Grab your Ganeshas and collect your cats: The Elderberry Pavlovas in the Quest for the New Year clusterdiff (thread 25)

[happylass]

The smallprint –
Berries have a strict entrance criteria (TTC #1, over 30, TTC for 12+ months, NO instadiffers, must have a special pot and definitely no mention of baby dust or baby dancing).
Those not abiding by the rules may be escorted from the premises.

tiger you what?! Vaginal steaming?!?!

Good luck Jellie!!!

happy how are you doing?

Good luck Jellie it all sounds so lovely so far.

Tiger ewwwww! Haha. Are you going to try it? Glad the massage was good though, I am really going to try to be healthy too I've hardly done any exercise and healthy eating since before Christmas.

I've done a bit of reading on low response to stims and low OR as it's linked and I hope I should be ok on short protocol. I did seem to have a reasonable response to gonal-f during first iui so fx. Wild one of the articles I read outlines the procedure your consultant recommended! The article also recommends assisted hatching when there isn't so many eggs collected which is interesting. And it recommends 100mg of aspirin daily while stimming as apparently it helps with the amount of follies and blood flow to the area. This aspirin issue keeps coming up hey.

There's so much advice out there, it's difficult to know what's best to do.

Beaky my clinic recommended aspirin. As the invented IVF I figured they knew what they were talking about.

Pip was that during the stimming phase?

Beaky I took 75mg of aspirin this cycle for about 3 months up to EC on the recommendation of my FC. Was to help with blood flow to follies and uterus. Could be coincidence but I had double the amount of follies and 3 more eggs than last time.....

It was after embryo transfer.
I didn't bother with it as they said not to while I was on the gestone.

It can't hurt to take it I guess.

what points in the cycle did you take asprin happy? All the way through or just after ov?

Tiger I started at my review appointment in late October and took it every day until I triggered for this cycle.

I hate the aspirin confusion. One of the repeat miscarriage consultants said don't take it at all, it can cause mc, the other said yes, it's a good idea to take it from bfp onwards. The nurse I asked agreed with the latter, if I've had two mc without it, I might as well try it. I've also read about taking it pre ivf. I'll definitely be asking again in relation to the ivf. I wouldn't be taking it after et if I didn't have a clotting issue though, it can thin the blood going to the placenta, which prevents clots, but isn't good if you don't need to do this. Or something. It's all a big clusterfuck if you ask me. Half the medical profession still think it's a throw-it-at-everyone wonder drug, the other half think it causes lots of problems we didn't previously know about .

Ooh look how cute Beakypup is! I'm glad she is being a good friend for you just now Beaky. It's entirely understandable that you want to talk about the IVF. You need to process what's happened. When will your guest leave?

Also I always think that OTD means 'on the day' too! I just read it that way in my head now, and somehow 'on the day' for me has now taken on the meaning of test day.

My consultant told me very firmly not to take aspirin. He gave me a very stern look! I've figured out that I will be taking a drug called Clexane which does a similar job and you can't take aspirin at the same time. So make if that what you will, in the great aspirin controversy.

Jellie - I'm very jealous of Vienna. Have some cake for me.

Oh - and AF came so I'll go for a baseline scan tomorrow.

We got 8 mature eggs! Donor doing well too. We'll get an update on fertilisation tomorrow! Mr Jellie and I will have a beer/ wine tonight I think! Just arrived in Vienna so going to change and get out there!

Wow Jellie!! Great news! fingers crossed for Barry white .

wild not that simple! Many rmc's prescribe clexane and aspirin.....

Great news Jellie. I'm confused though as I thought you were in Prague?!? I must pay more attention.

You're quite right Barking - I jumped to a hasty conclusion after googling Clexane to find out why I'd been prescribed a big box of it by the FC. When I saw it was a blood thinner I assumed it was supposed to do the same job as aspirin. A bit more investigation has revealed that it's used for several different purposes and I now have no idea why I've been given it! Ah, TTC -it's a complicated old business.

Did you ever find out if you had 'sticky blood' by the way, Barking?

I was diagnosed with factor V leiden thrombophilia, same as funkymonk. If the ivf gets me that last chance bfp I'll be on dalteparin (similar to clexane but a lower dose heparin) from bfp until 6 weeks post birth.

Wow well done Jellie and Jellies donor! That's fab. I hope Barry does his stuff tonight for you! Pom-poms a go go

Wild great that AF has turned up! Fx the baseline scan goes well.

