Anyone else about to start IVF?

[gardenpixie]

DH and I have our first IVF consultation in a couple of weeks and I just wondered if there was anyone out there who was in the same position?

We've had loads of tests done already so the Dr says we may well be able to start the treatment cycle sometime next month or early May.

We've been TTC #1 for 3yrs now and I am on cycle 5 of clomid so will continue with that until I start the IVF drugs. There are no obvious medical reasons why we haven't conceived naturally, just a case of unexplained infertility, I guess.

I know the odds of getting pg still aren't great but I am really excited about the fact that IVF even exists (isn't amazing what they can do?) and, although I am a bit apprehensive of everything it will involve, I am thrilled to be given the chance to see if it might work for us.

I would love to hear from anyone with any advice or who is in the same boat,

thanks for reading

Hello all

Womanly excellent news! It makes me chuckle how obsessed with AF dates i've become. Mine always come when I don't want them to and keep me waiting for months when I do want them. 84 days is my longest cycle, I must've done 30 odd pregnancy tests during that time!

Anyway, sorry for not posting an update earlier, had a rather busy weekend. First injection on Friday was fine. It stings a bit as the drug is injected but the needle bit was completely painless. No side effects yet either! Next step is a scan on the 27th to see if they are working.

Hope you're all having lovely weekends x

Morning ladies how are you all?

I've just caught up on the thread properly and I'm so glad you've all joined in - what a lovely bunch of ladies you all are! I wasn't sure what kind of response I was going to get when I started the thread so thank you all for posting. Makes it all seem less scary and much more normal ... if you know what I mean

Bella I'm glad the injections are going well. Are you still feeling OK? Just over ten days until your first scan - very exciting. If you're fully downregged by then, do you move onto the stimulation drugs?

And can I just say you have my full respect for not going totally mental on a cycle of 84 days! The longest I had was 60 and by the end of it, I had totally lost the plot (and bankrupted myself with all the hpts I had bought!)

Carebear how are you today? I hope you were able to relax and take care of yourself over the weekend. Am sending a special Monday morning to you and I hope you are feeling a bit better.

When is your first scan to check the downregs? Will AF still turn up as normal on the drugs?

Womanly firstly a bit hurrah for work recognising that you are great (which we all know anyway!) And how clever of your eyelid to predict it! And a second hurrah for AF turning up ! Was your first injection today? I hope it was OK - you sounded like you were totally on top of it all last cycle so I hope this goes just as smoothly for you

Sounds like you did good work in the garden over the weekend too - I always find that hugely therapeutic ... although poor DH (who is a gardner) always sighs at my inability to discern weed from desired plant - I usually end up watering and nurturing all the things he's trying to get rid of!

Teds how are you doing? Did you manage to relax properly after your busy week? Will it calm down at all or is that normal for you? I hope you are OK and not too hectic this morning

Becca how are you today? I was talking to a friend of mine over the weekend who also has PCO and mentioned the accupuncture advice - she hadn't had a period for months and was getting very grumpy about it (understandably). She had an appt on Saturday and AF started Saturday night ... so, while there might not be any hard and fast medical studies to prove anything about it, I reckon there's def something in it!

Luck how are you? I think you must be around CD12ish going by your last post? I am CD14 today so a week to go until sniffing commences. How are you feeling about it? I am strangely mostly curious with a twist of scared!

Kool I LOVE your theory that it's OK to have a or three now because, and you absolutely right, after our treatments, we will all be well updiffed and forbidden to go near the stuff! Anyway, that's the argument I'll be sticking to over the next week or so before I start snorting my drugs (if only it was going to be as exciting as that phrase suggests)

Bodeccia how was your weekend? I hope you had a lovely time? When are you expecting AF? I hope that it comes soon so you can get the ball rolling... well, actually I really hope it doesn't come because you'll get a BFP but, if that doesn't happen, I hope you have a speedy start to your cycle

Hippy how are you doing? I hope you are well and that your week is off to a good start - here, have a to help it along!

