Requesting referral to a fertility clinic

Quick c&p from the IVF thread;

My early morning date with the dildocam has revealed that my ovaries are responding as hoped - they might be covered in cysts but they're little egg machines. I've got 17 follicles on my left ovary, and at least 6 on my right (it was a bit hazy, so she sort of stopped counting once we'd got over 20.) Most look to be between 9 and 13mm, with a 6 and a 16 making up the outliers. I'm pretty chuffed with that - If I stick at 23 follicles then that will end up as 11 eggs for my recipient and 12 for me. I'm to continue on the same dose of gonal f (112.5) and twice daily sniffs of the Synarel and will be back in on Friday for a second scan. That second scan will be when we sort out what day next week we arrange the egg retrieval. Holy crap... That came around way quicker than I expected!

Well, the injections have started. I've done two so far and I must say they're pretty easy. I'm used to needles from blood doning, and from a couple of tattoos, and I must say these needles are incredibly thin - I can barely feel them.

News for the poorly pet was not so good. Sadly it's cancer, meaning there's nothing to be done to fix him. I have drugs to perk him up and reverse the symptoms a little, and might be lucky enough for him to have another few months, possibly even longer before his quality of life is more seriously affected, but will be playing it by ear. Am gutted as he's still fairly young; it just doesn't seem fair. I've ranted and raged at the wrongness and helplessness I feel off board, so won't go through it again here - want to keep mostly on topic. Looking after him is having the unexpected side effect of keeping me grounded through the IVF as I have something important to focus on alongside my own seemingly endless drug routine (Metformin with breakfast, Synarel at 9am, Metformin and Conception/Folic Acid with lunch, Metformin with dinner, Gonal F at 19:30 and Synarel at 21:00 - all the drugs!)

I'm out Saturday night, so that'll be my first experience of taking the injectables out with me and finding a private corner to quickly administer. If that goes well and the side effects don't descend with fire and fury I'll hopefully then be camping the following weekend (which will be day 11 and 12 of stimms, so it's entirely likely I'll be uncomfortable, achey and not in the mood for a camp bed and an early rise, in which case I'll not go.)

Yesterday was a heck of a long-feeling day.

I had my down regging scan at 10:20, and it was the quickest and easiest scan I've had so far. She looked at my uterus and measured my endometrium (2.2mm; well within the range required at this point) and then looked briefly at my ovaries and it was all done.

We went through the Gonal F pen and how to use it, and, after checking with the main unit that my egg recipient was also down regged, I've been given the go ahead to start the injections from Wednesday. I'm now trying to work out the best time to do them - I do things at the weekends which, in the next two weeks, will end up with me camping out in a field over night, so I'm trying to figure out how to keep the gonal f pen cool for a potential 30-36 hours. Will probably end up taking it in a cool box with some ice packs.

I'm still a little sore of throat and a little coughing, but not enough to call myself ill. Seem to be holding it at bay for now.

As for my poorly pet - he was in the vets yesterday under GA, which was perhaps the scariest part. I picked him up in the afternoon and he's back home now; living on the kitchen table for a little while. I think I've missed a call from the vets, but there was no voicemail, so I'll call them back on my lunchbreak and see what their tests are suggesting is wrong with him.

Feeling all kinds of awful today, most of it not actually related to the IVF, although the sudden lightning pangs of cramping accompanying the withdrawal bleed are not my idea of fun.

I've got what feels like a cold coming on - have had a runny nose and headaches for a while now which I attributed to hayfever and the Synarel respectively, but since yesterday I've had what definitely feels like a sore throat. Will be downing the honey and lemon today in a futile bid to stave it off. Now is the worst time to be getting poorly.

Outside of my health I have a poorly pet I've just taken to the vets and who we're not sure what's wrong with, so I've had to book in for a scan and bloods on Monday, which means I have to drop him off at the vets just before I head off for my d/r scan. Scans for everyone and a whole load of extra stress for me.

And then there's the whole election thing which I'm just so disappointed with, but there's nothing to be done about that. I cast my vote, I made my tiny voice heard. We're all just going to have to deal with the fall out.

I'm tired and really fancy a cry, but my Dad's coming over today to help me out with some DIY, so shall put my frustration into that. Power tools shall have to be my salvation.

Thanks birchy. I really don't feel that impressive. I know it's been a year, but I feel like my journey has been fairly straightforward so far. I've not had to deal with unexplained fertility; a dose of PCOS and a noticeable lack of XY chromosome'd person have been my only issues on the health and practical sides of things.

