TTC through Donor IUI or Donor IVF or just undecided - all welcome!

[Kwick709]

This thread is for anyone trying to conceive... or thinking about doing so through donor IUI or donor IVF. Nothing TMI - feel free to join, we are a lovely group here to support and help keep the cray-cray away!

I'VE PAID OF MY CREDIT CARD AND NOW HAVE £694 IN MY BABY FUND wahoooo! I know I have a long way to go but hip hip hooray!!!!!!!!!!!

Stork Yep. ClearBlue haven't cottoned on to the fact that lots of other sources say that fmu shouldn't be used. It's because LH gathers in the early hours of the morning so might not have made it into your wee for fmu. I know I would never get a positive with fmu. I'm a bit strange in that I usually get my positive OPK in the evening. Which is why it's a good idea to test twice a day for the 3-4 days around the right time.

Pickle congratulations on paying off your CC. You've already got enough to pay for all the tests I would have thought!

pickle well done!!! This is excellent news!

Teeheehee shoes #revenge
How was the clinic?

Thank God it is Friday!!!! I have a very full day at work but the prospect of 2 days off after fills me with glee!

stork I got opk positives with FMU - I think it just varies by person.

It's now up to £719 as £25 in account already that I'd forgotten about wahoo! Yep consultant appt and pretty much essential tests :) long way to go still but less than a year till I would like my first iui in may 2017. Going to take my bit of paper down to the beach to budget plan hehe.... Then I'll be able to be a similar situation discussing first morning wee wees lol! So exciting!

Can't believe uk is leaving eu and Cameron resigning-what a day

I know Pickle It's a huge day.

Have to say I don't like it at all. It's unnerving.

Me either!!!!

This month is definitely off for me. It's been a day of ups and downs!

I went for a follicle tracking scan this morning. All good, 23mm follicle ready to pop, womb lining a good thickness.

Then I went to visit a friend in hospital and got home at around 1:30pm. I did an OPK and got a positive, phoned the clinic to check they are ok with the warts situation which they said isn't a problem. Great, I thought.

But because I'd left phoning until a bit late in the day the earliest available IUI appointment was at 2pm tomorrow which would put me at more than 24 hours after the positive OPK. And because I hadn't tested earlier in the day the surge might have been happening for a few hours by the time I tested so it could have ended up being 30 hours between surge and IUI. I know that the 24 hour window is important for me because my two bfp cycles my IUI was done at around 21 hours after the positive OPK. So it just seems too much of a gamble to have IUI at possibly nearer 30 hours. The clinic were reluctant as well, as they also believe that sooner is better.

Basically I've been caught out because for December, January, February I was getting my first positive OPK at around 6pm, having had a negative at around 2pm so I geared testing towards those times. Because before today's OPK I hadn't done one since 10pm last night I have no way of knowing if I was positive at 8am, 10am, midday etc. My clinic always want to know when your last negative OPK was so that they have a small window of only a fews hours of when your LH surge might have actually happened.

So, positive points:

• maybe the warts will have fucked off by next month
• one of the doctors I saw for the miscarriage surgery recommended I wait two cycles anyway
• I'm going to drink lovely wine and eat pate this weekend
• having a scan showing a good follicle and womb lining means I know that I have fully recovered from the miscarriage (physically anyway ;) )

Points to learn from:

• Do three OPKs per day at crunch time.

Sorry to witter, I'm thinking 'out loud' really.

I just realised that the post I wrote yesterday about my GUM clinic trip hasn't appeared. I was dreading it but it was all perfectly civilised. The doctor was lovely and made me feel a lot better about the situation. She also said that the warts are absolutely no reason not to get pregnant. In fact the dormant virus in my system was probably kicked into action by the fact that I was pregnant and thus immune system lowered, so chances are they're going to reappear when I get pregnant anyway.

So shoes do you have to pay for that cycle that have just missed? What happens to the mr swimmers do they stay frozen until you are ready to use them. Glad the warts don't pose any problems tho...another positive of waiting another month is another pay day :)

Hi Pickle because my clinic is able to order the sperm the same day that they use it, I haven't got any in storage. Also, you don't book an appointment until you get your LH surge so there are no cancellation charges.

It would add horribly to the disappointment if I had to pay anything to the clinic for this cycle!

So the only cost I have had this month is that I decided to pay for the scan today (£100) just to check that everything was as it should be after the miscarriage. (at Veralum clinic in St Albans - they are so lovely there, so if anyone needs a one-off scan at any time I'd thoroughly recommend them) .

