Assisted Conception (and all the bits that go with it) volume 9

[Scrummybumb]

A new snug for us AC ladies

Hi All

Hope we are all enjoying this burst of sunshine. Never know how long it's going to last, so I say get amongst it.

Josie luv I am glad you had gotten some good news finally. You certainly have made an improvement from the first scan. I love your fighting spirit, at the risk of sounding very corny "you go girl". When do they think you'll have your IUI?

Italian sorry things have been so complicated for you. I really really hope you can go ahead. You've been through so much already.

Scrummy I was hoping we might be cycle buddies again but it looks like you might be starting quite soon. I hope your FSH does behave and you get to start when you had planned. I know how deflated you can feel when things get pushed back. Fingers crossed for you.

Was wondering how you all felt about Acupuncture and if it was worth it with AC? I've had Acupuncture before for other things and always felt it was great. I know some people say it's just the placebo affect but I've also read quite a bit of research saying how it can go hand in hand with IVF. We are down to have ICSI, and I'll be having a Pipelle procedure (have you ladies heard of this/had it done? It's supposed to increase chances of implantation by up to 50%) so am just wondering if we should go the whole hog and have some Acupuncture as well?

Big hugs to all, sorry for not name-checking as well! More later! oxox

Sunnyg - I had ICSI and had acupuncture throughout down reggging, stimmying and then before and after ET. I know it's divisive - my sister, who is a vet and always wants to see the evidence, was v scathing but I thought it was invaluable. At the very least, it's extremely relaxing (especially before and after ET) and certainly won't do any harm.

I had mine at Zita West and I know she gets a lot of bad press, but if you are in London I would highly recommend. My uterus lining was distinctly average during stimmying and after a couple of sessions of acupuncture it was 10.9mm and had a triple stripe lining. I credit that to the acu but will never know for sure. I think there was a German study that showed acupuncture on the day of ET increased success rates by up to 25%...Ultimately it made me feel much more positive and empowered.

I've never heard of the Pipelle procedure - how does it work?

Josie, good luck with the IUI :)

Enjoy the gorgeous sunny evening everyone. x

Italian - any further decisions about continuing with treatment? That's a really tough place to be in right now and am hoping it will get easier for you.

Badger I am glad first injections weren't bad and idea of treats may be one I have to copy.

Josie yay for progress on the size of follicles. Fingers crossed there is further progress for here.

I'm doing alright, just waiting for AF so can start injections. seriously never been so keen for it to show up! Predictably it will probably pay bookie for a few days now.

Hugs to all

Hi sorry not been on for long. Just do not seem to have the time to read and write when dh is not about. We are in London having avert relaxing adult time. For those who have not seen the lion king on stage absolutely fabulous. Card has been cloned whilst here how dare they try to curb my spending
italian just read that you are significantly anaemic few questions do you have very heavy periods? Can you find out what you MCV was were your platelets normal and did they check your ferritin B 13 and folate before starting iron? 8 odd is not acceptable unless v heavy periods and GP should not be dismissing it. Pm me if you want. Will being anaemic lower your chances? Sooty lots of questions ignore if you rather but am surprised GP maybe if print this

Josie honey HUGS HUGS HUGS wishing you all the very best to my wonderful WONDERFUL cycle buddy.

Bugsylugs Thanks for your concern, I am on iron tablets now and I am sure I will be fine. I feel a whole lot better now I am not on the beta blockers and my breathlessness and palpitations have pretty much stopped. I went for a walk today with a friend and I felt better than I have for ages. I did have a bleed while on Buseralone and it was big one. I do not normally have periods any more.

Sunnyg and Mini yes we are continuing. I feel fine. I am quite excited now!

Thanks for asking.

Hugs to all.

PS Bugsylugs, not sure how I can message you but feel free to email me my name is my name on here, my immaginary age - 39 - and it is at yaho dot co dot uk

All the best and thanks for your concern.

