First IUI this week at CRGH. Anyone else?

[laughinglemons]

I am 35, had a polyp removed this summer. TTC1 for 18 months.
Here goes... we are doing the first cycle without drugs. I know that chances of it working first time are pretty low but can't help being positive.
Anyone else about to do IUI?

Hi Joycep - how are you at the end of the weekend / beginning of your 2WW? I found that once the drama of the first insemination cycle had pasted I was more miserable than in the days leading up to it. There is no logic for this given that (and obviously ignoring my own fears) it happened and the professionals didn't issue any warnings.

Thanks for your info on my progesterone levels, you calmed me down - I will ask questions about this next go and get it done a few days a later than this cycle, when hopefully I will get a higher number.

The waiting is far worse than the scans etc. I have had no implantation cramps or bleeding. My boobs feel totally normal. I know that it is still a week to go before period is due but we've both read all the "I got a BFP on 9DPO!" posts... I am guessing that seeing as it is 10DPO for me if I were pregnant implantation would have happened which means the levels of the hgc would have risen and I'd feel something.

I am so glad you liked my thinking on our chances. I can't remember the number of births per year at UCLH but I worked out it was a baby every 2 hours, every, day of the year!

Hi Lemons - i can't believe you are 10dpo already, that's gone quickly...probably not for you though. I must say I felt utterly miserable on Friday when i wrote the last note above. I had taken a couple of days off work and i just sat at home crying whilst watching the Jeremy Kyle show!! Yes a bit of a low point. It was exasperated by receiving a message that my second friend in a week had given birth.

To be honest, I actually quite like this bit of the cycle. I don't have to think about my period yet or whether i'm pregnant. I've done all i can and don't have to do swi. The bit i hate is just before my period but from about 9dpo i normally can tell it is gameover because my boobs stop hurting, so there is never much of a wait. My boobs are absolutely agony at the moment. I was in pain whilst swimming and standing under the shower at the weekend. They normally are quite painful and they have been agony before but it is very rare that i have to sleep in my bra. I know it doesn't mean anything though.

I would say that everyone is different and you wouldn't necessarily have pains or bleeding or sore boobs. I do know people who didn't have anything. But then again I guess we are on super alert. But 10dpo is still very early. It's always difficult to know what to say, on the one hand I want to tell you lots of positive things but on the other hand you don't want to give people false hope. For me I would rathe prefer not to have any hope and then one day get a surprise bfp rather than hoping and hoping and then having all hope dashed.

I don't know about you but my life just feels in such limbo at the moment, tinged in sadness about how things are going. It's difficult to feel upbeat.

Do you think you will do a pregnancy test at 14dpo or will you just wait??

Dear Joycep - i dreamt about meeting you last night! We were at a fertility clinic and I saw you, knew it was you but didn't want to say in RL "hello Joycep" because i knew you didn't want me to, so i left. V strange.

Today is my 14th day since ovulation but i have a 16 day luteal phase so am expecting AF on Saturday or Sunday (selfishly I am hoping Sunday because of the next cycle's fertility - we are going to Dubrovnik next w/e and are coming home on day 9.) if my period comes on saturday we will come home on day 10. As i get my smilely face on day 10 that is the day i need to have the insemination...

I am not planning to test as I can't bear to see the "not pregnant" in the window. there would be the smallest of small chances that it would be a false negative which would mean i'd have to go through the disappointment twice in one cycle. Thank you for reminding me that lots of people don't have any symptoms before missed period or even for a while afterwards. I just can't get my head around that! Surely I'd notice something given that I am looking out for anything. I have a cold... and have some slightly brownish / reddish discharge in the last few days..

I am fascinated that you have sore boobs regularly and not even just before af.. we are all different.

I am totally with you about the life being in limbo. awful but i think we should enjoy the pre children stage because once we have DCs we don't want to be one of those annoying people who moan!

I FINALLY spoke to a DR at CRGH about my progesterone levels today. She said that above 20 means you ovulate, I am not sure where they get this from because I have a copy of my results and it says above 30 means you ovulate. The dr did agree that the blood test could have been done 2 days later than it was (thanks that was £50) but this isn't something that is done routinely after every insemination, just the first without drugs to see whether it is worth doing another. I am going to get one done next cycle and now i know it has to be done 7 days before AF i will book it for then and ask for the results to be sent (another £50)..

