TTC 35+ thread 11

[VixFromThe6ix]

New thread! I dunno how to tag everyone from the other thread 🤣

Happy birthday @Misty84 have a lovely day /night out! Personally I drank in every tww at least once or twice while out with friends. Just drank a bit more water along with it and paced myself a bit more than I usually would.

Happy birthday @Misty84 definitely have a few drinks tonight! Even if it turns out you are pregnant, the foetus doesn't get the nutrients from the mother for a few more weeks yet! Have a fun day 🎂🎈

@KatRee Thank you! And Putney is lovely, so nice to be by the river. I know it very well as my cousins are there and I lived with them for a while. Was at Dynamo last night if you know it!
Thank you for the good advice @A1b2c3d4e5f6g7, I’ll be going at a snails pace and drinking plenty of water!!

Thanks @notyetamumbuttrying! Just on way to brunch now where the girls are all planning on having bubbles- not me though, regardless of TTC I was never any good at morning drinking!! 🤪😴

Happy birthday @Misty84 🎈🎁🎉 Enjoy your birthday drinks; I personally think having a few drinks in moderation is totally fine.

So how annoying is the flashing smiley on the Clearblue Digital?! No idea when I’ll ovulate (I’m two days past my normal ovulation day going by past cycles). Day five of the flashing smile and sick of seeing it leering at me in the morning 😅 Should I stop using it for a few days until I see something happening on the cheap tests? Or maybe I shouldn’t be using it with FMU after it’s started with the flashing face?

@Misty84 Small world! Yes, I know Dynamo- was last there last weekend for glass of wine in the afternoon with OH. We love it for brunch too.
Hope you have a lovely day today- nice time of year for a birthday! ☀️

@GuessHowMuch They start flashing when they detect oestrogen don't they, and then you only get static when the LH surge comes. If you have a long oestrogen surge and are going through a lot, I'd be tempted to just switch to cheap LH sticks now x

Happy birthday, Misty! Have the drinks, don’t worry about it. 🍸

@KatRee @Misty84 small world! I’ve only been to Putney once or twice but I’m trekking SW for my hycosy next week. Not ideal, but not that bad either. The Lister also have a clinic at the Shard but they only do nurse stuff there, so I’m off to Chelsea for the hycosy, egg collection and transfer afaik, those things involve a doctor/staff and more equipment.

Not much in the way of brunch where I am but we could afford a 3 bed house this way (and I’m from SE so know it well) but if we ran out of money and are successful we do already have a potential nursery. I actually cried once a few years ago when my husband suggested moving because I envisioned this being where my baby was born and how that room would be the nursery. Little did I know how unrealistic that was

@Misty84 I wasn't actually a snails pace, I just avoided pure alcohol drinks like my friends margaritas and negronis and drank a few glasses of wine or drinks with mixers instead 😂 and no shots of tequila for me. I reckon you'll be fine, have a lovely bday and don't feel guilty!

Thanks @KatRee, I’ll ditch the CB for now and stick with cheap LH strips. I’m just hoping the chemical hasn’t messed up my cycle too much. Hope you’re feeling ok after all the not so great news you’ve had. Was it you who’s DH has gone away too? My DH used to travel for work and I really hated it.

Happy birthday!!!! @Misty84

Definitely allow yourself a few drinks, go out and enjoy yourself! It’s a gorgeous sunny day xxx

Thanks @GuessHowMuch . I am feeling a bit better today after the initial shock. Yes, OH has gone to his home country for a month to visit family. It's been nearly a year since he's seen them and had to cancel so many planned trips last minute for covid-related reasons. It's very strange him not being here and just turned out to be unfortunate timing in that his flight was the morning after we had our consultation. But I'm pleased for the sake of his mental well-being that he's finally able to go.

Hopefully your cycle won't be too unsettled. I've seen a few people saying they get lots of flashing smileys with cp. 🤞your LH peak is on its way soon and good luck for this cycle x

@thislittlebird I've got everything crossed for all of that we'll get there and we'll all be needing nurseries. Just wish it didn't have to be such a long, hard journey x

@KatRee
Blocked tubes and average amh are super common issues. Ever since I started my TTC journey I realise fertility remains somewhat of a black hole ...a lot of women have similar issues but went on to have kids and a lot more healthier ones got slammed with "unexplained infertility".

Your issue can be fixed with ivf...it's daunting and tbh I'm afraid of the journey myself. It's a huge leap...and it's tough but hopefully we will all get there.

Someone in this forum told me to be kinder to myself. I hope you could do that to yourself too.

@Misty84
Happy birthday!!! Have a blast!

Hi ladies, I've just caught up on 490 posts 😆

Happy birthday @Misty84! 🥳 You should definitely let your hair down and enjoy your day today 🎉

I'm back with my tail between my legs after a false start to my ivf journey. Started stims last Sunday but then at my first scan on Thursday I had a large cyst so they've cancelled my cycle. Luckily it won't count and we still have our three cycle package. They are going to put me on the pill for 21 days and then we'll try again next month.

Hey @Kitekat81! Had they not spotted it before, was it new? Not sure how this works when something like that happens. Are they expecting it to be gone next month?

