IVF / ICSI - everyone welcome for questions, hand holding, and waggle dancing

[Gardenpixie]

Ladies, we ran out of space on the old thread so here is a sparkly new one with dedicated areas for waggle dancing, hormonal outbreaks of bonkersness, sniffing, injecting and progesterone pessary related fartiness.

For anyone thinking about starting IVF / ICSI or going through it at the moment, do come and say hello. These wonderful ladies have kept me sane through the last few months and are a source of all knowledge concerning tests, down-regging, ov stimulating, DIY injections and much more so if you need any info or just some company, do join us.

So here's a welcome for everyone and an enormous waggle dance for many many more BFPs to come

Ladies, my Internet was down for ages! I am so sorry for being AWOL. I will catch up properly with everyone's news...

Xxx gp

Milly you're definitely taking the right approach by focussing on one step at a time, I think it's the only way! I know it's overwhelming to hear a diagnosis but on the positive side it means you have some answers and can take another step forward.

I am actually at Hammersmith myself and would love to hear others' experiences of that unit too! It's a very busy clinic that deals with all sorts of high risk and complex cases across nhs and private so lots of good experience there. The people have been lovely and very helpful, and they have flexible opening hours, acupuncture, free counselling and stuff like that. However I haven't even got to egg collection yet and not too sure if they are looking at my case individually, including history etc, as you see a different nurse/doctor every time you go in (although you have a named nurse you can contact with queries). This is my only concern and something I am planning to raise with them...anyone else have any thoughts or other experiences on this point? Anyway hope this helps and good luck with your choice!

Amazing news womanly that's lovely, a huge milestone!

Louise it's fab that you are able to move forward, great news ((()))

pumpkin well done on the scan!!! I think the number of days you stim varies between 8-14 ish depending on how you respond. I am just taking pregnacare at the moment but thinking I should really look into complementary therapies asap!

My scan today didn't go particularly well, feels like I am in groundhog day! Lead follicle only 12 mm on day 8 and womb lining still thin. They upped my dose and am back for a scan on Friday but last time they didn't grow at all past day 8 so am not feeling too hopeful I am afraid. Already thinking through questions for the consultant for when they cancel my cycle which I feel is a bit inevitable :( sorry for being a bit down. Anyway DS is with my mum tonight so I am going to see the inbetweeners movie with DH to take our mind off things....will report back tomorrow!

Waves to all xxx

Teds so sorry to hear your news but onwards and upwards and look ahead to the next cycle.

Louise what an inspiration you are, good on you for being so positive and bouncing back quickly. I went on the pill for 2 weeks before IVF, they did it to give my ovaries a rest before they got kicked into action again big time!

*No cake8 - fantastic news congratulations

Womanly great news for you too, its amazing isn't it, such a small thing can have a heartbeat so early on! Are you having another scan before they 'release' you to NHS?

Pumpkin great news on your scan.

Danny don't worry if they have upped your dose things can only get better. Try to think think positive and best if luck with your scan on Friday.

Welcome to Millymoo

Got my 9 week scan tomorrow. Feeling a bit worried as I have no symptoms so not sure I'm sleep tonight.

Speak soon xxx

Good luck Caramel for tomorrow, everything will be lovely :-) xxxxx

Womanly, thats lovely news, gave me goosebumps . Make sure you take it easy and like you say one day a time.

9 weeks already Caramel, that seems to have flown by, how exciting!! Just a reminder that symptoms do come and go, hope you manage some sleep and get a good piccy tomorrow.

Pumpkin excellent on dregging nicely, sorry you've got to dose up so much on stims. I only stimmed for 10 days but they'll continue you for longer if needed, don't worry. Sorry can't help with the supplements, I've just taken the Zita West ones the whole way through. Enjoy How to be a Woman - has had me laughing out loud.

Hang in there Danny, they've upped your dose which is good. Sending you great big follie fattening positive vibes . Am sure the Inbetweeners will have cheered you up a bit, at least made you laugh quite a lot.

