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?

Welcome lumili best of luck we will all be routing for you

Thank you bugsylugs.

I was just wondering if any of you are at the London Womens Clinic?

Hi everyone, not sure if you remember me from a few months ago....I still recognise quite a few names! Really sorry to hear sad news from some of you ladies in recent weeks, and I am keeping fingers my crossed that these next cycles are lucky for all of us...I have had a huge amount of support from ladies on this thread and I am very grateful for that

Chutney I am at Hammersmith, but I have not cycled anywhere else so nowhere to compare to. It's a large and very busy unit, the doctors and nurses have (on the whole) been wonderful. It is very close to home and I can do scans at 7am and get into work on time, which has been quite important for me. The only thing that's been frustrating (except of course that I haven't yet had a BFP!) is that it feels like decisions are taken out of your hands. E.g. I have had quite a few cycles cancelled for various reasons and you just get a phonecall with the 'decision' without much chance to discuss it unless you insist on speaking with one of the senior doctors who make the decisions on each patient at their daily meeting. They are also undoubtedly very conservative, and their success rates are pretty bog standard...so I don't know really...If you want any more info or have any specific questions please do ask x

As for me, I am starting another frozen cycle next weekend, with buserelin (boo), Oestrogen patches and (bizarrely) Viagra this cycle in a last ditch attempt to get my useless womb lining to thicken. I have 4 frosties but haven't been able to use them as my lining has been so thin :( I had my appt with my consultant a couple of weeks ago and he said if this didn't work the only option would be Surrogacy....so I am really feeling the pressure too.

Anyway hope you all have relaxing Sunday evenings xxxx

Hi Dannygirl have seen your name in the past. good luck.
Hope everyone had a good weekend

Morning all!

Welcome to the thread lumili, hopefully this will be your lucky cycle! Dannygirl, good to see you on here, but bad too, if you get what I mean?! Sorry the last cycle didn't work for you, maybe the viagra will do the trick this time?

Those who've done FET before, how long after the scan to check the womb lining can you typically expect to have the transfer? I know everyone is different, but I'm trying to get a steer (mainly so I can try to keep my diary clear of meetings and gatherings!).

Good luck Lumili - fingers crossed for a great crop this Saturday - a lot can change/improve in just a few days follicle wise.

dannygirl yes I remember you - keeping my fingers crossed for your womb lining to get juicy. I've heard Viagra does really work...

jumping not long for you to wait now... how are the pills going? I didn't realise you have to take 3 pills a day after the sprays!! Do you remember all the time... i'll need to set an alarm on my phone I think

I had my meeting with the nurse at Guys last Friday - she couldn't have been nicer and more encouraging - I think she saw that I was a bit down about how successful we would be this time round. anyway the embryos we have frozen are a good grade, so really hope that that means one of them just might stick!

Got my first accupuncture treatment this Thursday (the day i start the buserelin sprays), and i'm going to ask him what sort of things I should eat that could make things stickier in the womb area! Will let you all know what he says! anyway if all goes to plan I should be FET-ing w/c 19th March... phew.

Hope you are all having happy Mondays (the day not the band!) today!
ZB

Morning All! It's a sunny one isn't it! sorry for the gap in posts... work suddenly took off and I haven't been able to think about anything else... which I suppose is a good thing as it's made the time go very quickly given the fact AF STILL HASN'T ARRIVED. It's now day... about a million... and there was talk last week of the clinic inducing a bleed (sorry - icky). However I got a call yesterday saying that they have had a think and they want to give me a couple more weeks to try to have a natural cycle... so back playing the waiting game. It seems so unfair as I'm really nearly there with getting started on IVF, all I need to do it get back to day 1, and my body is just playing tricks on me now... BIG SIGH....

Anyway, enough of my whinging. lumili Welcome! Everyone on here is really lovely, and I hope this time round is THE ROUND. I'm doing Satellite IVF at Bourne Hall, but I've seen good things about the London Womens Clinic on here.
Pumpkin I loved your "rant" - It's exactly how I feel some days - just shouting from the roof tops I WANT ONE!!! But we are supposed to be all dignified and quiet about how much we want a baby aren't we... thank goodness for MN that's what I say. Also, please can I come to your house for Valentines Day? Sounds like your dinner was delicious!
Lizzie So sorry for your news. Hope you are feeling ok?
Zeebee Waves. Sounds like you are in a 'waiting stage' too... any tips to distract yourself? Maybe we can share them! I also know what you mean about juggling work and cycles... I haven't told my work yet... it's tricky because I'm a freelancer and I'm worried that they will stop giving me contracts if they think I'm going to start being flaky. And because I haven't got anything to compare this too I have no idea how it's going to make me feel... I guess I will see...
Ellan Congratulations! It's so nice to read good news on here. Wishing you the best for a nice smooth pregnancy from now on!
Jumping All the best for the 1st March... only ten days now... good luck!
Bugsy sounds like you are having a time of it - there's so much conflicting information isn't there! I am also finding (I'm sure this is common) that Drs seem to change their minds a lot! Best of luck with your next appointment.
Waves to Everyone else! Happy Tuesday everyone!

