IVF/ICSI/FET - any more for any more?

[jumpingjackhash]

Hi all, we're about to start FET following an unsuccessful round of ICSI last year (well, we got the bfp, but then I miscarried shortly after ). But... time to get back on the bike and go again...

Anyone else going through this?

Wendyb65 - Hi, congratulations on your positive pregnancy test, fingers crossed it all goes well. :)

Josiesmith1 - The first and second time around we had buserelin to down regulate, from what I remember I dont think your period arrives.... oh actually I am not sure.... when are you due to start your other drugs to stimulate?

Knackeredcow - Congratulations on your 2 good blastocysts, good luck with the transfer. We would have chosen to have 2 good blastocysts out back as well, if given the chance. My fingers are very tightly crossed that everything goes well. We have been given the date of 13 March to do the pregancy test, you will be around the same time as us, may be before as you have had a blastocyst transfer.

Jumpingjackhash - What drugs are you on and are you on the long or short protocol? My DP had the same sedation that she had for the egg collection, as she found the last transfer that she had so painful. So it is possible. Which clinic are you with? We are with the London womens Clinic.

Hi te everyone else, I hope you are all well.

xxx

Hi lumili I hope you're feeling more positive after yesterday? I've got until 14th March before I start the menopur to stimulate, feel a bit in limbo at the moment, it'd be nice if the clininc perhaps phoned once a week or something like that to see how you're getting on, and as a bit of support really. Anyway, it'll come quicker than I think and I reckon from starting the stims to final transfer will go quite quickly. I hope so anyway! Then the dreaded 2ww!

Morning all, Wow - you don't check in for a couple of days and you miss all the action! What a lot of weekend activity!

Lumili I'm really sorry you didn't get as many embies as you hoped, it must have been extra dissapointing after that brilliant number of eggs. But as everyone else is saying it only takes ONE! Keep positive vibes for little 'lucky the embie' who is currently snuggling into his/her womb-duvet (is that disgusting or cute, I can't decide?). Have my fingers and toes crossed for you!

Lizzie just sending nice thoughts in your general direction, hope you are not feeling too rough.

Josie sorry to hear the bruising is rough. I'm s**ting myself about the injections... the nurses keep telling me that it will be fine and I know diabetics do it all the time, but the idea is just so scary... I'm sure I'll get used to it though. Arnica gel sounds like a good tip.

Pumpkin I feel your AF pain - as you may have read on here mine just took 56 days to arrive and I was bouncing off the walls! I am doing an AF dance for you right now... hope it arrives soon for you!

Knackered Best of luck with everything today! Will be thinking of you! Let us know how it goes.

Rakkers may your sicky feelings continue (feels weird saying that but you know what I mean!). Wishing you all the best with your scan!

Zeebee I don't have any funny sniffing stories yet, but knowing my ridiculous schedule I'm sure I will come up with some soon. Hope you're ok?

*Jumping - good luck for Thursday! I'm sure if you tell the clinic about your concerns they might be able to help? My clinic have been surprisingly liberal when it comes to planning pain relief. My DH has been asking if he can be sedated too - Oh dear!

HAPPY TUESDAYS TO YOU ALL!

Lol millymoo! Re. the injections though, don't worry. The thought of them is worse then the deed. What are you going to be on?

lumili I'm on long - buserelin (down to 2 sniffs a day since starting the oestrogen), Progynova for the oestrogen (3 tabs a day). Not been suffering too many side-effects on the Progynova, just the odd bit of queasyness. We're at Guys, they've not mentioned sedation or anything during transfer, but last time the consultant said it might be 'a little uncomfortable' and told me off for jumping as he's scraping my cervix. It was awful! Felt like asking him how the hell he'd know - I mean it's not as though he's been through it himself!

I felt so much better prepared for the last icsi round, probably because it was our first bash at it, so I asked tons of questions and was at the hospital for more appointments, so had the opportunity to speak to the nurses more. Now I'm constantly worrying about whether I'm taking the drugs properly (according to the schedule they gave me I am, but still...) and when do I start on the next lot (the delightful pessaries!)...?

Does this mean I'm being more relaxed about this? Or just really poorly prepared?!