Did you have to do the trips to Manchester too or stay in the area? I have my ivf pack to read this weekend, and a private hycosy next week, any progress will do right now!

@thislittlebird I hadn't had a scan since April 12th so I don't know if it was there before I start stimming, but I assume the stims made it bigger. Makes me think they should perhaps have scanned me before I started stimming, but I guess they know what they're doing. Apparently being on the pill should suppress the cyst, hopefully. Yep I travelled down to Manchester for the scan and stayed there for two nights, bit of a bummer as I had booked for 10 nights so have lost money on that, but nothing I can do about it as that was a risk I knew I was taking.

@Kitekat81 I’m so sorry - how frustrating and disappointing when you’re all geared up for it. Did they check for eggs developing too during the scan (or maybe the cyst would stop that from happening?).

@notyetamumbuttrying how are you doing with the longest wait in the universe ever? Are you managing to distract yourself? Still got everything crossed for you 🥰

After moaning this morning about the stupid flashing smiley, I tested with a One Step Lh this afternoon and it was a little darker so I did a CB digital and it’s given me my peak. Premom said that my One Step was only 0.3. Think I might try a different brand of cheap tests for next cycle.

@GuessHowMuch haha I'm ok at mo. Round at my parents today so have had a change of scene and some yummy food! Aw thank you 😊
Yay to peak! Now get to dtd 😏 good idea on trying different ones, I can't recommend any as I always used cb's.

@Kitekat81 it didn’t even occur to me that a cyst could also grow and stop everything. Damn. Another thing for us ivfers to worry about . Did you go with mild in the end? Useful to know, makes me want request a scan at the start, haven’t been scanned since Feb but maybe the hycosy has a scan element too, not sure.

Oh no, sorry you didn’t get your money back. Such a pain, and this whole thing is expensive enough as is.

It’s frustrating but hopefully the pill will do the trick. The cyst vs follicle line seems to be very thin.

@thislittlebird I didn't realise either, but have been googling and it seems that cysts are the top reason for why ivf cycles can get cancelled. Definitely a thin line, they couldn't tell from the scan that it was a cyst, although I think they were suspicious as I had one really large follicle (20mm+) that was clearly larger than they would expect to see at such an early stage of stims. They had to do a blood test to establish whether it was a follicle with an egg in it or a fluid-filled cyst. If they thought there was an egg in there they were considering triggering me way earlier than planned to go in and collect it, a scenario which I had not mentally prepared for on day 6 of my cycle! Yep I'm doing mild. Re the hycosy, during mine they gave me an update on my AFC, my endometrium and the general health of my womb, as well as looking at my tubes. I've had three scans this year in January (the NHS one), February (the private hycosy) and April (the baseline one for Create) and I've never had a cyst identified in those, so it hadn't really crossed my mind that this would happen during ivf.

@GuessHowMuch there was a small number of other follicles but they were really tiny, I'm not sure if they were the right size that you would expect at that stage of stims. Probably a question I should have asked, but the focus was really on my one huge follicle and what to do about that! I'll add that to my list of follow-up questions for my next attempt.

@AnxiousWannabe Thank you. I think it is the timing that has thrown me so much. I had in mind I would do everything I could to conceive naturally and start looking into IVF in September with the aim of starting in January if we hadn't had any luck. I think I would be in a different frame of mind if it had worked like that, I hadn't prepared myself at all for the possibility of blocked tubes and being urged to do ivf right away. But you're right, it's good to have some kind of explanation

@Kitekat81 So sorry to hear this cycle has been cancelled- that must be so difficult even if you had mentally prepared for the possibility. Hope this cyst goes away and the next attempt goes well x

Thanks @Katree. So sorry about your news about your blocked tube. Take your time to process it, your follicle count and AMH don't sound that bad (way better than mine!) so don't feel like you need to be rushing, just start the wheels turning and work through the steps one day at a time. Would you get the ivf on the NHS? Sorry if I missed that x

Thank you @Kitekat81. I think it's likely we would be eligible for treatment on NHS, but I haven't even looked into it tbh. I was referred to NHS fertility clinic by GP on my first phone call and the clinic wrote to advise us to book HyCoSy and SA with them, but it was then impossible to get through and everything about their system was quite stressful, so we thought for the sake of £600 we'd get the tests done privately and then make a decision about how to proceed based on results. And since the private consultant is basically saying our best chance is moving quickly to ivf we are inclined to stay with them to do it privately rather than losing time shopping around. I'm mindful that private clinics are businesses though. I probably do need to use the next few weeks to consider other options. Just finding it a little overwhelming now, so thanks so much for your advice and support
I hope you are doing ok and looking after yourself xx

@Kitekat81 how do they tell via the blood test? It’s very interesting, if annoying. Yeah, day six seems a bit early! Was your afc the same at the last scan?

I had one cyst and one fibroid in my private scan in feb, hoping there’s nothing else to find that might surprise me on the hycosy. I’m not looking forward to it, trying not to think about it because I keep worrying my follicles aren’t really follicles or I’ll have empty follicles or they’ll be fewer than before......just generally panicking lol