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

@Tinkerbell098 thanks. I spoke to a consultant today and he said he thinks letrozole would be worth trying as my cycles are 28-34 days so slightly irregular then it could help. I don’t know what to do. Just going to have a think for a couple more months til 16 months then review x

@beckyCarlos totally get you. However, mine was 4, 6.2 and 9.6 between May and Nov last year so it could be anything now I’m sure! Although the consultants I’ve spoken to out less emphasis on FSH but google deffo says different x

@Hoping43 have the cycles always been slightly irregular or was it recent? Regarding FSH, were they all done on same cycle day? I've only had FSH done on Day 21 and mine was 1.5, which was lower end of normal per the report I had. My consultant didn't really put much emphasis on the bloods and said all look perfectly OK. I used to google everything before like a mad woman, but now I've stepped back a little bit as it just added more stress.

@Tinkerbell098 my cycles have always been the same and I have two children which leads me to think that cannot be the issue. But obviously I’m a lot further down the line this time that with my other two as one took a month and one took eight months so we are starting to think now 14 months down the line about which treatment option we will pursue when we hit the 18 month mark

@Hoping43 in your shoes I'd be tempted to try 3 months of letrozole then move to IVF. Letrozole is pretty low on side effects and generally easy as you only take it 5-6 days a month. Temping could be good to check ovulating but only works if you wake the exact same time each day, can lie still for 2 mins upon waking, and aren't up a lot during the night. Given you have small children, that might be unlikely...

@tinkerbell098 we're fairly certain we're going to stay put for now, we were waiting to see what the consultant said - if it was a flat out no, or no protocol change (or a ridiculous wait) we'd have gone elsewhere but it all seemed to fit with what we were thinking so happy to stick with them
(Apart from when I checked in they didnt have an appointment for me on the system, luckily when asked when it was made I was able to say (I was so shocked it was a face to face I noted EVERYTHING down lol) and it turns out they'd made an appointment and readied the notes for someone else (who obviously hadnt turned up because it was my appointment lol))

@beckyCarlos @Tinkerbell098 there is a possibility I'll be starting an IVF cycle Aug/Sept. This weekend my OH and I are going to come to some decisions and start reaching out to clinics. Hopefully with a decision made by the end of the month. My debrief consultation with my NHS clinic is mid-July, which I'm keen to attend, but I'm not going to hang around too long before moving on to the next clinic.

@TheDaydreamBelievers @Hoping43
Hi sorry was reading the threads... not sure if it's any use but I have an Ovusense core (I'm a restless sleeper) but you just pop it in internally when you go to sleep and sync your phone against it when you wake up and it confirms ovulation, I tried temping but it was too much stress for me (I was beginning to dream about it ) it has definitely put my mind at ease seeing it in black and white. X

@Kay00 was it your only NHS round? We only get one too, I know it varies.

What is everyone's timelines at the mo? I'm looking at mid July transfer, then probably September. I don't know whether to go with a double transfer or two singles for the last one/two attempts. I'll cross that bridge after this one, I suppose.

There's no reason to think you aren't ovulating really @Hoping43, your progesterone suggests you are and you've had two children already. Probably just a matter of time and you're not that old, like you said wait 18 months (or more, since 2 years is very possible) and go from there.

hey all sorry for disappearing for a bit. Started my 1st cycle at the beginning of June and EC on Wednesday. Feeling ok today. Still feel a bit cramping but otherwise eating and drinking alright. Just waiting for monday to come for the embryologist to let us know how many embryos survive D5. Fingers cross

@Kay00 so sorry to hear about your round dear. but it seems you already have a plan to go forward. That's the spirit!

@thislittlebird I'd guess early/mid July for our transfer depending if things are on track with my lining at my scan on 27/6. If that doesn't work I think we'd probably take a break for a month and go again in my mid august cycle and squeeze in a holiday at the start of august. I've already started debating which embryoes we'd use for the second. Going with our 4AA this time which our doc says has a 57% chance. Have another high chance embryo and then the other three are 30% odds each. If this doesn't work I'd be tempted to ask to use two of the lower quality ones together next or would that be bonkers?

