Active discussions

Help protect children from gaming harms.

Take our survey

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Conception

When's the best time to get pregnant? Use our interactive ovulation calculator to work out when you're most fertile and most likely to conceive.

Original poster

First time trying IVF... anyone want to keep me company?!

113 replies

loulamay · 11/05/2020 13:40

Hi all,

Few quick facts - partner and I are both just into our 40s, have been TTC for a year with no luck. He has a slightly low sperm count at just under 16 million and I have a past history of PCOS, although according to my Dr, am producing an amazing number of eggs for a woman my age (in fact interestingly he talked to me about recent studies that may show that women with PCOS may have a delayed reduction in fertility in line with age: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4447787/).

We have had one unsuccessful IUI and have decided to move onto IVF to try and take advantage of the fact that my ovarian reserve still looks good. I also froze my eggs when I was 36, before I met DP, so we will probably fertilise them at the same time as only that we collect from this cycle.

Feeling a huge mixture of nervousness and excitement, especially during these crazy COVID times, and wondered if anyone was in the same boat and starting IVF now? I am on day 2 of my cycle and had my first Gonal F 300 injection this morning - 5 more days of that and my Dr wants to see me for my first scan.

L

OP posts:
Original poster
loulamay · 15/05/2020 21:29

@SunnySideUp2020 how was your appointment?

I’ve got my first scan tomorrow so fingers crossed lots of follicles show up! Star

OP posts:
Eggling · 12/05/2020 19:17

Ah right, I think our clinic said they would do the transfer after 5 days (if we're lucky enough to get some nice embryos, and also if I don't get OHSS which i higher risk for because of the polycystic ovaries) so I guess it depends on how things go and the collection date - hopefully the dr will have some clearer answers for you Smile

Original poster
loulamay · 12/05/2020 16:09

I'm not sure - I tend to ovulate late (day 19/20) but with the IUI the drugs controlled the cycle a lot more and so I think we did the IUI around day 15. I'm not sure though about how IVF will be different because they will let the embryos grow for up to 5 days I believe, and so I wonder if that means you do it all in the same cycle or the next one? I am seeing my Dr on Saturday for my first scan so I will ask him.

OP posts:
Eggling · 12/05/2020 13:10

That all sounds really positive! With googling, I keep trying to remind myself that the success rates are based on a broad spectrum of people having treatment so it doesn't necessarily reflect your individual chances if you see what I mean. It sounds like your doctor is optimistic too.

Yeah, I guess embryo transfer and TWW will be the tough bit really. When do you expect to have your transfer?

Original poster
loulamay · 12/05/2020 10:04

So far so good! Just wish I was younger but I didn't meet DP until 3 years ago so we were a bit behind my other friends. I am hopeful that from what the Dr is saying, biologically my body is looking younger in terms of egg production etc and it's just a case of the low sperm count meaning no luck so far.

I really really need to stop googling things like 'IVF success rates' and all the other awful stats that go alongside having children later in life... but sometimes I am my own worst enemy!

The injections don't bother me, and when I had my eggs frozen it was the same process, so it's slightly familiar. The nerve-wracking bit will be the embryo stage I guess - not done that before and it's so out of our control! Confused

OP posts:
Eggling · 12/05/2020 09:29

Yeah it's been a nightmare with lockdown confusion hasn't it? It's so good they can start again - it's nice to have a small amount of certainty at such an uncertain time!

My understanding - which was gleaned from the nhs consultant and a ridiculous amount of time on google - is that morphology is basically the shape of the sperm. So DH has a good sperm count and motility, which means they move well and there's plenty of them. His morphology came back at less than 1% normal forms, which sounds bad but anything over 4% is considered completely fine. There's a lot of debate about whether morphology actually matters and some drs don't think it does at all. They basically have a "perfect" sperm and anything that doesn't match that is counted as abnormal. But an abnormal sperm could technically still fertilise an egg. That hasn't happened for us though which is why we're doing icsi rather than straight ivf, so DH's sperm will be injected into my egg.

How are you finding things so far? It must feel good to be getting started. Although I'm a bit scared too!

Original poster
loulamay · 12/05/2020 09:14

Yay! The more the merrier! If you don't mind me asking, what is low morphology exactly? DP's sperm is fine apart from being on the low end so our Dr didn't discuss any other elements with us - said quality was good but count was just low.

Happy to hear you can get started despite lockdown - it makes a stressful time even more stressful...

OP posts:
Eggling · 12/05/2020 08:51

Can I join you too? I'm a few weeks behind as (fingers crossed) going to be starting my first round in early June. I'm 29, DH 28, I have polycystic ovaries and he has low morphology. We knew about my ovaries as I don't spontaneously ovulate so always knew we might struggle to conceive, the low morphology was a bit of a blow though and as 6 rounds of clomid have succeeded in making me ovulate but not resulted in conception our next step us ivf with icsi. We were starting the process with the nhs but lockdown put a stop to that, so we have decided to try a private cycle. I had my baseline scan last week and everything looks good inside so just hanging on for a couple of weeks until I can take norithisterone to bring on a bleed and hopefully get started 🤞I've read loads on here but it would be good to have other first-timers to go through this with!

Original poster
loulamay · 12/05/2020 08:40

We're going to do both - have eggs collected and defrost the younger ones and then fertilise them all and see how many get to blastocyst stage. I'm really hoping that we can use eggs from this cycle and save the younger embryos for the future because I always wanted any child I had to have a sibling - I am super close to my sister.

It all seems like such a numbers game!

OP posts:
SunnySideUp2020 · 11/05/2020 17:26

they are^

SunnySideUp2020 · 11/05/2020 17:26

Yeah that's the other reason why i dont feel like sharing. There are already asking every month how come we aren't pregnant again (had mc in december) and i feel like they are always waiting for something... and are probably disappointed at the "no news".

So are you going to have eggs collected for this cycle? Or using your frozen ones?

Original poster
loulamay · 11/05/2020 14:51

Thank you!! Let me know how your appointment goes.

I told my family about the IUI and the fact that it didn't work but I've not told them that we've moved into the IVF phase... not because I don't think they'd be supportive, but there's something around the idea of more people knowing and then more people to tell/to disappoint if it doesn't work! Do you know what I mean?

OP posts:
SunnySideUp2020 · 11/05/2020 13:55

Hey just wanted to wish you luck in your journey 😊

My partner has low morphology and we have a first appointment at fertility clinic on Wednesday. I am 31 and he is 28 so i doubt we will be doing IVF immediately but i know it might be necessary if IUI doesnt work so not excluding the idea.

Have you told your relatives or family that you were doing ivf?
I wonder if i should even tell them about dp issue... i dont want people to blame him or anything.

Swipe left for the next trending thread