TTC first baby thread 26

@XjustagirlX oh another tip I asked for a mock transfer during EC due to tilted uterus and they agreed to that to.
I started an ivf in ?? Month thread on Mumsnet and found it really helpful as there were ladies on there who had been through ivf before and it was really helpful to understand the various processes and get tips from there a few months before we started.

@XjustagirlX I was in a side room first where they take blood pressure and double check your details. Then wheeled into the theatre room, an anaesthetist put a cannula into the back of my hand and a mask over my face. He then asked me to take slow long breaths inside the mask and warned me I'd feel a cold sensation up my arm as he injected the sedation (which I did) then i fell asleep and the next thing I recall was being back in the side room waking up. On both occasions I woke up in no pain and was apparently chatting away (except I can't recall much) I only remember eating my toast so luckily my partner was there to listen to the consultant when he came in to explain they only found 1 egg and he asked questions cos I was chatting rubbish! I had also read awful stories about women waking up halfway through or having memories of pain, hence why I needed reassure beforehand that I will be fast asleep. Within 10-15 mins of waking up I felt my normal self and not groggy.
After EC I was quite sore (not painful as such as I had been injected with pain killers) but I had to walk slowly. I had bed rest for 3 days afterwards but I think that may have been because the consultant said he really rummaged around trying to find more than 1 egg. I kept on top of liquids and painkillers at home.

(Haven't RTFT but I'm going to work my way through it slowly!)

Hello, please can I join? :)
I'm 29, DH is early 30s, we are TTC #1 and this is our first month. CD23 today.
I'm not doing too much, not doing OPKs etc, but have been taking vitamin D/folic acid since February and off the pill since then too.

@Kiza my clinic does iv sedation and a lot of people say they fall asleep but I’ve read loads of experiences where people said they felt pain too. What do you remember feeling?

I also read that the sedation just makes you forget the pain as in you can feel the pain at the time but you have no memory of it afterwards.

For my second biopsy I had 30g or mg? Whatever the highest dose the go can prescribe. And I took two before the procedure. I still felt horrendous pain so I think I have a really really low tolerance for pain.

It really annoys me when people say it’s just like a smear. Good tip for transfer though. I will ask to be sedated as I’ve really suffered 3 times when things have been in my cervix.

@XjustagirlX just to reassure you they sedate you for EC, it's amazing. You're totally asleep but wake up quicker and less groggy then general. I'm super anxious with any vaginal exam and they had to reassure me a few times I'd be totally asleep- honestly it was amazing. Due to also having a tilted uterus and being super anxious about vaginal instruments I asked for sedation for transfer too, they thought I was a bit odd and kept saying 'but it's just like a smear' and I had to inform them a few times that for me smears are horrendus and I don't want any stress hormones in my body for transfer as (my personal and professional belief being a psychotherapist) is that stress hormones could impact my bodies ability to implant the embryo.

@MIW01 ye it is. My meds arrived today and I’m really starting to panic about the EC. After my two horrendous biopsies earlier this year I’m dreading feeling any pain during the procedure.

I also have a really tilted uterus and scans are always painful. I always flail my legs about and the probe has a needle on the end so I’m terrified.

Has anyone on here had the iv sedation or a GA or local?

@XjustagirlX that's quite soon! Thats the day after I'm calling the Fertility clinic to book my scan ready for injecting in the 2nd week of August! So we'll end up being quite close IVF buddies!

Also if you ask your parents they might be able to remember which might put your mind at rest?

@thislittlebird could you contact your old gp and request your medical records from them? Or can you look at the nhs app and see if your medical records are on there?

We were delayed because of COVID. COVID delays added on about 12 months for us coz we had lots of months of nothing at all happening.

Ye when I researched rubella I think it said not to try but I thought that was because you could catch rubella which is so unlikely anyway.

@XjustagirlX it’s so frustrating. I just wish the wait for this wasn’t quite so long, it’s so damaging to our mental health. Whats even more annoying is we may not be able to even ttc with my rubella jab upcoming, I’m pretty sure you can’t try if having those vaccines.

Ah, I see. They were testing for a long time, I’m assuming there were long wait times? I had my tests done privately because I’d already lost six months to incorrect results. We’re at one year since first GP visit now, I’m 38 already, 2 years since the first GP appointment would put me on the way to 40 😐.

I really hope the nhs get in touch with an appointment soon.