The info I was reading about aspirin was in relation to poor responders to long protocol IVF, and was used for short or flare protocol during stimming as it helps increase the number of follies apparently. It does say it can affect the quality of eggs though so I guess it depends on each case, as to whether the risk is outweighed or not. It's just so confusing as you all have said

I will ask at my review appointment and then google the life out of it again

Smidge Happy how are you both?

HB, lovely, how are you doing?

When is the baseline scan? Is this before anything starts, or after downregging? Need to start getting swotted up on this ivf stuff before my appointment so I'm not trying to take in new info without having time to process it and ask all the questions....

Beaky I'm ok thanks. I've pretty much given up any hope that this has worked though as I feel exactly the same as last time . Was convinced that AF was on her way last night but she seems to have held off for the time being.
Barking for short protocol (which I believe Wild is doing?). Baseline scan is usually cd2 - before everything starts and is basically to check all is well with the palace. Not sure if this is the same with long protocol though? If you have any questions re the IVF feel free to ask!
Beaky Interesting what you say about aspirin reducing the quality of the eggs as, without the aspirin, I had 10 follies, 7 mature eggs, 6 fertilise. With aspirin I had 20 follies, 11 mature eggs, 5 fertilise. Does make me a bit as no good increasing the number of eggs if they are useless!
Wild glad things are moving forward for you.
Hope everyone else is ok. Been a bit rubbish at keeping up this week due to the craziness that is work. 1 more day until half term though

Hi there. Barking if doing long protocol the baseline scan can be around when AF is due. There's less need for it to be a set day as the down regging drugs should have brought you down anyway. I think mine ended up being around day 32 (and AF came a few days later). Then started to take the stimming drugs from CD2 or CD3.

Agree with happy on short protocol I'd expect baseline scan on CD2 and start stimming CD3.

happy I can't understand why you are saying 1 day til half term instead of 1 day til OTD! That is right isn't it? I'm sorry you aren't feeling any different from before. But are you spotting at all? My OTD is on Monday 23rd (I think normally it would have been the Sunday so I'm sure I'll test earlier). I'm having light cramps most of the time which I think is the progesterone. Pretty sure that's no different from the same stage before. It's the second week where everything goes to pot for me and the preAF feelings and spotting rear their ugly ugly heads.

Jellie how exciting! Did you meet the egg donor? I'm guessing not but just wondered what the process might be. How amazing that she is doing this. Do they get paid do you know? Enjoy your trip, it must make it all the more exciting.

Wild I'm on Clexane too. It is rather like aspirin in that it is definitely a blood thinner, but I believe it has also started to be used in immune cases - somehow they have seen positive results from giving this to patients like us with immune issues. If you haven't taken it before, be warned that the needle is more blunt than the stimming needles, and takes some force to get through the skin! I haven't bruised yet though.

happy hang on in there, not long now. Funnily enough I was convinced the iui had worked even though I didn't feel exactly the same as last time (when it did), so hopefully the reverse is true for you!
What happens with long protocol? Do you still get a baseline scan on cd2 or do they scan before the downregging on cd21?
I'm seeing the nurse on what will be cd 19 and she's noted when the start of my next cycle should be. I didn't ask her at the time but now I'm getting my hopes up and thinking I could be starting jabbing immediately as they wouldn't give me the lesson a month before I started, would they?? Or perhaps they would. I hate not knowing!!! she says to the woman at the end of an ivf 2ww

xpost smidge! When did you start downregging?

Happy you never know! I will keep my arms legs fingers and toes crossed for you. I am really hoping this works for you.

That is really interesting re the amount of eggs/fertilisation rate. The outcome of a related article seemed to go with trying to preserve quality but of course with a disclaimer either way!

Barking my long protocol was almost 4 weeks downregging then a baseline scan then stimming for a week, scan, increased drugs as not much response then follow up scan then I would have been booked in for EC if there had been more than one follie I think some people dr for less and some for more. Any q's just ask!

Beaky My clinic starts down regging about CD22 of the cycle. The drugs lengthened my cycle a bit (though I'm normally 33 days anyway). I ended up doing a total of 27 down reg injections - 15 on their own, then another 12 whilst stimming.

Oo cross posted there a fair bit! My clinic just dr for 3 weeks min with everyone then scan so Id had AF the week before my first scan. As Smidge says you still dr through the stimming phase too. I had my needles lesson in November and didn't start til jan Barking.