Eggcellent Egg Buddies! Come and join us if you're IVFing in August, September or October!

[nobeer]

Share your experiences, worries, recipes, holiday recommendations. Swearing welcome.

When we DTD for the first time after IVF it was quite sore but I didn't want to stop DH as it had been 8 weeks since we had last DTD!

He doesn't like lube but I'm thinking of getting some and using it secretly. Should I bother getting sperm friendly stuff?

We are off for our follow up consultation on Tuesday btw.

Pip let me know how you get on. We've got ours on Friday. DP doesn't like lube either, but I told him that I was quite sore and that the hormones have made me drier so I was going to use it. I think there's some kind of cream or moisturiser which helps with loss of moisture. Ask the clinic while you're there.

Hello ladies - could I please join your gang? I've been reading through many IVF threads on the web from Mumsnet and other sites and you guys sound like the most wonderful supportive bunch. I have loved the swearing and the lack of the 'babydust wishes' as well.

My story - I'm 37 and my DP is 35. We have an 18 month old DS who we conceived by accident when we had known each other less than 4 months. After reading through these boards I realise even more how lucky that makes us. Since then I've had two ectopic pregnancies and one miscarriage. I lost my first tube and 8 week old foetus on Christmas Eve, had an early miscarriage (or early ectopic?) at Easter and then lost my final tube and a 6 week old foetus on Saturday. Am still reeling from it all and have spent the whole week crying and feeling devastated. Am now just starting to pull myself together and try to prep for IVF.

Can anybody recommend any London clinics to me? I was thinking of self-funding at Homerton which is where I had my DS and last two pregnancy losses. After my operation I was advised to start ASAP cos of my age and I am keen to get going. Can anybody let me know how long the timeline is from being referred to getting started? And how much time off work do you need once you start the cycle. I'm a teacher and whilst my immediate HOD will be supportive in terms if time off work my Headteacher won't be (particularly since I am still at home recovering from surgery right now).

Thanks ladies - hope everybody is having good Saturday nights xxxx

Welcome badhair You have come to the right place for mucho tlc, swearing, recipes & laughs Glad to hear you are looking forward after your awful week. Sorry to hear your difficult ttc history. There are so many amazing ladies on here for support-they have been fabulous to me < & each other > over the last few months'. Can't help with the London clinics northerner but with regard to timings, my consultant pushed us through due to my age & nhs funding

And another classy bird with a younger fella. Oh yes!

Welcome badhair. Fucking hell, you've been through the mill!

I'm afraid I can't recommend any clinics as I'm not in the UK. My start to finish from the initial consultation to embryo transfer was February to mid August. However, I had to have a hysteroscopy and have a septum removed from my uterus so that delayed things a bit, and then they froze my embryos so that delayed the process even more. I needed a few mornings off when I had to go for scans, and then when I started stimming I had to pop in daily as my hormone levels rocketed so that had to keep an eye on me so I got scanned and blood tests. After egg collection (which is done under GA) I felt quite sore and uncomfortable for a good week, but I was on my summer hols by then so didn't need to take any time off. I think if it had been term time, I would have been signed off for a week or two. It was then about 5 or 6 weeks later I had the embryo transfer, and that was easy and didn't need any time off after that. I think that's everything! I'm sure others will be along soon to share their experiences.

Good luck with it all, but do give yourself some time to get over your most recent loss. You must be feeling very raw still.

And don't worry, I won't sprinkle any babydust over you

nobeer Good fucking evening m'lady! What you up to? x

Thanks for the welcome Brooker and nobeer and thanks for the detailed posts as well. Am really
v grateful. Could I pls ask one more question? What is the difference between long and short protocol? I am (naively) hoping that our eggs and sperm will still be okay and was told by a doctor after my surgery that I should be a 'straightforward IVF candidate'. Does that mean I will have short protocol? And does that mean less drugs? I would like to start in Nov or Dec, I think. Thanks again xxxx

Long protocol means you take drugs to induce a sort of temporary menopause to shut off your natural cycle (downregging). You usually start these the month before you do the actual IVF. Then you add in drugs to make lots of eggs grow at once (stimming)

Short protocol is all done within the length of one cycle and you just do the stimming part.

Some clinics have a strong preference for one over the other. My first clinic (NHS) didn't do EC or ET at weekends, so to control timing put everyone on LP, which really didn't suit me (the drugs turned me a bit loopy).

As for clinics, I'd advise one that is convenient for you. I didn't need much time off. I had about 4 scans and blood tests each cycle and did these before work so I just started a little late. I had EC day off and then went back the next day. ET day I worked around ET or worked from home but the days were a bit of a write off because two times out of three they were running 1hr-1.5hrs late! I have an office job so as long as I don't miss meetings, I can be a bit flexible with my time, but that might be more difficult for you. Also, bear in mind that although you will have a general idea of when EC might fall, you usually only get 2 or 3 days confirmation of it, once they decide when you need to trigger. Similarly with transfer, they see each day how the embies are doing and can call you in on day 2 or 3 without much warning if they don't think they will make it to day 5.

I'm very sorry to hear about your ectopics. Good luck.