I'm sure it'll get much harder. I've been making plans as usual for the next month or so, all the while thinking that I might end up cancelling on people if stimms turns out to be all kinds of not fun, or during the 2ww (if I get there!) But yeah - right now it all seems bearable. Even yesterday's aches and pains are now down at normal period level. Not great fun, but not really impacting on my life.

Well hello withdrawal bleed. It's been barely 3 hours and I am more than fed up with you already.

TMI alert! I am exhausted today after a very busy Bank Holiday weekend (busy in a good way, but still tiring) and so was not thinking about the impending not-a-period that I knew was due. So yeah, this morning has been all kinds of fun with cramps, constipation (although this seems to be improving as I remind myself that drinking water is a good idea) and a generally tender feeling in my undercarriage. I'm very over this new development, can we move to the next bit already?

You're quite right, Heels, I did not word that rant very well at all. What I should have said is that couples are more likely to get one or more cycles funded by the NHS, but that doesn't make them more likely to succeed, and often will add longer waiting times. Sorry if me-from-the-past came across as a little insensitive. I have learned a heck of a lot about IVF and other fertility treatments in the last year, and am still a long way from being an expert!

My clinic have suggested that ICSI might be needed as I only bought one vial of sperm (never even thought I should do otherwise) and they can't guarantee that it will be the best quality. Hopefully it will be ok, but I've been told to not be surprised if it goes that way.

Many thanks for your well wishes. I will be keeping this thread updated no matter what happens.

I've been doing something very stupid. I spent some of yesterday expanding my list of potential baby names. I know it's foolishly early to even be thinking of that, but it's like there are two parts of me, one rational person who knows the success rates are something around 50% and one heartbreakingly optimistic person who thinks it is all going to work out a wonder first time. Need to rein in that second way of thinking.

More with it today and yesterday. I'm definitely feeling tired, headachey and stressed, although some of that's possibly the awareness of potential side effects, the realisation that it's all actually happening, and just general work-related stress.

Nothing much more to say - another two weeks of this until my down regging scan. Am off out to the shops now to get some healthy protein-rich foods. Going to have to try really hard not to just pick up the junk food I'm longing for. Need to get used to using fruit as a sugar hit.

Having a lousy day today. Tired, too hot, and headachey, after a late and busy night last night, so have written the day off as a duvet day.

It's sniff time now, then sleep. Gotta get through a week of work, a busy bank holiday weekend and then three days in the office before I'll get another chance to take it easy.

Gah! Sorry about the namechange fail above! I'm trying to keep to Frettchen on this thread so they all get highlighted correctly for those who have the OP's post highlighted.

Thanks both. (Awesome name, Perspicacia - I'm definitely going to need to sort myself out a Pratchett name at some point.)

The meds are going well so far. The sniffs do leave a bad taste in the back of my throat, and I'm sort of gross and snotty thanks to a mild bout of hayfever, but no real complaints. Ok, I did accidentally leave the bottle at home this morning and am supposed to be going to my Mum's for dinner tonight, but otherwise am all over it!!!

Almost a year after starting this thread and I'm now officially down regging. I did my first sniffs of the Synarel this morning (2 sniffs; 1 in each nostril). No side effects yet, but then it's only been 4 hours!

The sniffs weren't too bad - it's like they're starting me with something easy, and then I'll progress onto the needles and the pessaries. Yay(!)

Bit of a long update today in advance of things actually starting to happen.

So my drugs arrived, as expected, on Friday. What I didn't expect was quite how huge the boxes were. The stabby pens came in a chilled box with ice packs and much polystyrene; making it look for a moment like I had this huge box of drugs in my hands! It's definitely ramped up my excitement (and anxiety!)

According to the prescription, I'm going to be on 112.5micro grams of Gonal-F when I start, so that's the same as you are, Waiting - I guess that's the standard 'low' dose for those of us with dodgy, cyst-covered, over-eager ovaries. I've bought myself a couple of semi-naice water bottles to start to get into the habit of drinking more water during the day as I know that's something I'm really rubbish at, and Dr Google says that keeping properly hydrated is effective at lowering the risk of OHSS.

