IVF success stories please

My IVF baby has just turned 1. Tried to concieve for 3.5 years. Found out I have endo which was zapped. But still nothing. All tests done and unexplained sub fertility. So best chance was ICSI. Worked 1st time. Currently not using contraception and we will wait and see. But have eggs in the freezer just incase.

My cousin conceived and then went on to have two more naturally?! Had 3 under 3 at one point.

My friend concieved with first attempt. She did tell everyone and said the other day she doesn't regret tellling everyone.

Good luck

My SIL conceived on 2nd attempt and I now have a beautiful 3 month old niece called Lauren.

My best friend conceived on 2nd atempt and I have a gorgeous god son of 3.5 years called Ben.

I wish you all the best of luck

xxx

If I were in your position, I would tell people. We were not able to tell more than our immediate families and very close friends, as we live in a smallish place, DH's ex-wife was extremely hostile to us and would have loved crowing about failed cycles to his step-children. We just couldn't face it. We felt very isolated and unsupported. It would have helped a lot to have more people knowing what we were going through.

We told no family, just 2 very very close friends who were sworn to secrecy. Going through IVF puts a lot of pressure on you and we didnt want added pressure from our family, none of our parents had any other grandchildren so I'm sure you can see what we mean.

without meaning any disrespect to your dh, I think it is a 'man' thing to be embarrassed about this. Maybe they see it as some sort of failure on their part (even when it isn't) that it hasn't happened the natural way. If he doesn't want to tell, then I would go along with him.

Tania, I think that would be totally plausible. Would you be able to keep all the appointments at the clinic quiet though? That was quite easy for me because my family don't live locally and at work I just said it was 'women's things' and they never asked again!

Tania,
we told absolutely nobody for our first 3 cycles and then immediate family and a couple of close friends for our second 3 - no idea why the change of heart by the way!

I think there are pros and cons to both - if you tell people, there's a lot of pressure in the form of people asking you if you are OK all the time (sometimes welcome, sometimes not), but if you don't tell anybody, you often have to present a brave face and pretend everything is OK when all you long to do is let it all pour out.

A lot will depend on how supportive you think people will be and whether you and dh think you are strong enough to get through it on your own.

My best wishes go to you both ... CM xx

Your message brought back so many memories for me.

Well, here goes - Tried to concieve for 4 years and no joy, went for various tests and it came back that DH sperm was very low and the only chance would be ICSI, tried one cycle and it failed, they then found Ovarian Polyps and Ovarian Cysts, so went through an operation to remove them. Then surprise surprise, fell pregnant naturally only for it to turn out to be eptopic, probably due to all the scarring from the surgery. So more surgery and was told that it was more or less impossible now for me to get pregnant naturally with DH low sperm count and all my scaring. 2nd ICSI was succesfull and we have a beautiful 2 year old dd. And wait for it, was breastfeeding and not using any contraception and fell pregnant again naturally and this time it was in the right place, so now have another beautiful 10 month old dd.

Makes me wonder if all the advice we were given was true. So happy, we have a wonderful family and at times in my darkest hour I thought I would never have kids.

ICSI/IVF is not an easy route, your emotions are all over the place and it does take over your life. Unfortuantely one of my best friends is now divorced and one of the many reasons is that the stress they were under whilist going through IVF. But when fertility treatments work it is wonderful.

Good luck in whatever you decide to do, just remember that it can and does work. And sometimes, despite all the advice you are given you may not even need it - I'm proof of that! It really does just take one.

How did you get on today Tania2? I realise our times are going to be different with me in the uk but am very interested as i may be going the same route as you in the new year. we too have one child already, conceived naturally and hvaing been ttc number 2 for 2 years now. i have mild endo but it now seems i have some in one or both ovaries and this is affecting us ttc. we are tempted to ask to be referred for ivf without waiting for the endo to be treated, as the past year has been so stressful already and time is ticking on...
i really don't know what will be advised by our consultant - i don't even know if iui is an option either. anyway, let me know you got on today - i'm rooting for you!

Tania, have you had a look at ivfconnections.com too? They have an Australia board and also an endo board. Also meant to say on my last post that I had zero expectations of my IVF cycle which I think helped me enormously as I was really quite blase about it and assumed it would fail (even though my clinic's take home baby rate is 40% per cycle started - better odds than the low-tech way).

good luck Tania and like others have said, which probably didnt come through on my post, there are lots of positive outcomes, it just can take some longer than others but with your age (i'm 10 years older than you and my sis's friend is older than me and that does make a big difference} I wouldve thought with your age and the fact you've already conceived you have a brilliant chance of an early success.

Tania I know I basically hang out with lots of mummies, but several of them have babies through IVF and on their first attempt! So there are lots of happy tales too!

Hi Tania, I have a history of PCOS, and after clomid/IUI I conceived ds1 after 3 IVF attempts and ds2 on the 4th attempt.

I would echo Oldiesmum advice re preparing for more than one attempt, and dealing with the grief being more grueling than the physical side. But if you go down this route it does take over your life for each 6-8 week cycle.

But like the others I wouldn't be without my two for anything!

Tania2, it is a dark and lonely tunnel and I sympathise with you standing at the beginning of it. It usually doesn't work first time, often because it takes the staff a while to work out the correct dosage and procedures for you. We went through 2 cycles of IUI and 6 of IVF before we conceived our wonderful, beautiful daughter, who is now nearly two. I am just so glad we kept going. The physical side is gruelling, but it's the grief when it fails that is so hard to take. We were very grateful to DH's supportive father, who helped us pay for it, but, sadly, did not live to see his granddaughter. We are in the UK, but DH is from Adelaide, so I feel a special link to someone in Oz going this. One piece of advice we were given by the doctors here - never go into a cycle thinking 'This is the last one'. It puts too much pressure on. Do your thinking when you have recovered from a failed cycle, not just before you start the next one.

I'm in the UK and had first time success with IVF/ICSI. It can happen and it's not always all doom and gloom. Our issues were severe male factor after dh survived a near fatal illness. My ds was created with sperm surgically removed from dh .. awesome technology really. The odds were stacked against us and we are very blessed.

Good luck.

oh, and she got pg both times but sadly lost the 1st very early but now has a beautiful DD from the 2nd.

Tania, a friend of my sisters moved to Adelaide about 4 years ago. She had 1 ds naturally but then her tubes became blocked after an infection. Anyway, i'm sure she had 2 attempts at IVF which were paid for, much like our NHS system. I could well be wrong but i'm sure it was funded. I myself have had 5 attempts at IUI, 2 m/c's but am now 23 weeks pg. Best of luck whatever you decide