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

Quick hello from me. Am due to go for a scan to check out condition of ovaries in 3rd round of IUI. Am reading a book by Claudia Welsch on Hormones - - very good initial chapters.

I am sorry but I am trying to adopt a Mumsnet Lite approach because I find myself getting very involved and upset easily given that I have made so many wonderful friends in you... So please know that while I will not be here frequently, I am praying for the very best for each of you.

Onwards and upwards and best of luck.

Caramel am so very sorry-there is little anyone can say that will make you 'feel better' but just knowing people who care are around is good to embrace at this time. As the others have said-take time for yourself and DH over the next few weeks. Lots of love to you and big big (((((( ))))))))) x

gardenpixie - ha ha, yes I saw my consultant driving out of the hospital carpark in a pretty bling car. I'm sure the cost of 4 ampoules of menopur per day would dent his income too much!
Feeling good after ET, just trying to stay patient over the next week...

womanlytales - good luck with your scan. What drugs do you take for IUI?

caramel I am so so sorry to hear your news. You must be terribly disappointed, although I know you said you had a feeling about it. It's good you have a consultant appointment sorted, as you say at least you can feel you are doing something towards your goal. I hope you can relax a little over August. I have my chat with the consultant on Friday (will write a whole lot of questions down I think - thank you for your advice) but I think I will also take August off, and think again about IVF again in September.

Thanks to everyone for your advice and hugs, garden thank you so much, what you said really does make sense and help, it gives me hope for next time

owl hope you are feeling well and taking it easy, and you got good news from the embryologist on the other candidates! Hopefully having your lovely little DD takes your mind off it all for at least a tiny part of the day!!! :)

Hello to luck and teds wrinkly ovaries, I am going to be talking to my consultant about giving mine a real kick up the bum next time

skitoo thank you for spreading the positive vibe, great news you are starting your jabs, every step forward (no matter what stage we are all at) feels good I think

Big hello and hugs to everyone else xxx

Oh Caramel sorry to hear your news, really gutted for you. As our other ladies have said, be kind to yourself and take some time out for you and DH. As Kool said, you're amazing to be thinking about your next plan and I know you'll get that BFP!! Lots of (((((HUGS)))) and for you xx

Owl, congrats on having your first class owlet on board, hope he's getting snuggly.

Teds, glad AF is almost over, I really have no idea when I should be getting mine . When's your down reg scan/bloods?

I had both Pregnyl and Ovitrelle (just different brands I think) whilst on my clomid cycles and really isn't too bad. It sounds like we've all got different needles, pens etc but based on mine, the hcg needle is slightly bigger than my Buserilin ones and I had it in my thigh as opposed to my tummy. Actually scrap that, just looked in the fridge at the one I have now and its a pre-filled needle thats no bigger at all. So don't fear and just think it's so close to the end when that jab goes in .

Garden, glad to see you and that you had such a successful appointment with your rather frank consultant. Fab that you're feeling so positive and ready to go again. They know so much more this time and with Dr Frank's beady eye I'm sure they'll get you all sorted without any of the stresses of the last cycle. I will be doing the most extreme waggle dances to see you through it!!

I'm going to take your advice Kool and lay off the body combats now, am going to miss it though as it is a real stress reliever . I regularly picture people at works heads as I am punching and kicking .

So if we need a new home soon, who's going to start it? GP, are you going to keep a roof over our heads? I know I'm going to need one.

Waves to all xx

Morning all

caramel, I'm so sorry you didn't get your BFP this time As everyone has said, give yourself time and space to grieve. Have all the or in the world (WHY isn't there a symbol for cake?!) and know that we are all sending many many hugs ((((())))). How is your DH about it?

Thanks ladies for your reassurance about the Pregnyl jab. I was getting low on needles so I got some more from the hosp and they are blunter than the ones from the drug company ow ow ow! Scan tomorrow to see how my follies are doing...it might be mad but I think I can feel them doing something - just the slightest of slight aches. Might just be wind! TMI

garden lovely to have you back and thank you thank you a million times for starting this thread; it's amazing to have such a fab group of ladies to chat to about it all.

xxx

PS owl hope your owlet (love it!) is snuggling in and you're visualising duvets and cosiness!

Hello all,
caramel I am so sorry to hear it didn't work this time. Hugs
Can I ask, what exactly is a waggle dance, can we have a description please?
My drugs have arrived today- am laughing a lot at the packaging for ovitrelle injection- HUGE box with 7 cool packs and enough polystyrene to keep me afloat for one tiny box

Hi all, am away camping with very limited signal, but caramel massive hugs, same happened to me. I ordered zita west book and cd last week and already feeling loads more positive, would recommend to anyone. Hugs to Danny too and my special fertilityfairygodmother GP. X

Kool any news hon?

Waves everyone else sorry not to post more back next week. X

Caramel Danny I am so sorry that things did not work out this cycle huge hugs. hope you have been able to have a little time out to yourselves. from me. Really gutted for you.
Kool hope you are managing to stay calm until your test
Owl best of luck with keeping owlet warm and snuggly hope you are getting some downtime to yourselves the time will fly by.