Not much news from me ... I have my "how to take your drugs" appt on Friday and before then, I have to arrange to get the things delivered but I think I have to wait for the drugs company to contact me so I'll just be driving myself mad with anticipation very chilled for this week and amaze myself at my own saintly patience [halo emoticon]

Love to everyone xxx

I love the idea of having a chilled week garden - you deserve it :) Bella I have my scan on the 23 to see if these injections are doing anything... fingers crossed for you on the 27. My longest cycle was 53 days, and that is what alerted me to something being wrong... that was dec 2009...so it's been awhile and we're still tinkering with me to get it all to work ok.

the one mystery I have is the ovulation bit of the cycle...IE: What makes a follicle release the egg... This seems to be the issue with me - my follicles do not release the egg. Which then means the follicle is really a dud -- ie a cyst. So why are the hormones growing cysts instead of follicles... oh well...

womanly have they tried different levels of hcg shots with you to release the eggs? I remember the consultant who gave me clomid told me some people need quite a high dose to soften the lining of the ovaries enough to let the eggs pop. Just a thought... Although I find the whole ov thing very too! Since starting tic, I am amazed that humans reproduce at all! Xxx

I hear you garden on the amazement. They did increase my HCG shot for IUI hence they are really confident I ovulated. I feel I ovulated too but then again I feel tons of things that are untrue. I am going to speak to the doctors during the scan and press ahead on the confirmation tests and the need for progesterone... and see what response I get. This is hoping my body does OK for the first half... there are so many conditions that need to be met... :)

Hello ladies,

You find me a slightly muted Luck this evening. We had our appointment this pm and we're all set to go ahead next cycle yay! But our consultant painted a pretty bleak picture. We're doing ICSI because DH's swimmers aren't great. And my FSH level is high, so she is concerned that my egg quality will be low. She says that's partly my age (39) and partly that the FSH levels indicate that my ovaries are ageing fast. As the eggs are then a bit rubbish, it can mean they're more fragile and can shatter during the ICSI process. So, all in all, we're looking at a success rate of 10%. Then of course if the miracle happens, the incidence of Downs etc is higher.

Ho hum. Me and Mr Luck are just taking a deep breath and trying to accept the reality of our position. She did say if they freeze any embryos we'll get funded by the NHS for as many free implantations as they have embryos which is great. She also said the chance of us having any to freeze is pretty nonexistent.

Think it really came home when she said that there's a 90% chance they'll be telling us that we're not preg after the 2WW.

So, there we are! I shall obviously have to get my younger sis to have a litter and pick one...

Anyway, stranger things have happened, so we'll just go for it and cross all our fingers and toes. And if it's not meant to be, well, we've got lovely friends and families and we're very lucky really.

Hope you're all OK and sniffing etc is going well. Please remember, this is our particular situation; you guys have a much better chance of success!!

lovelove
xx

lovelyluck I am sorry your appt wasn't as promising as it could have been.

One thing that has struck me through all of this is that the drs try to give us definite stats and probabilities but actually don't know anything for certain. On one level this is deeply frustrating but on another, it means the stats are only generalisations and not predictions.

I think it is good to be realistic ... But to remember that just because your FSH is high, it doesn't mean definitively that your eggs might not respond well to icsi. And you only need one that does anyway.

Our consultant said stats are helpful to paint a broad picture but do not predict individuals outcomes ... For example, she'd had one month when all her patients fell pg which is deeply disobedient to the stats!

I am sure mini-luck will find his / her way to you.

Big hugs and crossed fingers xxxx

Hi luck

I'm sorry your appointment wasn't very optimistic. But you know (and I'm sure people have said this to you already), every time I mention to someone how DH and I are going to start IVF, they tell me a story of someone they know who had 100% no chance of having children and then, POW, they get pregnant.

You just never know unless you try, I'm thinking of you with everything crossed (even my legs!)

Good luck, and keep us posted. You'll be our success story, you'll see :)

Hi all

Teds, what a nightmare to be working so hard, can't you palm off some work on someone else or try and take it a bit easier. Remember to put yourself first!

Kool and Garden thanks for the encouragement and I did ended up having 2 bottles of beer on sat night (felt a bit naughty?!) and think it did me the world of good.

Congrats on the AF Womanly, great news that you know where you are and you are moving forwards towards victory! What the are the drugs you take with IUI is it similar to IVF in taking down regs following by stimulants? thanks for the encouragement too - i like that picture of the cartoon character, i can relate to the cartoonish clouds of steam coming out of the ears and massive red hamster cheeks! What fertility exercises are you doing? I'm a bit clueless on the whole ovulation thing too, are they upping your drugs or keeping them the same this time? If they are sure you ovulated last time then is it just a case of doing the same again?

