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

big hug garden - no need to be sorry at all - Am sorry the itchiness has returned.. are you still on anti-histamines?
thanks kool

Hello all-sorry havn't posted for a while-have seemed to have been hijacked by all family members who appear very worried about me-apart from DH who knows me too well!!-We've concluded (and I feel abit better) knowing if this first cycle fails, we will try again-we will not be defeated I want to shout from the rooftops!!

Womanly your post made me smile. I have a similar positivity list in my head, and it does seem to make me feel better. Interesting how you said you feel better too knowing you need the progesterone support-I found out from our first IUI that I had LPD and was given the same and it worked for us-however short it turned out. It's just another positive thing we can all think about medical science.

I suppose I should really go to bed-up at 0630 for EC. These drugs have wrecked my sleeping pattern. I used to be the most calm chilled out lier-inner but recently have been getting up to do housework at 0400!! Very very odd-no wonder people are worried for me. Am going to collect my things to take with us-do you think wrong to take choco muffin and cosmo to read whilst willing DH to rtn afterwards?! Oh goodness, just hoping for enough eggs and some fertilisation activity at this stage. Am taking a toy bouncy egg for good luck charm-mad?!

Also welcome to Plum and bugsy May your journeys be as simple as possible-this is a very comforting place to be.

Love to all. I hope you are all fast asleep xxxxx

Wow Womanly what a lovely inspirational post, thanks for sharing with us . Am feeling pretty positive at the moment (probably because I'm not any drugs for first time in an age!) but your words have really encouraged me to keep with the PMA and that even though the road may be rocky we will get there in the end - we ALL will !!

Bella and Pumpkin - big days for you both, fingers crossed for happy embies and lots of eggs, hope all goes well xx. Pumpkin, take everything you think will help you in any way. Do you think they'd mind me taking my super kingsize goose duvet when I get to that stage?!?!

I'm off to purchase some baby aspirin today following Gardens advice, 14 months of mechanical sexy time has zapped me a bit so could do with the other benefits the aspirin appears to offer . Hope the rash is easing off too, did you mention it to your clinic in the end?

Bondi - hope you're keeping strong on your 2WW and not mentalling too much. Sorry if I've missed it, when are you due to test?

Good luck for the blood test today Care, hope that it can give you some answers and that you can enjoy the rest of your day off ((())). Try and spoil yourself like Kool suggested.

Kool I'm sorry you had to go through that with your scan, heartbreaking . I had early scan on Christmas Eve, should have been 6+3 but only saw empty sac, sonographer and fertility nurse advised us that we could be a day or so out which at that stage can make a lot of difference. Had to then wait until 4th Jan for another scan and then they confirmed MMC - was a crap christmas.

Gutted to be back at work today after a lovely weekend but do have a 3.5 day week - hoorah! Amazing DH drove me to Shepton Mallet yesterday to the Mulberry Factory Shop, I was like a kid in a sweet shop

Hi to everyone else

Will check in later but all the best to pumpkin

((((())))) to care and womanly

Aw heck, let's just all have a group hug (((((((((((((()))))))))))))))

group hug back :)

Hi all, just a quickie to say I'm back from hol (which was lovely) and to send big love to womanly and care. You are both amazing and if I can be half as strong as you during this process then I'll be doing all right.

xxx

Joining in the group hug ((((((((((())))))))))))) Thank you very much for your kind thoughts. lots of love
xxxx

Hello ladies

Hope your Mondays are going OK

womanly yes I am still on the superstrength antihistamines but stupidly forgot to take a dose yesterday hence the rash coming back my mind is truly like a sieve at the moment. I keep leaving post-it notes everywhere to remind me that I have my appt tomorrow morning and have to take my injecty kit with me

Pumpkin I hope everything went well for you today and that you get good news tomorrow, how are you feeling? I chuckled about the 4am housework; i am having trouble sleeping too although tend to go and watch trashy telly rather than do anything constructive! I was out with the hound at 5.50am the other morning but he was too sleepy to do much other than trudge bleary eyed next to me looking at me like I was bonkers!

skitoo yes I did mention the horrid side effects on Friday when I had my appt. The Dr I spoke to was very sympathetic and said she would get one of the nurses to talk to me - however, the nurse was not at all understanding and just said "you have to expect some side-effects." Which I know, but I would have thought a few tips on how to stop myself forgetting my own name and / or scratching like I have fleas would have helped ...! Now, tell me more about the Mulberry shop

kool woo hoo! Group hug! I'm in! (((((((((( ))))))))))

Luck great to have you back, tell us about your hols once you've had a chance to catch up with everything. Hope you had fun!

