Ttc first baby 1 year + thread 3

[orangeloo]

Started new thread as precariously close to 1000 @KatBeCool @starkid @MotherOfShihTzus

@MotherOfShihTzus how are you getting on?

@orangeloo - that's great news! Onwards and upwards now :)

Stims seem fine, on day 5 of them and my hot flushes have stopped and acne cleared up, and getting lots of ewcm and the occasional headache/nausea but not much. So a scan tomorrow to see how they're working so far :)

@starkid yea indeed :) thank you.

I'm glad stims aren't too bad. Good luck for scan tomorrow fx for some lovely follicles!

Hey @orangeloo I'm a bit behind you ladies. I feel your pain on the waiting; I was referred to ivf clinic 15 months ago and I'm still not a priority it seems! We're now over 3 years trying and feeling like you - every cycle I feel my chances reduce. I called yesterday and they said they'd be contacting me any time now... but heard it all before. Had an additional hysto on 24th Dec, apparently my fibroids aren't causing issues so hopefully I can progress with the ivf once they call. Any luck with your clinic recently?

So sorry to hear that @KatBeCool look after yourself and hopefully you can try again?

Good luck on stims @starkid - you're so close!

@MotherOfShihTzus oh gosh. That is such a long time you poor thing. I really hope you get seen v soon!

Yes I should have appointment end of feb ish. If it's not the planning appointment it will be one before it. Such a relief to finally feel I'm finally getting close.

Hey ladies,

How is everyone getting on? I had a question whom I don't have anyone to ask as Olin not yet with the clinic for so wondered if you ladies had a view?

My BMI is 27.6 which is over-weight, but won't stop me progressing with treatment. This is 1-2 stone heavier than my typical weight (the stress of this journey maybe?!). Anyway, I've been struggling to lose weight, despite eating extremely healthily in a calorie deficit, and getting my 10k steps a day.
Do you think my chances of pregnancy will improve more whether I:

A) continue eating healthily at c. 1400 cals a day, getting all the nutrients
B) increase my calorie deficit, but likely lose some nutrients - eating less of the stuff that's good for me?

I want to exercise more, but all the advice says to avoid high impact movements so that's out of the qu.

I just don't know what would be best in terms of getting pregnant / ivf working. I must have some sort of hormone issue to not be losing, given my diet!

Sorry this is so long!

@MotherOfShihTzus hey, sorry if we've had this conversation before but have you had your thyroid checked? Underactive can make it near impossible to loose weight despite best efforts. If you haven't get it done ASAP.

If thyroid is fine I would not want to be too much in a calorie deficit and would carry on being healthy with just light exercise for the time your ttc.

Or if your ivf is still far away and you don't think it will happen naturally for you maybe go abit intense for a short time but I would want to leave at least a couple of months before staring IVF for my body to prepare without intense diet or exercise.

Obviously I'm no professional this is just my opinion. X

Hi guys, just an update my end. I had egg collection yesterday, and from my ten follicles they got 7 eggs, six of which I was told this morning have fertilised ☺️ so now to wait till Monday morning to see how they get on after brewing over the weekend, to see if transfer will be Monday or Wednesday. Fingers crossed for maybe 3-4 good quality embryos 🤞

@starkid that's a great result. Fingers crossed for your little embabies!

So another update: On monday they transferred two day 3 grade b/b- embryos. Will have a pregnancy blood test Feb 8th

Then today the clinic rang and on day 7, they managed to freeze a grade a/b blastocyst! It was a slow grower and yesterday the cells on the outside didn't look the right number even though it was a blastocyst, so they left it one more day and it now looks really good apparently.

Such a weight off my chest knowing we still have one in the freezer in case this cycle fails, and don't have to spend thousands and go through quite as much drama right away, as where I am we're only given one fresh and one frozen cycle on the nhs.

@starkid ah that's great news! Fingers crossed for your two stickies! Can I ask how the decision came about that they transferred 2? X

@orangeloo - so out of the 6 eggs fertlised, on day 3 they were mostly low grade or low in number of cells. So they transferred both the 7-cell b grade embryo, and 8-cell b minus grade embryos as they weren't sure if any more would get to the next stage. And I wanted to just give it the best shot possible of getting pregnant, especially if there wouldn't be any in the freezer and not sure what's going on with clinics and covid in the future again. Plus would have to pay next time as opposed to NHS.
But then on day 7 they finally got one of the other 4 eggs to the correct stage of blastocyst/right number cells and a good grade so froze it! :)
So if these 2 fail, I have that one in the freezer for one more go on the nhs.

