Fertility Appointments and Beyond.... the journey continues

[Gracie2021]

New thread for us to continue our fertility clinic appointment progress...

Some of us are waiting for initial appointments, some are having tests and some are starting treatment!

@tillybabs
@thislittlebird
@kay00
@jeaniej
@PurpleUnicorn01
@paintfairy
@dogmam
@flutterby8
@Ughmaybenot
@dancingfairydreams
@beckycarlos
@jkjellyhead
@juno231
@decaffe
@bumble44
@BritinNZ
@tinkerbell098
@pinkginpls
@thedaydreambelievers
@everymumday
@wanderlust16
@lori23ttc

@thislittlebird eugh that's not good! Hopefully now hes buggered off you'll be able to relax and the migrane will go!

@gracie2021 hope the stim injections are going ok! X

@kay00 glad telling your mum went ok! I was weirdly scared telling mine, but slept so well after!

@thislittlebird wow! How awful! I'd expect better from my 16 year old brother who has never decorated anything before in his life! Like you said, he's done the donkey work, so af least you can just do the repair work and the final coat xx

@beckycarlos I'm glad for you too. It's nice to have someone rooting for you xx

@Kay00 so glad telling your mum went well and hope it's one load of anxiety off your shoulders having that done.

@thislittlebird that is shocking work but hopefully it'll still be quicker for ye to shine it up and do the touch ups than if you'd tried to tackle the whole job. Fingers crossed our get rid of the migraines for any pregnancies and hopefully a while after. Would be a nice benefit. Our plan is to keep doing banking rounds until we have a few frozen as much AMH is dropping so quickly that if we want any hope of a second child think we have to gather embryos now so really hoping for even a couple blasts per round. Would love to be able to try for a transfer after these back to back rounds.

@beckyCarlos bloody migraine didn’t go until about midnight Saturday! Very annoying.

@Kay00 I’m sure, I could definitely have done a better job! We just keep finding weird patches he’s made a complete botch of.

@Gracie2021 banking rounds sounds like a good idea! How’s the stims?

Eugh @thislittlebird youve not had a good week!

Ive started my downreg today! Christ its weird trying to pierce your own skin then working out how much pressure to put on the plunger! But, I was a brave girl and only needed a 2 minute lie down afterwards 🤣 roll on tomorrow! Downreg scan to check gor quiet ovaries on 13th 🤞

Hello all. Can I join please? The kind @thislittlebird was chatting to me on a thread I started during stims (I've name changed).

Just done my first round with two 'very average' embryos in the freezer. Appointment tomorrow to talk to the consultant about frozen transfer. I have no clue about any of it!

Will have a read of the thread.

@Gracie2021 thanks! We ended up making further plans on the weekend so it was 3 social outings with 3 pregnant friends in the end...but largely felt okay during it all. Hopefully this is good and I can completely desensitise myself before their baby showers kick off next month haha. I have excused myself from helping to organise one of them which everyone was very understanding of.
How are you feeling on all the meds? When is your next scan?

@Kay00 glad telling your mum went well. I was so scared to tell my parents too but it is so much easier not having to keep it a secret anymore!

@beckyCarlos yay for starting the downreg! :)

@Sofasogood1 welcome! Most of the ladies on this thread are at various stages in the IVF process (I'm doing medicated cycles and IUI but no doubt I'll end up there too at some point this year) so you're in good company!

@magnoliasinbloom that sounds like a hard weeked but you were strong!

@sofasogood hey 😊 good luck with your appointment! X

@beckycarlos exciting times! And well done for injecting yourself... im genuinely terrified about this 😅

@sofasogood1 welcome!!

I got my IVF application paperwork in the post today... eek! I haven't had a huge amount of time to read through it, but the letter says I'll be taking a low dose of FSH 150 IU. Has anyone else been on a milder-IVF protocol?