Milly, the whole thing is such an emotional rollercoaster but I found the first part the hardest, it suddenly becomes real. Take it in chunks and you'll be ok. I was initially diagnosed with pcos but maybe not now? DH has low count/quality issue and has improved it massively with changes to diet, exercise, lost 2 stone, cut out booze and took vits, which is amazing but at the end of the day they really only need a few sperm to work with. I'm at Oxford and have found them really good so far, feel free to ask any questions about the clinic.

Garden2wwBuddy, hope you're doing ok and not mentalling too much xx.

Waves to everyone else, night night.

Morning everyone!

Hope Skitoo and Garden are ok? The time will soon pass, I was difinitely better when I was out and busy rather than googling my symptoms lol.

Well, after a lovely conversation with the clinic this morning, we have offically booked out appointment to start stimming on the 24th October then EC around the 7th of November!!!
I am going to take the contraceptive pill to regulate my periods today. Delighted that we have something to look forward to :-)

Hope everyone is well today

xxx

Hey all! Sorry I've been absent! Catching up on everything... Hope all are well!

Hello everyone please may I join your thread?
I am just starting my 5th week of down reg drugs and I am going I N S A N E.

Hello lovelies! How are we all today? I am officially off work now for 3 weeks!! Getting ready to go to seaside for DHs birthday sunday but setting off today-staying in a lovely apartment with roof top terrace accessed by rickety ladder!! wow weather actually looks warm today and tomorrow-mmmm...what to pack..!
Welcome Hoho whats your story so far? DR for all that time-poor you-sounds horrible.

Have a lovely weekend and will check in on monday- huge kisses and ((())) to all xxx

Morning everyone - hurray - it's Friday!

How is everyone?

Over the last couple of days I have started to feel a lot better about things. Seem to have got over the initial shock, and now just happy that at least we can try something. Nothing much will be happening for me now until November time apart from a day 2 blood test, as we wait to have DH's sperm retested. It seems that a lot of this next process is going to involve W-A-I-T-I-N-G - I am going to have to learn more patience as I don't think it comes naturally.

Louise Congratulations on getting dates actually booked in. It's amazing to think that it will all be happening so soon... very exciting. Hopefully school starting again will make the time fly by!

pumpkin happy holidays - have a wonderful time. Just out of curiosity - when you talk about the injections, did you have a choice between injections and nasal spray? That's what they are offering me and I wondered if there was a difference in terms of quality?

Skitoo Interesting to hear that about Oxford... Its really hard to pick and I imagine all are good... but that's one thing I can do with all this time I have on my hands I guess - compare and contrast. I am telling the boy to stop drinking so much which he is sulking about! Weirdly the nurse said because it's only his count that the problem and not quality, there was not much he could do.. still I think it's worth throwing anything we can at it. What vitamins are meant to be good?

Hello Caramel - lovely to meet you and really good luck for your scan. My friend has just had a lovely DD and had no symptoms throughout (lucky thing!) - just in case it helps to hear?

Danny Hammersmith sounds good and actually is one of the more convenient places, so will definitely look into it there... I love the sound of the acupuncture and counselling.

Hoho Hello - hope we can be a bit of a distraction for you! How are you feeling?

Thanks so much to everyone for being so lovely and helpful - I feel like I am a huge bundle of questions and I hope it's not annoying. I can't tell you how glad I am I found this thread!

Hi pumpklin how lovely to be going down to the seaside! It is my birthday on Sunday as well, altho not going to the seaside sadly...
Drugs arriving on Monday and I begin DR on Wednesday - jumping how is it all going with you? How are your mood swings on the DRs??
louise so lovely to hear you so positive about your new cycle. Good luck with it! Garden how are you - been thinking about you. milly I know how daunting all those terms can be when you start the journey - in no time at all it'll all be seond nature - i bought Zita West's Guide to assisted conception - it's a good book - very decriptive and honest! hello to Ho Ho.
Waves to everyone else!
ZB

Hey loveliest ladies

How are you all? I am so sorry for general AWOLness; rubbish BT home hub grrrrrrrr.

