Fertility Appointments and Beyond.... the next chapter

[Tinkerbell098]

I have created a new thread as the previous one is about to fill up. I've tagged some of us here, but apologies if I have missed anyone.

The thread is for anyone who has started/ about to start fertility investigations or treatment. Come join us, we are a lovely bunch :)

@tillybabs
@thislittlebird
@kay00
@jeaniej
@PurpleUnicorn01
@paintfairy
@dogmam
@flutterby8
@Ughmaybenot
@dancingfairydreams
@beckycarlos
@jkjellyhead
@juno231
@decaffe
@bumble44
@BritinNZ
@tinkerbell098
@pinkginpls
@thedaydreambelievers
@everymumday
@wanderlust16
@lori23ttc
@Gracie2021
@Sofasogood1
@99pctpractice
@magnoliasinbloom

@tillybabs ahh. I hope it works for you 🤞 I think if I did long protocol again I'd hate it, but I'd know how to work around the dog tiredness (do hard/manual things at the start of the day, not be so surprised when I'm asleep at 9.30 etc) x

Hi ladies.

A quick update before I travel to Wales for the weekend.

I had my scan today (stims day 7, CD9).

I had:

R ovary: 13 follicles, 11 sized between 10mm and 16mm
L ovary: 15 follicles, all sized between 10mm and 19mm - eek!

I had a few others too which they didn't bother measuring. Obviously I'm thrilled with the numbers and the nurse said the good thing is they are all developing at a similar rate. However, I'm really starting to feel quite bloated and uncomfortable now, and I'm not looking forward to waiting until next Weds until the egg collection... I'll probably be very sore 😕

On the down side my Estradol is measuring a little high (its about 3200 when it should ideally be between 2000 and 3000 on day 7) so i will need to manually reduce my Meriofert from 150mg to 112.5mg going forward. Essentially I need to squeeze 25% out of the syringe before I inject it.

OK, I need to pack my bags... catch you all later!

@Kay00 those are fantastic follicle numbers! Congratulations!

@kay00 thats amazing!! Go ovaries 🥰 have a lovely weekend away! X

Thank you ladies. For those of you that have been through IVF so far... how uncomfortable did your ovaries get before egg collection?

@Kay00 amazing news! Stims are definitely doing what they need to! Yeah I had similar numbers on my first round and the bloat and uncomfortableness was awful, like the feeling of just being full 24/7.

Well I just about made it to transfer today. So we collected 7, 6 were mature and 3 fertilised, by day 3 they were all still going but today none were suitable to freeze and 1 was transferred. Unfortunately the 1 put back was not exactly where it should be by day 5 and was just an early blastocyst so not great.
All I can do is hope that this transfer is third time lucky.

Oh @dogmam! I have everything crossed for you x x x

@dogmam I have everything crossed for you! I'm sorry the drop off rate wasn't lower :/ hopefully this is it though ❤️

@Kay00 those numbers are great! Can't believe you're so close to egg collection - it all sounds a bit surreal after chatting to you for... Nearly two years?

@Kay00 that’s a lot of follicles! Fingers crossed you get a decent outcome from this round. I didn’t feel too uncomfortable until the last couple of days, and even then I wasn’t uncomfortable like some women have described. But I did have fewer eggs collected, started with 23 at baseline, 19 grew, 15 grew to the right size for collection.

@99pctpractice how is the holiday build up? I almost want more of it so I have something to look forward to for longer lol. We go away in just under two weeks. Going to do a waist measurement this morning, hopefully I’ll see a little more progress.

@dogmam I’m glad you got to transfer but I know it must be a really disappointing experience. The whole process is rough and frustrating. But at least you got the transfer in and fingers are crossed for you x

I have my consultation on Tuesday. Might take the day off, dh is off. Oh and it’s my by today, I’m another year older and still infertile 🎉. Because of our holiday coming up we’re avoiding groups so we’re staying in and cooking lots of nice food, taking a day off from the holiday diet. I need to measure my waist before I eat paella, tapas and creme catalana!

