TTC way longer than 10 months past & present

[joycep]

A group of lovely ladies who've seen it all

Oh forgot to welcome sam! Hello!

Cross posted with toes earlier. Glad your appointment went so well! Here's hoping it all goes smoothly for you from now on.

Critter totally understandable that you would imagine a worst case scenario. Will be thinking of you on Tuesday! My pooch is ok thanks, I didn't enjoy dropping her off at the vets this morning but she's at home with Mr B now and I can't wait to get home for a cwtch!

Hi Berry

I have had blood tests done (gp very good and wanted to get them out the way before we hit the 12 month mark) which have shown I am ovulating and hubby has had SA which showed borderline morphology (not sure how bad this is, all his other results were high) and is being repeated on Monday.
Spoke to GP today and she is now referring us, but not sure how long we will be waiting for an appointment...

Toes and fingers - do you mind me asking, what is OHSS?

'Dildocam' does not sound like something I'll look forward to!

And hello to everyone else

Hi Sam, welcome. Great that your GP is so proactive. Re the dildocam, let's just say by the time 10plussers get to the pregnant or giving birth stage, we've long since got over our inhibitions.... In reality, they aren't that bad, not usually painful and they are normally good at covering you up. You might never get that far though!

FYI, OHSS is Ovarian hyper stimulation syndrome. It's a risk with IVF unless you have duff ovaries like me and can be very serious but clinics are normally pretty hot on watching for it.

Berry, are you getting puppy love? Poor wee mite hope the lampshade isn't too destructive.

Critter Tuesday is soon! You're going to be a couple of weeks ahead of me after all. I wondered whether there was an over-protective thing kicking in with Doug and grape-gate. It's entirely understandable you'd want to keep tight control where possible, but I don't think you're going to kill him! He sounds so adorable and at illicit sofa bosies .

Toes that appointment sounds wonderful. I decided a proper "private" clinic was going to give me the edge, but now I wonder if I made a mistake. All the people I've known who went to ERI were successful.

Fox have a wonderful break.

Lovely to see you Gin.

So rattling about with all my pills. And yes, as Euro described it to me, the clexane was a stingy bastard. Wine is helping dull the pain. Is this irresponsible? Booked my lining scan, but had to book it the day before she asked me to. Do you think this will matter?

Apologies for everyone I've missed!

Hi Muddy, thank you for the explanations :). Can you give me an idea of time scales? From other things I've read it seems to take forever from one appointment to the next?
To everyone else, I hope it doesn't seem like I'm ignoring your posts, I just don't understand a lot of the things you are talking about - guess I have a lot to learn...

Sam, many of us have been chatting for a very very long time and are real life friends now! So there might be shortcuts in our conversation but please ask if you can't understand anything we talk about :)

I think timescales vary wildly. Once we had finally got all the samples and bloods done (yes Mr Nelly I'm looking at you) I think it was about 12 weeks before we got our first appointment at the hospital where I saw a consultant and had my first of many dildocam. I then had an HSG very quickly after that. However our consultant at the first appointment told me my FSH was a bit high and said if we could afford it, we should go private, as the wait list for NHS treatment was 2 years :( We did have a follow up 3 months after that but it wasn't really very useful. It's really hard to say. Going private certainly speeds things up a lot, but there's still a lot of waiting around.

Thank you :)
2 years? Wow, I had no idea the waiting list was that long ??
I am still (perhaps naively) hoping that we won't get to that stage...
Well, the wheels are in motion so will just have to sit back and wait for now.

Good luck to everyone, whatever stage you may be at ????

It's a total postcode lottery. Both the wait list and your entitlement for treatment depend on where you live. It might be a lot less where you are, so try not to worry. And as you say it might not come to that. Allegedly people can get pregnant all by themselves. I don't believe it personally .

Haven't checked in for a while.

Joy - so delighted to read your news. I know it must still be a worrying time but I have a really good feeling about this one. It's your time!

Mini sea is here and has turned our lives upside down. There was a scare when he was born but all seem to be okay now.

Thinking of all 10 plussers and welcome to newbies. Hope your stay will be short for all the right reasons.

Love sea

Berry oh yes sorry you had said that before. It sounds like good thorough treatment you're getting for the endo then. And I think as Critter said we have seen success for others with that on here.

Toes glad the appt went well and you are getting age related compliments.

Fox good luck with making that call on your return from hols.

Sea so glad all us ok now and sorry for the scare. Hope you didn't have too bad a time of it.

Critter that's fab news next ET is here again. Hope you are resting well this weekend in preparation.

Sam welcome.

Nelly a sneaky glass of wine sounds like solid prep work to me. Hope you're ok. I don't think one day out for a lining scan will make much difference. The clexane does sting doesn't it. Just keeping saying, all for a good cause! I'm getting excited for you.

Now I've got it in my mind about doing another round I'm itching to just get on with it now. We'll have to see how it pans out.

Sea that is lovely news your little chap is here! So thrilled honey. I hope the birth was ok, so sorry you had a scary time of it.

Nelly you did make me laugh with the 'some people get pregnant all by themselves' remark. I can't believe how straightforward it is for the vast majority of humanity.

Sam it sounds like it might just be something that needs a small tweak if your husbands sperm is good and you're ovulating. Maybe an hsg will sort it out. And I'm guessing from your name that you're a young un too!

Cos I know that feeling of wanting to get on with it. Id have thought a pre Christmas round was possible?

Nelly, your comment made me laught too ??
Critter, what is hsg?
He had borderline morphology (3%) - does that not matter too much? I thought maybe as he has a high count and therefore 3% of that is still loads that perhaps it wouldn't? X

Oh, and yes, I'll be 29 at the end of the month!

