TTC or pregnancy on prednisolone or similar part 11

[Buzzybee123]

This is a positive thread for all those diagnosed with High or Very High NK Cells and looking to start TTC or already pregnant on Prednisolone and/or Intralipid treatment.

Newcomers very much welcome!

Thanks ari! The SO protocol sheet I was given tells me to arrange a scan for day 10-12 of my cycle (based on day 14 ov) but day 10 will be a Saturday - do they even do Saturday scans? Was told to ring up and book the scan once my next cycle had started, but how easy is it to get your preferred day? In my last cycle I ov'd early, on day 12, this cycle it's day 14; should I risk leaving the scan till day 12 (a Monday) next time? Would doing it on the Friday, day 9, be too early? Sorry for all the meme questions; any advice hugely appreciated!

Go for day 9 as follies tend to grow 1-2mm a day so they will say when to trigger and best to be early than late

Are you going to Harley Street? Sometimes you will find Mr S booked up, in which case you can get an appointment with another doctor on the other side of Harley Street whose name escapes me. You pay Mr S as usual and the results are sent to Louise who will advise on timing of the trigger. He's really nice and I've seen him twice.

Thanks so much for your advice duggs and brownstag. Could go to either Epsom or Harley Street but it's good to know that there's a backup across the road! This SO business really taps into my inner control freak.

baking how are you doing?

Waves to everyone.

Agree with duggs on the timing of your scan - it seemed almost all my scan dates would have fallen either on a weekend or bank holiday! I ended up having most scans day 9 on a Friday. I'd ask Louise though, she'll tell you when it's best to go in.

Hi village I'm fine, thanks for asking. No scan this week so anxiety ramping up again. I feel much better now I'm weaning off the pred, but of course then I start to worry it's a MMC and I feel better because I have less pregnancy hormones....
Good luck with the SO this month.

Thanks so much again duggs, ari - your advice was spot on, mailed Louise and she said to do the scan on cd9. Think I'll just book it now (and then of course AF will be early or late and it'll be back to the drawing board.)

baking are you 11 weeks now? I wouldn't worry, a decrease in nausea etc is completely normal around this stage and the pred, even if you're weaning off, would be masking the worst of any symptoms. When is your next scan? Everything crossed for you!

Thursday is scan day again next week and all being well the week after I have OSCAR screening booked.

How are those who are 2WWing doing?

Sounds brilliant, baking - lots of milestones about to be passed!

Hi all, we have seen Mr.S on the 2nd November for the first time. Had to travel from Irl to see him. I am 41 - Dutch living in Irl had 5 mc in 30 months. Hoping that our visit tomorrow will give us some answers.
Fingers crossed there doctors here in Ireland keep telling me that there is nothing wrong with me. All test they did are coming back ok.
Have been reading this thread for a few days now, and am happy to have found here a lot of answers to questions I already had.

Welcome shamrock and good luck for tomorrow. Hope you get the answers you are searching for.

Welcome shamrock and good luck with mr s.

baking must be a relief you are now passed the miscarriage milestone!

belly have you been tempted to do a test yet as I think your 2ww is almost up?! Really hope it works this time.

Hello shamrock, you will find lots of support here. Hope your follow-up with Mr S went well!

Hi sue, hope you are doing ok?

I have another question for all the SO experts out there. How soon after the trigger shot should you, ahem, BD? The sheet says to BD 24 hours after the shot and to continue for 48 hours, but did anyone else do differently? Would not BD on the night of the shot? And just so I understand: do they mean, for example, if trigger is on evening of cd12 that you BD on cd13 and cd14? Do you need to do cd15 too? Sorry if asking for TMI but my inner control freak is having a field day!

Sorry that should say 'why not BD on the night of the shot', not 'would not'

Do it loads! 12, 13 and 14. Even 11, as long as you're sure you can keep it up. I've never understood why they say that either. I suppose they mean 'at least' those days. I like to get some wigglies in the bank asap, especially since you never know - something unexpected might happen that means you couldn't do it on those vital days. And that would be an expensive mistake.
Also, from my experience of natural ovulation and testing, my positive ovulation test is sometimes followed by ovulation on the same day, according to my temperature chart. So presumably that could be the case for the trigger too.
Welcome Shamrock and good luck.
A friend of mine, a fertility acupuncturist, told me the other day that after 40, 80% of our eggs are abnormal! That's a shocking statistic and really ought to be spelled out by specialists when you first come to see them. i.e. that it may take some time and money to catch that elusive egg, even though we may be able to make all other conditions right for pregnancy to occur.