Thanks SunnyG I've never had acupuncture but it seems to be common in people going through IVF. As Maple said, if nothing else, it will help you to relax

MiniH good luck starting the injections, fingers crossed it's soon

Bugsy hope you are having a fab time in London but scary about your card being cloned! I always fancied Lion King on stage

Italian fab news that you are continuing and that you're feeling better. Look after yourself cycle buddy, HUGS to you too

Scan this morning went really well, my lining is thick enough and both follicles have grown to 15-16mm each so I'm booked in for IUI on Friday afternoon! I'm so unbelievably excited, although my test is Friday 13th, dum dum duuuum.... Good thing I'm not superstitious! I nearly cried when the nurse told me the progress I'd made. I've not been singing the praises of the clinic recently but the nurses I've seen the past few times have been really really helpful. The nurse who fought for us on Monday popped in to say hi and see how we got on, she was really pleased

Wow Josie that is fabulous news after such an up and down start to the week - just read up on iui and I have everything crossed for you :)

Italian - pleased you are feeling so much better - get out in the sun and top up your vitamin d levels !!!!!

AFM I only went and got the job I didn't bloody well want because it was every day. Think I will take it and hope that in time I can change to mornings instead of afternoons or even condense hours into full days instead of 5 x half day - we shall see.....

Had letter from consultant referring us for HSG so just waiting for that to come through - felt a bit funny reading his diagnosis in black and white - seems more final now - did any of you feel like that?

Pocket and mojangled hope you are both doing ok and waves at everybody else!!!

Enjoy the weather whilst it lasts:) :)

X

Josie That is fantastic news - so pleased for you :) Good luck on Friday - exciting times!

Italian - Hope the iron tablets are continuing to do their thing :)

Hope everyone else is well and out enjoying the sunshine.

x

Thank you all, will update you after the 'procedure'

Lexie I know exactly what you mean. It's like you've got your head in the sand until it's in black and white, then you suddenly realise 'actually, there could be something wrong!' Sorry, don't want to scare you, there might be nothing wrong, that's just how it feels

Josie SOOOOOOO fab. REALLY well done.

lexie well done on the job front.

Hugs to all.

josie that is fab news! You must be very proud of yourself! Keeping everything crossed for you.

italian really glad to hear you are feeling better. Hand in there

josie that's fab news so glad you had someone fighting your corner and giving you a chance.
Sorry about all my typos obviously meant B 12
Back home for the night then we are going to Thomas land tomorrow. Cannot wait guess it will be crowded with the weather.
Hubbie needs to go back to cons as they cannot understand the drastic drop in sperm numbers and also motility going from 75 % to 0 have to say am perplexed. Cannot get apps with recurrent m/c clinic until 20 th June sods law I am meant to be at work and so v long do they not realise I am an old g** and that will be 6 months after m/c so decreases chances of success. Oh and joys it is in the early pregnancy unit how unfeeling! Must stop ranting.
Keep spirits up all

Bugsylugs all best wishes for your treatment.

Bugsy how insensitive to have it in the early pregnancy unit honestly sometimes people higher up the ladder just don't think about what they're doing. I hope it goes well though and that you get some answers. Enjoy Thomas land (not that I know what it is )

Lexie congrats on getting the job, even though you didn't really want it. You never know, it might turn out to be ideal, but I hope you can change the hours

Thank you all for the well wishes, we're incredibly incredibly excited! I'm not reading up on IUI as I don't want to know the statistics. The nurse did say we've got less of a chance than with IVF, but you just never know

Just passing through quickly and wanted to say great news Josie. Fx for you and dp

Hi to everyone - will do proper update later

x

Josie THINK POSITIVE! It?s a chance and a good one. I got pregnant second IUI with one follicle. I think you have two follicles so that is a good chance for you.

Hey pocket what is next for you?

Mojangles what?s happening with you my dear?

Bugsylugs thanks for your kind and helpful message by email.

HUGS to you all. Scrummy, Lexie, weller, Maplecake BadgerFace, Keziah, Lissy, Mini, Sunnyg, weller and all and baby dust and chocolate boobs to all

GREAT news, things are going well for me......... although at first seemed very sad ......

I got a call this morning to say that the 6-celled one (Jenever) had not made it at all and only 1 cell remained of the formerly 4-celled one (May). I was very shocked because I really thought the 6-celled one would make it. The 4-celled one was basically now too small, they like 50% of the cells to survive (and later it just stopped altogether). I was really sad and thought that was it but I just carried on with what I was doing and tried not to think of it. I was so excited when a while later I realised my phone ringer was not working and there were four missed calls to call the clinic! So I called and they said that the 8-celled one had survived intact. We went up the clinic and Serentis was put inside me with a relatively simple procedure. It is now a waiting game for just over two weeks.