@kay00 I promise, once you figure out the pressure/angle you need its easy (she says, one injection under her belt haha) it genuinely didnt hurt though. I made my husband look at/hold/fill the syringe with air after ans ge looked decidedly peaky! Im definitely the 'jabber' in our house 🤣 Im afraid I'm no help on low doses, need all the help I can get here lol x

Well done @beckyCarlos the first one is by far the hardest. You'll be a pro by now. I'm with Becky on this one @Kay00 my hands were shaking the first night but it's so much easier than you think it is. I don't even think about it anymore. I'm also no help on the low doses I'm on max levels of everything 😂🙈🙈

@magnoliasinbloom definitely worth going to get ready for the shower attendance then and definitely to avoid planning one. So glad your friends understood. Are they being sensitive to you during all this? I've had a friend just announce. Used to chat about my infertility stuff the whole time but since she found out she's pregnant she hasn't asked once even though I ask about her pregnancy and how she's doing. Know she could feel awkward about asking etc but imho that's a cop out and not a good enough excuse. How are you feeling on the IUI cycle? This is the part of the month I usually find the toughest side effect wise, hope you're not the same. All quiet here. Just doing the stabby stabby every night and hoping for the best for my scan on Friday.

Hi @Sofasogood1 and welcome. Hope your meeting with your consultant goes well 🤞

@thislittlebird how's the patching up going? Stims going ok, dizziness is back and having more cramping than last time so hoping that's a good sign 🤷‍♀️ how are you getting on with your FET cycle? Do you have a scan coming up?

@Gracie2021 thanks, the friend whose shower I'm not organising (it's for her second child - we've been friends for 20 years, I'm godmother to her oldest child and organised that baby's shower) has been incredibly supportive and tactful throughout, how she told me she was pregnant was basically the gold standard in supportive friendship - very lucky! Other pregnant friends less so, either not very tactful or just don't ask. I'm 10 dp IUI here and no symptoms at all (except progesterone suppository discharge - wasn't prepared for that!)...so just presuming it hasn't worked? But can't test until Saturday. I feel pretty down, we have an appointment with the fertility counsellor tonight (we get one NHS funded session per treatment cycle) which is good timing. Glad the stims are going well and I'm sure more side effects are positive - I hope on Friday your haul has increased even more to your initial 8!!

So glad you have that friend @magnoliasinbloom they're like gold and should be treated as such. I have one of those too and she's just amazing. There every step of the way for me. Thank god for good friends. I always get very down those few days and am convinced it's a progesterone side effect. Know it doesn't help when you are feeling down but know it might not be all you and some of it could be the progesterone. Glad you have support though. I keep forgetting about the session I have set up for next week. Yhinj I'm going to cancel it. Re the discharge.... yeah it's nasty.... will keep the fingers crossed for you for Saturday. Plenty of people say they have no symptoms so you're not out til you're out 🤞 I'd be delira if I still had my eight on Friday tbh, not even hoping to have more. Just don't want to lose any.

Well it's midday and I'm still waiting for the 9am call from the consultant.... Grrr.

@Sofasogood1 hopefully they called by now??

I did some reading about low dose IVF last night, with mixed responses online. Some people saying it was best used in those aged over 40 with low AMH?? Others saying it was more effective than high dose IVF for them... I'm super confused. I think I will wait and ask my questions to the clinic when I have my first IVF appointment with them.

Nope no call @kay100. I've left two voicemails and written and submitted a complaint to the hospital. The appointment has mysteriously disappeared from the list of appointments on my online account.

@sofasogood1 eugh thats crap! Glad you've put a complaint in. Hopefully they'll get back to you tomorrow. Do you have the contact details for your consultants secretary?

@kay00 definitely one for your list of questions! Im 34, 33 when AMH test was done, but my AMH is dire for someone my age, so my clinics approach is downreg (quieten the ovaries) then shock them into life with high dose stims with the expectation that any folicles there will all grow equally and well (whereas if I just high stimmed with no downreg I'd just have one or two big folliclrs and nothing else). Theres method in everything but definitely ask, it really put me at ease to understand why I was on a protocol practically noone is on anymore! X

@beckyCarlos only two minutes? I’d have needed half hour 😂.