@99pctpractice missed the last part of your update. Being open to the egg donor route sounds great, but totally understand wanting to try longer with your own eggs too.

I suspect my transfer won’t be until July now, I’ll be away during the middle of my next cycle. It’s such a long time, I bet my own holiday will cock up the timing. 🙄

@beckyCarlos thinking if you and hope you're doing ok. Hugs xxx

@kay00 those are fantastic numbers, thrilled for you and hope all keeps going so well. Afraid my lack of symptoms wouldn't translate over as I don't see the numbers you have but fingers crossed you're not feeling too bad before it's all done and dusted.

@dogmam I'm so sorry you had such a rough day 5 update but have read that the body is the best place for embryos and sometimes once transferred even early blasts can do really well. I'll be keeping the fingers crossed for you. How are you feeling?

@thislittlebird glad you have a holiday coming up and well done on the healthy diet. Hope you have a fab time and will help the time to July fly by.

Hope you're doing really well and all going smoothly @Juno231 xx

@99pctpractice glad you and your OH are on the same page and have a strategy. Really hope your next go with your own eggs goes well. I'm starting my last embryo banking round on Tuesday and then we'll start transfers but we've both said if they don't work we'll move to DE after so effectively this is our last ER for my eggs. Even though I know we'll be ok if we have to go the DE route it's a massive massive step and so many emotions involved.

Starting IVF round 5 on Tuesday. Taking a gamble and doing HGH (at 1300 euro extra it's an expensive gamble) and also dropping my stims down lower than usual as last duostim second round the embryologist thinks we fried the eggs as I was stimming for longer. Meanwhile my four eggs from last weeks retrieval turned to two fertilized on Friday and just heard this morning that both are on track as of day 3 so feeling positive today. No matter how this goes we're lucky enough to have two in the freezer so far and we're on track for our first transfer at end June which feels like a massive massive step and I've booked a sun holiday for September so all in all doing ok as of today. Taking things a day at a time at the moment.

Guys obviously knew it was my birthday and I was sad about ageing, they just called and I got my consultation two days early 😂. Not much to report, they said we're in a good position compared to most people with our embryos and he'd hope we would see success from the current cohort. Time will tell, but I'm glad they're positive. We've been put on the waiting list for FET no. 2! 💃

@Gracie2021 Good to hear from you. Fried the eggs? Ugh, this process is such an unpredictable nightmare. I'm really pleased you're heading for a June transfer! It's definitely great progress!

@thislittlebird Happy birthday! Glad guys came through with a win for you and so reassuring to get that confidence from them too.

@Gracie2021 thanks! Yeah, I can’t say I’ve been feeling super positive since the first failure, have to just take it one attempt at a time I guess, but it was nice to hear a consultant say it’s a generally positive outlook. He did say we could try two after the next single transfer which is somewhat scary 😬😬😬. Not sure how I feel about that, but at my age the odds of multiples is lower.

Thanks @gracie2021, good to read your update!

@thislittlebird happy birthday! Great news that you're on the list x x

@dogmam Good luck with your early Embryo xxx

@Gracie2021 Good luck also with your 5th egg collection. Sounds like you have a couple of good embryos developing at the moment, so hopefully you will have another one or two to add to your frozen collection xx

@Juno231 Yes, wow, it has been pretty much two years exactly! I remember when I first joined Mumsnet it was you and Mintgreenlife who was chatting to, and I learned so much from you both, thank you!

@thislittlebird Happy Birthday for yesterday my darling!!

I had my second scan today.

Right: 16, up from 10 - all big and ready to go
Left: 13, same as before - all big and ready to go

I will be triggering tonight (trigger tbc, I will need to drive back to the hospital to collect it) and egg collection will be on Weds (time tbc).

The nurse was pleased with my response so far; not a huge about of excess fluid, and no symptoms of OHSS. She said my Ovaries are busy but not excessively so, she said she wasn't 'recoiling in horror', which is good 😆so I'm still on track for a fresh transfer. But she said they may choose to Freeze All if my symptoms change or if I get over 20 eggs.

