Fertility Appointments and Beyond: Electric Boogaloo

@JeanieJ i hope at least one done because otherwise our cycle will be over very fast lol. I’d like to buy ourselves six months to pay for holidays and stuff in the house and then we need to save again in case we need more ivf. Not sure I want more ivf but I suspect if this fails I’ll want to try one more time and then call it a day.

Ok final update today:

5AA transferred
4AA biopsied
4BB biopsied
4BB biopsied
5CC frozen without biopsy because unlikely to survive

I wish I could keep them all but we’ve agreed to PGT-A so here we are. Keep your fingers crossed for me that some of my tested ones come back euploid.

@JeanieJ tbh it sounds silly to me but it feels like one of those situations where if something does happen you’ll worry it caused it so maybe see if you can take it slower? I don’t want to run even, j want to do weights really. Nothing super heavy, but hand weights and a medicine ball but I’m scared it won’t be a good plan. Long walk today for me!

@Kay00 thanks! I’m so pleased and just super relieved. It was one of those situations where you need it to go well, especially because we’re doing PGT-A and that will take most of the embryos out, I really hope they don’t all come back abnormal. It’s hard though, I’m looking at the list of what we’ve got and thinking I don’t want to sacrifice these, I want them to be frozen so I have more chances. But I know realistically not all of them will be able make babies anyway.

In the end yesterday our 3BC developed so they biopsied 4AA, 4BB, 4BB, and I assume they survived the biopsy because I didn’t hear anything more. It’s £500 per embryo and they asked if I had an upper limit cost wise and I didn’t know what to say, I said just let me know what’s developed Tuesday and I’ll make a choice. It’s just scary to think you could go from 4 or 5 to none within two weeks.

Really pleased your ovarian drilling date is in, that will fly round! What is the outcome they hope for with the procedure?

Have your clinic said what higher stims you’ll be on yet? I can’t remember if you normally do IVF or ICSI, but most clinics don’t seem to do IMSI from what I can see, it’s basically ICSI with a big microscope which might have helped them pick the sperm who weren’t so harmed by the antibodies? Dunno. Does your partner have any sperm issues? I can’t recall.

@JeanieJ nothing thrilling lol. Was supposed to be doing weight loss and exercise for Portugal trip in May but not sure what to do now :/

@JeanieJ yeah we’ve never had a 5AA before! I know grades don’t make much difference when implantation seems to be a struggle for us, but it’s nice to get a good one. Will keep my hopes fairly low, the first five didn’t work so 🤷‍♀️

Yeah, I’m on Clexane/Arovi daily (I was last cycle too but that one went badly) and I’m on injectable progesterone (Lubion) every other day. I also have to insert 400mg of Cyclogest twice daily, but then I have a history of low progesterone so probably need it.

@JeanieJ thanks! It’s over and done, a 5AA is on board, it was a very round embryo on the screen!

8 (I think?) of the embryos were still in play when we got there, which is quite a turn up for the books, they said we had the best outcome they’ll see today. So one is on board, then they will PGT-A test two today because they need to be grades 4 or 5, then there’s a 3BC that might be frozen instead of tested. Another 4 will be checked on tomorrow but I would assume they won’t be likely to make it, but who knows. Hopefully a couple will catch up by day 6 to be frozen or tested.

Huge difference for us from our November cycle. The changes were IMSI, sample prep for DH, higher stims for me, dual trigger and I also upped my dose of CoQ10 to 600mg per day, so maybe that helped. We may not have many left after testing because of my age but it’s nice to know we can make embryos still and our first cycle wasn’t a fluke.

@JeanieJ yeah it’s a huge gamble. If there’s no motility issues it makes it easier to pick, I’m sure, but our issue is DH’s don’t swim so it’s not clear which sperm are the good, bad and ugly.

@JeanieJ did your partner have dna fragmentation issues? I can’t remember.

Yeah, i think we had 6 at this stage on cycle 1, 3 at this stage on cycle 2, so 8 or 9 is better, but now the sperm content hurdle kicks in which may well take a lot of them out. My husband’s fragmentation is ok, but obviously we can’t know what sperm the embryologists are picking.

@Kay00 will be interesting to see if the higher stims, IMSI etc do make a difference to the outcome. Still got the biggest day 3-5 hurdle yet 😬

Ok day 3 update was all 9 are still in the running but one is a bit behind. I’m relieved, we were down to 3 by this time last cycle.

@JeanieJ yeah, I really didn’t need a last minute fight with them. Not done PGT-A before, hoping we have at least one good one but it’s not great odds at my age!

@Kay00 I did read somewhere that higher stims can = fewer follicles, at least on some people. What happened in your last cycle, I can’t recall? High number and low mature quantity again?

I think the same thing tbh, as much as I hope it works for us both. I just can’t see why it will change and work now. I’ve been mentally adjusting each passing round from the optimistic start to now where it feels like incredibly slim odds that an embryo will be genetically competent and will hang around. The first five were/did not!

I suppose I am on Clexane and Lubion this time and that’s different, but I was last time too, we just had terrible non-blast embryos transferred.

@Kay00 thanks 💜. It honestly is exhausting, as I’m sure you know. I have come to expect nothing from this really, because it just doesn’t work for some people in the way it does for others. And we have had to fight for our bloody lives every step of the way, nearly 4 years of constantly advocating hard for yourself and having to challenge their decisions and claims. An embryologist who analysed his sample called and said they need to do xyz next time, and then I emailed to check they were doing this the day before and some other embryologist rang me and basically said no, that’s not our procedure and made it sound like I’d made this up! I was very pissed off the night before EC and then my consultant backed her up. Lab manager then spoke to original embryologist and agreed they did need to do xyz 🙄🙄🙄

I’m happy with the 9, I just know this can all go to shit between day 1 and 5/6 so just trying to take each update as it comes. It’s the same as our first round at this stage, weirdly, so I’m very curious to see if the higher dose stims, dual trigger, solution and IMSI for DH make a jot of difference. Next update is tomorrow.

I’m definitely going to chill today, might sit here and watch White Lotus!

@JeanieJ belated thanks!

So we had 10/14 mature eggs, 9 fertilised normally and we await the day 3 update tomorrow. I feel very detached from it this time, like it’s just another thing we do. Transfer is booked for Monday morning if there is anything to transfer, and any excess will be PGT-A tested so probably 0-1 embryos from this.

EC also feels like it was harder this time, going to get myself a hot water bottle and hide under a blanket.

We had a last minute clinic drama where they said they didn’t need to do any special for procedures for DH’s antisperm antibodies and then they decided they did after I kicked up a fuss once more. Anyway, he did a later sample and had to do it into a liquid to stop the sperm clumping, and we also paid for IMSI.