Bella great news about starting the injections - have you got used to it yet? and wow 84 days that is a marathon, i would have been going nuts with worry i think, well done for sticking with it and having kept going.

Thanks for my tea garden, that made me . You sound like my DH in the garden - not that i am in any way good at gardening, but DH has been known to mow down some carefully planted geraniums. You made me laugh about the snorting comment. I seriously feel like I could have developed a drug habit. I sneak off to the toilet at work, snort my gear, sniff loudly to make sure i've inhaled it all, check my nose in the mirror on the way out to make sure no signs are left, swallow hard to get rid of the slightly bitter aftertaste, and surrupticiously go about my business and hope no-one's noticed. This must be what its like for those city boys on coke!

Luck sending you a massive hug and a gigantic . Remember what garden said some posts back, that perseverance is the biggest factor in success, and you obviously have that in spades. And I second what garden said, and would also say my experience is that each consultant says something completely different to the last one. Also here's something i read somewhere else on here recently, which is that until we have fully menapaused (spelling?) there is always a chance of it happening.

I read over the weekend that assisted conception statistics show it tends to be more successful in spring / summer than in winter so I reckon that adds some % for us all.

Boddecia, is now really a good time to keep your legs crossed? hee hee

Well since my beers on sat night and waking up sunday feeling a LOT brighter and normal (thanks guys) I went in for my first scan and bloods on sunday am (got AF on sat so sun was my day 2). All on schedule. Scan was fine (though she said my uterus was an odd shape and has referred for a further scan) and bloods ok, I got a phone call sun pm to say all ok to start injecting the stimulating drugs straight away. Got home and got all my bits out of the tub i was given from guys, and .....hang on, where are those pesky drugs? It was one of those awful comedy / tragedy moments of me and DH realising we've got no drugs, no idea where to get them from, can't remember a word about how to do the injections, and then DH went and shut all the needles etc in the tub by closing the lid fully which you're only meant to do at the end!!! DOH! what a pair of ivf novices . anyway, went back there today and a very sympathetic nurse (who spoke to me not too differently from a kindly primary school teacher) sorted me out. So am starting injecting in 10 minutes, and go back for another scan on sat. .

Hi to everyone else and lots of love and team hug all round.

x x x

care - I am glad you're on your way with the drugs. I truly wish I could put a sign on my forehead that said 4 yr old or something like that -- so that people will NOT expect me to know how to do all this stuff. I am on my daily injections and not a day goes by when I do not fret about whether I have done it right or not. Luck I am sending you some hot tea and a warm hot water bottle - the problem with stress and anxiety is that it feels cold. Instead for our bodies to give fruit we need to keep it warm.. Step out in the sunshine and soak in because you know what no matter what the percentages are, I am NOT CONVINCED. There is too many unknowns in this space and our doctors are in the same game as we are...IE, they too are aware that their percentages are based on what they know AND that what they do NOT know is much bigger than what they know. In some ways I feel terrible for my consultants - I am not sure I would have the ability to work in an area that is so uncertain and where anything I say can be contradicted... This is what I think about when I go to see my consultant because then that makes me empathize with his situation than feel mad at his lack of any communication skills - LOL
I am glad you're going to go ahead as rightly you should. Do it with flair, do it with penache and strut your stuff. It will happen for you.
Care I am on puregon injections (75) - one a day till my scan (Monday). Based on the scan, if I am doing well then I stop and take the hcg. If not, they give me more injections. I am going through the same procedure as last time.
My cartoon character for the day for all of you is the cartoon that is walking down a straight line and bang comes a mountain in front. The cartoon then just tilts and goes on walking over the mountain onto the other side... that is us, ladies -- moving forward with a skip in our step and a tune on our lips.

Hey all, first post in a while!

Well, DH and I had our first appointment with a specialist today so we're a few stages behind but keen to keep up on your progress and find some reassurance and 'friends' going through the same process.