Morning brooker! I've had a nice weekend with friends visiting, and a bit too much red wine. Back at work so mind nicely distracted with other stuff. All good . And how the devil are you? xx

Thanks Euro. I really don't fancy the long protocol. It seems to make the whole process more gruelling. Poor you going loopy on the drugs. My cycle is super regular - dont know if that makes a difference or not but have just got AF yesterday, bang on time despite the surgery. Do they really just shut down your system to make it more convenient for them? Just saw that Homerton aren't open on weekends either so I bet they do that. Sounds yuk. Thanks again x

My cycle was very regular too. There can be clinical reasons for it I think (e.g. with PCOS it makes it easier to regulate the hormone levels) but often it seems to be done for the convenience of the clinic.

Hiya - I just saw that they DR everybody. Sorry for all the questions but could you pls tell me what drugs they use to DR you, how you administer them and what are side effects? Thanks so much x

Welcome, Badhair. I am sorry you have had such battles but I agree with your doc; you're a great candidate for IVF. My advice would be to ensure you are with a clinic which practises five-day transfers of blastocysts. Do your research about 3- versus five-day transfers and also look into whether your clinic uses an embryoscope (time lapse monitoring of embryos over five days so that the very best and most viable embryo will be transferred). The majority of BPFs on this thread (and others) have been from five-day transfers. The success rates are also higher when more than one embryo is transferred. The very best of luck to you.

Is it worth having the embryoscope if you only have one embryo? Thinking of it for the frozen cycle.

Welcome bad hair :)

twinks I can't see that there would be any point. It is used to help select the best embryo.

pram I think every clinic in this country now uses blasts where there are sufficient embryos to get that far. It's standard practice.

Twinks, euro is right: the embryoscope is used to pick the best from a whole bunch.

Euro, from what I keep reading on some of these boards there are clinics that are reluctant to take embryos to day five even if there are a few of them. Why is this? I don't understand. If a woman has made even four embryos why would a clinic not give them a chance to get to day five? Why are some women having a single embryo transferred and ending up with six in the freezer? It might take six rounds of IVF until she has success. Or am I missing something?

Thanks again for all the advice ladies. I feel I have learned alot in the last week about IVF but it all feels such a minefield! Homerton take the embryos to either Day 2, 3 or 5 (but not 4?) depending on how well they do. I really want to get my referral from GP so I can go and ask all these questions. How many eggs is 'good' to get from 1 cycle? Anybody else had the DR procedure. Do you get menopausal symptoms? X

pram it's because (and we heard this yet again at the new clinic open day I went to this week) that embryos do better in their natural environment. So if their are lots, they take them to day 5 in the lab so they can identify the strongest. If there is a clear front runner by day 3 or there are not many, they put them back asap.

In the talk the embryologist did, she said they are quite good at mimicking the temperature of the human body and so on now in the lab, but it is never going to be spot on. So the implication is that in the lab, between days 3 and 5, they are losing embryos that might have made it back inside the body. If you don't have many to gamble with, they are better off back where they belong.

*there not their

Hugs Maryp.

Welcome badhair - I have had 2 ectopics too. Sucks doesn't it.

I'm on the long protocol because that is just what my clinic do first time round. NHS as we have no DCs.

Started the pill yesterday. V painful AF (I have endo and I suspect (although they lasered it in my last op) that it's coming back hence more painful AF than pre-endo removal.

On a non ttc note I've just made a delicious (if I do say so myself) chocolate and banana cake.

Looking forward to an afternoon of glutony.

Happy Sunday all.

Euro, it all sounds sensible what you (and your clinic) said. ReproG told me it is a myth that embryos fare better in the womb than the lab these days. I guess it varies from clinic to clinic what their philosophies are. I know all the Czech clinics only transfer at day five; there is no option for earlier transfers. It is still a mystery to me how they can be so confident of five-day survivals, even for women of my age using their own eggs. I just cannot imagine my eggs producing embryos that would get to blastocyst.

MaryP, I have only just seen your news. I am so very sorry

Brooker, I see you, too, are going through some shyte. I wish you all the best.

Twinks, I hope you are not telling yourself that this FET won't work if your fresh didn't. That's rubbish and there is every likelihood that this is The One. Take courage x

Thanks pram, I'm trying hard to believe and be hopeful.

Twinks - my doc told me last week that they are actually experiencing higher success rates at the moment with FET.

Hey nobeer, it's good to hear you've had a great weekend. I must say, I am enjoying a little distraction < > too!!
twinks when we spoke to our embryologist after the lab issue, she spoke of increasingly strong evidence that FET has better success rates than ET. It really has made me want a FET if possible on our next cycle (& forfeit the ET). Also, I had high progesterone levels last time (which the clinic have just started monitoring due to evidence linking high natural progesterone levels with implantation issues) & a FET was recommended by the clinic to allow time to bring it under control. Regardless of my progesterone though its the way I'd like to go due to the higher success rates they discussed. Apparently, evidence suggests that your body has a chance to return to a more natural state for the embryo to be placed into & hence improves implantation. I had 2 5 day blasts put back on cycle 1 & got a bfn so we are looking at implantation issues. My clinic do use minimal drugs during the FET though (a couple of scans & a trigger shot I think). I would speak to your clinic about the drugs regime they use if you have any concerns. But FET may increase your chances of success so try not to over worry x