In the meantime, and slightly more pressing, the letter enclosed with my prescription and drugs schedule says that before my Down Regging Scan Appointment (11th May) I have to have another blood test, via my GP, to check for HIV, HepB & C. This is, presumably, not because I'm at risk, but to safe-guard the recipient of the eggs I'm donating. I don't mind the bloods being taken - I'm fine with needles - but I'm a teeny bit anxious about getting it all turned around in 3 weeks. I'm sure it's doable; my GP is generally really good at sorting out things like that, and I'm sure the results were back within the week last time I needed blood tests, so I'm sure it'll all be ready as required. It's just getting it sorted along with starting sniffing the down regging drugs (Synarel) next week. It's all really real!

Except I completely cannot remember if I'm supposed to do one sniff per nostril each morning or two in each nostril, so am going to have to check that out before starting on Tuesday! Gotta get my head in the game and get my timetable straight in my head ready to kick things off. I think I'll print out a weekly calendar so I can actually tick each day off as I'll be on the Synarel morning and evening, as well as the Metformin at each meal time, and a folic acid containing conception multi-vit.

I'm sort of alternating between being really eager to get things going, and really sick-to-the-stomach terrified that I'm putting all my hopes into this one round. I'm not sure how I would be able to afford another round, even with the egg sharing scheme, so there's a tiny part of my mind telling me that it's all or nothing. I'm desperate for Tuesday to arrive, and then for each of the scans to arrive just to sort of get it all over with so I can hurry up and know whether or not this gamble will pay off. I'm 5 weeks away from egg collection, and so am 7-8 weeks away from testing; assuming I even get that far and that I get good eggs and then good embryos and that I don't get OHSS and my ovaries don't try to kill me. I know I'm getting way ahead of myself, but yeah - a big part of me just wants to fast forward through the next 8 weeks and to either tentatively celebrate that it worked, or get into grieving and planning and figuring out next steps. Thankfully my pregnant best friend is due in 7 weeks, so is more than guaranteed to take my mind off things with her impending new arrival.

Definitely have to go to sleep now - have progressed to angsty waffling!!! Will be back in the week to update, with tales of starting down regging, and of organising blood tests.

Righty - my medication is going to be delivered on Friday morning, which just so happens to be my birthday! I should get my schedule through the post, so will be back to update with what I'll be taking and when (as well as an invoice... yay(!))

I've also got the dates of my first appointments; a down reg test, and two ultra sounds during stimms (am a high risk for OHSS so they'll be keeping an eye on me) The clinic itself is about an hour's drive from me, but they have a satellite clinic only 20 mins away, so I'll use that for everything except EC and ET.

Still no word from the clinic. I assume they're busy, and so are dealing with the people in front of them, not the people at home, waiting for an e-mail. All the same, I'd like to know what's going on, so have dropped them a quick mail (is next to impossible to call during work hours and guarantee talking to someone.) So hopefully that'll wake them up.

I suppose I don't need the drugs immediately; I should be down-regging as of the 21st, and I already have my first sniffer bottle. I guess it's more of a control thing. I'll be much less anxious when I feel more in control, which will be when I have the dates and when I can start to plan out what I will need to be taking and when. I'm not good at this waiting for people to do things malarkey! Especially when they're taking longer than expected.

At least the 2WW will have a set end point! Not that I'm getting ahead of myself...

I should be getting my dates some time this week - the clinic are just booking me in. Once I get the dates I think I'll book myself the week of EC/ET off work, just so I can be happy that I won't have to worry about keeping up appearances during that time.

Have had a bit of a naughty Easter, and the scales reflect that my weight has been creeping back up, so I'm back to keeping an eye on it; I've read that low-carb, higher-protein is good for during IVF, so will be easing toward that, although only gently. Smaller portions too, I think, to encourage the scales to start going back down a bit.

I think my upbringing (large portions, always finish what's put in front of you), the PCOS and my fairly sedentary lifestyle are going to mean my weight is always going to creep up unless kept in check. It's just that now I have more reason to pay attention to it.

Well AF finally arrived. I'd made peace with my long cycles, but this last week of waiting and waiting was a stern test of my patience!

I've e-mailed the clinic to let them know I'm all good to go. I think what happens next is that they will arrange for me to get a parcel of drugs, and they'll get my egg recipient all lined up so she's going through the same prep ahead of my egg collection and then both of our embryo transfers.

It's all still a way off - according to the timetable the clinic gave me, EC would be around the 25th May, so there's more waiting to do, then plenty of sniffing of DR drugs, then the injections, the trigger shot, all the scans and stuff.

I'm definitely at that level of excited and nervous. The rational part of my brain is pointing out that there's still a long way to go, but I'm having a mini dance party with myself at having got this far.