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

Yay! Huge congratulations, so pleased for you :)

Big congrats dear Garden, I thought the clinic one was a bit unclear too, which is why I also did a CBdigi and a CB regular . Have a great day xxx

Skitoo I'm not really that far ahead of you in the great scheme if things so can 100% empathise with your worries after also having a previous mmc. You're right just to take each step as it comes and believe that everything will be ok, as it will. It's hard when our only previous experience has been an awful one but there's absolutely no reason why everything won't go perfectly this time. I'm still having to reassure myself quite a bit too! xx

Big official congrats garden - big, big hug :) I am reminiscing your journey, humbled by your strength through those daily blood tests and rash and positivity through the clomid cycles - - Well done to you and dh and hope d & b are settling in nicely :) When's your scan date?

Wave to everyone :)

Garden way to go I am sooo pleased. CONGRATULATIONS enjoy your Friday

WHOOP WHOOP GP congratulations on your official BFP-waggles do work! Have a good weekend all xx

GP congratulations!!!!!!!!!! That's fab news, well done girl. You've been a huge support to all of us, and you so deserve your BFP - woo hoo!

bugsy hope your appt with the consultant went well, I think you said it was today

Thanks so much for all your waggling, canapes and champagne - it bl*ody well worked! I got a call from the embryologist this morning and 11 out of the 12 eggs have fertilized overnight - wow my eggs and DH's swimmers must have been having lots of fun over in the lab at Hammersmith!! We are really delighted, and they said it's looking positive for a day 5 transfer on Tues but we will know more over the weekend

Waves to everyone xxx

Dannygirl I've never heard of such high fertilisation, that's brilliant! Should leave you with plenty of frosties too, yay! Well done

not good news from here. Looks veery much like a missed miscarriage unless my dates are wrong. Do not think they can be from when I tested so cons agrees does not look so good. repeat scan next fri. Do not know whether to stop progesterone pessaries. Will then have op week after not going to let natrue take her course if that is the final outcome as want to get on IVF pathway.

Good news Danny hope they take a breather and continue growing well

bugsy really hoping that the dates are wrong but so very sorry if it is a mmc - sending you (((hugs))).

Danny lovely news about EC and so many embies! And belated whoop for skitoo's bfp

So sorry to hear your news bugsy - fingers crossed dates are wrong.

Danny - great news on your fertilisation rate, they'll have lots of embies to choose from :)

bugsy so sad to hear your news. Fingers crossed it's that the dates are wrong but sending you hugs at this difficult time.
danny wow 11/12 is great. Fingers crossed for more good news this weekend

bugsy I am so sorry to hear that, I am sending you big hugs xxx

Sorry to hear your news bugsy. It might be worth staying on the pessaries until you know for sure? X

Bugsy am so sorry to hear that, I really hope that the dates are out a bit. Hope the scan next week gives you good news, sending you huge ((((hugs)))), I know how awful the waiting time is, hope you are getting lots of tlc in RL xx.

Hey Danny fantastic news-am really pleased for you. Eggtastic!-When do clinic ring with the final plan for ET?

Bugsy-so very sorry-this is a horrible situation to find yourself in-I know what you're going through-am sure a few of us on here do-and it truly is a horrible thing to be told. Am repeating what the others have said really but it is possible that the dates are out a little. We're here to support you and I hope you have lots of support in RL too.

xx

Sorry for my absence for a few days, just been catching up with all the news.

Bugsy so sorry to hear your news and sending big hugs your way, but definitely worth staying on the pessaries until you know for sure, fingers crossed, lets hope the dates are wrong.

Zeebee - yes this was my first IVF. Also re a good decaf coffee, I would recommend Monmouth coffee, its organic and they decaffinate without any chemical process and its delicious! I haven't had any coffee for 10 weeks and still really missing it, even though I only had one a day, it was one of my only vices, I don't even miss drinking alcohol as much as I miss coffee! I might start having the odd decaf now and again as I miss the taste so much!

Skitoo big congratulations, thats fantastic news. Just take it one day at a time and try to keep busy and positive, plan lots of things and the time will go quickly, keep ticking off the little milestones.

Garden official congratulations to you too, I'm so pleased for you, what a relief. Have you booked in your 6 week scan?

Danny WOW!!!! 11 out of 12 is AMAZING! Sending lots of growing vibes their way, that means you'll probably have some to freeze too which is great.

Pumkpin what happened with your last acupuncture appointment, was it s more positive experience this time? I did acupuncture all the way through the IVF cycle, even though as Kool said, its mainly before and after ET that the research says helps, but it made me feel like I was doing something to help too. However if she makes you feel negative then you should change your acupuncturist.

