IVF/ICSI - how bad is it and any long term effects?

[Daisyroselondon]

Hi all. I'm due to start IVF/ICIS in Jan and am really having a bit of a panic. Our chances are pretty slim - 10 to 15%. I'm trying to research any long term effects on mother and babies, finding that all it keeps coming back to is that not enough research has been done. My mother died ten years ago of cancer, so I probably have the irrational fears of injecting growth hormones. I would love to hear of any side effects / long term effects you had or didn't have. Anything really. I don't know if I'm just being a bit of unreasonble scaredy cat or if there is something to be wary of!! Thank you so much

My eldest is an ICSI baby, she’ll be 11 on Sunday. All good here, the process was trying but I had a good experience overall. Good luck

PS had two more naturally after. Hope it works for you

I'm an IVF baby (I'm mid 20's now) and all is fine here and as far as I know my mum has had no lasting effects I have no experience in going through IVF myself so can't advise on that side of things but wish you the best of luck!

@LarsErickssong

I'm an IVF baby (I'm mid 20's now) and all is fine here and as far as I know my mum has had no lasting effects I have no experience in going through IVF myself so can't advise on that side of things but wish you the best of luck!

Awh Lars! That totally made me smile :) Thanks!

@Sunnyjac

My eldest is an ICSI baby, she’ll be 11 on Sunday. All good here, the process was trying but I had a good experience overall. Good luck

Wow, that's fantastic! And thank you :)

@LividJamas

I have miscarried four ICSI embryos.

For very rare and obviously unforeseen reasons, one miscarriage put me in intensive care.

The treatment, injections, emergency surgery, thousands of pounds... NONE of it mattered compared to the pain I felt at the prospect of never being a mum.

I eventually had my utter miracle baby naturally at 39 but if I hadn’t, I would’ve had to carry on until I died or ran out of credit card space - and I don’t mean that flippantly even if it sounds it.

Gosh, that sounds incredibly tough. I'm very happy to hear you have your miracle babay (and naturally!)

I’ve had IVF twice, both times short protocol and no ICSI. The first time was five years ago - I had a very high egg reserve. The treatment itself was rough, I felt terrible especially during the stims but had a great outcome (DS!). I had bad morning sickness in the first trimester and I wondered if it had something to do with all the drugs I’d had to take. Just done IVF again and I’m now seven weeks pregnant. I felt much better this time around, maybe because I had a better idea of what to expect, I wasn’t working and made sure I rested a lot. Both times I had acupuncture which at a minimum helped me relax a bit. I also thought it was nice having appointments which were pleasant vs having constant scans and injections.
This time around my ovarian reserve had fallen off a cliff, and I wonder if all the stims from the previous round of iVF did it. Prior to IVF my cycle was all over the place but now it’s very predictable and maybe IVF helped sort it out.

All the best with it - it is tough physically and emotionally. I was a mess during the two week wait this time. You want to be optimistic but it’s scary and you just done know.

And in terms of mental health impact - when pregnant with DS I was quite nervous and I think I had mild PND after he was born. DD was conceived naturally and I developed PND and anxiety after she was born, but that was after a rather traumatic birth. It’s time around I am nervous and started getting anxious / spiralling the other day but I think I’m keeping it under control

Oh OP doctor Google is a nightmare during IVF - I would strongly advise you to step away. It’s so stressful goggling anything to do with IVF pregnancy and baby years - the info out there can make you feel very anxious or inadequate or can be just mind blowing.

I have two ICSI babies they are perfect and I had no long term affects beyond pregnancy anxiety. The process of ICSI especially egg collection was hard but totally and completely worth it when my babies were born. The first was a short protocol treatment the second was a natural cycle frozen transfer.

I found it pretty shit tbh, everything that could go wrong did. I was a very poor responder to the drugs. No pregnancy. But I was having it 25 years ago and I'm sure they are much better at it these days.

I had both my biological children by ICSI stating 24ish years ago now. It was new, only available in London at that time.
Mine both have autism and I was told there is a higher incidence of autism with icsi. I didn't understand why and still don't.

The research findings may be different now, this was a long time ago. We are part of the original research as we were some of the first to have this treatment.

I wouldn't change having them or having ICSI. If you need that level of help to have children there usually isn't another option biologically.

Following with interest, currently going through my first ever cycle of ivf with icsi, egg collection should be Friday

@Twickerhun

Oh OP doctor Google is a nightmare during IVF - I would strongly advise you to step away. It’s so stressful goggling anything to do with IVF pregnancy and baby years - the info out there can make you feel very anxious or inadequate or can be just mind blowing.

I have two ICSI babies they are perfect and I had no long term affects beyond pregnancy anxiety. The process of ICSI especially egg collection was hard but totally and completely worth it when my babies were born. The first was a short protocol treatment the second was a natural cycle frozen transfer.

Yep! I need to step away!! I think I'm desperately missing my mum too. How much she would have loved to have been a grandmother and just having her hand to hold. I mean, my boyfriend's great but... !

Thanks wonderful, congrats. Sounds all like a manageable experience.

@Absy

And in terms of mental health impact - when pregnant with DS I was quite nervous and I think I had mild PND after he was born. DD was conceived naturally and I developed PND and anxiety after she was born, but that was after a rather traumatic birth. It’s time around I am nervous and started getting anxious / spiralling the other day but I think I’m keeping it under control

Congratulations! Wishing you all the calm thoughts for your pregnancy. And thank you for your tips re acupuncture and resting :)

@CounsellorTroi

I found it pretty shit tbh, everything that could go wrong did. I was a very poor responder to the drugs. No pregnancy. But I was having it 25 years ago and I'm sure they are much better at it these days.

hugs to you Troi, that sounds very tough

@planningaheadtoday

I had both my biological children by ICSI stating 24ish years ago now. It was new, only available in London at that time. Mine both have autism and I was told there is a higher incidence of autism with icsi. I didn't understand why and still don't.