How are you feeling and do you have any symptoms? I am guessing you are about 8dpo...how are the boobs?
I am in the same boat, an old school friend is due next month we have a date in the diary for a couple of weeks time. I am so dreading it. We don't see each other v often and i haven't told her that we are even trying. The last time we met, after she announced her pregnancy on the phone, i had to brush off wanting kids as having not mentioned it for the last 1.5 years it didn't seem right to say we had been trying when she was full of excitment about getting pregnant on the second month... i don't want to lie so i'll have to brush it off again. Are you going / have you been to visit with gift? Does your friend know you are trying?

Lemons - oh i'm really crossing fingers for you. I really hope AF doesn't show up tomorrow or Sunday. Do you normally get the discharge before AF??? I never get that so if it was me i would be highly suscipious. I think it's right not to test actually. Testing doesn't change anything anyway. God i hope it has been a success for you. Even if it hasn't, you have to be positive about the next few iuis. How weird you dreamt about me!! TTC does effect us in odd ways. I dreamt i had a daughter last night and it wasn't very nice waking up. I just wanted to go back to dream land.

Totally agree about enjoying life pre dc. I'm wishing my life away right now. I need to change that.

All i remember from my nhs progesterone results is that it said above 30 was normal. And as i think i mentioned before my gynae likes above 40. However, i think a number below 30 does still suggest you have ovulated. Is it worth yuo doing the progesterone tests on the nhs? £50 is a lot of money especially if the day is wrong...? You could just tell your GP you would like to be booked in for one...?? just a thought.

Anyway, i have no symptoms. I wouldn't expect any. Boobs got much better the other day and now they are quite sore again. But it really doesn't mean anything. The boob problem only started when we ttc. I never had an issue before. I really am not expecting this to have worked. Although my gynae told me 6 months ago she would have be pregnant by October....and I'm sort of holding her to that. I just wish i would wake up and have morning sickness one day. That's how my SiL knew at 14 dpo. She just ran to the loos to throw up. First month of trying. I'm not jealous of course!

I haven't been to see my friend yet. I will do tomorrow i think. I have a present. I do wonder whether i will find it easier to see her with her a baby than when she was pregnant. I will let you know.

Dear Joycep today I got my period.

Sigh.

Obviously sad and miserable at the thought of a future without a family.

I will ask for my progesterone levels to be checked on HHS - v good idea.

Tomorrow I get to phone UCH and book in for the antral follicle scan. As well as doing another unmedicated cycle at CRGH. If I don't get pregnant next month then we get to have iui with drugs at UCH.

If my boobs hurt I'd be highly suspicious! I guess the discharge is normal for me. Am dreading still not being pregnant by Christmas.

Fingers crossed that you dream is a sign. When do you test?

This means I have to see my pregnant friend without being pregnant...

Lemons - ...i'm sorry . That was just the first one don't forget - most people aren't successful in the first round but i understand it's still a miserable feeling because there is always that flicker of hope.

I know I'm out this month. Boobs have completely deflated and they are not painful anymore. They always deflate at this time. I am 10/11dpo and i would naturally get my period today or tomorrow but artificially delaying it with progesterone. There is no point even hoping to be honest.

Did you see your pregnant friend? I try and avoid pregnant people. I saw my friend's baby. she was gorgeous but i had this very odd moment when holding the baby and i just felt it would never be our time, i just couldn't imagine that would be us witha baby. I'm dreading christmas but even more so, NYE, it always seem such a milestone in my head.

hope you're feeling a bit perkier.

Hi IUIers, we went for our second round on Friday, had a different nurse, but she was equally nice, if not nicer than the last one. She explained things really well to DH who was actually brave enough to be present throughout!

(TMI) She told me that I had the bubble of CM at the "door" which is only present in situ for about a two hour window which would be used as the ladder the sperm in standard practice! So this should be a positive, fingers crossed.

After my first one, I never felt pg and wasn't filled with positivity, so wasn't shocked when AF arrived, however this time feels a bit different.

I only had cramps for about 24 hours afterwards this time. I told the nurse about the cramps and she said that it is a good thing to feel them as it means they got the produce in the right place!