Hello ladies,

I'm out for the month as well. I've been having terrible pain ever since my ovulation. And my af is now five days late. Went to the fertility clinic this morning, where they were lovely as usual. Dr said he has never seen anyone respond to femara like I have, which I guess is a good sign, but bad because I have these huge cysts right now. Hence the pain At least I can stop worrying about dying. Lol. Plan is to take a cycle off, take birth control, and have another try the end of July. Works for me. I've been feeling so much pressure (from myself) that I just want a few weeks of not being obsessed.

So shoes I'm right there with you this weekend. Wine and naughty food, bring it on. I hope that we both go on to have uneventful and successful cycles next time.

One thing I'm not looking forward to is the predicted massive af. Dr said my lining looks fantastic....which means nice and fluffy and thick. Ah well. Wine will help with that too, right?

Happy Friday everyone!

Thanks for thoughts on OPKs and FMU y'all. Honestly, what we have to think about! I guess as I'm IVFing I don't have to think about this too much.

I have my treatment planning and medication training appointment scheduled! Sat 1st Oct, I love that they do Saturday's. Then I'll be all ready to begin the process at the beginning of November!

Now, if only I'd ordered my baby daddy donor vials before the pound crashed.....!

Holy moly!! You guys have been busy again!!!

What a day! Thank God I have dual nationality!!!
Seriously what a frickerty fcuk!!! Very disconcerting!

pickle I have loads of opks - give me a shout if you want them. They are unused (of course)

shoes glad you can see the positive side. I was told to wait 2 months also. We can be almost cycle buddies - although my IVF protocol is 2 months!!
I am glad clinic was ok.

pickle when you are using frozen magic potion they only need an hour to defrost and centrifuge.

Sorry about pain karen... What is femara? And why would they put you on birth control

stork glad things are moving ahead. Yep no opks with IVF... Are you doing natural or stimulated?

So I have another allotment weekend ahead of me - our aim is to put up the 4 raised beds we had a handyman put together last week. Not sure how much we will actually complete seeing as we still need to weed quite a lot of ground.

Hi ladies :)

You lot have been busy!!

Shoes I'm glad the clinic was ok and that you've been given the green light to do IUI again. Are you still using the Copenhagen clinic?

Stork I'm having the same problem with my ovulation I haven't been using FMU tho as I've heard from you guys & different websites.
Ooh it's so exciting that you've got your first appointment. Not long to go, either! Cannot wait til I'm in your position :)
I have my telephone appointment with CRGW on Wednesday - slightly nervous, but also don't know whether to cancel as I've been off work for a while cos of my hospital stay! Feel a tad rude having another morning off. What's the cancellation timeline without being charged? Do you know?

Pickle that's great news re the baby fund!! Bet you're feeling so much better.

Karen, how come they're putting you on birth control?? Good news about your lining though. AF shouldn't be too long!

Hope you're all having a wonderful Friday. X

kwick yeh would be be great if I could get those opks of you. Let me know how much you want for them.

From what I have read online they often use the pill to delay cycle until ready for it.

caution I'm soooo excited that finally there are some money in the fund, have got to have at least 2 more legs ops first tho which will be about £850 total (hopefully won't need anymore than that) but next op is in end of Aug so time to save a bit more for baby and op fund. How are you now after your hospital stay?

Awe there will be a few of you again to go through next cycle together :)
I've done a timeline of when I want to start doing things,hoping I can combine the op after next which'll be November time to do a free tour of the fertility clinic( which is about 2mins apart from the plastic surgeon ) where you get to have an informal 20min chat.
Where am I on holiday now is where i decided in sept '15 that I was doing to do this,had been looking into before but hadn't told anyone but I made a decision that it's now or never and started my little journey. I even wrote in the sand what I wanted my child's name to be (boy and girl) and cried and in less than a year hopefully my journey can truly begin

I'm not bad thanks Pickle. I went in with palpitations that I'd had for over 24hrs which were coming every few minutes and really bad chest pain. My d-dimer blood test came back positive though, which meant I could've had a blood clot on my lung, so had to stay in and have tests. It's only Pleurisy tho, not a pulmonary embolism so I'm lucky - even though Pleurisy frigging hurts! Back to work Monday.
Glad your baby fund is coming on nicely :)

Aw that's lovely though. Did you take pictures of what names you'd written in the sand? Would be lovely to frame it and put it in the nursery when baby is here... X

pickles I think that it's wonderful you are back in the same spot. Congrats on paying off the cc. Must feel fantastic. And being able to plan and look to the future is a great thing.

caution I hope you get lots of rest this weekend and feel better.

kwick have fun in the dirt! My plants are growing well. We are in the middle of a massive dry spell so trying to keep everything alive.