Millymoo I have a phobia of needles so I was terrified!! So if I can do it, trust me, you can too They sting a bit, I'm finding at the moment they sting when they go in, then I can't feel it, and although I'm a bit sore after, it lasts about 5 seconds (DH counts me down once it's in, which helps loads because I know it's nearly over as soon as it's begun) but the needles are really really fine so they're not as bad as you expect. But I still have to hold DHs hand, shut my eyes and concentrate on breathing slowly and not panicking. I'd like to say it's getting easier but it's not, but it's also not getting any harder. That was supposed to make you feel better by the way! My clinic had me in to practice before we started so I knew what it felt like and what to expect. I think it really helped otherwise I would have really freaked out when I did my first injection!

Josiesmith1 - Yes feeling much more positive, this 2 week wait is dreadful though. What clinic are you at? It seems that different clinics have different ways of doing things. 14 March will come around quick enough, and you will start your stimulation drugs and be one step closer to the egg collection :)

Millymoo1234 - we were very very dispointed to have only had 1 egg fertilise, however now that the transfer has been done and after the embryologist told us that our embryo was a better quality this time around thatn the very first time, we feel much more positive. I like the thought of the embryo snuggling into his/her womb duvet, very cute....

Lizziebennet - I am glad that you are able to sleep now and hope that your bleeding does start very soon.

Jumpingjackhash - We had the long protocol the first two times and the short protocol this time around. We are on different medication to you so unsure how long you will be until your egg coolection, has your clinic not given you some idea? Please do speak to your clinic about sedation for your egg transfer, we chose to have sedation for our egg transfer this time around as we felt that it would better and the doctor would be able to get the embroy inserted into the correct place first time, without worrying about my DP being in pain. I don't think you are poorly prepared, maybe just a bit more relaxed because you have been through the process before??

xxx

Thanks lumili. We're doing FET this time, so our embie (the only one left from our first round of icsi) is currently on ice, no collection, just transfer. Hopefully.

Typically, after a reasonably quiet couple of weeks work is seriously going crazy - trying not to book in too many meetings I can't get out of or send someone else in my place if I need to go in for transfer at short notice so hoping they don't want to do it this Friday!

jumping - Didn't realise you were going FET, sorry. That is always the way with work, but it can't be helped. Do your work know you are going through this process? I don't really know how the FET works, do you have any idea when the transfer will be?

xxx

No lumili, I'm not telling work, tbh I can get out to most appointments OK so until there's a need to tell them I'm keeping it to myself. I'm hoping transfer will be over the weekend - that I can cope with! Either then or early next week when I can get someone to cover any meetings for me.

Jumping that is always a difficult one whether to tell work or not. My DP had to tell her work as she had to keep going for scans and then the egg collection and transfer fell at the end of the month and as she works in accounts this is the busiest time for them and normally no holiday is allowed. As she wanted to take some time off after the egg transfer she had to tell them and we were lucky as they were ok. They have known for over a year now and have been nothing but supportive. I can imagine that others have not been so lucky though! Here's hoping that the transfer is this weekend, fingers crossed :)

xxx

Hi,
Wondered if I could join you. Had a failed IVF cycle last November . I responded well for my age (41) but no fertilisation. Recently decided to go for it again. Started drugs for a short protocol 3 days ago to hopefully try ICSI this time. Felt really hormonal couple of days ago, but seems to have settled a bit. . Wishing you all the best of luck x

Hi Raspberryjam welcome. Good luck with the short protocol, we did that this time around, and managed to retrieve 11 eggs, however only 1 fertilised. We had that transferred yesterday. It was a good embryo so fingers crossed, as all the ladies say on this thread, it only takes 1 :) How many eggs did you get last time around? My clinic suggested that we do ICSI for all 3 IVFs that we have had, we are so glad we did for this cycle. xxx

Welcome Raspberryjam Good luck for your second cycle

Thanks ladies for the encouragement. Here's hoping lumili that your one will make it this time. I had 8 eggs retrieved which was better than they predicted, but nothing to transfer back. Hope your wish comes true lumili xxx

welcome raspberryjam. hope this cycle goes better. I had ICSI Dec HB at 7 weeks but mmc at 9. now waiting till I can do bloods re recurrent MC. and abit [envious] of all those who cycled similar time andare on the journey again. I am an oldie older than you oh dear.

That must have been devastating bugsylugs. Here's hoping the bloods are ok and you can try another cycle soon. I do feel the time pressure, being a bit of an oldie, but I needed a bit of time to get in the right frame of mind first. Trying to be optimistic but not too hopeful. Hope it works out for you.

Hi all

Lumili best of luck for the 2WW, hope your emby is settling in well.