I also avoid the pregnants and recently given birth - had to make some last minute excuses not to go to a baby shower on my last day one, it was just too much! I haven't told any of the ones around about our plight, I really don't know how they would react and treat me afterwards, so just conceal my pain!

Fingers crossed for you both with the next rounds.

Wow slightly, that is very exciting and positive. Keep us posted. Can I ask what drugs, if any were you on? I too had lots of CM.

Joycep, thank you. Am not really feeling better but I was looking out fir your message. How are you feeling? Must be frustrating having a longer cycle if you really don't think it's worked.

I had a blow yesterday - rang UCH to book my Amtrak follicle scan and was told that I couldn't have it this month. No spaces. Obviously thus means delaying for another month so while as you know I don't rate the private place at least we can do something.

Haven't seen pregnant friend yet that is next week. I will probably cry all the way home. I'll feel really mean if I don't go cause it's just me. If it were a gathering I'd def get out of it.

We've both got another 3 cycles before NYE so I guess we just have to keep going. I don't think your feeling when you were holding the baby was a bad sign. I think you just felt this isn't my baby. We are probably more primordial than we realise.

Slightly, that all sounds positive. I have never heard of the bubble of CM - what the hell?? Surely there isn't a two hour window with CM to get the men up there.? No wonder it is all so damned hard.

lemons - i am sorry you have to wait another month for your amtrak. it's infruriating but you can still get on with another round of iui can't you? What is CRGH like ?? is each round hellishly expensive?

I will take my last progesterone tablet tonight and so AF will arrive on Friday evening. I absolutely know it hasn't worked. I've got a few weeks of injections to look forward to which brought on lots of cramps this month. Feeling terribly frustrated by all this.

joycep - good to hear from you. sorry sorry sorry that it hasn't worked. i too am so frustrated and feel as if the desperation and the misery is engulfing me. it was the first thing i thought about when i woke up this morning.

how many rounds of iui are you going to do before moving on to IVF?

our plan was to do 2 without drugs, 2 with drugs and then IVF but because of wanting to be treated at UCH we'll have to do 3 rounds with drugs (because that is UCH's policy). CRGH charged about £850 for a round without drugs including the scan before and the follow up progesterone. It is probably £1000 with drugs, maybe £1200 for a cycle with IUI. I just wish that I had confidence in the place.

i guess we just have to be positive - if we do 4 each this side of NY surely it has to work for one of us at least? I have a feeling we are going to end up doing ivf. i am so sad. be very kind to yourself this weekend.

Hello all, Can I sneak in? I have been lurking reading this thread and feeling everything you are talking about.

I went on injections last month for my first round of IUI. Nothing. One follicle whereas I sometimes produce two naturally! I cancelled the IUI and did things naturally. I cried and wailed in the car on the way home and can echo the feelings that lemons and joycep are feeling. BFN.

Then this month, marginally higher dose, I had 6 mature follies (I am not in the UK and understand in the UK they would not go ahead with IUI with this many). My doctor said that your body can sometimes just react differently. I had an IUI on Monday eve after trigger on Sunday am. I am a little concerned re timing as detected my LH surge on Sunday am and have been wondering if IUI too late. I then had a second trigger on Monday eve and a second IUI on Tuesday evening. I have never heard of this or having the second IUI so late. My doctor said that she thought the smaller follicles would ovulate a day later so wanted to make sure they did.

Now worried about so many things for no reasons: timing being wrong; not being pg; being pg with sextuplets; being pg and having a miscarriage etc. I am torn between being positive and then not getting my hopes up.

I am so emotional now. Just spent half an hour sitting in my car at work sobbing my eyes out. I had to put Michael MacIntyre on my ipod to make me laugh so I could get into the office without all my staff noticing my red eyes.

What an emotional ride it is. I always said I would never become the kind of woman who is obsessed with TTC but how can you not be when you are going through all these things.

I am bloated like a balloon now and having horrible cramps. Hoping that it is a good sign and just one (or maybe two) are embedding.

While my Dr did the IUI she told me that she was really happy as another patient that evening had had 6 rounds of IVF with another doctor and just got pg on the first round with her. What a lovely story.

Hope you are all ok. I wish that it was easier for us all to talk to people openly about it.