@Hoping43 welcome. I'm with @RMS0209 on the temping. I just found it way to stressful plus meant TTC was the first thing I'd to think of first thing in the morning. I ovulated normally but my lining was a bit think so did a few rounds of Letrozole to supercharge my cycle as my doctor put it. Higher chance of multiples though in case that's a factor for you.

Good luck for the planning at the weekend @Kay00. Hope having a definite plan of action decided helps you for next steps. I ould be great to get sorted for your next round later in the summer. Fingers crossed it all works out for you for that.

@Tinkerbell098 so glad you got your start date and the best of luck to you. Will fly by.

So glad your review app went well @beckyCarlos. Sounds like ye have a good plan of action for this coming round. Do you have any idea when you'll start or is that still up in the air?

Good to here all is going well @magnoliasinbloom

@pinkginpls so glad it's all on track for you and everything crossed for an excellent day 5 report. Are you doing a freeze all or aiming for a fresh transfer? Hope recovery from EC is going well.

@Gracie2021 thanks hun. It's gonna be a freeze all as they have to remove a polyps at the same time of the EC so my uterus isn't at its best! Which is fine with me. Better do it right then rush it.

@pinkginpls exciting!!! Keep us posted, fingers crossed for those embryos! Frozen will be good in terms of the body getting back to normal, sounds positive!

@Gracie2021 sounds like we'll be a similar time again if it all goes well, are you doing natural/natural modified or medicated? A holiday in between sounds like a fab idea!

I honestly didn't know we'd get a choice of which to transfer. I have a 3AA and a 3AB, and then a 5AC. I'm sure I read similar embryos have better odds than mismatched ones, so I'm thinking the 3s should be used for a double but I don't think they'll do it that way. My guess is they'll transfer the 3AA next, then the 3AB and finally the 5AC, possibly those two together. I know it doesn't really increase the odds but I'm not against it. What grades are you 30% ones?

@pinkginpls fingers crossed for your embryos!

@gracie2021 those odds are grand! Sounds like you have a bit of a plan which is good :)

@thislittlebird great grades there! Does your clinic have a policy about how many/what grades to put back? Mine will literally only do one unless you're over 40 I think, but for me I'd take the chance of twins, in a former life I'd have liked 3 kids and now, struggling to get 1, twins would be such a blessing (she says, blissfully unaware lol)

Timelines here are hopfully end of July start of August for next round of stims etc 🥰

@beckyCarlos Blissfully unaware is right lol. I feel similarly but my only issue with twins is, and someone correct me if I’m wrong, you can’t test for abnormalities in the same way you could with one? Because there’s two of them in there? And at my age I’m quite worried about that side of things. The other issue of course is you could get 2, or 3 or 4 🤯. Someone on a thread I was on got three for the price of two and that would scare the shit out of me. The odds must be very low of course, just not impossible.

My clinic just seemed kinda chill about putting back two when I spoke to the consultant 😂. I think it must be, roughly, that they’ll do two after two single failures? Because he wants me to try one next time and said I could try two after that if i wanted to, but then I’m not too far off 40. Might not say the same to a 34 year old? I’m in two minds about whether it’s worth it, worried I’m ‘wasting’ a go as such, if that makes sense?

We’re going to have a busy July to September on here!

Sounds like a good plan @pinkginpls. How are you handling the wait for day 5? Hope you have some distraction over the weekend.

@thislittlebird we have a 4AA, 4BA, 5BC and 2 3CBs in order of quality. Our doctor referred to them as 2 good embryoes and 3 fair when describing them. Tbh I'm just so happy and grateful to have any. We'll go with the 4AA first and hope for the best. It sounds like you have yours ranked in order of quality fairly accurately from what my doctor has said. We're doing a medicated cycle so 6mg of femetab a day. I've had thin linings before and never done this medication so just really hoping for the best at the first scan which feels ages away yet. What kind of transfer are you doing?

I'm with you on the twins @beckyCarlos. I'll take babies any way they come at this point! If we get to our lower ranked embryoes I'll definitely be fighting to transfer two I think. Three was always my target, my husband wanted 2. Now we'll take what we can get. Great that you get to go again so soon. How are you feeling about getting back into it?

Hey everyone,

So, we finally got our DNA frag results & my husbands results are way out of the fertile range. The embryologist said his results relate to a long time trying to conceive & a very high miscarriage rate and said she really recommends he gets a full fertility investigation with a urologist before we started fertility treatment.

