"It's been 84 years" infertile donkeys ahoy, all aboard! Not a fertile unicorn insight bus 5

[notyetamumbuttrying]

Buckling up for the ride of their lives, our infertile donkeys 🐗and their stats below:
@Annny27 29, no1 since June 19
@RobinRose 27, no1 since Oct 2019
@kerrym87 34 no1 since sept19

@Motherofkittens28 39 no 1 since aug19
@Yutes 34 no1 since aug19
@Crazydoglady123 32 no2 jan19, ivf in April21!
@Marvellouslymadmum 42 no3 since April 18
@Tofu35 35 no1 since sep19
@Hayley19835 38 no1 oct18
@Narwhal88 32, no1 since jun19
@Dogmum13 29 no1 since dec19
@SlothMamaToBe
@Theawkwardblonde no1 for 18 months
@CreativeThinkerTequilaDrinker 15 months ttc ivf in June, ov 8th April
@2020mission 33 no1 14 months ttc
@Sjhigs 37 no1 since sep18 ivf consult mid April
@crazycatlady1981 39 no1 since Oct18, ivf in May
@PeanutButterBrownies
@Juno231 33 no1 since jan20
@clolo 31 no1 since jun19
@Aimzie 28 no1 4 years NTNP 22 months ttc
And me 😊 35 ttc no1 for 19 months

@RobinRose I do hope they get you seen sooner!

@clolo I've had two egg collections now and I was completely unaware for both of them. The worst part was the needle for the sedation! I know different clinics use different levels of sedation and different people respond differently too but I reckon 90% of people won't be aware at all. Your experience after will probably vary with how many follicles you had, I only had 4 last time so I was a little tender afterwards but nothing bad at all. Don't worry!

@Marvellouslymadmum my plastic free haul has landed!

Honestly a little excited about having a milkman again who I can return the bottles to, it’s all very retro.

I was supposed to get up early and run...I did not. Maybe I’ll do it after work instead. Need to make it happen. The fruit and veg delivery has made me feel more like being healthy though.

I got the wrong mum @! Sorry, meant to tag @notyetamumbuttrying but realised too late.

@thislittlebird looks gorgeous 🥑🥬🥦🥒 I order for odd box which is 90% plastic free (salad comes in plastic....)

Saying that, I had s chocolate eclair for breakfast so hardly the essence of health here 😂😂😂

P.s we had slight mfi (low morphology and count) but they are both normal now (on lower side of normal)

[quote Marvellouslymadmum]@thislittlebird I was really surprised how much they'd actually done when I checked! Can you wake them for anything else?

I'm vegetarian and really struggling to lose weight! I've never really been on a diet, more I just cut down on the bad stuff and eat healthier and that's always worked. I don't eat friend food anyway, don't snack etc I've tried to up my calorie intake by eating a decent sized breakfast - homemade granola with nuts and seeds in, as I wasn't getting enough calories before but have only manage 1kg off in 3 months! 😫[/quote]
I don’t think my surgery care whatsoever. I’ve now complained to PALS and they’re passing my complaint and questions about process and timescale on to gynaecology. But I guarantee you my surgery have yet again dropped the ball. Didn’t do day 3 tests, didn’t test for deficiencies or anything else.

I’m not vegetarian but I’m close to being vegetarian. I eat 90% veggie stuff. My problem is snacks. I love bad snacks. I love eating generally. So I can easily do a lot of calories although I’m lucky I don’t gain super fast. If I cut out the bad snacks and stick to 1200 cals I should lose some weight, with exercise. It’s just not fast for me.

@Annny27 I love the no plastic thing! I tried to use oddbox in the first lockdown but they were fully booked then and that’s how I found this guy. This company is local to me/SE London and it’s independent so does no plastic at all. He also delivers bread, dairy, juice and milk in glass etc but I’m getting the separate milkman because you can just order one point and change the order frequently.