Millymoo do you need to tell your work right now? No one here knows I'm doing this (frankly it's none of their business, plus I can duck out for appointments quite easily as the clinic is close by). I'd worry about the office chatter and also find the pressure of more people knowing quite hard to deal with.

zeebee yup, 3 pills a day but they can all be taken at once, so I usually have them just before I go to bed (they can make me feel quite icky, so this minimises the urge to want to throw up!). I have alarms on my phone for the buserelin though! I take it every 12 hours, which sometimes means I'm in a loo cubicle at work or in a bar/restaurant snorting - people over-hearing must think I'm doing lines of coke or something!

Hope everyone is well!

news flash... we have spotting... I actually just did a dance in the loo...

Sorry - that last post was just way too much TMI!

Jumping I totally know what you mean. I don't really want anyone at work to know. The problem is that I work in London but live nearer Cambridge so unless I manage to get really early appointments I'm going to have to take some mornings off. I think if I do tell anyone it will only be my line manager who I really trust - but there is nothing worse than office tittle-tattle - and I don't think I can stand anymore sympathetic looks! I think at the moment I'm just going to play it by ear. It's really interesting to hear that you haven't told work, I think I just assumed I would have to at some point, so it's good to hear of an experience where you haven't.

Waves to all

Hello,

I started DR this morning, I'm using suprecur nasal spray. Anyone else at the same stage as me?

I have told work, and pretty much anyone else who'll listen!

Millymoo I guess in that case you might need to tell your line manager if you have to go to apts which will interrupt your work. I work with a lot of freelancers, so appreciate it's not easy to be as flexible and just pop out (especially if your clinic isn't close to work).

Hey Karbea, how are you feeling?

While our parents and just a couple of close friends know we're doing this, none know we're currently doing the FET - the pressure of mums asking how we're doing every five minutes grew a little too much! I know they mean well but we thought for this FET we'd keep quiet.

I am miffed that one of my best friends told another friend (who I'm not that close to) - who then decided a big gathering was the opportune moment to bring it up with me and try to have a big 'deep and meaningful' over it (and then ignored by 'please keep this to yourself' request and started it all up again to my DH at another social gathering - the first time she'd even met him in fact, which totally winded him!).

Of course we started this process under the dreamy illusion that we'd be able to do it quietly and then just be able to announce a happy pregnancy to family and friends in the 'usual' way, without them knowing about the ivf. Fools that we were!

I feeling fine at the mo, when did you all start feeling side effects?

hi all. Karbea I never really felt any side effects with suprecur.

Interesting regarding the telling work or not debate. I did in the end right before my last round and at the time I don't think anyone other than my line mgr twigged. I think now though lots of people have twigged, because everyone has randomly started being extremely sweet to me and i seem to have developed a work buffer around me where i'm not getting any stressful jobs to do! i thought i'd hate that because i'm very private but actually its just made me relax a bit and stop worrying. Af is arriving as we speak so i should be popping my first FET pills by thurs or fri.

Hope everyone else is well, sorry not to name check you all. By the way i've got really into these meditation / relaxation cd's, i find they really help me chill out. I also happen to have loads of blank cds so if anyone wants a copy (and isn't a copywright lawyer) then PM me somewhere to send it to. x

Morning all. On the to tell or not to tell debate I told some but then our clinic is 1.5 hrs away and no early appointments and if you are booked for 8 so are several other ladies so no guarantee when you get back very diff in my line of work. Did not realise appt system when I chose .
Carebear hope all goes well wOuld love a Cd have the Zita one hubbie thinks I was a pain.
Karbea had no side effects with any of the drugs buserlin menopar or gonal-f of course dh disagrees was stressed though but work did not notice anything.

Hi all, hope everyone is well.

Off to the clinic again today for another scan to see what is happening to the follicles..... very nervous. They told us on Monday that egg collection would be Friday or Saturday - today they should confirm...

Dannygirl - good luck with your frozen cycle, my fingers are crossed :-)

Jumping - this time aroud we are on the short protocol, first scan was on Monday 13 Feb and the egg collection is likely to be this Saturday 25 feb - so only 13 days from checking the lining to egg collection. This is the first time that we have done the short protocol, so we are not used to it being this quick.

Zeebee - Thank you. Good luck with your cycle.

Millymoo - Thank you, great news on the spotting :-)

xxx

Bugsy, of course, just PM me somewhere to send it to. Don't think they will play in a cd player, they are MP3 files on a disk so will need to be used via computer / phone / mp3 player etc. x

Karbea I only had a few side effects on buserelin, none really with the last round of deregging (can't remember the name of that drug).