I don’t know how to find out if I had the mmr because my new GP still doesn’t have my files. If I could find that out I would. That’s the thing, I really don’t think I’m going to get rubella, I barely leave the house as is.

I feel the last two years has aged me. I don’t feel myself as much now, I just want to get past this horrible phase, start a family and move on. Wasting the tail end of my 30s on all this nonsense and stress.

@thislittlebird I feel for you. This experience is so hard. It’s so frustrating when things are going slow and you can’t do anything about it.

no my didn’t refer us in mid May. Basically I initially went to my gp end of 2019 and the testing on the nhs started. We officially got referred by my nhs consultant in mid May 2021 after all the nhs tests were done. So from first gp consultation the process has taken nearly 2 years. Ivf is only moving quickly because I have had all of the tests already.

I think some people get referred for ivf and then need to start having tests done which slows things down.

I had a similar issue with rubella. I have had both MMR vaccinations as a child but I have no immunity. I was concerned we would have to wait 2 months too. But my clinic said that because I can prove I’ve had the vaccines as a child I was good to go ahead. Just check their policy and send them proof that you have had both vaccines as a child. Also there was only 3 rubella cases in the U.K. last year so highly unlikely you will catch it!

It’s so hard to stay positive through this.

@MIW01 me too, it feels very dark right now. I’m having to keep away from bfps too, it’s too hard to see them. I’m not coping at the moment especially. Keep breaking down and don’t see an end to any of this. I thought going private would speed things up, but all I’m getting are more and more delays. My doctor I chose the clinic for is retiring and I’m upset about that. Now we have another doctor and I’m not thrilled, but at least we have her ivf plan.

I’ve stopped taking supplements, eating well, exercising. I’m a bit of a mess. I did read ISWTE but I was already doing a lot of it, now I’m doing the bare minimum.

@XjustagirlX i really wish the nhs had not messed us around. Knowing we had an nhs round would make me less stressed, we don’t even have an appointment yet. Your GP referred you in mid May? That’s so fast, you’ll be starting soon. We’re sat here doing nothing still. The process started last July, first referral in Feb, second referral in June, I could (and do) cry my eyes out at the experience we’ve had. Private process started in May, still no progress.

Yeah, DH has 9% motility and I have low progesterone (10), unlikely to be ovulating every month. It all feels very hopeless.

We’ve now got an appointment with Ramsay on the 26th and one with the clinic on the 28th. I was hoping to start September (my cycles are starting at the first couple of days of the month right now) but I found out yesterday my rubella antibodies are borderline. I’ve emailed the clinic to ask if I need to get vaccinated, and if I do that’s another 8 weeks delay, so we’re looking at October.

I wouldn’t delay either, seems like a good call from him.

@MIW01 what day of your cycle was your lining recorded? I was also told I had a thin lining at 3mm on CD10. But on that cycle I ovulated on CD17. They did a biopsy but found no issues do they have no idea why the lining was thin. I heard that for ivf they just need a lining of 6mm.

@MIW01 a few months ago I read it starts with the egg and me and DH are both taking about 20 tablets each a day. I’m annoyed I didn’t read the book sooner. It’s so expensive though. Ye I would also get going with ivf if I were you. I think we just know when it’s time to take that next step.

Hopefully you feel better soon. It’s horrible when there are pregnancy announcements all around you. It will be your turn soon though. It does bring me hope when I see announcements for people I know have had fertility struggles though.

We had our follow up call with minhas. He actually said that he extracts his advise on waiting 3-4 months. He said we should go for icsi now if he were in our position. He was worried that by waiting we could mess up our funding. So I should hopefully start injecting around 23rd July.

@XjustagirlX & @thislittlebird as I've said before I agree about the lifestyle stuff. Though having said that, I've just read "it starts with the egg" cover to cover twice and spent another fortune on supplements! Fiancée has now been diagnosed with varicocele but we've been advised that repair only solves infertility 50% of the time. I've told him to go back to Badminton now it's allowed to get more aerobic exercise in. But my antral follicle count is low so we aren't delaying and are going to go ahead with IVF round 1 in August. On top of my low AFC, they also found 2 fibroids in my uterine wall amd my uterine lining is thin at 4mm when it should be over 8mm! Part of the reason for more supplements. In addition, I'm in an awful dark place right now with a plethora of pregnancy announcements this weekend.