I had a pain au chocolate (cooked in the oven, the frozen ones) on Saturday and Sunday morning so you aren’t alone! I need to be better though, I’ve been really slack the last few weeks.

I’ve been listening to a lot of podcasts about MFI recently and it seems like our guidance for sperm counts are very bare minimum. No wonder so many of us take longer to conceive now

@Annny27 how did your partner improve out of interest? My partners has got slightly worse if anything and we've tried various things but no improvement - Ahead of IVF and his sample for that it would be great if we could improve somewhat... Tips welcome from anyone on this!

@thislittlebird I love eating haha, literally live for it sometimes tbh, especially throughout lockdown - I'm lucky though as I've never really had to worry about my weight and am pretty fit / active

*one pint (and no more shopping) and return the bottles

@thislittlebird lol I've done that with the tagging before, but that looks great! I'd love to have a milkman, haven't had one since I was a child so might definitely look into that again!

Hopefully pals will get stuff moving for you! I don't gain weight fast, I mean I've gained 1.5 stone in 6 years I just don't want it to take that long to get it back off again 😂

@polejunkie eating is really my only vice, I love it a lot. I wish I was more active, I’m quite lazy and extremely lucky I don’t gain quickly with the amount I can put away. But I have high cholesterol (skinny fat? Medium fat?) so I’m convinced my body doesn’t process fat in a normal way. It somehow puts it on inside and not that much outside so I know controlling what I eat and exercising is what I need to be doing. Luckily I do like healthy things too, I just like all the foods.

My partner’s has got worse too, that’s why we decided to see this urologist.

@thislittlebird @polejunkie

So my partners morphology increased from 2% to 6% and things we did:

• consistently taking his wellman vitamins
• switching to loose fit boxers
• eating a bit better
• exercising a bit more

Tbh he was fairly healthy anyway so I think the loose boxers was responsible as it allowed the testicles to be cooler and better environment for the sperm apparently

[quote clolo]@thislittlebird we're male factor and really severe. We initially wanted to get that fixed and he's seeing urology separately because there's a potential surgery that can help, however our IVF consultant advised us to wait until after we have done IVF and got plenty of sperm frozen. She basically said that even with the procedure there's no guarantee it will improve and even if it does it's still probably not going to improve enough to not need ICSI and she was worried it could end up doing more harm than good and also add on additional waiting time on NHS lists for the procedure to then end up still needing IVF anyway. Our plan is to do our NHS round of IVF and then get on the waiting list for the procedure after and go from there depending how the NHS round went. Very complicated!

I'm officially doing IVF in May 🥳 with egg collection estimated WC24th. Having a little catch up of the thread now and will hopefully keep up with you all this time 😁
[/quote]
That makes sense @clolo. Is it surgical sperm removal or something else? Sounds more like something to fix an issue?

They didn’t refer us to urology which annoys me and I’ve mentioned it, but we’re seeing this guy privately anyway which at least won’t add to the waiting time.

Amazing you’re starting soon! I wish I was joining you, feels so long away still.

@Annny27 thanks - My partner exercises every other day, quite intensely too, so can't add much there, although we were told that cycling could case a problem - hot I guess so that goes with the loose boxer theory, although when he stopped cycling we didn't see an improvement and he doesn't want to get out of shape lol, can't win. His isn't too low so I'm not massively worried but obv any improvements would be welcome ahead of IVF! My bf is 47 though tbf.