As for the bcp, being on it for a few weeks will help calm my hormones down. With so many follicles my e2 went through the roof (each follicle produces some, do when you have a lot it can get a bit crazy). Still have e2(estradiol?) and its feeding the cysts. Femara, which I also took when got my bcp, is a mild fertility drug. Used to suppress estrogen, typically taken days 3-7. Then you get a rebound and you recruit more follicles. So for women with pcos it's used a lot. I don't have any diagnosed fertility issues (male fertility I guess.....being that I'm single.....lol). My guess is my body is just confused after the mc and over responded. So here I am. Lower dose next time. Just focusing on the dr saying he is confident I'll be pregnant soon. I've been pretty down lately. This pain was pretty scary but it's better now that I know what is happening.

Eek caution pleurisy!!!painful. Glad not a blood clot tho! Don't rush back to work tho if your not well enough

caution not sure, but could you take your lunch early and do the call or Skype or whatever it is? Do you really need the full morning off? Try and make it work, as it'll be a wait to reschedule if you cancel it, won't it? It's about 3wks, no?

kwick I'm going full hog, throwing meds and as much intervention as I can at it to increase my chances of this working. Anyhoo, how are you feeling now?

I never thought I'd be bored of thunder and lightening storms but I am.

Stork - I'm going back to work on 6hr days this week whilst I've got Pleurisy - my works idea, not mine, as they don't want me too exhausted. I'm quite happy with that if I say so myself, because even just walking to my kitchen exhausts me and causes me pain! So I'll only have two ten min breaks, and the person on the phone said it should be about half an hour but could take longer depending on my questions etc, and I have a lot of those .
It will be a wait to reschedule, maybe about three weeks as you said, but I'm thinking now it's possibly better to do that than take more time off work...

Pickle yep, it is painful! So glad it's not a clot tho, they're dangerous. I don't want too much more time off work but as I said I'm on 6hr days this week so I'll be fine. X

Caution sorry to hear that you've been so unwell. Pleurisy is nasty - a colleague of mine had it last year. If it's any help to hear, she recovered fully quite quickly after being treated so hopefully in a few weeks' time you'll be as right as rain.

Oh, and to answer your question I have decided to continue with the Copenhagen clinic. I phoned CRGH and they weren't terribly helpful re reducing the initial consultation fee even though I've already had the blood tests included in the price. That, and the fact that the sperm costs the same as the sperm+treatment in Copenhagen made me decide to stick with my clinic. I trust them and feel relaxed going there (not saying that I wouldn't with CRGH but I don't know so it just seems easier to stick with Copenhagen).

Sounds like a plan shoes I think feeling happy with your clinic is soooo important, I have been in touch with a few and only 1 made me feel like I was important and not just a number, they rang me or emailed me back straight away, where as some of them i haven't even heard back from...& when I did speak to the clinic I like they were sooo friendly, I wish I was brave enough to go to a foreign country to do it... I may look into it again but the clinic I've chosen is 45mins away so it would be hard to go somewhere further esp with work it's going to be difficult enough to fit in the treatment with my own patients :/

Kwick I'm really pleased that we'll be almost cycle buddies

While I'm thinking about it I just want to mention how much I have valued this thread and the support you have given me, and the general feeling of us all having a common aim. I have wonderful 'real life' friends who are incredibly supportive but I know that this thread is a place where we all really understand what we're all going through. I really do appreciate you all

Sorry I don't usually get sentimental!

Pickle which clinic are you going for? Sorry, I know you will have said upthread but I can't find it!

If you want to chat about going abroad I'd be happy to do so. Having said that it does sound like you've found a clinic you're happy with, and that with your job it will make sense to be closer to home.

I'm really lucky in that I am only employed 3 days a week, and I have a lovely lovely boss who is very pro what I'm doing and is helpful and understanding re me having time off at very short notice. The rest of the time I work for my own freelance business and it's mostly work I can do anywhere as long as I have my laptop so I've been working during my trips to Copenhagen especially at the airport when waiting for flights.