Caramel how was your 9 week scan? Hope it went well xx

Womanly I am so thrilled about your scan - it must be wonderful to see the little bean doing well. Hope you and DH are enjoying the glow and that you are feeling OK xx

Louise I am glad that you have a plan in place. I've heard of people using the OCP as part of IVFing - the Drs were thinking about putting me on it while taking stims to stop ovulation but then decided that they would rather have me do more injections so used Cetrotide instead

Danny how are you doing? Hope everything is going well xx

No cake I am sorry not to have picked up on your news earlier but enormous yay for you and your BFP

Teds I am sorry about your BFN. I know nothing can really make it any easier but you sound like you are being very strong. I hope you are doing OK and I am sending big hugs your way ((())) xxx

Milly welcome! It is all quite daunting when you first get started but before you know it, you'll be well into the swing of it all! About the PCOS - did you know that your ovaries can be polycystic without giving you full on PCOS? I definitely have polycycstic ovaries but blood tests show I still ovulate. The only other symptom of PCOS I have is that I find it pretty hard to lose weight - although there's a chance that could be all the ice cream and treats I have! FWIW I have been very good at sticking to a low GI diet and doing some kind of exercise most days for the past few months and I think it's really helped

Pumpkin hoooooooooooow many injections? I hope you are OK and that your tummy doesn't look too much like a hedgehog has rolled over it. I think anything between 8 and 14 days on stims is considered normal - FWIW, I was on them for 10 days this time round.

Cloclo DH and I did ICSI - we were told that if we had over 15 eggs, they would do half IVF and half ICSI but as we only had three that were mature, they recommended ICSI on all of them. Fortunately they all fertilised!

Jumping hello! how are you doing?

Hoho welcome? 5 weeks on down regs? Oh I feel for you. I felt utterly dreadful on them and by 3 weeks I was pretty much biting anyone who came near me. I am sending you some calming and soothing music [whale song emoticon]

Skitoo how are you doing lovely? I am mentalling like a proper goodun!

I am now 9DPO (or DPEC if that's the right term?) and driving myself nuts. I had really bitey pains like ovulation pains a few days ago and what feels like cervical cramps for the past two days. I guess it's useless to start trying to interpret every little twinge as this isn't a normal cycle but I'm really worrying about all the pully crampiness. No spotting though so at least I'm still in with a chance!

We had some bad news which is our third embryo (Soda) made it to blastocyst stage but was too small to freeze. I felt much sadder than I thought I would as I wondered if we should have waited until Day 5 and frozen the biggest embryo (Dandelion) and transferred Soda and Burdock to give them all a chance. But then i have to remind myself that Soda was just a collection of cells, the clinic wouldn't have recommended not freezing him / her unless they had good evidence to show thawing a blastocyst that small would be tricky, and that the point of this is to end up with a baby, not to take all possible embryos to baby stage!

The embryologist said that it boded well for Dandelion and Burdock that the smaller embryo still made it to blastocyst stage in the lab and they were hopeful the other two would have done the same - especially given they were in a uterus rather than a petri dish.

Anyway, I guess I really won't know until test day. I did do a quick POAS two days after ET to check whether all the HCG from the trigger shot was out of my system and it was so that's taken the pressure off POAS a bit. Although I'm sure I will be weeing on everything I can get my hands on next week!

Sorry for the ramble!

Hope you are all well and gearing up for a lovely weekend

xxxxxxxx GP

ZB sorry lovely, x-post!

How are you doing? Happy birthday for sunday - it's DH's birthday tomorrow so clearly the season for it Exciting that you will be starting on the DRs on Wednesday xxx

Hi all

Trying to catch-up with all the happening but am a bit behind. Also posting to have a moan - have been in complete and utter agony for three days and am dosed up on painkillers. Have never had an AF so painful and I lived with a copper coil for three years ffs!

Anyways, thanks for all your lovely comments - the support means an awful lot. We've decided that our 2ft by 2 ft kitchen that saw not only the tearing down of the Berlin Wall but also its construction (totally serious here...) remains a perfectly adequate place to cook dinner and clean clothes so we'll be spending our savings on more IVF. Yay!