Hi Jebel - I have never heard of having two inseminations in one cycle - fingers crossed your symptoms are positive.

Lemons - I'm not on any drugs and they aren't doing any follicle tracking, just the basting after the LH surge detected.

I think if no bfp this cycle I'm gonna ask for some further tests - immunes and maybe some folli tracking - would be a shame to still be wasting my time and hopes each month if I have something simple to fix.

Good luck all, SBC x

Hi slightly - it is not uncommon to have two inseminations but usually 12 and 36 hours after surge. Mine is odd as 33 hours and 59 hours after surge and also that I had two triggers on consecutive days. I trust my doctor and she was very confident for me this cycle. Sorry to hear no BFP for you.

Slightly thanks for your info. How many non drug iuis are you going to do? This is my second and last before movin into IUI with clomid. Hopefully you will be pregnant this cycle. When do you test?

Hi Jebel. Welcome. What country are you in? I have heard of two inseminations in one cycle. I agree that the first insemination does seem a little late BUT I am convinced that my first was too soon after the smilely. Last month we did it about 4.5 hours after my surge. This month we are going to do it the following day, so just under 24 hours after. When do you test?

Joycep - if I were you I'd feel sad and frustrated but I'd still be hoping. It's the hope that I can't deal with. After an awful week I finally spoke to a dr yesterday afternoon. I was so worried I had messed this one up because we are away. Insemination scheduled for Tuesday I won't be able to track before so fingers crossed. I am actually happier doing it the day after the smile than the day of the smile.

Jebel - goodnes, 6 eggs. Good luck. surely that all sounds positive. I know what it is like worrying about the timings. I think we just have to have faith in our doctors which is easier said than done for me but hopefully this is going to be your month. Keep us posted.

Hi Lemons, sorry about your awful week. It's also the first thing i think about when i wake up...every single day. My period came yesterday. I knew it didn't work but i wasn't quite expecting it then because i was still on progesterone. I felt so miserable last night. I do feel like it was done too late. It was done 30 hours after i took an injection to release the egg but by the time i had it done my boobs were sore already which tells me ovulation had occurred. Anyway, How can 158 million sperm miss the bloody thing or perhaps the eggs are just totally rubbish. Do you get your surge the same time every month? Do you know whether you will see your surge on Monday then?
My gynae's office is closed and so i won't be able to take drugs this time round. I'm not sure whether she will allow me to do iui without drugs, I would prefer it if i didn't have them. Anyway crgh sounds similar but i think i'm paying around £1000 this cycle as i only needed one scan. But the drugs were £360 which seemed excessive. Clomid was only £17 for 6 months worth so may have been better if i went on that.
I think my plan of action is to do 4 rounds max. 3 with drugs and hopefully one without this month. I've been told the vast majority conceive within the first 3 rounds. I will do the 4th for luck. Then I think i will just reassess things at the end of the year and take a breather from all of this meddling. My dh goes away for 3 months next year and so i hope that will allow me some time off from all this worrying and thinking and i will start saving. Come March/April, i will start investigating ivf which terrifies me but i think i would like to do this at argc and have resigned myself to it really. What do you think you will do?
In the meantime, what can we do to keep ourselves busy and happier??

Test

sorry to hear about a rubbish week lemons. And Joycep - so rubbish to get BFN. Even when I am sure it hasn't worked, there is always a little hope that it might have done.

The idea of IVF also terrifies me. I haven't yet thought through the 'what if' yet of IUI not working. I do agree that time out is a good thing for our bodies and our sanity.

The more I look into the timing etc, the more I think I just have to trust my doctor. She has got lots of women pg so must do something right. And I think also that they will look at the size of the follicle, not just the smiley. But having two, I would like the first one to be earlier. I read somewhere that the follicles can erupt at different times (ie ovulate) but usually within a 24 hr period. So perhaps the more follicles you have, the less exact the timing needs to be.

Have you read the 'infertility blog' written by a doctor in NY. If you google 'infertility blog iui timing' you should find him. I think he speaks sense.

I'm manic at work so that's keeping me slightly distracted but having massive hot flushes (either from HCG or progesterone) which is making me feel rubbish.

I test on 24th. Ages!