Carebear & Bugsy my Zita CD should be arriving today - looking forward to zoning out to that tonight, anything that helps!

Sadly I don't get to avoid work stress, it seems to flow up the ladder here and I'm at the mercy of (v demanding and sometimes unreasonable) clients, so looking to the CDs, chocolate, cakes and pampering treats to help manage it!

lumili, hope the scan goes well today and there's a good number of fat and juicy follicles!

Hi,

Well there are 6 follicles above the line, but they are hoping for a few more to catch up, so back to the clinic tomorrow and egg collection will now be either Sturday or put back to Monday.

Fingers crossed
xxx

Keeping them crossed for you lumili, a sudden spurt isn't uncommon!

Hi All Sorry haven't posted for a couple of weeks. Work went a bit manic and I get too scared to post from my iPhone!

Milly Is AF showing any signs of arriving?*

Congrats to Rakkers and Ellan. Fab news and I hope all goes well and is uneventful.

Lizzie I was so, so worry to read your news. Such a crashing low.

Polly When is your betaHCG booked for? Can't be long now?

Welcome to Chutney and Lumili. Lumili Hope all goes well for EC on Sat or Monday.

Jumping Sadly I can't answer your question as to when they do a FET. My clinic tracks a natural unmedicated cycle for those who are regular and ovulate. I was monitored from day 11 until ovulation was pinpointed, and then the transfer should have been 5 days after that.

Interesting debate about whether to tell work or not. I opted to. I live a few minutes away from my clinic, but I commute just over an hour to get to work. Regular late arrival meant I needed to tell my boss, and I also opted to tell some of my colleagues on the management team. I only told one of my reports though - she covers for me when I'm going to be in late otherwise it doesn't look good! My peers have been very supportive.

Bugsy My clinic offers a very similar appointment system to yours. As everybody wants a first thing appointment during monitoring, they don't give out appointment slots, but just tell you to turn up between 8am and 9.30am. Patients are seen in the order they arrive. It's really frustrating. Unless you're queuing outside in the cold from 7.30am, there's always a number of women in front! This means there is always a wait, and it's generally an hour to hour and a half after arrival that you finally get to escape. Not good for me with a long commute. Sometimes, I try to work from home on a monitoring day, start at 8am and then drive down there at 9.15am. Turn up just before clinic ends and get through really quickly!!! The 'system' or lack of is so stressful, but I think the clinic is very good and so I've stuck with them.

Well, exciting news for me. I took my shot of Ovitrelle last night and am scheduled for EC tomorrow at 9.45am! On Monday's scan they could see 10 follicles on the right and 6 on the left, although my left ovary is in completely the wrong place due to surgery, so there could be more that they simply couldn't visualise. We got 12 eggs on my last fresh cycle, so fingers crossed they might manage more this time. They took me on a day longer than last time to try to grow the follicles a bit more.

Knackeredmum exciting and excellent news. Waggle dances for those eggs tomorrow

Morning All! Wow, it's warm today! I had a lovely walk along the river into work - I hope it stays like this now (but it will probably snow next week again won't it!).

Anyway, I thought I would announce that I am now officially surfing the crimson wave! Hurrah!

It's my Day 2. So yesterday I made a call to the the clinic (in the work loos in a hushed voice!) letting them know and know it's just about arranging my drug delivery and I can get started in a couple of weeks.

I am really excited. I know that it's likely that it won't work first time, but I've decided that I'm just going to try to stay really positive this time around.

Last night I went out for cocktails (only 2!) with a good friend of mine and then had yummy italian food... I wanted to think of it as a last slightly boozy, glamorous night out, so that now I can properly start a nice health kick in preparation. No more wine for me! and I'm going to try and eat more vegetables (glances at banana and tomatoes bought on the way in - check!).

Anyway, sorry about the me, me, me entry, I just wanted to get down how I was feeling - maybe I'll look back in a month or so and read through it!

Thanks for all the AF dances - they worked!

Lumili - Good luck for Sunday or Monday!

Knackered Good luck for today! Will be thinking waggly thoughts!

Karbea I guess I'll be about 13 days behind you, so I'll learn from any experiences or advice you have! best of luck with the coming weeks!

Thanks Everyone for the work advice It's really helpful to have other perspectives on it. For now I'm just laying low.

Happy Thursdays to you ALL!

Literally just had my EC - my clinic uses quite light sedation so wide awake although resting in recovery room. Over the moon though. We got 16 eggs!

That's great news Knackered! 16 is a fab number - keeping everything crossed for some good 24-hour hatching action!

Millymoo you're attitude is spot on - being positive about it all is defo the best way to approach it. Don't think that it's not going to happen for you on the first go - your chances don't increase the more times you've been through it so start as you mean to go on!