It's basically a toss up between staying at Guys (but self-funded as our NHS 'go' is used up) or go to the Lister as they specialise in poor-responders. However, Guys can't offer us our follow-up appointment until November. Our paperwork says these are meant to happen within 2-3 weeks of treatment and it feels really odd that we don't have a chance to discuss what went well/wrong until so far after the event. Anyway we have an appointment at the Lister in a few weeks time and I suspect if we feel that's the place for us we might just go for that.

Louise hope you are doing okay - we might even end up cycle buddies next time around. Also ((hugs)) to ellan hope things are getting better for you too xxx. There are still a few tears here but it gets less and less as each day passes.

Danny really hope the scan shows better news today. I saw your other posts and not sure what to suggest as your protocol and drugs sound like the clinic has given thought to the PCOS. Having said that I've been on fertility friends and people with the same problems as me seem to have really different responses to things - the test results and diagnosis can only tell you so much. Fertility friends have PCOS section so it might be worth posting on there?

Welcome milly - glad to hear that you have the process is underway and although it's tough when it seems IVF is the only option I felt a bit more in control once we decided that this was the route to take. Mr Teds has an incredibly low sperm count - 0.2million/ml and there was all sorts of talk of surgical procedures to fertilise our eggs etc. but he's been alcohol free and dosed up with vits since February and produced more than enough lovely healthy sperm for our ICSI with, err, just the flick of the wrist

cloclo ellan's info on ICSI is good. Just to add one thought that in our experience male factor meant we had a pretty quick diagnosis and got to treatment stage very quickly. All our doctors have been really positive about male factor - it's really my low AMH/low AFC that seems to have messed us up and is limiting our chances of success.

pumpkin at all the injections but hope you're doing okay. At Guys the earliest EC seems to be scheduled for day 11 of stims and I was ready by day 12. I was very dubious about all the acupuncture stuff but in the end did find it relaxing as I had to make space in the day to do nothing which I usually struggle to do.

womanly lovely news on your scan and caramel hope all has gone well with your's today too.

skitoo and GP sending loads of snuggly vibes for your embies. Sorry to hear that soda didn't make it but agree that it does bode well for D&B.

zeebee yay for starting next week and welcome to HoHo waves to all you other ladies xx.

GP my comment on soda seems a little throw-away - apologies didn't mean it too. Think your view on getting a baby rather than getting every embie to baby stage is absolutely the right one x.

Hi Teds when my first cycle was cancelled, I was told that I couldn't have a follow up appointment for a few months but I got a bit shirty about it and pointed out, as you said, that we should be able to get one within 2 or 3 weeks of the cancellation. Then suddenly an appt appeared .

If you feel that Guys is the place for you, it might be worth emailing Mr Khalaf (the clinical director dude) as he was the one who sorted our appt out for us.

DH and I spoke about what we'll do if this doesn't work out for us this time as, like you, there'll be no more NHS funding for us, and we decided we will go private elsewhere. I think the prospect of going through the ups and downs, inconsistencies etc of Guys for a third time and paying for it out of our own cash didn't fill us with joy! And we wouldn't go private there as we might as well go somewhere that is better placed to deal with my overexcitable ovaries.

Actually, given that we've both had problems with ovaries over and under responding, should we get them together for a chat to see if they can talk each other into behaving properly? Or swap so we have one of each?

Like you and Mr Teds, it will mean putting some other projects on hold but, who needs things like a house that stands up properly, windows that fit, and clothes? Bah ... all over-rated in my opinion!

Are you thinking of seeing anywhere else other than Lister? I've heard tons of good things about them.

