Anyone else trying to get pregnant and want to talk about it?

Hi Bayleaf,
I can understand what you're going through ... I think you should go for another icsi as soon as you can (finances allowing!!) as long as you are physically and emotionally ready for it - and you sound as if you are.
Dh and I went through 4 years and 6 cycles of icsi (and, I might add, never had the luxury of being able to freeze any embryos!) and when the consultant said no 6 had to be the last (I was 40, on the maximum dose of drugs and only producing 2 or 3 eggs) we had to try to reconcile ourselves that we might end up childless. As luck would have it, attempt no 6 was successful and we now have a beautiful 21 month old dd.
There was a point about 2 years into it all where I doubted whether I could continue, but dh and I decided that for our own peace of mind we had to persevere and even if things didn't work out eventually, at least we had given it our best shot.
It's really tough going, I know, but stay positive and keep talking (I had to keep the whole thing a deep dark secret and it nearly drove me mad).
Best of luck .... CM

Oh Bayleaf, sorry you are going to have to wait another month and hope it is definately good news next month.
sis

Bayleaf, lots of sympathy and good luck for the future

Bayleaf, I'm REALLY sorry the treatment didn't work this time. I can imagine it must be very frustrating having to wait a little longer when you had staked a lot on being able to try again straight away. However (and I realise this is perhaps not what you want to hear right now), these treatments take a lot out of you physically and emotionally, and an enforced pause may help you to recuperate a little before your next trip on the roller coaster - and hopefully give you space to concentrate on dd over christmas. Sending you cyber hugs and lots of good luck for the new year.

I can see the logic in going for full ivf again as your next step - certainly at my clinic the success rates are higher. What are your thoughts about how many attempts you are willing/able to go through?

Coincidentally, we have our appt at the clinic tomorrow, when I hope we'll be able to schedule another ivf attempt for early in the new year. HAve been too busy to think too much about it though - probably a good thing.

Bayleaf, many of us know that having to wait yet ANOTHER month to conceive does indeed feel like aeons. All sympathy to you.

Oh Bayleaf, I'm REALLY sorry to hear all this after the continuous advice and support you've given me and others on Mumsnet. I so well know the feeling of every month ticking ominously away inside your head. Hope your consultant is receptive and helpful when you call him today - let us know how you get on.
All the good jokes I hear these days come from Mumsnet so I am at a complete loss to contribute one you haven't heard already...and I know you are a Private Eye reader, so can't even post one of their ridiculous links to cheer you up.
Cyberhugs and good luck for 2003.

bayleaf

Am feeling really fed-up tonight so have come on here to have a moan. I haven't admitted it on here before because I'm afraid that 'real life' people (who I've recommended Mumsnet to) will come on here and realise who I am and I've no intention of telling the world what I'm about to tell Mumsnet (Well except people at the London do who I've already told!)
Last month I had ivf/icsi as we realised dh's sperm weren't swimming etc after a specialised test at the fertilty centre we'd been referred to ( the nhs test had come back 'normal'....)
The ivf failed but 'suceeded' in so far as I produced good eggs and good quality embryos and I had managed to keep really positive thru' the failure by telling myself I could have a frozen embryo transfer ( we have 6 frozen) in my next cycle - late dec/early jan - and that it was only a matter of days to wait...
I've just seen the consultant and it loooks like the time that they would need to be monitoring me would fall exactly over New Year - so it's a non starter and I have to wait another whole month.
I KNOW that in the scheme of things this is not a long time - but when you are nearly 39 and have been trying for 18 months it seems like aeons.

I might ring up tomorrow and ask if I can go straight into another ivf cycle - not good in that FET is around £800 and ivf/icsi is around £3,500 - but FET has half the success rate of ivf and as the consultant put in this evening - my frozen eggs/embryos aren't getting any older but the ones inside me are - so in a way it makes sense to go ahead with the ivf asap and keep those frozen embryos as back up for the long term.
Oh bum bum bum.
Someone tell me a joke and cheer me up!

