Bus 9 - Donkey Cart departing soon, all aboard with ivf, pcos, endo, sub/unexplained fertility jump on

@Lauralozzle I'm sorry to hear its such a lengthy journey for you, too. It doesn't help that I feel surrounded by babies and kids, thank goodness I don't work with children anymore. I've found a lot of research suggesting that extra lbs are beneficial for fertility! Even if you're overweight, if you cut calories to lose it, that sends your body into the dreaded survival mode and the first thing to go awry is reproduction! If you do want to lose it though, I highly recommend glucommanan! It's konjac fibre extract that has a whole host of benefits as well as helping suppress appetite such as improvements to gut health, blood sugar control and of course, getting your fibre intake!

I agree with @OrangeBengal that It Starts With the Egg is a beneficial read. My AMH measured 3.9 in 2021 so I'm not off to a great start. I looked back at what I was doing differently when I managed to conceive naturally and noticed I was taking women's prebiotic so I'm going back on those again.

I transferred GP surgeries earlier this year and they only went and lost all my records at the previous GP surgery! I'm so cross . . . I feel like let down by all medical professionals at every step of my journey. The clinoc asking for info we've already sent as well! Its so emotionally draining, why can't people just do their effin jobs properly!!!

I’m sorry that the clinic seem to be less then helpful@thislittlebird. Your AMC is high and ubiquinol and DHEA (you’ll need to investigate the latter) should help with quality. I assume you’ve read It Starts With The Egg? Remember people Agee differently and from your stats, your eggs are technically younger.

@MIW01 Thanks. Oh, I feel you, TTC since 2018. It really is rubbish. I’m sorry to hear of your previous IVF cycles, the substandard level of care from the NHS and your miscarriage. That’s awful. Hopefully you get better results going private in the new year, or at least a plan going forward.

@thislittlebird I’m sorry you’re struggling. I do feel NHS have one size fits all approach and about a million loop holes you have to fit through just to get anywhere.

First day of down regulation today, starting tonight. Begged my GP to have more thyroid bloods to check I’m still within range (it fluctuated massively when I wasn’t in meds so have the thought it might fluctuate with them to a lesser degree). Blood test done this morning.

Suppose I’d better sort out my diet now I’ve started. Yay. I bloody hate dieting.

@thislittlebird it's infuriating because you can't "fix" your age. I think finding a less discriminating clinic will be helpful. I remember seeing a consultant who pointed out that, way back when women were baby making machines a couple of centuries ago, loads would continue to reproduce into their forties. With humans being one of the shittest mammals at reproduction, continuing to be able to reproduce for an extended period of time was the compensating factor. And of course you have less eggs as you get older. Our environment is toxic, there's only so much we can do. I really do hate this culture of blaming women, blaming victims, that goes round and round and round. It's just plain wrong! A real injustice. We have decided that, if private clinoc agree, we will do 3 more IVF round, which will take us to the "magic number" of 6 that they recommend. Then we will have to look at other options which will include donor eggs and sperm. Adoption will be an absolute last resort, and only if we were able to adopt a baby.

@OrangeBengal I'd say I'm ok but I'm not really. I'm just crying all the time. I feel like I'm too old, they all keep saying age is the main issue. We couldn't afford for that second cycle to fail, so I'm constantly trying to calculate in my head how many more we can reasonably attempt before we exhaust our finances. I don't want to do ivf ever again but I have no choice, apparently. On that note, I looked them up and I don't think we could afford the Evewell. Obviously if we know it will work we could do one, but potentially we could need a lot, I guess.

@Lauralozzle honestly the NHS cost us a lot of time that we don't have. Now I'm pushing 40 and I'm angry that we've lost a good year to dicking about waiting for a cycle that we learned nothing from since the second one didn't pan out as expected.

My blood group will be really boring when I get the results, I'm sure. But I'm checking nonetheless!

@MIW01 thanks x

Hello

@thislittlebird I really do empathise.

@Lauralozzle welcome. We've been TTC since end of 2018 thereabouts. We've had a lot of awful experiences throughout our journey. We did eventually receive NHS funding for 3 round with our 1st IVF round in August 2021, 2nd in Feb 2022 and 3rd in June 2022. We had a total of 4 embryos transferred and 0 success. Unfortunately I don't feel our standard of care was great as we were NHS patients. We then conceived naturally in July 2022 and miscarried at 6 weeks in August 2022. I've now had 3 cycles TTC naturally. We will go the private route early 2023. We are open to using egg/sperm donors if advised to do so.

@Happyhappy39soon40 welcome. Sorry to hear you're not having any luck TTC either. I have to admit, from an outsoders perspective, this is definitely the thread you DON'T want to be joining 😪

Hello all. I hope it's not too late to join. I stopped ttc for about 1 and a half. Just today I started to feel broody.

@thislittlebird Yes, I think I remember you from another thread! It’s crap we’re still on this same journey.