Right, off to get the dog off the sofa as DH is on way home and the hound and I will get in trouble if he busts me for succumbing to the big labrador eyes and allowing whiffy dog to sit with me

Teds it wasn't throw away at all! I need to get a perspective on it really ... and am feeling much more together about Soda today! xx (although DH has promised we can call our next pet Soda)

Hello again everyone :)

My story so far:
I've been TTC a second child for 3 years. DH has low sperm count / poor motility which has improved massively since various lifestyle changes and medication, but I'm still not pregnant and the consultant thinks my gynae history may have some part to play even though I've passed every test with flying colours (I only have one ovary and tube due to a huge ovarian tumour 7 years ago).

So we are having ICSI...this is our first attempt.

I started buserelin injections 4 weeks ago. At my scan last week everything was fine and and I was ready to move on to stims.

Except the sonographer was concerned about the shape of my cervix / womb as it tilts backwards and seems to be almost U-shaped . She was worried they wouldn't be able to access my womb by catheter to put any embryos back in and I had to stay for a trial of catheter just to make sure. Well they couldn't do it despite many attempts and me crying from the pain

Has it happened to any of you? I was wondering if it was quite common? Or am I a freak?

So now I have to have minor operation under anaesthetic to have my cervix dilated, which is on the 14th Sept. Which is also my DDs first day at primary school, so I won't be there to pick her up :(

I have to stay on down-regs till then, and afterwards, if it works I can finally move on to stims.

To be fair the buserelin isn't giving me any side effects so far, except I feel quite down and permanently on the brink of tears :( but that could just be stress.

Thanks my calming tea gardenpixie what I really want is a or three, but tea is my only vice at the moment! Sorry to hear about Soda. I like that you've given your embryos such cool names :)

Have a good holiday pumpkinjoy I'm ever so jealous of your roof top terrace.

Afternoon Ladies - it's Friday, woo hoo

Welcome HoHo, sorry to hear your on your 5th week of DR's, that sucks. Have you not had AF yet?

Louise and Teds you are both really inspirational for the way you plan to get stuck back in to it . Teds am glad you've decided to sod the kitchen, who needs food anyway, he he. I've been thinking about taking a look at Lister, if this one doesn't work out, as I didn't respond well but have no idea why? Will be interested to hear how you get on with them.

Am v.jealous of your 3 weeks off Pumpkin and your trip to the seaside. Was thinking off heading down to the coast tomorrow to try and occupy my mind. Hope you have a lovely weekend with DH.

Zeebee, fab news on the drugs arriving, remember it being a very exciting day in our house. Happy Birthday for Sunday, do you have any plans?

Milly we didn't actually choose Oxford as the consultant we were seeing at our local NHS hospital works there as well, think thats also why everything happened so quickly for us. If you're researching its quite hard to compare results, one thing I remember DH telling me when I was looking at % success rates is that you need to also look at that alongside the actual number of treatments, which makes sense. I would also look at how convenient it is for you to get to, as there can be a fair few appointments and you don't want to stress about travel time. Oxford also use satellite clinics that you can go to for bloods, scans etc which can make it more convenient, think a few others do this too. Good luck with DH, its hard - I'm bl*ody killing for a lovely big glass of red .

Kool, Owl, are you lurking ladies? Big waves if you are, how you both feeling?

Hey Garden, would say chill out honey but know exactly what you mean! I was absolutely fine until yesterday and feeling quite proud of myself....but then yesterday I had absolutely awful cramping so went on a massive downward spiral. Cramping stopped last night but now I have a weird feeling, my lower stomach is like really hard and feels stretched, a bit like when you pull a muscle or have done ab crunches for the first time in ages . Does this sound like your pully crampiness? Lets hope it's good and stuff just movning around.

Sorry that little soda didn't make the frosty grade. The clinic are always going to put the best options back in you and don't want to waste your hopes on embies that they don't believe will make it through the thaw. It is sad though, I was pretty gutted we didn't have any for the freezer. Lets just hope D&B and B&E are really snuggled down for us now, well just one of mine preferrably And lastly sweetie, step away from the pee sticks .