Jumping our clinic said for FET they would start me on the progesterone (oh those lovely pessaries, can't wait!) at about day 14 and transfer back a 5 day blast about a week later, so about day 21. But I think they can flex it depending on the thickness of the lining etc. Does that sound about right? I'm on Progynova too and feel great on it so far, about from the odd rosy cheek. No Buserelin for me this time. It does make me a bit why they use the different drugs?

Knackered hope everything went great yesterday, let us know how you got on.

Josie and Milly I found the whole injection thing really quite odd last time too, best of luck with it. I went either side of my belly button, and got DH to do the 'shooting up' bit, which he loved - he seemed to think he was in trainspotting or something

I'm interested in the idea of sedation for ET, I found it really quite painful and distressing last time, has anyone else been told they can elect for this?

anyway, happy wednesdays, and positive vibes all round. x

Evening All!

Just checking in.

Wishing Jumping good luck for tomorrow!

Lumili one more day down on the 2WW - hurrah - hope it's going quickly for you and you and you are not going too mad!

Carebear and Josie thanks for the needle tips - bleaurgh - I'm not looking forward to it, but I'm just going to have to get down and do it aren't I? I'll just have to grit my teeth and think of the lovely result at the end of it hopefully.

Only 13 days to starting the downregging now... woo hoo! (I know I will regret saying that when I'm sad, spotty, headachey and sleepy!)

Hello Raspberry, welcome! Best of luck with things to come.

Bugsy when do you do your bloods? When can you start again, so sad to hear about your mmc, it must have been so horrible for you.

Last thing for everyone here - our clinic offers free counselling - has anyone else had this service? Is it helpful? I'm quite tempted to book in a session, not because I'm very sad right now, but just because i think it might help me deal with things later on... what do people think? I've never had counselling before for anything, but I think it's a really good thing.

Hey there all.

Hope you DP is taking it easy lumili and the 2WW is going ok.

Welcome Raspberryjam, hope this one works for you! Keep us posted as you go through it.

Carebear I'm getting quite confused now - it seems we're all on different drug regimes and protocols so it's hard to work out where we all are in comparison! I'm just about to run out of my buserelin, so guessing (hoping!) I'm going to be finishing with that any day. From our icsi last year I remember starting on Cyclogest progesterone pessaries the day of our egg collection, ready for transfer (we had 2x 3-dayers transferred then), so I can only assume that if the Progynova has done the job by the scan tomorrow, I'll start on the Cyclogest then (in addition to the Progynova), prepping for transfer in a few days? Frosty is a 5-dayer, so hopefully he'll defrost OK and stick!

Waves to bugsy

Just a quick hello from me. Now got two blastocysts safely on board. They were both good quality, although not the top quality that we had in my last fresh cycle, but then we only had one put back on that attempt. BetaHCG booked for 8th March... just 8 sleeps to go!

Milly I've used my clinic's counselling service. It's been a really positive experience. I go alone and without my DH. I've used it to help me work out how to manage the competing demands of IVF and my job and the fact that I feel like a failure at both at the minute

Welcome to raspberry

Raspberryjam and carebear1 thank you.

Millymoo1234 the 2 WW is dragging, it always does! We have had some counselling, only just before we started the IVF process. I don't really like to talk about my feelings, so found the whole thing a bit awkward, but if you are open to it I would say go for it, it may help.

jumping good luck with your scan, let us know how it goes.

Knackered great news about your 2 embies being on board, fingers crossed for you. I can't believe that you have your test on 8 march, we have been told to wait until 13 march to do our pregnancy test.

xxx

Milly I've not had ferility related counselling but when my self esteem was at an all time low due to fertility testing and bullying at work, and also extreme shyness, I found it incredibly helpful. I am now a much better balanced person and I think it's really helped me go into the IVF feeling a lot more confident. I lost a lot of confidence in my job and through working with the counsellor I now feel like an equal to everyone, instead of being a failure. My clininc also offers free counselling and I would definitely consider it if I felt I needed it.

Can I ask if anyone is using donor eggs? I have a high chance of not responding to the menopur and not producing enough follicles, and donor egs have been mentioned as a possibility. At first we said definitely not, but now I think I might consider it if it's our only option. I just wondered how people came to terms with it, and if you worry how you'll deal with a child that's half DHs but not yours. I worry that I'll see DH in a child but feel jealous that there's none of me. Anyway, it's just a possibility. I hate the idea that if I don't respond it's the end of the road, so this is another option for us