Care I have been thinking about you lots today and I hope you are alright. Did you manage to treat yourself to anything today?

Hello to everyone else!

I have my appt tomorrow to see if I am ready start stims ... so will report back after that.

Love to everyone

xxxx

Hi, I had the blood test which confirmed it was negative. Had lazy afternoon at home watching weird portugeuse film eating cadbury's nibbles (so good!) and space invaders. Feel utterly pants to be honest, but the good thing is that its no worse than any other time - was a bit worried about it being a lot worse for some reason. Just feel so utterly tired tired tired of it all. Sorry to be whingey, I'm sure I'll bounce back in a week or so. We've booked a follow up appointment on weds so will see what they think about next stage then.

Waves and good luck to you all. x x x

care I am so sorry and pls don't apologise, you are not being whingey at all. I think you are being amazing xxx

care you are not being whingey, you are grieving. So give yourself time and space and know that we are all sending much love. And Cadbury's Nibbles.

xxx

A late comer for the group hug (((((((((((((())))))))))))))

Care thats what this thread is for xx

best of luck garden for your appt today. care big hug. hear you on the tired bit...
yesterday I went for my walk and decided to get myself the Tesco - Chocolate Fudge thingie - 600 kcal plus - and was so disappointed because they changed the recipe...felt left down. What if our pick me ups no longer pick us up!!! Part of me was thankful that atleast I will no longer have this kamikaze urgings to throw my health out the window. thank you Tesco!
so my plan - I am going to spend this cycle & the next looking to lose weight at a sane, healthy rate. Back to running, eating five smaller meals a day and eight glasses of warm water -- Am nowadays hooked on Pukka teas - have you ladies tried any? I love the licorice & cinnamon one. I also want to re-focus on my work front - I know I have slackened during my treatment cycles..so want to pick up tasks that make me feel energized and good about the work I do.

Wave to kool, bella, pumpkin and everybody else - have a lovely week ahead.

womanly that all sounds like a really good, positive plan

care more big hugs for you today. You're a girl after my own heart with the caramel nibbles...I found myself munching on them not long after breakfast the other day . Had to steer myself away from buying more yesterday! I second everyone else in saying not to apologise for coming on here if you're feeling down....this probably sounds horribly cliched but we're here for the journey, not just the destination. And I have faith that we'll all get to that destination and in the meantime let's take the journey together, ups, downs and all xx

Speaking of girls after my own heart....skitoo I too am most excited at the prospect of a mulberry outlet . Sorry about your mc story too , let's help keep each other positive when we get our bfps

garden good luck today, I hope you've down-regged like a good un and are ready to start stims .

pumpkin how did your eggies get on? Xx

luck I'm glad you had a good holiday

bella30 how did you get on yesterday? Sending sticky hugs

Hi to plumtrees, ellan, bugsylugs, Bodeccia, teds, Bondi, happygomummy and (and anyone I've not name checked, sorry!)

Sniffage started for me today. It seems surreal that squirting something up your nose can do something so dramatic!

Hi ladies

Just a quickie from me as am at a client's office today so can't really post for too long.

I have properly down regged so can now cut down the sniffing by half and take up injecting myself, hurrah!

The injection didn't hurt one bit although I had to scurry into my client's office and hide my injecty things in the fridge to keep it chilled. I hope nobody gets a shock when they go for their packed lunches ...

Also I think we may do half and half (depending on how many eggs we get) with half normal IVF and half ICSI because my DH uses herbicides and pesticides a lot which puts his swimmers at risk of DNA fragmentation but Guys don't test for it so suggested a 50 / 50 split. Not sure why we wouldn't go for all ICSI but they are the experts so I trust their judgement

Womanly you are such a wonderfully positive person, I read your post and thought your LOs are going to be so lucky to have such a strong and positive mum. FWIW I had hypnotherapy to help me lose weight - am 2lbs off having lost 2 stone since January! A combination of regular short bursts of high intensity exercise, regular low GI meals and staying away from the demons of chocolate and booze seemed to do it. Actually I do still have the occasional bit of chocolate but I feel like I'm in control of it if you see what I mean ...