DH unwell again poor man he is feeling very sorry for himself but am not surprised he is feeling rotten!! high temp 40.5 need to phone clinic again as they do not like temps over 39!! so can see another delay coming if we have to wait more than a month hey ho.

question? we had our appointment before info evening. is it worth going to now? have had quite a bit of paper work but not much info otherwise but am not sure how much they tell at the event as is info event re clinic etc.

Hope everyone else is doing well

Hi everyone,
CareHope you're enjoying your hols-at least weather is looking bit brighter?
Ellan Ha ha about the drugs-mine arrived first cycle in huuuuge polystyrene box which took up whole bottom shelf in my fridge-we had builders in at the time and they kept joking that my ex-husbands head was inside!!
Bugsy-Your poor DH-hope he gets well soon and you don't have to suffer too much of a delay? Lots of paracetomol and nurofen and cuddles for him (but not too close!)
Luck-owwwwch for the blunter needle tips-sounds frightful-you may have to give some tips as I will be on 4 a day when my stims start with the half downreg dose too.
Skitoo LOL re combat although does sound very stress relieving-could do with a bit of that! I second the new home thing.
Garden Hi-am feeling okay now about the next cycly-just want to get on with it!!-AF started today so yipee just a short time now-do you think a holiday somewhere warm and sunny could be okay while down regging?Wd it be okay to fly? When do you begin again-would be interested to hear more about the short protocol as I asked about that. (I'd heard it could be better for egg quality and hence good for me with my hard boiled ones which didn't fertilise?)
Love to everyone else-catch up properly-as at work now! xxx

((((((caramel)))))) I'm sorry to hear your news :( Hearing your plans for your next round = you being inspirational. I hope you get some time for yourself and DH in the days to come.

Lovely to hear from you care and womanly, hope you're both doing well.

Good luck with the stims, I had a check up yesterday and I start my stims on Saturday. The nurse said that you might "feel" your ovaries, it sounds like that's what you're experiencing.

bugsy: I've never been to an info evening (they don't have that kind of thing round these parts), but I would say go to everything you can. It is a long old road, and anything that helps you feel like you're making progress is a good thing.

Off to inject! Waves to everyone :)

Good morning ladies,

Womanly I totally understand the need to take an MNLite approach. Do stop by and keep us posted on how things are going and I know we'll all be sending hugs and positive vibes your way xxx

Owl I do hope owlet is snuggling in nicely to his / her nest. How are you feeling? I hope you are OK and not going to bonkers in the 2ww which I know I will do

Kool I hope your kitten is doing well and getting settled in too xxx

Danny how are you doing today lovely? Sending a big and hugs

Skitoo I would be most delighted to start a new thread once we get to the end of this one but also happy for someone else to build us a new house! Don't know if it's greedy to start two threads in a row...?

Luck blunter needles! ow ow ow! I hope you are OK! I definitely felt my ovaries doing things when I was on the stims so I hope that what you are feeling is your ovaries producing just the right amount of juicy follicles. Do keep us posted on the scan!

Ellan oh I know what you mean about the size of the drugs box. I can't believe the drugs company wanted to deliver it to my work !

I have found a little demonstration of a bee waggle dancing

So we have to aim for that level of arse shaking ladies!

Care lovely to hear from you and great that you are enjoying your camping. Would love to know more about the Zita West thing as am thinking I'm going to need extra help keeping calm once my drugs start so it's good to know you are finding it useful.

Bugsy your poor DH! That's almost hot enough to fry an egg! Hope he is feeling better - here's a for him. I have to say that I didn't find the info evening I went to particularly useful as we already knew we wanted to do IVF and I'd researched it lots so didn't find that they told me anything new. DH however found the whole thing a revelation as I'm not sure he'd done quite as much background reading!

Pumpkin I think you can fly on down regs, it's just towards the end of the stims that it gets tricky. The short protocol misses out the down regs and just adds extra stims to your natural FSH production. As I understand it from talking to my consultant, you inject FSH from CD2 until EC and you take an ovulation suppressant from CD6 just to make sure that the follies don't ov by themselves. I will definitely keep you posted! I am on the short protocol because I had such a hidous time on the down regs and down regging can make sensitive ovaries more excitable when the stims start hence my 50+ follicles!

Bodeccia I loved your sign off - I never thought I'd be in a position where "just off to inject" was a suitable way of ending a message ! Hope it went well and that your ovaries are behaving!

Not much news from me ... still waiting for AF to start. DHusband and DHound and I are off to my FILs for a couple of days so I'll try to post if I can but he lives in the middle of nowhere so it might be tricky to get a signal. I will be back on Saturday so can definitely post then and even if I'm not popping onto the thread, I will be waggle dancing furiously in the wilds of Norfolk (and hoping not to startle the locals)

xxxx

Hola everyone!