Hi all, been trying to get through the dreaded 2ww without obsessing, hence not been on, but am getting slight bloatiness and crampiness which tends o suggest that af is on her way.
Joycep - I have the same boob thing as you, painful from ovulation up to about a day before af - only been like this since taking cabergoline and my hormone levels all levelled out - it was so painful the first month I thought I had injured myself out running and dashed out and spent a fortune on running bras!
I should be testing this coming Friday 21st, if af doesn't get me first
We are down to do 6 IUI unmedicated, but if nothing after no3 I'm going to demand to see the consultant for a review - if medicated saves me moving on to IVF then I'm sure the NHS purse strings will also go for it, if not we end up going around the loop again and our PCT may not fund us -'tis a lottery!

Joycep, I am with you on four iuis and then moving on to considering IVF. it is good to have a plan. had 2nd natural insemination today. plan is to move onto drugs for the next 2 cycles which will take me up to the end of the year. december's period is due on christmas day. great.

oh dear, i have just re-read that para. i am so negative, i suppose the 4th round of iui might just work in which case we could get a BFP on Christmas morning which would be just lovely...

when do you find out if you can do a drug free cycle? surely if you are paying that should be absolutely fine. i am already aware that sometimes the drugs make you produce too many follicles and then you can't do iui in case of multiples.

Another fiasco today - firstly, i should have started with this, me and DH went to Dubrovnik for the w/e. Trying to keep myself busy and happy or more realistically at least distracted... so got to the clinic this morning to have scan prior to insemination (day 11), the dr was about to put the wand in me with GEL, luckily I pointed out that maybe she shouldn't given that i was hoping to do iui today... so saved the day there. follicle just under 22mm all fine only having been given a trigger shot i am now not sure when i will ovulate. without it i am as certain as i can be that i would ovulate today / tonight. i did ask the consultant, he said the trigger shot will speed up ov if anything, the word he used was 'augment' my own FSH but given that i had had it by then i am not sure if he was just trying to be soothing. i probably did come across as sad and desperate and stressed but then that is exactly how i feel.

i don't know about you but this really is taking its toll on me and DH.

lemons the whole timing thing is difficult. I don't know and can't figure it out.

I am in 2WW and feel like AF is coming. I have a huge spot, cramps and sore boobs. I am 10 DPiui. I did a test to see if HCG out of my system and it was negative so at least I can start being an obsessive tester.

I have had such a stressful few weeks culminating in a Board meeting yesterday where our minority shareholder tried to get rid of the management team. He didn't succeed, so far, but it is so stressful living with the uncertainty.

It does take it's toll on the relationship. I definitely don't have an answer to how to handle it. We try but are really squabbling, I always want support and feel DH is not really interested, as though he'd like to get a baby off the shelf at argos.

Jebel - getting a baby from Argos made me laugh! but yes i don't feel DH is a supportive as I would like. it is such a lot to get your head round and the bottom line is having a baby is a much bigger deal for women than for men.
i know he is trying his best, i just don't feel his best is good enough.

Joycep - are you there? what happened about doing an unmedicated iui cycle?

Hi Lemons - was just reading the other ones when i saw you have just written the above. Well done on the second insemination. Are you happy about the timing or not really? My gynae is going to do a natural one. I'm seeing her on Monday and then hopefully will get a date in for next week. I do feel like i have to fit around her diary rather than what my body is doing but hey ho. To be honest, i feel defeated before it has already begun, so don't worry about sounding negative because i'm even worse! I also find it very difficult to get out of work to do all these appontments. Somehow i have managed it so far but it just adds to the stress. Is it a probelm for you too? I can only imagine that it is a lot worse during ivf. I'm in a very small company and it's very noticeable when i disappear and i don't want to raise suspicions.

My DH doesn't seem to talk about it all that much although he wrote to me the other day and admitted he was feeling really down with nothing to look forward to. So i think men just don't want to talk about it that much. But they clearly don't feel the immense pressure and worry that us women feel. He knows i'm completely miserable about it all but to be honest i hide a lot of it from him. He will never have known for example that last night i just went home and cried and cried...mostly because i got another huge bill for his semen analysis and i feel all this money is going to waste with no guarantees. The girl who recommended my gynae to me is now pregnant after starting a year after us and having really bad ovulation problems. This just worries me even more because seemingly there is not a huge problem with us and i don't understand why we can't do it.