@thislittlebird we are nhs funded for icsi. But because the nhs have been so useless we paid privately for my recurrent miscarriage tests and my husbands comet test. But our icsi is being done by care fertility but it’s nhs funded. I think we got lucky with our area.

I think you have been really unlucky with the timings and not on when you are paying private. We got referred in mid May and will be starting when my period starts at the end of July.

Yeah my husbands lifestyle isn’t bad either. He has never smoked, only drank once a week roughly but has stopped completely recently. He has a little bit of a belly but his waist is only 34. And he has been taking lots
of vitamins for months. So I’m not sure what more he can do. I did wonder whether it was work stress for any husband though.

I will be starting injecting on my next cycle around 23rd July.

So do you have a male issue and you also aren’t ovulating?

Sent too soon @XjustagirlX. forgot to say, when is your next cycle? Do you have time to start?

I think the benefit of seeing Ramsay was the letter too, and then the results to come, so we can lower our expectations.

@XjustagirlX yeah we’re in the same boat. It’s private because the nhs have delayed me with various cock ups and I can’t wait any longer. Are you guys private? We’ve been caught between Ramsay’s holiday and the IVF doctor’s holiday. It’s ridiculous. Saw them in late May and early June and if I miss my august cycle to start ~something~ then we’re not going to be able to start anything until September! That’s insane to me when going private

I’ve requested to try Letrozole yesterday. I know it won’t be a high rate of success with low motility and they said it may not be an option for us but I can’t just do nothing when I might not be ovulating here, I’m losing my mind. So I emailed and said I want to try it in august, I need to try something.

Interesting about the sperm testing you read about. We absolutely will not be doing that if he says it lol. Essentially I want his advise and then to go away and decide what to do, re-testing constantly is totally unnecessary. I want to move away from him to the ivf clinic once we have the results, not keep going back, he’s so expensive.

The thing with all this lifestyle stuff is I don’t think it necessarily works. Maybe for some, but my husband doesn’t have a “bad” lifestyle as is. He could lose a few pounds but that is all, I don’t buy it. And he’s been on impryl since March, his motility went down since he started it. If it’s not gone up again this time I’m not even sure if it’s worth taking it 🤷‍♀️

@thislittlebird it was supposed to be yesterday but the results were not back yet so we have moved the appointment to Thursday morning.

We decided against Ramsay because he was on holiday and I felt the wait would be too long. I also read on here that he was suggesting people keep going to his clinic every month to do a semen analysis and we don’t have the time or funds for that.

Are you paying for ivf privately or are you funded?

I completely agree about not wanting to wait. We have all waited so long that even a few more months is just umbearable. Minhas advised us to wait 3-4 months for lifestyle changes to take effect but My gut is saying to just start icsi next cycle.

It might just work but we could wait and then the funding rules change anyway. We get 2 funded rounds so if the first fails it would be diagnostic in itself and we would probably then apply for pga testing and Karotyping (minhas has recommended this in his letter). I’m sure the benefit of seeing minhas was to get a written professional opinion to give to our clinic and CCG if needed.

Thank you @Lozzlepop it's amazing and still very surreal. So so grateful.

@Annny27 had viability scan yesterday was very emotional and saw a good strong heartbeat. Such a lovely moment and nice to see and remember this is why I am feeling so sick and tired haha.

I hope you all get this moment very soon x

@XjustagirlX is it your results tomorrow? Ramsay is seriously delaying us right now. Can’t see him until the end of the month. I’m trying to book for the 26th, I’m losing the plot waiting to start some treatment of some kind here.

I suspect we’ll also be told to wait but I’m not doing that. I’m 38, three months wait is a long time! I’m going to buy a Lister package through Access that gives us two rounds and unlimited transfers, then if round one fails we have the other to fall back on.

@kiza for ICSI they can’t see the dna fragmented sperm but they pick out what looks to be the most healthy ones to inject. I e read a few papers which do show that ICSI is generally more success for male issues but I don’t think its definite yet. Australia do most of their ivfs by ICSI though.

@thislittlebird I chose to see suks minhas as Ramsay has been on holiday. We saw minhas today and DH has had some semen infection result and urine samples. We have a follow up call next Tuesday with the results. He advised that we should delay ICSI by 3 months to give the supplements time to work but I just want to get started with it and if it fails we will be fine for the second round.