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

@thislittlebird have your clinic not taken any learning from your last NHS cycle, as you did get pregnant then, which is a big deal after so long and something you should cling on to if you can. It seems crazy that the clinic didn’t put you on all the drugs you were on then.

It seems like that, plus the right levels of stims and PGS, would give you the best chance of success. Have you considered natural or modified natural, if you react better to low stims that might go doubly for no stims?!

I’m assuming your on ubiquinol, vitamin E as well as all the standard supplements pre egg collection? DHEA is maybe one to investigate too? And for your DP, proxeed, no booze, no coffee, clean eating etc.

Maybe try and speak to a fertility nutritionist, I think a few people we’re on chats with use them. It’s a lot, I know, but if you’re giving yourself two more shot then at least you know it’ll only be for a certain amount of time.

One thing I have learned about myself this cycle is that I just do not have symptoms from progesterone 90% of the time, naturally or medicated. I've only ever had sore boobs a couple of times on cyclogest, then they tested me yesterday on transfer day and it was 311, which is very high for me but I guess that's the now empty follicles putting progesterone out there + lubion and cyclogest.

@Misty84 I think relief is understandable. It's such a burden, especially when it doesn't work for you like it seems to for other people.

I think that sounds like a sensible path, work on your dh and spend some time doing nice things. We're going to try to get some second opinions on dh's varicocele/cause of his issues but we really don't have much hope, we've never conceived naturally. Maybe it's just premature ageing for him.

It's incredibly hard to imagine it happening, I just don't think these were good sperm, I'm very hesitant to be optimistic.

Yup, never, ever our turn apparently. Which makes it even harder to swallow, that you get the bad luck, you can't catch a break when others do, you can't be one of the people who gets pregnant with ivf first time, or before, or during or after ivf naturally, or you do and it doesn't work. It's not for us. It just makes me really sad that all of these years will have been wasted time and money.

Yeah I hear you @thislittlebird. As you know we’ve given up with IVF after 2 hopeless cycles and in a way I’m sort of relieved to have stopped. You’re right, you cannot carry on forever.
Similar with donors really, we def can’t do sperm donor because I don’t have enough eggs for that to be a viable option. Egg donor MIGHT be a possibility in the future but we would have to improve OH’s sperm heaps loads (which is what he’s currently trying to do). But that’ll be another massively costly risky gamble. Probably wouldn’t work. At least not as much time pressure with that because it’ll be younger eggs…so I’m just giving myself a break for now. Not mentally there anyway! Especially as thought I had my baby, getting that far it’s so difficult to accept a donor now.

I’m making nice plans for us to do as a couple and our dog. Trying to get some sanity back. I don’t want to waste all these years being sad over something I can’t change. We’re all doing our best.

Really thinking of you and even though you’ve transferred 2, I can understand why you don’t have high hopes and it’s hard to imagine it happening. I just can’t believe no blasts considering your last round. Miracles happen to other people, I would love it to be your turn. Our turn! Never seems to be does it!☹️

@OrangeBengal yeah I’ve seen a few stories like @CycleGirl20’s and it’s just hard to imagine it will work for us. We’re too old, his sperm is very poor quality, it’s just not good odds.

@Misty84 thanks, yeah it’s shit. I can’t really believe how unpredictable it all is. Higher stims resulted in a terrible cycle for us, but it wasn’t just me, every stage went badly. three embryos were grade 1 on day 3 and then womp womp womp, no blasts for you. I’m glad we transferred something but it doesn’t feel like I should get my hopes up since this will be embryo 4 & 5 and our three good ones haven’t worked. We’ll do a lot more prep before our next/last cycle and that’ll be in the spring probably. Need a few months to work on his results again.

I can’t continuously believe this will work eventually, I have to be realistic. We can’t afford to do more than two more attempts probably. If we aren’t getting blasts after the first cycle then I just don’t see ivf as being a realistic solution for us. Someone suggested donors to me but I also don’t really see that as a solution. We get a sperm donor and it could be my eggs, we get an egg donor and it might still not work with his sperm. It’s a big gamble we can’t really afford.