Kool I know it's crazy that having a sniff and a snuffle can do so much but it does! Hope it's going OK for you.

Care I am sending over another big hug for you lovely xxxx

Pumpkin how are you doing? Hope your eggs are now little embryos busily dividing. Actually, pumpkin plants spread like crazy don't they so you've chosen a very auspicious name!

bondi I hope you are well and managing to take it easy

Big waves to everyone else, sorry not to be able to say hi to everyone individually but need to go and drink tea with my friend do some work

xxxxx GP

Glad to her you're on your way garden - tell me more about the hypnotherapy pls..I feel I am a slave to my eating needs... :) Fantastic on the 2 stone drop.. I lost 8 kgs and then put back 5 ...so am currently really depressed that I have put on so much...

kool Hurrah on starting the drugs -- best of luck and hope it goes OK for you.

womanly the hypnotherapy was brilliant - I am trained as a hypnotherapist so I had lots of faith in it and was lucky that someone with whom I trained lives near me so we swapped weight loss hypno for quit smoking hypno!

The idea is that you let your subconscious go back to seeing food as fuel - I don't know about you, but my eating habits were all skewed by me associating food with comfort, boredom relief etc etc. This helps to make sure you only eat when you're hungry and you stop eating when you're full.

You then identify the foods you want to eat more of, less of and cut out completely (apologies for poor grammar!) and use various suggestions and metaphors to help your subconscious mind give you tons of motivation to do this. I also asked my friend to put in lots of suggestions about embracing regular exercise.

You obviously still need will power but it diffused the whole thing for me and made me feel I was gaining by doing it rather than losing out. I've noticed my sense of taste has been really enhanced and I feel I have stable energy rather than being starving, which normally happens when I try to eat less.

I also feel confident I can be around other people who are indulging in yummy but naughty food without wanting to join in. VERY important given DH has the appetite of a chocolate obsessed ox.

The main thing I've noticed is that I actually feel quite happy following my eating plan rather than kicking against it and thinking "oh but I deserve xyz" which used to be my downfall.

Sorry, what a long post! Let me know if you want to know any more

Great news re stims garden and lol at having to hide your drugs in the fridge there! Are you on the gonal F which looks like a pen? That doesn't look too scary I thought, whereas the other single injection (which I think is for the night before EC?) looked like a real injection...I read something about using a dart like motion and stopped reading! . Are you injecting into your tummy or thigh? Interesting re the IVF and ICSI combination, sounds like a good idea. I wonder if we might do something similar as we're using DH's pre chemo frozen, of which we only have 8 precious ampules (which can't be further split) so it kind of puts a bit more pressure on it working. Well done on the weight loss, that's ace. I realised I should be more supportive and not talk as much about my chocolate consumption! Really interesting about the hypnotherapy - will you be using it for the ivf process too?

I caved today and bought the Zita West vitamins (and book ...and CD !)

I also had what I'm taking as a good omen - I was looking for an acupuncturist in my area and have found one who lives on the same road as me!

womanly I meant to say, I'm a pukka tea fan too....I love the mint one

Thanks garden - I certainly want to learn how I go through this session - - I carry my anxiety in my mouth so when any little flutter and I put something in my mouth.. sadly it is not anything healthy which I have PERFECTLY no problem saying NO to. Do you know of someone who I can go to here in London for this? And how expensive this might be?
kool I have a Puragon pen - - and it's really not so bad.. or I am just weird in that I enjoy the whole morning injection ritual...

Update from me - my clinic called and they said - let's try it again - same dose / same everything (plus perhaps more progesterone - they will confirm closer to date)... so I want to really feel good about this..though am a bit wobbly. I will need to wait this cycle out (to give my ovaries a rest - - I liked the sound of this..) and then get started with my next cycle -- so roughly in mid-July...

Looking forward to growing follicles and bfps - :)

ok - so I did a google search for places near Ealing - and there's one right here - www.hypnotherapylondon.me.uk/ - what do you think - is £85 too much / ok.. ?

Evening all.

womanly I think I'd feel a bit wobbly but you do have time to think things through as your ovaries rest. If the clinic feel it's worth doing that's great news. Were they any good as answering questions or will there be another appointment to discuss stuff before you start again?