@starkid ah I see thank u for explaining. Pleased you got that one in the freezer too. How is the tww treating you?

@orangeloo - Painful! Another week to go, it's dragggggging! And yes I'm really pleased we managed to freeze one, even though the embryologist said it might affect the chances, with it being frozen on day 7, but still worth having one just in case!

@starkid absolutely. Ah bless you. I hope the rest goes quicker for you and you. X

Fantastic news @starkid !! I have everything crossed for your 2 WNBA bird and must be such a relief to have the extra in the freezer :) so good to hear some positive news!

Thanks for your reply @orangeloo - I've signed up to Pilates, which I'll do weeks 1&2 of cycle- just to try and boost health / fitness.

We were AGAIN fobbed off by nhs last week; whenever I've been in touch in the last year, it's 1-2 months away til I'll be contacted. I was assured it would be early January, and again, now they're saying March/ April! So we've bitten the bullet and started the ball rolling on private care. Even if we just get some embryos frozen for future, it at least feels like we're doing something!

What geographical areas is everyone else in? We're in Wales so should get 2x nhs cycles... if it ever happens!!

Wow - typo in there was 'everything crossed for your 2 em-babies!' Apols!

@MotherOfShihTzus - oh no i'm sorry to hear this, and good luck with looking into private hospitals instead.
I'm Dorset, and get 1 frech cycle and 1 frozen cycle on NHS (hence the relief to get that one frozen blastocyst!)

The IVF postcode lottery is just awful. I am hopeful for your 2 on board though :) did you use ICSI or straight IVF or a mix? We were gonna look at a mix...

I've been researching reproductive immunology and sperm DNA fragmentation; has anyone else looked at this? I gave allergies so think there's a chance my body is attacking sperm/ embryos before implanting. It seems so hard to get the additional tests though - just feel like I want to be sure what we're dealing with before dropping so much money in treatment. I just don't believe 'unexplained' is a real thing

@MotherOfShihTzus I'm in the south east we get one fresh and one frozen round.

I have looked into reproductive immunology. I don't believe unexplained is a thing either. I have autoimmune thyroid so feel like there may be a link. If my nhs rounds fail. I will get tested for immune factors. I don't want to before nhs round and they will not treat it anyway as it's marked red on HFEA website. So I don't want to go in to my free goes knowing they may well fail. Although I will ask for a steroid tablet but I don't think they will give them.

I started reading 'is your baby body friendly, think the author was Alan beer. It was interesting I haven't finished it for the same reason above. I don't want to completely freak myself out and self diagnose and be on a downer for nhs rounds but he has already said that high killer cells etc don't just cause miscarriages. They can stop implantation and can be a cause of unexplained infertility- which isn't actually talked about a lot.

Sorry for long reply but I believe knowledge is power - it can also worry us for nothing haha.

Hi all!
Just popped back on to see how you're all getting on. I think about you all and keeping fingers crossed for some bfps soon!
I don't know if this is helpful but my clinic (ABC) put me on Prednisolone because of my thyroid problem and previous miscarriage. I specifically asked for it as I know the big expensive clinics in London Argc etc put all their patients on them as a matter of course and with a history of immune problems I thought it was worth a go. I can't know if it's that which did the job but I feel like it might well have been what I needed.

Best of luck for next week @starkid !🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞

Hey @FlapJackered thank you for thinking of us. That is good to know as I am hoping prednisolone is fairly common place and won't have a battle on my hands.

Thanks @FlapJackered great inside info! My acupuncturist has recommended a reproductive immunologist based in Epsom, so we are deciding whether to go for that before or after first treatment (our thinking being that there may not be enough data without having had a round and understood my responses).

How are you getting on?

Thanks @orangeloo I'll get that book - but you're right - theses things can freak me out! It's silly that nhs treatments won't listen to additional key data? Do they just want to herd us through like cattle on hope for the best?!

@MotherOfShihTzus I know, I think they do. it's silly cos it's potentially a waste of money on someone's round that may never work. It's because the HFEA say there isn't enough evidence to say it works or that these factors are real. Also that the treatment can be dangerous to the woman. I wholeheartedly believe it is real countless women have struggles then Receive some kind of immuno suppression and have success. That can't be down to chance.

@MotherOfShihTzus that's great! I think it's definitely worth doing, my feeling is that the top clinics wouldn't offer it if they didn't think there was something in it. Best of luck with it!
I am good thanks, had my little ivf boy in October so feeling very lucky!

@orangeloo good luck with it! I went in armed with lots of research and reasons why I should be put on it, but they were actually really willing, so hopefully you won't have a problem. 🤞