Ps if anyone in real life does 'recognise' me - tell me but NO ONE else!!!

Thankyou Bayleaf.

Hard to say without knowing your natural pattern - some people have more days of EWM than others - thus tcoyf make you log all sorts of stuff like that alongside your temperatures. For some people EWM means ov soon - ie do 'it' NOW! - other people have 3 or 4 days of it. The more you have the more likley it is to be imminent IMO.
If you are really desperate to know then I can only suggest the dreaded predictor sticks.
I can imagine from personal experience how unwanted the prospect of yet more ttc sex can be - but there's no real way round it. You can stop when the mucus has dried up and/or your temperature has risen - but anything before that is risky.
Sory I can't be more helpful
WWW - apologies for all the mucus talk - would it help if we called it cervical fluid as they do on tcoyf!!!

I meant to say really is it now as in today or tomorrow or later than that? Bearing in mond we have already been going at it for 5 nights on the trot now I would quite to know!.

both?

Sorry about this but I have to ask. I have the egg white mucus this morning. So when exactly is the best time to do the deed? Is it tonight or tomorrow?

janinlondon - as Bayleaf has said - you get an 'O' for 2 days and the 'O' appears before you ovulate (24-48hours before.) HTH

Janinlondon - you get O on two days usually ( well I do) which indicates that you will ovulate soon - next 24/36 hours I think.

GillW, I can't answer your question, but I just invested in this Toni Wechsler: Taking Charge of Your Fertility and it is packed full of reassuring, easy-to-understand information about how to assess when you are ovulating. I have not read it cover to cover (yet...) but there is a lot of info on how long or short cycle lengths affect the time you ovulate. It is the print version of the TCOYF website.

Bluebear - can you help me with a Persona query please? I was wondering about the "o" sign - does it appear to confirm that ovulation has occurred (ie: the day after)? All I can see in the online Persona stuff is that you get red or green days. Nothing about the "o". Also, can you get an "o" on more than one day? Really grateful for any explanation you can give me!

Anyone got any idea what would be "normal" for a shorter cycle (anything between 21 and 25 days)?

Bayleaf - I've not started temp charts yet (as not strictly ttc until January) but think I'll have to begin. I am taking a pre-conception multi-vitamin but I'll do a search on vit B - thanks.
GeorginaA - I believe that the 'norm' is a 28 day cycle and ovulation occuring on day 14 (so your persona 'O' would be on day 12-13), but as you pointed out, women are so variable!

I use persona and generally have quite early ovulation times (around day 12-13 in the cycle). It's interesting how varied women's cycles are, isn't it?! I imagine the Day 16 thing is just an average and in practise there's a plus or minus 4 or 5 days there.

Have you been taking your temperatures Bluebear? That should help to narrow it down - it should rise just after ovulation and stay higher until just before your period - unless you are pregnant in which case it will probably rise yet again near your period date.
Your cycle does seem slightly odd from what you say - but the luteal phase ( ov to period) is not always 14 days - 12+ is considered OK for ttc purposes - less than 12 is questionable. Even if it is short various vitamin supplements will improve/lengthen it ( vit B complex and B6 I think but would want to check it - and Vitex.)so it's nothing to worry about.

I'm not exactly ttc but certainly thinking about ttc in the new year. Have just started using Persona and have had the 'O' appear on day 20 of a 30 day cycle.. so I guess that must mean that this month I would probably be ovulating on day 21-22. I am flabbergasted, I assumed that a 30 day cycle would mean day 16 ovulation. Have any other Persona users had such late ovulation times?

Mucus-haters look away now:
BTW from the mucus point of view I would have guessed that ovulation happened on day 18.. it's all so confusing.

The low carb/glycemic index site is here
Bit of a bummer some of the things you have to cut out tho! ( I know I tried it!!)
Incidentally I know someone who had been trying for 2-3 years with no success - then her husband was diagnosed as diabetic - they both changed their diets radically ( hers to support him) and she was pregnant in 3 months - which makes me wonder if she was a PCOS victim too!