Millmoo when I told my parents they both kept asking if I really needed to go for IVF and said they were sure it would happen naturally but I think it was their way of trying to protect me. I can understand how you feel though as I don't think they understood what the process was and that we had been trying naturally for a while and nothing had happened! I'm sure once your mum gets her head around it she will be more supportive.

Anyway big waves and hugs to everyone else I haven't mentioned, hope you're all doing well and being strong.

xxxx

Afternoon all! Back from hols and checking-in!

Just been reading through the updates...

Garden, SOOOOOOO happy for you and your BFP!

Kool, keep us posted on the new part of your journey!

Skitoo WHOOP WHOOP! Great news!

Dannygirl, 12 is great - hope the little ?uns are doing the business!

Zeebee, how was your appointment? Told you it would come around quickly!

I?m a little disheartened to hear people thinking about switching from Guys ? we chose to go there based on their specialism in our area of infertility, so I hope we get some good results!

I've been on the de-regging spray for nearly 2 weeks now - fortunately I've not had many side effects, just a little breathlessness and some bloating over the last few days (I did worry if the lack of side effects meant it wasn't working!). Back at Guys on Tuesday for a scan and hopefully onto the injections.

Question for you - did your DH/DP go with you to all of your appointments? Mine didn't come to my scheduling apt, and isn't coming on Tues - Guys is handy for me to nip to from work but not him. There's no clinical need for him to be there, and I wasn't too bothered until this morning when I suddenly felt a bit alone in it all (from the drugs / body point of view) and felt a bit weepy. Am I just being silly and hormonal?

I?ve been reading a book on IVF but it seems to be making me feel even worse / more nervous about it! It?s full of people recounting experiences from their nth round of IVF, which is making me worry we won?t have success... we have zero funding for ANY rounds from the NHS, so the thought of even more financial investment, let alone the emotional side fills me with dread! . DH wants me to be realistic about the chances of success ? and the financial realities in terms of how many times we can do this ? but I just want to look on the positive side and hope it works first time! Think I'll ditch the book!

Latest sanity tip - alcohol free wine from Ocado (almost tastes like the proper stuff, if you have it in a wine glass in a dimly lit room you could almost convince yourself it's the real thing...) Pouring pretend for you all!

Jumpingjack - don't know anything about guys other than it's a great hospital. I think one of the big differences between nhs/private is much better communication and less waiting around etc, nice to have but not a big influence on success rates. I didn't take dh to any appts (other than EC for which he was required!) but in the waiting room there were always loads of men around so lots of them must go.

My DH has come for every appointment so far but he won't come for the scans (he is self employed so doesn't get paid for time off, and he has already missed a lot of work for appts so far. He also has appointments for his diabetes - don't think he will be going to work much in the next month!). He will obv be there for EC and for ET too - he doesn't want to miss that.

Our experience of NHS treatment in Coventry has been good so far - the thing they are worst at is communication - you have to ring up, leave a message and it can take until the following day to get back to you. There are emergency numbers to call too though. Our treatment has been arranged so quickly though, I don't know how much better private could be. We have also seen the same consultant since getting our diagnosis too.

However, we don't have a lot of choice in terms of other private hospitals - if I was in striking distance of ARGC or Listers I might think twice.

Hey jumping, hope you had lovely hols . I think you're doing really well on your down regs. I hope your appointment on Tuesday goes well. I just wanted to hopefully reassure you about a couple of things. Firstly, I was at guys and got my bfp and couldn't fault them (apart from them sometimes taking a while to call back). Admittedly I was lucky enough for things to go really smoothly but I have to say I couldn't have expected more from them and I feel that the care I received wouldn't have been better anywhere else. It's only normal for you to be feeling a bit wobbly about things as you're about to get to the nitty gritty bit but honestly, I'd recommend guys to anyone. Secondly, I went to almost every appointment on my own and there were often plenty of women there on their own too. If you can it'd be good to have him with you for your injection lesson just so that it's two pairs of ears listening to how to do it! I did my injections myself but it was reassuring to double check that I was doing what they'd told me to do! I hope this makes you feel a bit better

Good evening everyone...
so, I am day 5 of DR sprays - things Ok altho a few hot fushes and some really full on crazy dreams (that I won't go into on here!) and general crankieness altho I think that was to do with the horrific week at work I had last week - feel so much better today (even tho I was in work!).

jumping lovely to hear from you - hope you had a good break - good luck with your appt on Tuesday - how exciting to be at that next stage already - hope the scan goes really well too. Good idea about alcohol free wine (did I just really type that?!) I infact quite like the Becks Blue beer which is alcohol free (I got ID'ed last time I bought that in Waitrose - no joke, plus i'm 39!)
re the book you are reading - it's so easy to get obsessed with case studies in IVF - I have the Zita west book and I love it, altho i try not to obsessively read read those case study sections... everyone case different & we've just got to stay in a positive mindset about our own!
Re guys - again - everyone is different - try and stay positive - if it helps - WARNING case study coming... some great friends of us got pregnant with IVF and had twins - they had them last month and they have nothing but praise for Guys..