Right better get on with some work as would like to get home for nice evening with DH (minus the mentalling). Hope everyone has lovely weekends xx

Hi hoho, welcome to a lovely thread. I just popped in to say I too have a wonky one and it's something I was worried about too. Despite the horrible discomfort you had to go through during the trial, your clinic sound really good to have done that. Mine only did it just before my embryo transfer and thakfully it was ok, but if it hadn't have been, it would have been a bit late to do anything about it by then. I know for embryo transfer you're told to have a full bladder but I made sure that mine was only a little bit full as I think the wonkiness can make it trickier with a really full one. It does sounds as though yours is more tilted than mine as I didn't have to have a procedure but it sounds like with the dilation you should be fine. I was so worried about it that I posted a thread on the pregnancy board asking if anyone had got pregnant through ivf with a wonky one and I had so many positive replies. I'm pregnant too now, so it worked for me. I think a transfer that's as calm and relaxing as possible really does help and it sounds like you're taking all the necessary steps to get there. I wish you lots of luck.

Someone was asking about difference between sniffing and injecting down regs (sorry can't scroll back as don't want to risk losing this post). I'd say the effectiveness is the same with either. I sniffed and given the choice would sniff over injecting, just because you'll definitely be injecting the stims and IMO the fewer hurties the better!

Lots of (((()))) to everyone else. I do hope my absence doesn't seem like I don't care, I really do and still read every post, every day. I just felt worried about ever coming across as insensitive as I'm upduffed as I know this is such a difficult process. I'm not yet 12 weeks so still feel a touch on the paranoid side but it hasn't felt appropriate to worry about that here which is why I've just been lurking.

But as long as you don't mind me popping my head around the door every now and then, I'd love to hang around. Thinking of you all: waiting to starters, down reggers, stimmers and 2wwers xxx

X posts skitoo, thanks for thinking of me! I had lots of cramping, constantly felt like AF was on its way. I'm still getting it every so often now too and I always worry about it but I guess there's a lot going on in there! X

Thanks for the reassurance Kool, here's hoping I can join your club . How you feeling, when is your 12 week scan? How is MrKool doing?

You're always welcome here and its lovely to hear how you're doing, proving to us all that it can work!! However, maybe you and our other graduate pg ladies might want to start a new inbetweeners thread that we'll all hopefully progress to. xx

Thanks for the tip GP I think maybe I'm relaxed about the whole thing because I actually really want to go to the Lister. The reasons to go to Guys would be because it's cheaper (though not that much relatively) and it's much easier for work and because we if get a good feeling at the Lister. I think we might be a bit limited about other clinics partly as we might not get treated with my hormone levels.

I think if we were to swop ovaries we could develop the perfect baby-making machine

skitoo some people respond differently to different drugs even if there are no obvious reasons why. Anyway, really hope it doesn't matter for either you and GP and your bfps are just around the corner.

HoHo your experience so far sounds tough and very to miss DD's first day at school. I found ET very ouchy so imagine it would only take a few mm either way to make the whole thing difficult so am sure you are not a freak at all Plus you have a beautiful DD your baby box must be lovely.

Thanks lovely skitoo, yay, I love the sound of more in the club . I'm feeling ok thanks, 9 weeks now so I get one more scan with my clinic next week then I'll be handed over to the mainstream! Aw, thanks for asking, he's pretty sleepy but not feeling too awful. We are also hoping to go to the seaside at the weekend which we're really looking forward too.

I love the idea of an inbetweeners thread and should start one unselfishly but I'm just too nervous too as I joined one last year and after having a mmc it was so sad leave, especially as they left my name on the stats thread for ages . That sounds like I'm being really pessimistic, I'm not, I'm just happy to lurk on the pg threads rather than join them . Caramel is exactly one day more pg than me too, so we've buddied up which is nice, and I'm still in touch with Bondi too so this thread really is the best!

That should be if we 'don't' get a good feeling at the Lister and 'so' your baby box is lovely. Doh.

Lovely to hear from you kool - did you have a scan a week or so ago? Sorry if I missed that but are you dispatched (not the right word I know) from Guys now? And all our bfp ladies are very special to us. I'm looking forward to us having a nice graduates thread one day, though can understand the 12 week thing x.