TTC post pill - Halloween Party

[Moocher90]

Post pill party - Halloween Party

The dark mornings and nights are here and theres a full moon out! It’s that time of year when pumpkin sales go soaring, horror specials sell out at the cinema, and everyone is seemingly dressed up as a vampire or a zombie. To mark the spookiest time of year, we are sharing some of our tales of TTC post contraception.

Join us if your dare for a ghastly affair!

Welcome to the 13th post pill party thread. We are here for women who have recently come off the pill and women who have been off the pill for a longer time! Share and get support with the highs and lows of TTC.

@ChinChilly
@Juno231
@CharWils
@Moocher90
@MissM94
@MissC07
@Kay00
@TheDaydreamBelievers
@pineapple2021
@Theosmommy2011
@Lovebug06
@WhirlingD
@Carolinesturn
@Tillybabs
@redclueless
@Cams50
@sunshinedaisybuttermellow
@Kat668

Sorry to anyone I have missed off.

@ChinChilly lettuce?

@TheDaydreamBelievers me too!! I love yogurt so much... a full fat Greek yogurt is hard to beat! Also, Christmas is nearly upon us and I'm not sure I could cut out cheese

Ladies, I have a question. OH and I are going away for a few nights (Thurs to Sun) and my AF is due on Monday. Do I:

a) take pregnancy tests and the little gifts I would like to present to my OH if I get a positive... because it would be super romantic to do it on holiday

b) forget about it, because its super unlikely anyway

@Kay00 I wonder if an option might be to test on Monday when you return? If a no, it didn't ruin your holiday. If a yes, then what a return to work!!!

That's true, I don't want a negative to ruin the holiday!

@Kay00 I agree with daydreambelievers idea. If AF comes then so be it onto the next cycle however if it doesn’t by time you test you will be officially late and what great news to celebrate x I wouldn’t want to ruin my holiday if I was in your shoes.

@Kay00 I agree with the others although will you be drinking? That part would worry me I think. I'd absolutely hate to bring the stuff for OH though and have to sheepishly take it back home, it would break my heart 😣

@juno231 So glad you're liking the new job and don't have to juggle everything while in the middle of that toxicity. Re autoimmune, I have a family history which prompted my GP to run it plus I have a couple other physical symptoms like Reynauds, reaction to insect bites, some allergies etc. Being monitored by my rheumatologist every 2nd year but until things develop further (which it might never do) they can't diagnose further. However I'm convinced it has something to do with our infertility.

@kay00 So sorry for your loss. It sounds like you have so much happening at the minute. Hope you have some support to look after you while you mind everyone else. Sounds like your weekend away is exactly what you need. I'd be leaving the test at home also as it would be a lovely surprise on Monday on your return but wouldn't be fun to get a negative while you were away. Fingers crossed for you either way.

@chinchilly, sorry to hear your temps are dropping. Hard not to put pressure on that last cycle before treatment appointments. Hope you have a positive experience and things go smoothly for you.

@thedaydreambelievers on your Q about medicated cycles/IUI/IVF, sharing our thought process on our treatment in case its of any help. This is a bit of a brain dump and obviously completely personal preference on some of this but hope its some help. We're skipping IUI's completely. Very fortunate to have some insurance coverage for 2 lifetime specified fertility procedures but IUI would waste one of them. So financially not a good option for us but also husbands motility is good and the extra monitoring/time off work/juggling of app's isn't worth it for the extra % success rates for us. Roughly from my reading think IUI can be about 13% per cycle for my age group and medicated cycles are already about 10% so just not worth it for the extra €1k. If IUI is done with injectables think its up to 26% though.

In terms of medicated cycles, currently on 5th medicated cycle and on 2nd type of medication. I find them good in terms of reward vs effort vs cost and think we'll have 6-7 done by the time we start IVF which seems a good enough shot at them. Also a good way of using up the time before going for IVF I thought. 3 rounds of Letrozole/Clomid seems to be about 15-25% success in total. We're still unexplained so going straight to IVF felt extreme. Any questions re med cycles give a shout. I found they take some of the pressure off for the month too as you know when your timing is so can forget about it the rest of the time and no pressure plus testing isn't an option because you have a positive result from the trigger shot anyway. Going to be arguing to do an injectables medicated cycle with immunosuppressants before we go to IVF (which could in theory work as a mock cycle) but I don't know if they'll be willing to do that for us.

@Gracie2021 do you mind me asking how much medicated cycles are costing you? They are more than I thought but IUI is still pricier! I agree that it doesn't seem much of an increase in efficacy

@TheDaydreamBelievers we’ve been doing largely unmonitored cycles so out of five cycle have. Had monitoring on two. Might not be possible for everyone but works for me with my reaction to meds and the level of meds I’m on. So basically just paying for the RE apps at a private hospital which is cheaper than the IVF clinics about 320 initial consult then 175 for each monitoring/follow up scan. Then the meds themselves (Letrozole/Tamoxifen plus trigger) work out about 80E a month I think. Tbh I spend more on supplements each month than the medicated cycles which is bonkers.