Found out that our NHS Trust has pulled all IVF funing, so we're having to pay for it all ourselves (we were initially told they'd pay for the first cycle, so having to wait so long for our appointment is now doubly frustrating). Seems we have a battery of further tests to do and re-do. Then with just a 40% chance of if working in our case.

Would it be any quicker if we ditched this NHS bit and just went straight to private? I guess the costs will be just the same?

Feel so down, I just want to cry (fought tears in the doc's room) but nothing comes out.

Luck, just read your last post, feeling for being so prissy myself when we're so early on, hope you and Mr Luck are OK, keep on the positive side (Christ, I want to swing for people who say that to me and now here I am saying it to someone else!). x

Hi jumping lovely to hear from you but about the funding. Do you know which tests you have to have? I had all mine done privately last year, although the nhs guys repeated them all this yr because they wanted up to date ones, and they weren't wildly expensive. The only one that was a bit that I can recall was amh. Happy to check through my old price list if that would help?

Oh womanly you are such a star, I love your cartoon of the day!

Hope everyone else is doing well today xxx

Hey Garden, it's the AMH /progesterone one (day 23-24 of my cycle, which v unhelpfully is slap in the middle of the bank holiday weekend so will need to wait a month I think) and the other is LH & FSH on day 2-4 of my cycle.

Plus DH's sperm tests, which need to be done AGAIN, but she's said in mid-October, as he has a sporting event this summer (v frustrating - surely it won't have that much of an impact?!).

Doc also wants DH to see another specialist, so we're waiting around 8 weeks for that appointment - although that's what they said last time and it was nearly 3 months for that!

Wondering if we just bite the bullet and arrange to go private from this point - would it actually speed up some of the tests and make little difference to the overall cost?

Why am I now thinking of all these questions for the doc?! None of this occured to me when we were in the consulting room!

Hi jumping it would definitely speed things up for you... FWIW my day 3 blood work (including amh) cost £390. It also covered FSH, lh, tsh, blood glucose, triglycerides, cholesterol, prolactin, hormone binding glob (!), dhea sulphate and testosterone.

And my day 21 prog cost around £60. The thing I found most helpful about going private is that the clinic was open to take blood over weekends and bank hols so we had no hold up.

Can't remember how much the sperm test was though. Rubbish that you have to wait until mid oct for it. We were told exercise didn't make that much of difference ...

Won't the private clinic test the sperm anyway as part of their prep? Might be worth talking to them anyway to exactly what tests they will do and if they are included in the costs or at least discounted if you are going ahead with the full treatment.

Xxx

Ladies, thank you all for being fabulously supportive. You are all stars and I'm so glad I joined this thread, it's been a real comfort.

I have been silently ragey today, not helped by two pregnancy announcements here at work, but then I kept remembering your comments and you're right, people DO beat the odds, and it's NOT an exact science. I shall have a chat to my acupuncturist tomorrow and just attempt to chill out a bit. care I love that we stand a better chance in spring/summer - yay, bring it on! and I love your injecting tales. How was your first one?

jumping I'm sorry your PCT has pulled the funding . I agree iwth garden, have a chat to your private clinic and see what they offer.

womanly I've drunk your tea all day and am toasty warm now! We lit a fire last night and had pizza (yay!) and choc (double yay!) and watched crap TV and it all helped enormously.

Enjoy your Tuesday evenings xx

jumping :( about the funding issue. I agree with the girls - have a chat with the private clinic. The waiting is stressful.

Oh ladies, I feel so much better already (although I think the large G&T I've just poured myself is helping!)

DH and I have resolved to look into private clinics and find the best one for us - have also heard that Guys is good so will look at their stats and processes among others.

I think the exercise thing is a bit of an odd one too - we've heard conflicting thoughts and theories so don't want to put too much store in it. Having said that, if anyone can support the theory that it's going to hinder things then we'll follow advice to maximise our chances.

Thanks for sharing your experiences - v helpful. x

Jumping I totally agree with what the other girls said, really sorry you're having such a tough time. When you say the PCT initially said they would fund it did they put that in writing to you at all? Here's some complaint letters that I found (and used) if you've got the energy. www.infertilitynetworkuk.com/?id=6264
Was your appt with your local consultant rather than at a fertility clinic? If so I would definately advise booking an initial consultation with a clinic, I've found it an absolute world away from my local gynae dept. Best of luck and sending you lots of hugs. x x x

Hi All, gardenpixie spotted me on another thread and suggested I join. About to start my first IVF and waiting on AF.

jumpingjackhash I opted for private tests after being messed about by my GP and IVF clinic for 9mths until initial appointment. Going private made me feel more in control of things and of course it happend to my time frame. If you can offord it - go private. So many places are cutting IVF on NHS

Anyone on Menopur injections? I have to take a does of 225iu each day. Seems a lot compared to Care.