I picked up my trigger: Buserelin at 9:45pm tonight.

Absolutely depressing how long lots of us have been on here lol.

That’s flown round @Kay00! Good luck with the trigger. Still baffles me how chilled they are about people with lots of eggs and chances of ohss. Thanks for the birthday wishes!

Guys told me there’s no waiting list so I just get to go again when I want now I’ve had a consultation. I’ll be away for my next ovulation, so we’re looking at my end of June/earlyJuly cycle I guess. I need to get back to them with the answers to some questions. Annoyed I’m away in a way, but at least I’ll get a holiday and a chance to lose some more weight.

Thanks to @beckyCarlos too!

I don't know why I don't always get notifications from this thread.

@Gracie2021 thanks hun

@Kay00 omg it's all happening now and that's an amazing amount of follicles! Fingers crossed all goes well on Weds for you.

I had 16 retrieved and I was bloated beforehand but not majorly.

@thislittlebird happy belated birthday 🎉 and good to hear you're back on the list

@Gracie2021 it sounds like you are in a good position for round 5 with 2 frozen and possibly more.

@dogmam wishing you all the luck in the world for this transfer x

Thanks ladies xx

I'm weighing up my options for EC day. Has anyone else had EC with just gas and air? Or did you all go for conscious sedation?

@Kay00 I wasn't conscious at all and that's how I wanted it but it didn't take long to recover. I think @dogmam didn't have a good time first time and she was awake/aware. I've never heard of anyone having only gas and air.

@Kay00 I was given general anaesthetic so was knocked out. I was in pain after but others weren't so everyone is different. I assumed it's always done with a general

@thislittlebird such good news about no waiting list!

@kay00 leeds don't offer gas and air, conscious sedation all the way! And the offer...some sort of 'pam' anti anxiety/calming med one the night before and one the day of if youre anxious too. I told the anaesthetist I was terrified (/he could see it from my saucer eyes and shaking hands) and he said he'd give me extra/make sure I was out of it 🤣 I only remember them telling me the egg count so he was true to his word!

My scan yesterday was good, I had a complete miscarriage on Friday (if anyone ever finds themself in that position please message me if you need someone to talk to, I asked my best friend a thousand questions and it was a godsend) which the scan confirmed, lining still a bit thick but was advised on Friday to keep taking progesterone, and against my better judgement I listened, so last night was my first drug free night and I should bleed until the end of the week. On the waiting list for a review/next steps appt which should be about a month. Then as soon as theres availability we'll get going again :) in the meantime we've booked a holiday for end of June/start of July! X

@beckyCarlos so glad you had someone you could talk to through this. Thank God for good friends. Hope you're doing ok and you get your next steps app soon. A holiday sounds just what the doctor ordered too. Glad you're managing to squeeze it in.

@Kay00 amazing amazing numbers. Fingers crossed all stays smooth and you can do the transfer too. All fingers crossed for you. I've done conscious sedation all times but there was very little conscious involved. Completely out of it.

@Tillybabs thanks a mil. Hope you're doing well and planning some nice treats for yourself while you have your long down reg.

@thislittlebird 100% depressing. Next month is my ttc 2 year anniversary and also my 1 year of almost constant treat anniversary too. Ugh! Think I might be transferring at the same time as you too. Expecting period midish June after this round and then straight in so hope you don't mind the company.
Can completely understand the tough feelings associated with the transfer. Tbh I'm so so nervous for ours. My eggs are poor quality anyway and we have such high attrition that I'm not used to things going well and feel like the chances of the first transfer working are slim to none. In some ways ERs are my safe space at the moment as there's no am I/am I not pregnant.

Took my first clomid today so IVF 5 has officially begun. Injections tonight and have to figure out how to administer the human growth hormone. Every video I look up for it isn't too clear but is also a very muscled up gym dude administering which is a change from the usual nurse instruction 😂😂🙈 so terrified to do it wrong as each vial is 650 euro so it would be an expensive mistake 🙈