Hugs and best wishes to all.

Woo hoo! That's fantastic news Italian. Serentis is here to stay, I'm sure of it. Hope you're taking it easy - sounds like a rollercoaster of a day. Hugs to all. xx

WOW WOW WOW Italian that's really fantastic, how exciting to have the little one on board. And Josie REALLY great news on those follies and good luck tomorrow - go follies go. Sending positive/sticky vibes - you both really deserve this. X

Thanks Scrummy for the immumes info. Very helpful as part of my ongoing investigations!

Sunny I'm having my first accupuncture on Saturday - I'm a bit scared (needles!!) but I'm told its great for IVF and I'm even more up for it now after Maple's comments. I'm afraid I haven't heard of Pipelle but anything that increases the chances of success gets a huge thumbs up from me.

Maple how is your 2ww going? Hope you're managing to stay reletaively rested and calm. When are you testing? Everything is crossed for you

Bugsy sorry you?ve got to wait so long for your appt (and what a crap place to have to go - what is wrong with these people?).

Well done on the job Lexie don?t think about the hours at the mo, think about all the little babygrows you'll be able to buy!! I know what you mean about seeing your prognosis in writing - very weird feeling. Any idea how long you'll have to wait for your HSG? I havent had one but i understand its a fairly simple procedure

Massive hats off to all of you self-injecting - I cant imagine how difficult that is. I've booked in my downreg jab (mid April) options are one jab at the clinic (which gave me the most awful headaches last time) or a series of jabs I could do myself. I've gone for the former as i just cant face diy - you're all much braver than me

Big wave to Weller, Mojangled and Mini hope you're all doing well xxx

Pocket I've been doing acupuncture since the new year in preparation of IVF and was a bit worried at first because of the needles but it is absolutely fine. Tiny prick and then you can't even feel them. And you can shut your eyes if it freaks you out!

Italian woohoo! Go Serentis Go . I have everything possible crossed for you.

Josie lots and lots of luck for you tomorrow

And big hello to everyone else!

Italian that is bloody fantastic news. Go Serentis go. Hope your time on the bench goes quickly. BTW Apprentice was good stuff last night, love those cheesy one-liners!

Bugsy that is ridiculous having you in with the lucky ones. I agree Josie very insensitive. You are being very calm, good for you, sometimes it's better to save your energy for more important things!

Lexie well done on getting the job. No mean feat, it's a ridiculous tough market out there. I hope you get the hours you want.

Pocket luv good luck for your acupuncture tomorrow Let me know how you like it. I've had it before for other things, as mentioned and found the needles no problem at all. Maple excellent to hear you had it for your IVF and found it useful. A Pipelle procedure is something my clinic has only started doing since Jan. It's a fairly simple procedure where the doc will insert a catheter into the uterus and just stir things around. I imagine it won't be any more uncomfortable than a HSG or similar. Apparently it can increase the chance of implantation by up to 50%. It's not cheap though (when is anything cheap in the world of fertility treatments?!?) it's going to cost 250 pounds!

Scrummy any news? Still starting on time?

And a big big good luck to Josie for tomorrow. Remember luv it only takes 1 swimmer and 1 egg.

Big hugs to everyone else. Here comes Friday! oxoxo

Thanks Badgerface and Sunny am feeling a little braver. And good tip about closing my eyes too.

thanks to all and hugs to all.

JOSIE darling all best wishes for tomorrow cycle buddy.

Best wishes to everyone.

Italian!!! That's amazing news! Sorry to hear the other 2 didn't make it, but fantastic that you've got one on board!! We'll be on the 2ww at exactly the same time then seeing as mine starts today too. And thank you for telling me you got pg with only one, I'm really really scared that it won't work and I'll be heartbroken, but I'm just trying not to think about it, I'll deal with it IF it happens, but your comment cheered me up Go cycle buddy go!!!

Loving the dance Lucy

Thanks for you wishes lovely ladies, I'm so nervous, but really excited, I'm going to make babies!! I'm already bloody attached to them