crap and as much as I want a baby with him, I don't want one at the expense of his self-esteem, happiness and well-being. I'm sure it'll be OK, but think I might have to not put any pressure on him anymore this month, then do as you all suggested and not tell him next month, because I think the more this happens, the more he'll worry about it happening, the more it will happen, if that makes sense. It's only two nights and I'm sure it's temporary, but just wanted to have a little vent. Hope that's ok.

[loopylou1984]

Oh mpp, how annoying! And your poor dh. I would say forget this month, as you say it is not worth the unhappiness.

Try the not telling him thing, and if that doesn't work as you're missing the all important window, do you think he would consider AI? I remember several ladies on the bumsnet bus conceiving using a syringe and their dhs sample. Takes the pressure off the chaps completely. Xx

[loopylou1984]

And Boris, sorry about all the toilet trips, but they're better than ohss, trust me! Xx

[BorisIsBack]

Mmp for next month why don't you ask DH how he wants to handle it? Does he want to know roughly when you are fertile, or exactly when, Or not at all? Im only saying as this convo helped me understand how to help my DH much more than before. I've had a few nights as you described, it's aweful.
desperately trying to conceive is not worth sacrificing your happiness/ partnership / marriage for.

[BorisIsBack]

Lucie I've PMed you about the Facebook group :)

[funnybeanz]

Hi everyone,

I hope you don't mind me joining your thread. I'm hoping to get advice/support etc. We have been TTC since Jan 2015, just got my period so been trying for 13 months. My partner has a sperm analysis booked for Tues 8th, does anyone know what happens on this date, he didn't ask on the phone and I don't want to nag/pressurise him as I don't want him to feel like this is his fault. Does anyone know when we might get results? And what the options are if there are problems with him, I read a lot about fertility options for women with problems but not much about options for male problems. Of course it might not be him, the doctor advised he gets tested first as my periods are very regular every month so no indications of problems and he had undescended testies when he was born so had to have an operation as a baby, apparently this can cause fertility problems so ruling that out first.

It's been a difficult time, lots of our friends are announcing pregnancies and my sister is due her third in June. No one else knows the extent to which we've been trying, my mum knows that I've just come off the pill but that's it.

Any advice or support would be very welcome. I guess I'm feeling down since I've got my period this morning so it's just another month gone. Urgh!

Thanks

[star1980]

Oh mpp, that's so annoying! I found the same - stage fright two nights in a row. I agree, take the pressure off this month. We also stopped using Preseed as that seemed to contribute to the problem. My oh thought it best not to shove it up there before we started (think he had unrealistic ideas about how long the sex actually lasts!) but then pausing part way through seemed to completely put him off and remind him it was ttc sex. If that might be the issue, maybe syringe in private before you get in bed? It will be OK, this happens a lot and you'll find a way to work it out.

Welcome funnybeanz but sorry you find yourself here. With the sperm analysis your DP will have to ahem produce a sample and get it to the lab usually within an hour. Different clinics have different systems so he may have to do it at home and drop it off or there may be facilities there. Also there are some rules about how long to abstain for beforehand - I think 2 days but no more than 5, but they'll give him all the info for that. A standard sperm analysis tests for count, motility (the percentage that are moving quickly and forwards) and morphology (the % that have a normal shape). Im guessing your GP suspects antisperm antibodies since your partner's had surgery. My friend's boyfriend had that. A few of us on this thread have male factor issues, it's very common (not that you'd guess given the number of couples who seem to get pregnant at the drop of a hat). Treatments seem to be supplements to try to improve the sperm and then ivf (usually with icsi) if it doesn't work.

My partner has low motility (18%) and low morphology (2%). We found out in January after 14 months trying. We're on a supplement called proxeed for 4 months (takes 3 months to create new sperm) and then have our next appointment in May to discuss ivf. Really hoping I don't need that appointment, but also pleased we have options.

You're doing the right thing. It's good to get into the system and get some answers and some options. Good luck