Sea - how bizarre, I woke up this morning thinking about you and wondering whether minisea had arrived. Congratulations! Sorry about the scare but glad all is well. Enjoy motherhood!!

Cos - are you going to try the progesterone route before ivf?

Sam - definitely depends on your area. It took almost a year for me to get an ivf round in but actually it took my GP about a year to refer me in the first place as she said I was young and just needed to relax! We ended up going private. Then when that failed, I was first referred But probably had 8 month of NHS tests and cycle monitoring before being told I should have ivf. Hopefully you won't need anything like all the tests and treatment many of us have had though. 3% morph I think is considered normal by the who. If he has a good count that makes 3% fine. My hisband's morph has ranged from 2%-7% over the years. It really does fluctuate.

Gin - yes we all met 2 years ago. I remember I was in a bit of a state as my laparascopy was booked on my birthday a few days after we met and I was terrified of having my first general anaesthetic. Art was shooting up in the loos and princess was early stages of pregnancy.

Nelly - hope you are suitably rattling. I found the fragmin which is the same as clexane like a bee sting but I think I am desensitised now as I don't feel it and don't need an ice cube. How long will the donor be flaring up for?

Fox - good to hear from you but sounds like you are extremely busy.

Hi Joy, how are you doing, is the good scan news starting to sink in and feel real? DH wants to try the progesterone only route but I've started thinking going straight for an Ivf round would get us the best chance. We've got the results appt with the consultant a week on tues so not long to wait to get their advice.

Sam I was 29 when we started. It's good to have time on your side but don't let any docs put you off being persistent. Months turn into years very easily.

Critter I would like to get a pre christmas round done if at all possible.

Critter how are you feeling about tues?

Thanks Cosmo - I'm not very patient so now that we're in the system I won't be letting myself get pushed out! I've always said I want my first child by the time I'm 30...
We'll save up and go private if we have to! ???????? X

Joy thank you... I've read so much about morph statistics. Some sites say 15% is normal, some say 4% so I really don't know! Google is not my friend! X

sam an HSG is where they flush dye through your tubes to check for blockages that could be preventing sperm from meeting egg. I know a few people who've had it done and got pregnant very quickly afterwards as it seems to clear out any gunk - anecdotally of course!

cos I would have thought a pre Christmas round would be certainly possible - it still must be about 10 or 11 weeks away. I can't believe you were 29 when you started TTC, that is so shit that you're still here. Ugh. Great that you've got the appointment coming up.

I am fluctuating between feeling vaguely hopeful in witchy cousin's October girl conception prediction to feeling that there is very little likelihood that my single defrosted embie will do the trick and that this round is just something I need to go through to get to the next round. Seems weird that I made all those strong embies in my fresh round and it worked first try with J - I had such an easy time of it, overstimulation excluded, no bleeding or scares - but that now in the past two frozen rounds it has failed. But we are a product of our experiences, and my two FETs have been bad, so I guess it's natural to assume that my future FETs will either fail or result in another miscarriage. Just want to get on with it, as cos says, the months turn into years so quickly.

joy when is your next scan?

nelly how's the drug taking going?

Fingers crossed that does the trick for me!

And good luck to you Critter! X

Cos - I am glad you have an appt booked and not long to wait. It is way past your time now and would be great if you can get a cycle in before Xmas if something doesn't happen naturally before then.

Critter - It's awful this build up and bad experience just makes you fear the worst and gives you self doubt. The only thing I can say is that you do make strong embryos and your body knows how to be oregnant. I really do believe one of your 3 will be the one. You have had far too much bad luck and this will happen for you.
-no scan booked, will have to decide when anxiety gets too much. It has already crept in but I really would like to hold out for at least a week or too. It went wrong at 9+4 last time so that's in my head..

Sam - it use to be 15% but most men don't have a morph like this anymore. So the who or some other body changed the guidelines because they realised that men with 2 and 3% morph were able to g et women pregnant. Also this number can really change. Over the last 4 years my husband's morph was never over 7%. It was 2% several months before this ivf. But on EC day it was 25% which is utterly bizarre considering the amount he had been drinking.

Sam - this is worth a read and he is respected doctor and I found myself reading this in 2010 and it put my mind at ease about Roy's morph.
www.drlicciardi.com/2010/07/sperm-morphology-new-guidelines-announced-4-is-normal-2.html

sam in addition to what joy said about morph, my dr told me that they tightened the criteria, so what was considered normal under the old guidelines might not be within the new tighter guidelines. Accordingly, the % of normal forms needed to be considered a normal sample fell. I don't think I have explained that very well but I hope it makes sense!

I had a good experience in terms of waiting times. I saw my GP in May/June for initial tests, had appointments at the hospital fertility clinic in August and November, was referred for IVF at the November appointment, got papers through re: IVF in December, had an initial appointment to discuss n January, blood tests for us both in Feb and could have started in March (but I got cold feet and pushed it back a bit). There was no waiting list as such, but getting through all the tests can take a while any way.

joy if you wanted to you could have the Harmony test from 10 weeks at the FMC. And they do a quick scan then as part of the package. Although I know that twins complicates the test.

I ended up with scans at 6+1 (at my clinic), 7 and 8 weeks at the EPU due to bleeding, 10 weeks and 12 weeks as part of the Harmony package. I couldn't have got through the first tri without them! It is such a hard time.

critter your worries about doug are completely understandable. I will have everything crossed that Tuesday's ET results in another lovely little addition to your family. x