@thislittlebird we have to have a vice of some sort... makes me laugh all these 1 nighters that result in babies after boozing, drugs, poor diet and not a vitamin in sight!! I mean how, seriously! You grow up being taught that if you so much as look at a penis you'll get pregnant, haha

@clolo were down for ICSI too although if it's good enough on the day it'll just be normal IVF. My OH really isn't doing a lot to help his swimmers other than taking Proxeed Plus which pisses me off. When the gyms re opened he was back on his full of caffeine pre workout shakes, he drinks red bull and caffeine. My only saving Grace is he isn't a big drinker at home but bought some Koppenbergs at the weekend and I said one will be okay but he kept going on to have two. I was like one more week is all you have to wait 🤦🏽‍♀️

Exactly @clolo a small sacrifice in the grand scheme of things! Even to get some good quality embryos for the freezer then he can eat and drink whatever the hell he wants again! When we did all the consent forms, acknowledging the risks of ICSI scared me to think surely you'd do everything you can to not have to have it. Egg collection is the bit I'm most worried about too and I'm waking up so many times in the night thinking about it atm.

I've just done an IVF yoga session on YouTube. Anything to make my ovary move back 😂🙈

Sorry been awol, just catching up on things!

@Crazydoglady123 yay to all those potential eggies! That’s a great number so far! Hope your scan tomorrow goes well and they’ve all grown!

So we filled in our consent forms last week on Monday and emailed them to the nurse Tuesday morning because she said if we get them back to her asap, she will contact Bath fertility and try to get us in for ivf this cycle! Fast track a week later to this morning and my phone call appointment with the nurse who says ‘have you sent your consents back to me?’ So she obviously didn’t check her emails last week to try and get us in for this cycle!! 🙄 So frustrating! So now apparently she’s going to contact bath after she got off the phone to me and see if they can fit us in this cycle! I won’t hold my breath though!
A bit more waiting around for me...🤯

Great to hear so many people are starting soon!! Sending lots of luck to you all! 💕

On a plastic free note, we get a zero packaging veg box each week and get organic whole milk from a local farm vending machine so you reuse the glass bottle each time! It’s great! Delicious milk too! And they do yoghurt, cream, kefir and butter as well! 😋

@Annny27 ooh that’s a good improvement! Amazing how just switching to loose boxers can help! I will mention that to DH, although he does sometimes go commando already when he’s run out of clean pants! 🤣

@crazycatlady1981 annoying much!! Have you got your meds etc. yet? Or will you get those once nurse / Bath confirm you're 'in' - when do you need to hear by for this cycle to be a goer?? I hope you're not waiting too long, could always call Bath directly...

@thislittlebird great looking haul! Love that you have a milkman too. Remember when you could order orange juice from the milkman, it was so tasty! I may attempt a run later but if not, I need to find a workout on YouTube to do.
@Annny27 haha breakfast of champions that 🏆
@polejunkie I love eating too but do put on weight, I do envy you!! 🤪
So for male factor my Dh took proxeed plus, ate satsumas, more veg, less chocolate, cut right down on booze, stopped smoking and exercised.
@Crazydoglady123 my Dh is being a bit similar with the drinking. I have to keep reminding him that he has to keep up the good work for a small while longer! Annoyingly we both made plans for May with mates before knowing ivf was a go and we both have boozy friends 🥴
Good going, hope it's done the trick with the ovary!
@crazycatlady1981 omg how frustrating! What is actually wrong with some ppl 🤦🏾‍♀️ do you think you'll hear back today then?

@polejunkie @notyetamumbuttrying apparently it could be a goer even if we don’t hear until next Monday with injections starting on Wednesday!! Haven’t had drugs sent through yet or had injection training but she said we could do that as late as next week if necessary! Talk about leaving it til the last minute! Personally I think it’s more likely to be next cycle now but there’s a little bit of me still holding out for this cycle! If I haven’t heard anything by Thursday, I’m going to email her to see if she’s had any response from Bath! Would have been so much easier to do this all directly with bath rather than through a satellite clinic, even with all the extra driving, at least it would be moving along!

Thank you @crazycatlady1981. Mine was very last minute so can be done! Everything crossed you can start this cycle.

@notyetamumbuttrying they're bloody useless right! It's his 30th too on Tuesday 🤦🏽‍♀️ Hoping they can confirm tomorrow definitely when EC will be