Personally I'm with brown on this one. I think of it like the CB monitor; they say to DTD on all your High days and both Peaks. Well if you consider your trigger on CD12, I'd be DTD day 11, 12, 13 and 14, personally. And not only do I have an inner control freak, actually she's an outer one too, she runs the show (hence why I do so much research! :) ), so I understand where you're coming from :).

brown I can't say I'm surprised, which could explain an awful lot of people's 'chemical pregnancies' as they're called - never mind the NK cells, biology just ain't on your side over 40.

Hi All apologies for the silent treatment for the last few days.

Baking glad all is still going well with you.

Welcome Shamrock - you will find lots of experience and advice here and I wish you lots of luck with your appointment.

Village it sounds like you are a couple of weeks behind me in the SO treatment programme. I started the letrozole on Wednesday (with no side effects yet) and have my first scan on day 8 in Epsom. There were no clinic appointments left but they still managed to squeeze me in so I really wouldn't worry about not getting something. Mine's at 17:00 on Tuesday so will have a better idea of next steps then.

Regarding the co-q10, l-arginine and agnus castus - OMG I am beyond ignorant. I am just following the prescribed vits from Mr S and feel that I am an ignorant sheep. Is it too late for me to start these things now?! Assume that as agnus castus reacts with letrozole I just need to take it in the evening if I take the letrozole in the morning? I am in need of some serious education please ladies .

Waves to you and I hope you all have great weekends

Forgot to add Village that I asked Mr S about the SO cycles and how many we can do if they fail. He said that you can have 6 SO cycles back-to-back and if all 6 fail then IVF is the next step. Trying not to think about that but thought it might be of interest.

As a follow up to my lack of vitamin education - how many mg of co-q10, l-arginine and agnus castus should I be taking?

luna No you mustn't take agnus castus at all if you are on letrozole, as the AC will have a deletorious effect on what the letrozole is trying to do.

Letrozole works by stimulating your pituitary gland to increase FSH, to improve the stimulation of developing follicles in the ovaries. Agnus castus works by acting on the hypothalamus and pituitary gland to suppress FSH while increasing LH.

So basically taking AC would have a complete counteractive effect to what the Letrozole is trying to do. Hence not a good idea! (wish I'd realised this during the first 5 cycles of SO in which I was taking AC ... !!)

Ari thanks SO much for that. told you I was ignorant. Was just looking up where to buy it all from. Do you know how much co-q10 and l-arginine I should take. Seem to have a selection of 30mg, 75mg, 100mg etc. Also is Holland & Barrett the best place to buy? Apologies for bombarding you with questions.

Well it really depends on what you're wanting from the Co-Q10 and l-arginine. From all that I've read, ladies who want an effect on the quality of their eggs take 600mg Co-Q10 daily (I took 2 x 300mg daily); for those who want l-arginine to promote a better lining then I understand 6g per day is generally suggested (I took 3 x 2000mg daily). If it's of any help, I used this as a guideline for boosting lining: www.ivfworld.com/topic.php?id=131795 (second post down) - but be warned, there are several research papers that indicate Vitamin E boosts NK cells, so if you have an issue with that, I wouldn't suggest Vitamin E is a good idea.

HTH

Sorry, I forgot to make that a clickable link .. here it is again: www.ivfworld.com/topic.php?id=131795

Stupid question alert? Is Co-Q10 vitamin E?

No, it isn't but I assume Ari means you might be using that for your lining also. I use Doctor's Best coenzyme q10 from Amazon as they are the cheapest vegetarian capsules in that strength. Coenzyme q10 isn't cheap, particularly in the higher doses. And Healthspan's l-arginine, but I've seen it very cheaply in Holland and Barrett sometimes in gelatine capsules, including in the penny sale.

Thanks for the BD timing tips ari and brownstag. Brownstag I also tend to ov on the same day as my LH surge so we will definitely be factoring in the trigger night as a night of passion (ha ha - this process gives a whole new meaning to the phrase 'lack of spontaneity'). Control freakery rules!

What does Mr S use for the trigger shot by the way? Is it hcg? The sheet doesn't say.

Luna best of luck with your follicle scan and with the supplement popping!