The research findings may be different now, this was a long time ago. We are part of the original research as we were some of the first to have this treatment.

I wouldn't change having them or having ICSI. If you need that level of help to have children there usually isn't another option biologically.

Wow, that's amazing. I really wanted to hear from people who had done it recently and a long time ago. And I've been thrilled to hear from you and also ivf baby LarsErickssong.

My partner has something like 1% morphology and 10% motility - might be ther other way round, I've blanked it all out! So bascially very very unlikely. I've read that about autism, I have no idea either.

@elsaesmeralda

Following with interest, currently going through my first ever cycle of ivf with icsi, egg collection should be Friday

Best of luck! :)

ICSI PGS/PGD here, I absolutely hated the process mainly the emotions and the admin - chasing appointments, waiting for updates, endless drugs. I shed so many tears. Its so hard because I say it was worth it as I'm now pregnant. But when it didn't work it was horrific. And if it hadn't worked I would have found all the misery for nothing very hard. But at least I'd have tried I guess?

ICSI can pass on male factor infertility, as that wasn't our issue I couldn't worry about it too much. As there's no other strong known links I can't waste headspace worrying (I fret endlessly about my pregnancy instead ). I wasn't too worried about my health either as my consultants were happy despite my hideous family/genetic links with female cancers. If I'd had an awful lot of rounds it might have been more of a concern. You could ask about natural transfers as an option?

In your shoes I'd give it a go, there's no need to think about multiple rounds etc, just take it one step at a time.

I will say I tried to focus on the science, as I do think its incredible. It helped to detach a little. Getting photos of your embryos is just amazing! And if you can do short protocols its not as much of a take over of your whole life!

4 rounds of ICSI (two with IMSI for very lazy sperm) physically I found it ok but emotionally harder, I found the loss of control difficult. Cycles resulted in a full term stillbirth a healthy live birth, a miscarriage then healthy twins, After the stillbirth there was lots of probing into the reasons why from the feral medicine team, and obviously the IVF came up in that but there was never anything to say it contributed. My three living children are healthy and well. Best of luck to you x

I have 2 ICSI conceived children who are 17 and 13. The youngest was PGS as well. All good, no health conditions and NT.

I’m fine and in really good health and have no health conditions or gynae problems. I’m not technically past the menopause yet. I was 42 when I had my youngest.

I’ve managed to block out much of the process of IVF and the heartache. I did end up with emergency surgery after one egg collection as a blood vessel was nicked and I bled out 3 litres of blood into my abdomen. A rare possible complication.

I think it’d be a good idea to have a list of your questions/things that are making you anxious. Writing them down may help them stop swirling in your head and you can also use it to ask your consultant.

Hi, Good luck with the ivf. I have an 11 year old and 10 year old twins from ivf. Very little side effects during treatment (maybe a little more emotional) and certainly no side effects since.

@Thischarmlessgirl

4 rounds of ICSI (two with IMSI for very lazy sperm) physically I found it ok but emotionally harder, I found the loss of control difficult. Cycles resulted in a full term stillbirth a healthy live birth, a miscarriage then healthy twins, After the stillbirth there was lots of probing into the reasons why from the feral medicine team, and obviously the IVF came up in that but there was never anything to say it contributed. My three living children are healthy and well. Best of luck to you x

Oh my heart broke for you :( Thank you x

@Parkandride

ICSI PGS/PGD here, I absolutely hated the process mainly the emotions and the admin - chasing appointments, waiting for updates, endless drugs. I shed so many tears. Its so hard because I say it was worth it as I'm now pregnant. But when it didn't work it was horrific. And if it hadn't worked I would have found all the misery for nothing very hard. But at least I'd have tried I guess?

ICSI can pass on male factor infertility, as that wasn't our issue I couldn't worry about it too much. As there's no other strong known links I can't waste headspace worrying (I fret endlessly about my pregnancy instead ). I wasn't too worried about my health either as my consultants were happy despite my hideous family/genetic links with female cancers. If I'd had an awful lot of rounds it might have been more of a concern. You could ask about natural transfers as an option?

In your shoes I'd give it a go, there's no need to think about multiple rounds etc, just take it one step at a time.

I will say I tried to focus on the science, as I do think its incredible. It helped to detach a little. Getting photos of your embryos is just amazing! And if you can do short protocols its not as much of a take over of your whole life!

But at least I'd have tried I guess?

This.

Tbh, I'm not very optimistic at all. But I can't help but feel like I have to at least try...

Thank you for the advice. This is all helping x

@BathshebaWasOnTheRoof

I have 2 ICSI conceived children who are 17 and 13. The youngest was PGS as well. All good, no health conditions and NT.

I’m fine and in really good health and have no health conditions or gynae problems. I’m not technically past the menopause yet. I was 42 when I had my youngest.

I’ve managed to block out much of the process of IVF and the heartache. I did end up with emergency surgery after one egg collection as a blood vessel was nicked and I bled out 3 litres of blood into my abdomen. A rare possible complication.

I think it’d be a good idea to have a list of your questions/things that are making you anxious. Writing them down may help them stop swirling in your head and you can also use it to ask your consultant.

Gosh, that sounds insane. Wow

Thank you, that's great advice. I will do. And this is all helping :)

@footiemum3

Hi, Good luck with the ivf. I have an 11 year old and 10 year old twins from ivf. Very little side effects during treatment (maybe a little more emotional) and certainly no side effects since.

Amazing. That's great to hear. It's really helpful hearing from women who have older children and everyone is in good health.

Although - I'm already emotional