Also I'm feeling your comments about losing weight sensibly and trying to refocus on work. Over the last year, comfort eating and keeping control or focus at work has been hard. I doing well at work and things get done but I'm not pushing myself as much as I should because sometimes ttc/IVF (and all the accompanying angst) seems a bit full-time!

GP respect on the two stone weight loss! Maybe I need to look into this hynotherapy too Also great news that you are all down regged and getting on with the stims! Do you have any rough idea when EC might be/or do you have scans booked in to see how you're doing? Interesting on the IVF/ICSI split. I guess they are covering all bases or doubling your chances depending on which spin you put on it I think that the fertilisation rate is a little bit higher with ICSI but the live birth rate slightly lower so it evens itself out. On the plus side it should mean that you won't be left without any fertilised eggs and the other plus is that 'nature' will also be able to have a go with the other lot. (Lol at the 'naturalness' of IVF...)

Kool yay for the snifferama! If you do read the rest of the stuff about injecting like a darts motion you don't need to post it here - I figure I'll get to that point and be too far down the line/too full of drugs to be worried

Bella pumpkin any ET news? Really hoping all is well xx

Bondi hope the 2ww going okay and you are calm, serene and not thinking about what might be... or alternatively hope the mentalling is under control

skitoo sorry to hear that you are going to be a bit delayed in starting your cycle. We lost a month due to DH needing some more tests done and although it was a bit frustrating it's actually not been too bad. It's now less than three weeks until our appointment and, fingers crossed, I'll start down-regging around mid-July... though I may go spare if we have to wait until the August cycle!

Welcome to blacktreacle and also to plumtree and to bugsy. Plum any update on the possible OHSS - have things got any better. And bugsy your aging eggs and confused sperm are in good company here

Quick'Hi' to luck hope you had a wonderful holiday. I'm afraid I've lost track of where you are with cycles - let us know that the latest is.

Also waves for Bodeccia Jumpin and also BellaB who hasn't been around recently?? Hope all is well.

Finally some for care - these are symbolic representations of Cadbury nibbles rather than jammy dodgers which, frankly, would be poor comfort to any lady xxx Also please whinge away if it helps, it's not possible to be positive and hopeful all the time. I'm sure that the strength and determination will come back but in the meantime do whatever feels best for you.

womanly i pay 75 and i am blackheath. the session is about 45mins. Also have you tried Tea Pigs. Lush! I enjoyed injecting too (sicko) something about doing something constructive myself during the IVF process

garden your hypno sounds really interesting. The fact you feel positive about the whole plan must mean it works all the more.

kool congrats on starting your sniff-a-thon. I also use the Zita West vits. I had been told they were very good (by someone who used to work for Zita so, yes, bias!!)

Hi to you other ladies and thanks for well wishes. I did a bit of mentaling today after being so good since ET. i took my basal body temp this morning and it was 36.4. This is my usual temp which given your temp is supposed to rise following pregancy meant I took this as a super negative indication that my bean is no longer multiplying. I emailed my consultant who said i should forget about it as this is not a usual cycle. Of course thats easier said than done and i have had to face the prospect that this might not work (I think I was denying this up until now). I had some cramping yesterday which DH said was a good thing as it might mean the bean is implanting but i should be beyond that point now guess this is the part that they say is tough. think i am going to test sunday (they said test two weeks after ET but I have seen sites that say 16 days after EC is fine). agghhh this is tense

Right ladies. I've actually got some news!

I've got a date for my "here's how you inject yourself" appointment! 6th July, woot woot!

Slight downer: from what I understand you're on injections for 3 weeks (more or less). I should be ready for EC on 1st August (how do they know this already??), but my doctor is going away on holiday (!!!) so I have to be on the injections for an extra week. So my EC is now on 8th August.

That seems ages away.

A quick message from me - ET went well yesterday. We had one embryo transferred and all was straightforward, and we've got three to freeze. So we're really delighted.

Unfortunately the ET day coincided finding out that my Mum, who has been ill with cancer for a year now, isn't going to make it, so I am now embroiled with all that entails. It feels incredibly hard when everyone tells you to avoid stress at this time, and to be put into an incredibly upsetting situation. We're just hoping that somehow through it all our little embryo stays put.

I probably won't be on for a while, but will try and let you all know what the final result is. Thanks for all the support over the last few days. Hope everyone's journeys continue onwards and upwards.