@Sofasogood1 nice to see you over here! I think you were the ra username, right? I don’t think I replied to your last message, I’ve been on here only briefly this week but I can catch up with you here instead! What happened to your 9am call? I haven’t read that far down yet, other than

@Kay00 I skipped injections entirely and got dh to do it lol. I was on mild yeah, 150 gonal f. I also ate a lot of protein during stims and I will assume that helped! Low dose can be used for people with a few eggs only who are egg banking. For you it’ll be to aim for fewer eggs, and hopefully no OHSS. They’ll adjust it if you need more during stims but you shouldn’t because your AMH is very high.

@Gracie2021 glad your stims are going well, when is the scan? Nothing happening here for a few weeks, just not feeling 100%. Really want the weather to improve so I feel a bit more like getting out and working out etc.

@magnoliasinbloom that’s a lot of babies and baby showers potentially, glad you felt ok.

Sorry @Sofasogood1, I was reading down trying to see what happened and forgot I was mid sentence and hit send lol

@sofasogood1 bad customer service is one of my pet peeves! It's totally unacceptable what they have done. I'm glad you complained.

@thislittlebird thank you, sounds like you and I will be on similar protocol then, I'm happy about this as you responded well amd got a decent number of eggs 😊

I'll definitely be asking them questions about this protocol at my appointment @beckycarlos, at the very least so that I know why it is best for me. Thanks xx

@Kay00 yeah, did they say drug it’ll be? Gonal F is very common, I was so worried I’d cocked up by resisting a high dosage but it worked out ok.

Other than the protein and supplements that might have helped, the other thing I learned that’s useful is to drink coconut water after EC. Or anything with electrolytes, but coconut water is healthier than lucozade sport! I drank a large glass of coconut water mixed with pineapple juice (fruit juice is also good) each day. It’s supposed to help reduce the risk of OHSS.

I got really stressed today. I went on the Guys thread and saw someone say there’s a three month waiting list between transfers 😭. I’m 39 in May, I just cannot do this anymore. I can’t wait a year to get through my embryos. In my head we’d have exhausted all our nhs funded embryos by the Autumn. I can’t do another year, I need to have moved on to another round if this one hasn’t worked and thought of that not being until May 2023 (when I turn 40!!!! 🥳🙃) has freaked me out.

I guess at least I know now. If the first transfer fails I can go in and speak to them about our options, like can it be faster, can we try 2, can we move our embryos, or pay them etc. But still, it really upset me. My life has been on hold since 2019, I don’t like my job, I want to move, I want a fresh start and a family and instead all I can do is tread water. It’s so hard.

I'm so sorry @thislittlebird. The waiting and not knowing is just awful isn't it. My friend did IVF for 18 months. All private, four rounds, non stop. I don't know how she coped but wasn't working at all which I think helped. I hope they get back to you soon.

I still havent heard anything since my missed appointment yesterday at 9am. I've left two voicemails. Had a horrible evening with DP last night. Feel so stressed and frustrated. Still heard nothing today. Asked for process for formal complaint. Fucking furious. It took 18 months to get from the clinic to hospital stage.

@Sofasogood1 that’s the thing, I really don’t want to lose our funded transfers but I don’t understand how they can expect someone at 39/40+ to do this so slowly? I don’t want to pay but we might have to if they can’t expedite the process. Obviously the first one working would be great, but I know that’s not likely and I need to plan for that outcome.

18 months sounds ideal tbh. All done and dusted. Was she successful?

I haven’t asked them anything yet because it’s pointless. My transfer will be in a April and I’ll raise it when we go in for that. I’ll ask if we can have an appointment with someone to discuss the options. I burst into tears about this stupid situation and how our life is on hold earlier, it’s so shit.

Incredible that you haven’t heard anything. You absolutely should complain, that’s outrageous. They should be rescheduling with you! We’ve had tons of delays too, when you say clinic was that the gynaecologist?