Well, after much rummaging, they did manage to find my ovaries at my scan - and it did take two of them, apparently they're not where you'd expect them to be! Who knew...anyway, 13-ish follicles ripening up steadily, they're all between 8 - 12mm, and if they carry on like that, EC should be next Thurs/Fri. I'm back in for another rummage scan on Mon.

I feel a bit battered now and can defo feel one ovary in particular. Also - and don't read on if this is TMI - am getting a bit, ahem, constipated, so they've suggested a mild laxative. It's a glamorous life! I'm drinking pints of water, but that's not quite enough, so it's ho! for the lactulose.

Anyway, it's all good, so am happy, if a bit knackered. oooh the best bit is that they found some finer needles for me YAY

Bodeccia exciting that you're starting stims on Sat!

owl and kool how are you doing? bugsy I hope your DH is feeling a bit better?

garden, have a lovely time in Norfolk. Have you heard that GPs write 'NFN' on some people's files which stands for 'normal for Norfolk' ie a bit odd? My mum lives in Norfolk so we tease her about it a fair bit oops I've probably just offended some of you - sorry!

xx

Hi lovelies,

Just peeping in, feeling all nervous today as it's testing day tomorrow.....eek

Am really nervous about it but glad that there's only one more sleep to go. Have agreed with DH that if I wake up at 4 am tomorrow morning I'll be testing then and waking him up

Hi ladies

Hope you're all well. Good luck to kool for tomorrow. I have my fingers and toes crossed for you.

luckbealady - I have been constipated throughout this process. It got much worse when I started taking the progesterone after EC. Definitely try and sort it out now!

gp - have a lovely holiday. Looks like the weather will be good for you

I'm well here. I'm already struggling with the 2ww big time. No idea how I'll wait til thursday. It's taking all my strength not to walk into the chemist and buy some tests right now. Argh, why was I born so impatient!

Good news is that 2 of our blasts were good enough for freezing so if I get a bfn at least I know they're waiting for us.

Good luck to all

I have been thinking of you Kool - I thought you were testing today, but obviously it's tomorrow. Hope you can sleep tonight and good luck for tomorrow. x

luck - I love the NFN. Have heard of that before and really makes me chuckle. :)

Good to have you back GP

I am feeling v relaxed and rather drunk as am off tomorrow and Monday - a 4 day weekend! Can't wait to chill out and potter. We had a celebratory Chinese and bottle of wine. One of the advantages of not being pregnant and not yet having started IVF!!

Oh - and am so so so excited!!! A thread I started appeared in the MN news email. They listed it as one of the "week on talk" as "plucking hell". All about my hairy chin! A little over-the-top excited that my little thread was chosen!!

Hope everyone is doing ok with waiting, sniffing, injecting, resting and waiting again!!

x

x-posts with Owl. Great news that you have 2 blasts waiting for you if needed. What a relief! Hope you can rest and keep calm for another week.

Just popping on to wish kool loads of luck for tomorrow. Make sure you shout your bfp from the rooftops at 4.00am so that you wake us all up xxx.

Just a quickie from me, to say good luck to Kool for tomorrow, have got everything crossed for you xx

Catch up with the rest of you lovelies tomorrow. Nite x

Kool you may have tested by now but I still wanted to say GOOD LUCK!

Got everything crossed for you Kool :) Wish I had a holiday booked for 2WW- that would be a lovely way to spend the wait! Owl how many days after your blast transfer do they do a test? I take it everyone finds out with a blood test?
Started stimming yesterday- managed first injection ok I think! Didn't use autoinjector thing- that looked scarier than just doing it myself!!

Hi ladies, can I join you?

I am on final day of stimms (gonal/cetrotide- short protocol) and have EC on Sunday then ET, all being well, a week today!

I'm 30, no known fertility problems, DH - high percentage of low motility sperm. This is our first ICSI IVF.

At the scan yesterday we had 12 follicles which all measured 16, 17 or 18 mm (feels like metres!) And other than being totally wiped out from the hormones at the beginning am feeling much better. Final injection tonight of ovatrelle then Ill just have to take 3x progesterone after ET (I think!)

How is everyone doing?

Good luck to everyone on this journey

Louise

welcome louise and good luck with EC/ET! Great to have you with us.

ellan congrats on your first injection. So is your EC planned for early the week after next?

I'm beginning to get excited and nervous now... Ladies who have had EC, does it hurt? My acupuncturist says that because my ovaries are skew-wiff (technical term) it may well make things painful...great....

But hey, it's Friday today, and somone has given me a danish pastry

xx

Welcome louise! sounds like a good number of follicules you've got!

luckbealady EC was not that painful at the time. For me the worst bit was wind/constipation afterwards and I was unlucky and got a bad cough beforehand which made my insides hurt quite a bit. The general anaesthetic was lovely!

Welcome louise Good luck for your EC so soon! luck I'm not 100% sure about my EC, but I think around the 9th/10th August. Thanks for your hotel recommendations by the way- I'll be hoping one of them has a good rate on laterooms.com when we know when EC is! So frustrating not being able to book flights and hotels when you know the price is going up all the time!