That dejnitely is cheaper @Gracie2021 - we have been quoted £800 monitoring and £200 medication costs per cycle!

@Gracie2021 reaction to insect bites?? My body goes nuclear if it so much as looks at a mosquito. Like huge swollen bites, pus, I even had early sepsis the week of my wedding due to being bitten. I never thought to lump it in with my other auto immune stuff. Gah now I'm worried the IVF will be pointless if they don't know to counteract this stuff 😅

@Juno231 don’t mean to give anyone a fright here. Tbh the whole area of reproductive immunology, from my reading, seems to be long conclusively proven and argued about in the medical community. I think we could get along fine with normal IVF and no immune treatment but also have been chatting with a few people online who have had success with immune treatment after a number of failed IVF cycles. I think for me, because of the positive ANA, family history etc and the fact that we KNOW my body is doing something inflammatory and with medical studies I’ve read about treatment of same, it seems silly not to try some of the stuff that have had success in some of the clinical trials but these trials seem to be at the infancy and hopefully more supporting studies will be done later. That said if we don’t end up doing any immune treatment I’d hope that we could still have a successful pregnancy.

@TheDaydreamBelievers the cost fluctuations between countries are insane. But tbh the cost of medicated cycles in the IVF clinics here wouldn’t be far different from the prices you quoted there. I’ve found staying with an RE for this part much cheaper.

@Gracie2021 I don't know if private RE is a thing here in Scotland 🤔 not something I've ever heard of. Seems to all be through fertility clinics

@Gracie2021 @TheDaydreamBelievers I seem to have got away with paying nothing for my medicated cycles :/ I paid for my initial consultation and for my HyCoSy, but that's it. OH's SA was never charged for, nor has any of the medication I have picked up, or any of the scans/monitoring. Unless they will send me a large bill at the end??

And thanks all of you. I agree, testing whist away would be rubbish if I get a BFN, so I'll leave it. I will just have a small glass of wine each night maximum and will just aim to enjoy myself and relax. If (in the unlikely case) I do get pregnant, then testing early isn't going to change that, so it can wait until next week.

Hello everyone, can I join? I came off the combined pill at the end of May/beginning of June (after being on it for 3 years and on implants for 6 years before that) and started TTC in August. I've been using OPKs and also temping to track ovulation in the last 2 cycles (both times detected by OPKs and confirmed by BBT increase). But, my luteal phase seems short - last month I started spotting at 8 DPO and AF came 2 days later. This month, started spotting at 9 DPO and AF arrived 4 days after that. My periods have also been quite light since coming off the pill. I've read that this is a common side effect after being on a pill, while the body tries to remember how to produce the hormones by itself. I'm already taking a high dose of Vit C, vit B complex (with 100mg B6) and folic acid.

Has anyone experienced anything similar? How long did it take for you cycle to get back to "normal"? It looks like I don't have an issue with ovulation, but rather the womb lining starts breaking down too soon for the egg to implant successfully. Any tips appreciated!

Well when I said I successfully managed to not get pregnant before my RMC appointment that was a lie 🤦‍♀️

Omg @ChinChilly congratulations!!!

@TheDaydreamBelievers Thank you, I just feel like massive bag of nerves atm

@ChinChilly wow that's amazing. You know, I had a weird feeling you were pregnant. You mentioned about a 6dpo dip and I thought "oh I wonder"! Massive congratulations.

@WhirlingD thank you 😊 I didn't even think about the 6dpo dip but I haven't really been taking any notice of the tracking this month. OH put it in my head last night after a slice of cheesecake turned my stomach lol.

Well I've called the EPU about the upcoming appointment and today's BFP and they've given me the contact for Tommy's to see where we go from here... just waiting for them call back. Kinda hoping they will give me some progesterone supplements and advise asprin... but for now I'm sticking my head in the sand.

@ChinChilly massive massive congrats. So thrilled for you and fingers crossed you get seen soon!!!!

@ChinChilly omg massive congrats!!! I know it must be super nerve-racking, keeping everything crossed this is your sticky bean ♥️

AF has struck me today :( I did do a test on Wednesday and it was stark white so at least I don't have to deal with PMS and disappointment in one hit! I've got a spa booked on Thursday so at least this means it should be gone in time for then! (And I can go in the hot tubs 🤣)

@ChinChilly flippin eck! Congratulations!! I have everything crossed for you and def chase EPU if they don't get back to you quickly about the progesterone.

@Ocelotka welcome! I think it's sounding positive that your latest cycle was better than the previous one - maybe your supplements are helping? I had really light periods for over a year after the pill before they started to get a bit longer and heavier. We're talking I'd have one day of spotting and love super light day - buuut scans showed even then that my lining was nice and thick anyway. We also had lots of ladies on here with super light AFs post pill that still got pregnant no problem.

Do you have any other indicators for endometriosis btw as spotting could be a sign of it? Or are your post ovulation temps low and therefore potentially indicating low progesterone?

@Kat668 I'm so sorry! I think she'll come for me too. I've been naughty and did a cheapie test today at 9dpo as my temps are doing great and I've had so many symptoms that I was thinking what if. Stark white of course 😁