Sending you all lots of happy energy for an exciting few weeks

Welcome Bondi glad you've joined us!

Luck how are you feeling today? I really feel for you re the 2 pg announcements. I live in fear of everyone I work with falling pg before I do. In my darkest moments, this includes the men too

Jumping have you managed to investigate the private clinics? FWIW, I'm seeing Guys and my private consultant was very pleased when I got my referral to them (I had a choice between Guys and St Georges and she said definitely go for Guys as they are one of the best for NHS IVF treatment). Have you checked out the website? I think their costs are pretty reasonable compared to other private clinics but I don't know about their success rates vs the privates.

How is everyone else today?

I had a bit of a moment yesterday ... I was concerned that I start sniffing on Monday but still don't have my drugs. So I called up Guys who gave me the number of the drugs company but, when I called them, they said they hadn't received the prescription for my snorty meds.

So I spent quite a lot of time chasing it up (Guys claimed they sent it) and begging the drugs company to do an evening delivery tomorrow so I don't have to have the delivery made to work. I'm just freelancing and I suspect that, if the agency where I'm working knew what I was up to, they'd get rid of me immediately (it's an ad agency so not particularly committed to being nice to its staff)!

Anyway, the good news is that it all got sorted (Guys were excellent at resending the prescription and ^strongly suggesting^ to the drugs company that they made an evening delivery for me given their mess up) so it's all going to be dropped off tomorrow night. Phew. I feel a bit like a high maintenance pain in the arse to have chased it all but if I hadn't, I might have had to have waited until next cycle to have started.

Oooooh, just thinking of it has made me go all cold so I'd best go and sort myself out with a nice

Hope you all have a lovely day xxxx

Morning all

How are we all doing?

Welcome Bondi! I'm currently injecting 0.5 ml suprecur daily for about 5 weeks. Seems such a long time when i'm only 5 days in! How are you getting on with your menopur injections? Do they do the same thing as suprecur?

Luck, wishing you lots of love. Remember your name and keep going! We're having ICSI. Our consultant doesn't exactly paint an optimistic picture for us, well she doesn't really go into the chances of it working at all, its all statistics. I'm 35 now and she told me the success rates drop down as soon as you hit 35. Thanks for that! We're NHS funded (IVF Wales) so have waited 18 months to start treatment and I now wish we'd gone private when I was young! Not that i'm not grateful for the NHS treatment though, they've been amazing so far.

Jumping, how's your private clinic research going?

Garden, how are you finding sniffing your (finally received) drugs? Why are some people sniffing and others injecting? I think i'd prefer to sniff! I think at my scan they will tell me whether I can start the stimulation drugs, 2 injections a day does not fill me with joy but its another step on our way.

Care, hope its going ok with your injections. I've injected myself twice so far, and bled both times. Not sure what DH is doing differently to me, he's never made me bleed. I'm starting to feel pressure in my stomach but i'm not sure if thats because i'm due to have a period 7-10 days after starting the injections.

Womanly, love the cartoon characters!

Hello Teds, Becca, Bodeccia, Kool and Hippy. I hope I haven't missed anyone out, sorry if I have. Care I think you might be right about having a roll call to keep track of us all.

love to all xxx

Hi ladies, what a lovely, active thread this is, well done gardenpixie .

I'm sure someone mentioned the possibility of us starting some stats on here? Might be a good idea as there are quite a few of us now

luck how are you feeling now? I'm so sorry you came away from your appointment feeling low. Remember, we only like statistics that make us feel good and the ones we don't like can't possibly be true. And either way, you are doing something really positive by going through this process - we all find ourselves on here as we need some assistance in one way or another and We could be sitting on our backsides just hoping it'll happen but we're not we're taking control of the situation (cue Oprah style woops!) As for 2 pregnancy announcements at work? That's just rude!

