Fertility Appointments and Beyond: Electric Boogaloo

@99pctpractice thank you, that's really helpful! Do LEB have clinics all over or do you have to go down to London? We're with Care for IVF anyway so it would be easier to stay with them for ED, but like you say, if there's no guarantee there'll be a match its £500 down the drain... its hard isnt it!

@thislittlebird it’ll be 9dp5dt. So quite soon X

@thislittlebird that line looks very strong!! Especially given that it's still early - def stronger than the one you posted the other day. Lots of fingers crossed for you over here!! Yes, it was natural pregnancy, but tbh I wasn't even aware of the pregnancy after ivf ones and they might have been a better fit as I had already done 2 rounds of ivf by then! I totally agree that people who haven't experienced infertility won't understand how you're feeling. Ttc for 3 months is not the same as 2+yrs and all the stress that has gone into that time and process!!

@beckyCarlos we went with London egg bank. You get loads of info on the donors just by registering with their website, but you have to have a consultation (paid for, obviously) and fill in all their forms before you can actually buy eggs (also v v expensive). Then, you can send some photos of yourself to their matching team and email them with the donors you like and then they tell you the age at the time of donation, whether or not they have proven fertility (they won't tell you whether own children or via egg donation but you can generally tell that from the profile) and whether they are a good physical match or, even if they're not a match, for one they said that their features wouldn't look out of place in our family. They let you know when new eggs are being added to the site so you can keep an eye out. We had a couple of previous potential matches that we weren't sure about and then they were gone - it's basically first come first served, there's no reserve process. But you do have 5 days after you buy to change your mind....

We looked at other clinics but only Care had a frozen egg bank and you had to pay £500 just to look at their bank and they wouldn't tell me how many sets of donor eggs they had and I was nervous paying that much without any certainty that they'd have any decent matches. And though fresh donation is meant to be better than frozen ( because there isn't the same attrition when they defrost the frozen eggs (which is 93% survival or something), I couldn't face waiting an unknown number of months to find a donor and then the uncertainty of whether their ivf cycle would produce any eggs/they'd get coronavirus mid-cycle or whatever. I thought about using altrui to speed it up as they're like a donor search firm but it adds another £5-6k to the process and we just don't have that kind of money lying around after all the ivf!!

@thislittlebird its definitely there, and not at all questionable 😊 its hard though when you've waited so long (and there's all that noise about unless they're basically neon and flashing it doesnt count). I always like to remind myself that if I was 18 and seeing that I'd be worried af 🤣

@thislittlebird friday 7th 😬

@thislittlebird that is a very clear line! I’d be thrilled if I got that! That is definitely not a chemical! Cautious congratulations to you!!

@99pctpractice how exciting! That’s amazing you found a match I didn’t even know they did that!

@99pctpractice also, how did the matching work, did they do you a shortlist and you got to pick? Did they 'interview' you first? And when did you pay (like was there a consultation fee then the fee for the eggs?) Sorry for all the questions, clinics are kinda cagey about the process 🙄

@99pctpractice OMG YOU BOUGHT EGGS!!!!! this is so exciting! Which clinic/bank did you use? I will be (obsessively) following your journey as literally the only other person I know using DE!

@thislittlebird sorry, I've never actually DMd an image before, just assumed you could lol. That is DEFINITELY a line, and a clearer one than on the clear blue the other day. Its strong and there and I would be very happy if that was mine :) x x x x x

morning! @thislittlebird i don't think anyone will mind if you post a pic (we have all been beside you on your journey!!), but appreciate you being so sensitive. feel free to dm me a pic! it's totally normal to be anxious but try to remember that today you are pregnant. to preserve your sanity, i'd recommend not joining any of the "due x" groups on mn, because they sent me batshit crazy when i was pregnant earlier this year for about 2 seconds - the collective anxiety was real.

we bought some eggs last night!! they sounded a good match personality wise from their profile and the clinic described them as an "excellent" match physically to me and having as bright blue eyes as my oh. so it begins!! it isn't recommended, but we're going to get them pgt tested. i've been around these forums long enough to know that even donor isn't a guarantee, and i can't face a bunch of failed transfers or worse MCs. so fingers crossed later this year we'll have something to transfer.....exciting but also scary!

@thislittlebird ive just sent a message. There are three dots next to the post and if you click there you’ll see PM.

@thislittlebird you can DM me a pic too I can have a look. Glad you’re still getting positives X

@thislittlebird the invoice thing is mad, surely three frozen is basically the same as one fresh two frozen, and you just pay the thaw cost as you say?! DM me the FRER if you like :) but from (too much) googling I know that some peoples test lines never go darker than the control line, 'dye stealers' are rarer than MN would have you believe! So glad your migrane has gone! X

@thislittlebird ah yes you did mention the invoice. That’s really shit that they’re doing this for you. Glad you’ve got some cyclogest left though for a while. Hope they can resolve the issue for you soon as you don’t need anymore stress. Everything crossed for you for tomorrow when you decide to test. Migraine aside, no AF seems to be a very good sign. Good luck X