It’s so irritating that doctors classed you as unexplained with your OH SA. The NHS pathway to IVF has been a pain in the backside. It’s a bloody nightmare!

Good idea about checking your blood type. I have no idea what mine actually is, only a rough-ish guess. Pretty sure it’s a positive type (a or a/b) cause my mum told me about the bed rest she had to have when she was pregnant with me because at some point she needed to have extra something because she is a/b negative.

Hopefully the new year will be here before you know it and you can have your follow up appointment and get a plan in place.

Hey @thislittlebird, how you doing? No I was at The Evewell under Mr Dimitrios Psaroudakis, he’s left now.

@Narwhal88 yeah, it's definitely something I'll need to consider ruling out. We wouldn't be able to afford any surgery for it though, if they did find anything. This all sucks.

@OrangeBengal were you with Create if you were doing mild ivf? If that steroid is anything like prednisone then they're known to keep you awake, they always tell me to take them in the morning.

@Lauralozzle welcome to the donkey cart! I think we were on another thread together. We were in a similar boat. Started trying October 2019, but it took a long while to wade through the nhs system and get referred for IVF, with a lot of errors and bad experiences along the way. We were told 3 years of waiting because we were "unexplained" and we absolutely were not, my husband's sperm barely swim ffs. We had to get a private consultant to tell the GP to refer us in the end. Ovulation pains are weird, I used to think I knew what side it would come from until I started fertility treatment and the scans would reveal it wasn't really that side at all. The more you know.

@Alexis7890 thanks. as ok as can be. I won't lie, the longer this goes on the less likely it feels we'll succeed, it's hard to be optimistic.

@MIW01 hey, good to hear from you, hope you're ok. I hear you on the dying hope. I feel more like I'm mentally grieving and heading towards a childless not through choice life as each year passes. I'm dreading going back to natural ttc for a few months, it's just so sad because it doesn't work.

@Misty84 thanks! I'm back to considering the dog idea in the new year.

I'm going for a blood group test on Monday. I don't know what mine is, it's bugging me because my nan had unusual blood type. Thought it best to get it checked just in case. Need to book a follow up with my consultant, thinking I'll do it in the new year at this stage. I want to go prepared with all my thoughts on what the next attempt could involve and need to self advocate.

I find this time of year rough because every year I used to think maybe next year, but realistically for us it definitely won't be next year, if it ever happens. If I ever have a baby I'll be 41 or over, I guess. Not really sure how this happened but here we are.

@Narwhal88 TTC just feels like a way of life now haha. I’m sorry you’ve been going through this since June 2019. It’s a massive headfuck.

It has taken us a long time to get to IVF. GP wouldn’t refer us until the two year mark because he basically said they won’t do anything until we hit two year mark. It’s taken the best part of a year from fertility clinic to IVF. I’m glad things are finally moving though.

@anotherscroller Thank you. No idea if luteal phase is affected by the meds though, might be worth discussing it with your doctor. Sorry about AF though, that sucks.

Sorry actually the luteal phase was only 11 days!

Welcome @Lauralozzle

wishing you all the luck in the world with the IVF.

I have a IUI question because AF arrived this morning at 12 DPO.
I’ve never had a 12 day luteal phase before, does anyone know if this is affected by letrozole and ovitrelle?
This was my first medicated cycle with insemination.
💐

@Marvellouslymadmum yes they are expensive. Mine is £15k as it's extensive and on Harley st. I feel really bad for paying for it rather than waiting a bit longer for nhs but I'm just so worried they will then mess it up or not fix it and I can't wait any longer. I don't understand why they are refusing to do one for you when you have all the symptoms, it's crazy! What is their reasoning?

@OrangeBengal thank you

@Lauralozzle we have been trying since June 2019 so I feel you! You've had a long journey to start your ivf. We started our first cycle March 2021.

@Misty84 sorry you are in the same boat. It is just so shit.

Hello Ladies

@thislittlebird I'm so, so, so sorry to hear of your tragedies. It really is an injustice. There aren't really words for this pain and trauma and grief. The grief is just overwhelming. And you have uncooperative medical practitioners on top of that makes it even worse!

@Marvellouslymadmum I am also very sorry to hear about your tragic situation as well. It's just down wrong of the medical professionals to downplay it. Keep fighting and maybe write to the overseers and go to the press! The NHS really don't need more bad press right now

@Misty84 so sorry to hear that you feel that your IVF journey is at an end and that IVF hasn't worked. The grief must be unbearable right now. And the whole thing overwhelming. I hope you are both able to find some support to move forward through this.

No change here for us and every cycle that passes with a BFN a little bit more of our 'hope' dies with it 🙁

@Misty84 It really does feel like a lifetime ago. DH thought it’d happen really quickly! Haha 😂 how wrong he was.

TTC just feels like something we do now, with no expectation of anything happening.

@Narwhal88 and @thislittlebird I’m also in the group that ivf doesn’t work for! It sucks. And spent a fortune on it.