I don't know if anyone else does this but I have a little mental list of people who would be 'allowed' to get pregnant without me feeling resentful! Am I weird or maybe just a bad person?!! . Oooh, needless to say everyone here is on the list!

womanly, so glad your AF arrived (again, something I didn't ever think I'd say!), how are the injections going? Im also loving the cartoons.

Bella, great news that your injections are going well, sorry that they sound a bit hurty though. All of these drugs sound like another language to me at them moment, I'm still waiting for AF before bloods then should hopefully start 3 weeks after (garden I guess I'm about a month behind you?). I'm not far off 35 either but I really wouldn't worry about the time it has taken to get started, I'm sure that things start slowing down gradually rather than the instant you hit 35 (I say hopefully!)

garden sorry to hear about your drugs stresses, that's the last thing you needed. Glad it got sorted though and thank goodness they're not being delivered to work!9 Are you looking forward to your appointment on Friday?

care how's it going? I hope more smoothly than it was with the missing drugs/lid etc saga! How are the injections going? I didn't realise Guy's was open at the weekend? Is that the same for bloods too or is that just mon to fri? I've only been in the week but I guess I've not had any time sensitive stuff going on yet.

teds where are you?! I hope you're not still working silly hours? Did you get your appointment yet? Will you be at the guy's patient evening in June? Will anyone else be, for that matter? I'll be looking around trying to work out who you all are, we need a secret code!!

jumping sorry things have been so stressful re funding. We sound like we're at similar stages (have just had initial consultation so far). I'd recommend guy's so far from our experience. Waiting is incredibly frustrating and stressful and that coupled with funding worries is no fun at all. Have you got any further?

Welcome bondi!

Phew! Must be time for a !

Hi all, hope you're all ok tonight.

Garden you made me laugh with your comment about even the men, plus well done for getting on the case with guys, glad they sorted it out for you. I think that's more pro-active than high maintance!

Injecting is going fine, it stings a bit and have felt a bit dizzy / super tired afterwards but otherwise fine so far. Using it as a nice excuse for sitting on the sofa under a duvet afterwards with DH bringing me . . Going in for next scan on sat. Yes apparantly they're open all the time. When I rang this last sat the girl I spoke to first tried to put me off to ring back on monday but I persisted a bit and she let me go in on sun and it was all open as usual though a bit quieter. The phone call I got was missing a bit of info which they gave me on the monday just to be aware, think the weekend people might not be quite so excellent as the week staff but still pretty great.

Btw I rang the accupuncturist from the leaflet at Guy's and he said he does a session on the day of embryo transfer both before and afterwards, on average has a 10% increase result rate of success, for £300. What do you think, invaluable or bit of a rip off?

I haven't done a list before, but from copying one of the other threads;

Carebear, 33, ttc 3.5 yrs, no previous bfp, possible PCOS / short luteal phase but docs not sure, on day 5 of 1st IVF cycle at Guys, injecting fostemon and sniffing suprecur.

Please add yourself and details to the top of the list and post at the bottom of the threads so we can keep track with each other. x x x

Hi All

Thanks to all who have asked after me

I'm going to do a me, me me update and then I'm going to catch-up - hope that's okay!

Work is manic but if I make it to the weekend it should be better next week. I did nearly kill my boss when she forgot I'd booked time off to go to the hospital.. grrr.

Anyway, made it to Guys Gynecology (McNair Centre) and the doctor was lovely and said that she would try to get everything moving for treatment as quickly as possible. I had a scan and there are no cysts, fibroids etc and she said that my womb lining looked nice and thick (I'm CD16). However, I only have 3 follicles on each ovary which pretty much tallies with my FSH being a little high at 9.5. However, I had a AMH test done so that will give a fairer idea of what my ovaries/eggs are like but at 33 my eggs should be okay even if it takes a high protocol to get them out of me!

The other slight downside is that because DH's SA is really quite bad he had a 'carrier' test done. The results won't be back for six weeks so it looks like we won't start until July - I was hoping for June but never mind. SA also means it's definitely ICSI we need.

We haven't got the funding confirmed yet but the doctor's going to chase and there's no reason why we won't get it - will just be the one go though. kool also means I'm likely to be at the June's patients' evening... I'll be the one with a red carnation