I had IVF - AMA

[Ginger1982]

As the title says (though I actually had ICSI). Feel free to ask me anything and I'll try to answer. I want you now though that I'm not a doctor so my medical knowledge is not the best!!

Ivf here too... how are you now?

Sorry, missed your message!

I am good because we are very lucky that it was successful. But it was a stressful process!

How about you?

Another IVF-er, also successful eventually. Stressful is an understatement!

We were lucky it worked here too and we had twins 🌷🌷

What was your infertility diagnosis? How long does everything take from getting your initial referral letter from your gp to your positive test (congrats!) 💐

I’m still waiting for my referral letter for fertility tests, it seems to be taking forever just for the letter 😔

Tilly - it was technically 'unexplained' so not sure who has the problem.

We were fortunate enough to be able to decide to pay privately so from making that decision to meeting consultant to positive test result was three months. However we had been going down the NHS route before that so if we had stuck with that then from getting tests done to positive result would have been more like twelve months.

Sending lots of positive thoughts your way

I can't remember there being a terribly long delay in getting referral letter though from memory. Maybe a few weeks?

We were lucky it worked here too, also twins 😀

@Ginger1982 thank you so much for your reply. We too luckily have option of private if NHS takes too long or doesn’t work. I’m not even sure I need IVF yet but I’ve only got one tube after an ectopic and we’ve been trying again for over a year so Im not holding out much hope!

What was the worst part of IVF? Xxx

Tilly I only had one tube too so that didn't help!

The injections aren't great! I literally stood there hovering with the needle for ages. And having dildo like probes put up your whatsit for the internal scans isn't great either! I felt a bit almost like a handmaiden from The Handmaid's Tale, minus the forced sex obviously, there for a purpose. And it is all a bit clinical so takes the 'naturalness' out of it.

Did you opt to have one embryo put back or two? The fertility clinic near me has a higher than average amount of multiples and I’m wondering if they encourage women to have more than one to increase changes of getting pregnant.

How many rounds did you have before being successful?

Thank you for your reply! Where did you have treatment? Would you recommend them and how much did it all cost thanks 😊

Charlyn - I had one embryo put back and have one in the freezer. I was told because I was young (34) that they would only recommend putting one back.

Tripping - I was incredibly lucky and it worked first time but I know that this is not always the case. A dear friend had 5 goes before getting her baby and I also know some people are never successful 😞

Tilly - we went through the Nuffield Hospital in Glasgow and, all told, it was roughly £6k. They were great! Fitted in all my appointments around work.

Thank you! 6k is certainly manageable but I suppose if you had to have several goes then it could start adding up! My friend has had 3 unsuccessful rounds on the NHS so it’s private for her next. I’ll direct her to this useful thread x

Tilly - I think it depends. It won't cost another £6k for us to have an already frozen embryo transferred, probably in the region of £1.5k. But if that failed and we wanted to start all over again from scratch then it would be another £6k.

Yes, send your friend over!

How is the process in the UK? I live in a country where you can get 3 ivf procedures for free but if there are other fertility treatments possible you need to do them first. In this forum I read about so many people who have problems and go for ivf. I hardly ever hear about clomid, or injectables and timed sex, or IUIs. Is it so much easier to go from nothing straight to ivf?

Gotto - you can get IVF on the NHS but it depends on your area. Some offer none, some offer a few cycles. I'm not sure of all the ins and outs. Generally for NHS you need to have been trying naturally for a year, sometimes longer. If you're paying you can pretty much go for it whenever you want.

Hi Ginger1982

My DH and I have known genetic issues that mean 50% of any embryos are not viable. We have had some losses and so are now thinking about IVF to enable genetic pre screening.

I am trying to understand what are the steps of the actual IVF and how long / unpleasant are they?

Very grateful for any insights!

Bumbers - I can obviously only speak from my own experience.

We both had to have tests down first. For me it was easier than DH as he had to rush a 'sample' to the hospital within a certain time - no pressure! Once they had all been done I had to wait for a period. Then they injected me in the bum with drugs to shut down all my hormones. Then about a fortnight later they internally scanned me and then I had to start injecting drugs into my stomach every day for about a fortnight.

They scanned me every two days until I had lots of eggs and then I had egg retrieval. I was given a general anaesthetic for this. Meanwhile, DH was providing his sample in a different room. They collected 15 eggs from me and I got 5 embryos from that. They kept them for 5 days and 2 lasted that length of time.

They implanted the best graded embryo and two weeks later I got my positive result (although I did test before that!) Then I had to put a gel up my vagina for three months to keep the womb lining thick. After that it was a fairly normal pregnancy although I had more scans and was induced before my due date.

Hope I've answered your query!

Thank you!! That is really, really helpful!

Were all the injections and treatment really hard on you hormonally?