I’m so sorry to hear that this private cycle has not met your expectations whatsoever @thislittlebird.Very disappointing 😔

I’m so sorry @thislittlebird, I do know that @CycleGirl20 had success with a morula though, so it is possible. I really hope it’s not OHSS too. As impossible and as annoying as it sounds whenever anyone says this, all you can do now is just try and feel as positive as you can. Listen or watch something that’ll make you laugh. It does help.

Well, I can safely say this cycle has been a fucking horror show. We got 0 blasts this time. One morula and some other kinda embryo that's not a blast were transferred today, so it's really not good odds. Probably nothing to freeze, one is still in the lab but not looking good for tomorrow.

Spoke to the doctor today at my transfer in-between bouts of tears at this shitty cycle and he still thinks it's an anaesthetic reaction, so fine, I'll believe him.

Oh @thislittlebird , I’m so sorry this is happening. There’s probably not much you can do about it now, but make sure you create a log of questions for your WTF meeting. If you haven’t felt comfortable / heard this time round, then change your team, you are a client now.

@OrangeBengal tbh no one seems even remotely interested in the fact that I definitely have ohss symptoms. Same old same old shit. I'm so fed up. They keep saying my breathing problems are the anaesthetic when a quick google tells me it's a sign of OHSS, alongside the intermittent shoulder pain. I'll go ahead with the fresh if I can, might not be anything to transfer tbh.

3 embryos left. One has fertilised abnormally. On a very confusing call they said 1 in 3 make it to day 5 on average, worst case none. I'm so sad about how this cycle has gone on higher stims.

@thislittlebird how you getting on? Are you able to go ahead with a fresh transfer? Fertilised embryos looking ok?

Welcome @anotherscroller

Thanks everyone 😊

@thislittlebird Annoyingly neither just ovulation induction with a sex schedule. I would prefer IUI especially as the sperm isn’t great and I think would give us a better chance but was told no under our NHS trusts rules so either this works within 3 cycles or we go to ivf with icsi. Oh no! Will they see you quickly? Hoping for you that isn’t the case and it can all carry on and you don’t have OHSS

*OHSS

Are you doing ivf or iui with gonal f @Alexis7890? What dose are you on?

I think i have mild ohms tbh. Breathing issues again, occasional shoulder pain. I've reported it to my doctor but this is why I didn't have a fresh transfer last time. I really don't want ohss, it's so frustrating that we have to go through this.

How are you feeling @thislittlebird ?

Welcome @anotherscroller i don’t ovulate naturally and have tried letrozole and now gonal F injections but no IUI yet. Hope it’s all going well for you

@Marvellouslymadmum I’m not sure that magic egg is in there, sadly. 10 eggs now down to 6 mature, 4 fertilised and are in the running for blasto stage but lbr they might not make it. This cycle has been a joke tbh. I have some regrets rushing back into it after our first cycle achieved decent numbers.

@anotherscroller welcome! my gp said similar, I can’t say I’m convinced by it but if it gets me put on prednisone it might be worth it. I’m pretty sure my immune system is a big stumbling block.

Sorry, jumping in! Anovulation here, about to start IUI

I thought the NK test was a scam? There was an article about it in the guardian

Where have your ovaries gone @Marvellouslymadmum 😭

Thanks both. Procedure was fine but a lot more waiting around than in the nhs cycle where you were in and out pretty fast. At least we had our own room. We got ten eggs retrieved but the hopes for this cycle are very low. The doctor briefly popped by and said I’d responded a lot less than they’d expect for my AMH which I knew, but I responded well in my nhs round to a lower dose of meds so it’s not like I’m a typical poor responder. Kinda disappointing and then they couldn’t do IMSI because DH didn’t have enough sperm in the sample after preparation so we reverted to ICSI. It’s all very frustrating and I’m hoping most of my eggs were mature or we’ve got little chance of a good outcome with the sperm by the sounds of it.

I really hope they survive as a couple @thislittlebird and they made a decision they could live with.

Although it’s pricy, I think it’s worth doing the NK blood test. It’a so straight forward too, standard blood draw, which I did at TDL in London.

Good luck this morning, take advantage of the food!