Jebel - really best of luck. I hope AF stays away.

Hi Joycep -

I know exactly what you mean, because there is seemingly nothing wrong with either me or DH i feel like we are not of any interest to the consultants and we will just slip through the net.

It is frustrating that other people just seem to have families so easily, when we are wasting all this time, emotion and cash not to mention straining our marriages / relationships for potentially nothing.

If one more person tells me yet another story of the friends of friends that just gave up and then it happened i think i will hit them, scream and cry (in no particular order).

We are now in the situation where we need to choose where to go for the IUI with drugs. We can stay with CRGH or we can go to UCH. There are pluses and minuses to both of them. UCH doesn't open at the weekends and my next insemination by my reckoning (because this one isn't going to work) is going to need to be done on a saturday or a sunday.

In terms of this one I was actually quite happy with the timing (the day after my LH surge). I think we need to keep reminding ourselves that the clinics need to get pregnancies to keep their results up and so although it sooo doesn't feel like it, they are on our side. I also think that they don't know with IUI when ovulation actually takes place so they err on the side of caution with the insemination ie. they don't want to do it too late. The idea that they are doing it too early is always fudged because the sperm live, BUT again i know that iuied (washed) sperm don't live as long, so in fact the timing is even more crucial... i guess the advantage of IVF is that we don't have this stress with the timing. i am already worrying that problems as yet unknown about will materialise then.

I suppose that given we are both worrying about timing of cycles and this month when i googled "trigger shot after LH surge" SO much info, mainly questions came up, we can assume that all these pregnant people who started infertilitry treatment also felt like it would never be their turn.

I am saying all this to you in a logical, slightly glum manner but I am not making myself self feel any better!

I don't have a problem getting to the appointments and waiting around, so for that I am lucky and grateful. and I do think every time i go that at least i am not here worrying about getting back to the office but i also felt rather jealous of DH who has the luxury of rushing back to work and not brooding on what has happened.

I do work 3 days a week but 1 of those is in DH's office and the other 2 days are voluntary, so can be flexible if need be without hassle. The sad thing is I had a high stress job until nearly 2 years ago when i was made redundant, i am a lawyer and of course everyone assumed, included me, that now would be a good time for us to have children...in fact ironically whilst the redundancy criteria wasn't officially based on Who Was Most Likely to have Children, i know from a former director who I am friends with that basically it was and that was me... i am sure it is not that unsual a scenario.

Can I join the glum postings?

AF arrived in the usual text book fashion - oh lucky me to have a regular as clock work cycle - not. AF arrives exactly 14 days after ov, so the very day the clinic tell me to test, at least I guess I don't waste the money on the tests I guess. I dream of a day when I have even the faintest of faint lines on a pg test - never had even a glimmer. Been doing this business for over 3 years now and other pcos, for which the hormones etc have been sorted, we have no issues to stop us, so why?????

Have any of you had immune tests? This is the only thing left that hasn't been tested on me, am going to speak to clinic on Monday to see if I can get tested - somehow I feel like my body rejects the idea of being pregnant so got to be worth a go. I have read many other peoples stories of being treated for immune issues and getting pg very quickly thereafter.

Am also on the brink of booking in for a fertility acupuncture course of treatment. I then swing into the utter despair phase and decide perhaps I should give up altogether and enjoy having money and doing what I want when I want, then I realise that my life is missing something and go back to the start again.

On the DH not talking about it or seeming to care so much - mine is exactly the same. I think it is just because they don't have the hormonal up and down through the month that we do, so when we are at the gloom and doom phase they are in the constant they have. We have had many a ding dong over it.

Offloaded!

Hi slightly. Welcome welcome and sorry that you got your period. I am also v regular.

I am v interested about the immune test. What is that please? I get hay fever and ezcema which is basically because my body is too sensitive to stuff and I also have negative blood (this is only relevant for a second pregnancy and given that I have never been pregnant it is ridiculous that I am already aware of this) but I have wondered if my natural over hyped defences have got something to do with the fact that it isn't sodding well happening.

I too have been told to have acupuncture but this involves DH as well and so far I have left it as it's stressful enough doing the iui and being involved with two clincs. Are you also doing iui? Is IVF something you are thinking about? How old are you?