Thankyou so much to caramel re monmouth decaf coffee - i'm going to get me some of that and pretend i'm getting a caffine high!!
bye for now!
ZB

Hi jumping just to say my DH didn't come to any of my appointments either, he is self employed and doesn't work anywhere near the IVF unit, plus we have a DS so I have had to go to early morning appointments on my own. Obviously he was required at EC (!) and will hopefully be able to make ET too. I had a couple of short wobbles about it, especially seeing other couples attending appointments together, but I tried to look at it practically, and that's what made sense for us. Really good luck with your scan on Tues!

AFM, EC is planned for Tues morning, just desperately trying to organise acupuncture before and after (my DH thinks I am mad). Embies looking good, although I have a slight worry as my womb lining was a bit thin at my last scan a week ago and so there's a chance they won't do a transfer at all but freeze them...

Waves to everyone xxx

Hello ladies, hope the hurricane isn't causing too much trouble so far at your ends. I posted AGES ago, and whilst I've not written much since, have read this string most days with great interest and feel I'm getting to know a lot more about both IVF and your good selves, and am so thrilled for all the BFPs that have been announced. The reason I'm back now is that finally, I go for my first appointment this week at Chelsea and Westminster and was wondering if there are any especially relevant or helpful questions I should be asking? I've got a hideous complicated gyne history due to grim pelvic infections, cysts, scarring, adhesions and other rubbish that's pretty much messed up any chance I'll ever have of having a baby naturally (sorry if TMI). For example, I notice that some of you talk about size of follicles. How big is a good size? And how many should I be aiming for for collection? Is there a "normal" or good number? And also, I think he's keen on a blastocyte transfer, but only putting one eggie back in? Is that normal? I don't hate the idea of twins, especially if I can do it all at once....My surgeon who has looked after me for the past couple of years also happens to be a fertility and IVF specialist, but now he's seeing me for this, am not sure what I should expect or what to ask him. My DH and I are so keen that this all works out for the best, and I've loved reading your success stories and want to also be one too soon! I have accupuncutre on a fairly regular basis (at elast once or twice a month, maybe more if I'm feeling flush) and it does help. Have also been taking various pre-conception vitamins, probiotics, Codliver etc to help prepare. Are there any books that are particularly good? I was thinking of getting Zita West's book...

Many thanks, and sorry for huge long ramble and twenty questions!

Hey Clairebear welcome back! How exciting that it's all starting for you! The HEFA website has a good section on questions to ask. Regarding size of follicles: this happens when you start the "stims" part of your treatment (ie when you take meds to stimulate your ovaries). You'll be monitored closely at this stage via scans & bloods to check that the follicles are growing and they aim for them to get to 18mm (if I remember correctly) before they do egg collection. So they may tweak your meds during this process depending on the number you're producing and the size they are. I'd say there's no average number of eggs at egg collection. We've had a huge variety of amounts on this thread alone and it doesn't appear to influence success and remember the thread motto - it only takes one! Getting to blastocyst and having one put back really depends on what the embryos are looking like, your age etc. I got to blastocyst and had one put back, others have had two, others had a day 3 (ie earlier than blastocyst) transfer. I was paranoid that if I didn't get to blastocyst then it wouldn't work but that's not the case at all it would seem. It's really something that you have to trust your clinic are going to give the best advice on really. I've read the ZW book and I'm sure it'll answer any other questions too. It sounds like you've already built up a good relationship with your Ivf guy already which is good. I do hope this answers some of your questions, good luck!

Thanks so much, v helpful. I think I will go ahead and get the ZW book then. Am worried am going to look clueless, despite already being more familiar that I'd like to be with my ovaries and tubes (what's left of them). But am also aware that this is an entirely new thing I'm going through and no-one else I know has gone through this (I have very fertile friends and family alas, which somehow doesn't help). I'm quite nervous about starting it all, but also super-excited. We've also got a 14 week old puppy who's keeping us insane busy and who is both a brilliant distraction from all the IVF stuff, but also a good buddy already. First puppy class tonight! Will report back if ok with progress after appointment and with any confusions I'm bound to have next week! Thanks again :)