Sorry you’ve had your expected bfn confirmed thislittlebird.

@Lauralozzle You started trying the same time as me, July 2019. Feels like a lifetime ago! Pre-Covid!

@Marvellouslymadmum thats awful have they said why they won’t do it? Sorry if you’ve said before

hope you’re doing okay @thislittlebird

Hello,

Jumping on the donkey cart! I was on another thread before, but took a bit of a break from mumsnet.

Been TTC since July 2019. Never had a BFP.

I was eventually referred to fertility clinic January this year, after having several repeat bloods for subclinical hypothyroid and high prolactin. GP had contacted endocrinologist before referral to see if I needed a referral to them which they decided I didn’t because based on the one day 21 bloods I’ve had, and regular periods, they assume I’m ovulating regularly. I do get EWCM/positive LH tests monthly, but I’m not 100% sure I do ovulate every month now.

I had my first fertility appointment at the clinic in March. Scan/AMH bloods and HSG were arranged then.

Scan was fine, but they couldn’t locate my right ovary on the internal scan. HSG was fine, no blockages. AMH 13.5 so not particularly high. I’m 34, 35 next month. OH SA is fine. Diagnosis is unexplained. Had further thyroid and prolactin bloods tests.

Bloods showed that my thyroid had gone up to 6.45 and prolactin was about 940. Was referred for IVF in May.

Went to GP practically begging for thyroid meds as consultant at clinic had said it needs to go down. This was a really frustrating period for me, as it felt like no one was actually taking any initiative to get this under control. GP agreed to thyroxine and because my prolactin was still high, referred me to endocrinologist (this could have been sorted months before).

Had an appointment with IVF consultant and a AFC in June. Scan showed nothing wrong with uterus. My left ovary is normal, had about 11 follicules. Right ovary is small, only had one. Basically have a dud right ovary. Consultant said that majority of eggs would come from left, but hopefully right one will respond to get some eggs, maybe 🤔

They refused to start any treatment until my thyroid levels were normal and endocrinologist basically signs me off as ok for IVF. Cue the waiting.

Bloods redone in July to check how thyroxine is working, thyroid levels close to normal (2.78) and prolactin massively down (245-ish). Still needed ok from endocrinologist so needed to wait for appointment scheduled for beginning of August. Was cancelled and rescheduled for end of August. Basically got the ok to go ahead. IVF clinic needed paperwork to confirm. Didn’t get that until end of September.

Consents were completed in October. Protocol came through November.

I’m finally at a point where we’re going to start. I’m long protocol, start down regulation with buserelin on the 9th.

Apprehensive about the whole thing to be honest. It’s taken so long to get here, and I’m basically working with one ovary. Funnily enough, I’m still unexplained. Not sure I actually ovulate from my right ovary, that’s the side I always feel ‘ovulation pain’ so I reckon I gear up for it but it just doesn’t happen. I distinctly remember when I had day 21 bloods I felt ovulation on the left. I only feel it on the left about 2 times a year.

Sorry for the essay!!

I should say have actually, they’ve come back.

Umm, not sure that’s what he was using it for, I think it’d he’d just had luck with it (the nurses described it as one of ‘his specials’), either way he delivered what he said he would, I did wake up every morning at 2/3am whilst on it though!

I’m sorry to hear about your suffering @Narwhal88 and am glad your endo has now been recognised and can be treated. One of the many things we’re crap at identifying and treating re ‘women’s issues’. I had fibroids, different but similarly ignored.

@thislittlebird yes I have endo symptoms - bad period pain since they started, pain on emptying bowels during periods, painful sex, lethargic etc. Since you don't have symptoms it is likely you don't have endo, but you never know. It would be hard to get referred on the nhs without symptoms I think. Something to rule out I guess if you have tested everything else.

@OrangeBengal @thislittlebird dexamethasone is a steroid. So could be routine for your doctor in case of immune issues?

Not sure entirely what the dexamethasone was for, just something my consultant liked to use, maybe for quality @thislittlebird. SA tests said my DH had excellent sperm, but as it wasn’t working pre IVF he did a frag test that came back high, however we weren’t sure as it was taken after a boozy holiday, so I fought to do 1:1 (prep for this was daily ejaculation), the clinic did say the sample on the day wasn’t a good one though, but the success for euploid was higher in the IVF batch and my baby now is from that batch, so who knows. They think my eggs made up for sperm issues though. I think ubiquinol helped me sustain high quality eggs and I’ve heard good things about DHEA too.

@OrangeBengal thank you. What was the dexamethasone for? I had similar AMH in 2021 but I doubt it’s that now based on my eggs collected. 15 and then 10, we didn’t aim for only a few but I wasn’t on high doses. If you used IVF and ICSI, I assume you don’t have male factor? Sorry, I’ve forgotten. I would love to try ivf and icsi at once but I don’t think they would let us.