She said even with ICSI, there’s a big risk of embryos not developing in the Petri dish or a high miscarriage rate because his sperm looks fine under a microscope, but the DNA is really fragmented (you have to kill the sperm to see the DNA), so we should really get him looked at before going down that road.
It’s been a big shock 😢
I’m so upset that men are overlooked in this entire process & now I feel like our road just got longer & the thought of going through another miscarriage terrifies me.
Gonna try get an appointment with Dr Ramsay, but it's a 3 month waiting list.
We were hoping to do IVF in September, but I feel like we might need to wait a bit longer? I dunno really 😶

Oh @jeaniej I'm so sorry! You are so right, fertility is still treated as such a 'womens problem'. Sending you lots of love x x x did they say how your partner can get a referral/what you should do next? X

@beckyCarlos thanks.
Basically, she said we need a full male fertility assessment for my husband & to get his varicocele properly looked at. She said we need to do that before IVF because it might be a waste of time if we don't.
We just emailed Dr Ramsay, so I'm not sure how it works ... also booked an appointment with our gp to see if we could get a referral.
She basically said, that no amount of walnuts & vitamins will make a difference, he needs to be fully assessed.
He's gonna try be more active though & eat better.
I'm so sad ... it's been such a long time & so much trauma & to find out that IVF/ICSI might not help right now is shit.

I already knew a positive pregnancy test would never be the same again after the loss, but knowing that our miscarriage rate is much higher is very depressing.
😶

@Gracie2021 PIL are coming for dinner tonight that's a distraction! Also we haven't told them we are going through IVF so no awkward convo about it, hopefully.

Sorry to hear @JeanieJ look at it as something you can look into and hopefully fix. Road maybe long but it hasn't totally halted. hugs xx

@Gracie2021 It's amazing how many you have now considering where you were in early Feb, it must feel great to have made that progress. I'm doing natural modified again this time, but last time they botched it a bit because they thought I was doing natural, or maybe I didn't realise natural didn't involve progesterone, it was confusing. Spoke to the consultant who is happy for me to do natural modified (inc progesterone again). He also mentioned I could do a trigger injection too as an option. If another natural modified fails I don't know if I need to consider a medicated, because my lining is fine, but I worry about my hormones.

@Gracie2021 @beckyCarlos I'm fine with the idea of twins, but do you know what I mean about the 'wasting' an embryo? Like does it make sense to transfer two when it doesn't increase chances? I don't know what to do, but I am 39 and would be happy with twins. Not that I think any of this will work of course, I'm not feeling very positive right now and sad we never get that much wanted BFP.

@JeanieJ the news sucks, did they give you the frag breakdown? I think the plan you have in place to see Mr Ramsay makes a lot of sense. We saw him for that same reason, in our case he 'cleared' us to start ICSI, but there really isn't any point starting until you know what you're dealing with. The wait will be worth it.

@pinkginpls thinking of you today! Hope you enjoyed the non-awkward dinner with PIL.

@thislittlebird yeah, he had 38% high comet score & 16% low comet, so way out of the fertile range. He got an average comet of 46%. So, it's not good.
Do you remember how long you waited for an appt with Dr Ramsay?
I called our clinic this morning & they're gonna discuss with doctor & they might bring us in to discuss it further 🤞🏻I'm hoping they take us seriously 🤞🏻🤞🏻

@JeanieJ oh 38% high is quite a lot yeah. Definitely needs looking into. Clearly you can get pregnant so if you can spend some time fixing this then you should be in a good position.

We were looking into private appointments after we had no luck with the nhs funding, and a horrible appointment where we were told nothing was wrong. That was May 21, we then reached out to two different doctors privately, one of which was Mr Ramsay for Dh. Thinking we had to go private we wanted to make sure we were in a good position before we started and I think it was the first week of June we met with him, probably contacted him early to mid May, then met early June and follow up was a six week wait because he was on holiday. DH had been taking impryl for months before we saw him, along with a few other supplements and I like to think that helped.

Is your clinic nhs or private?

@thislittlebird absolutely, like if it doesnt increase your chances why not just do one and then if thats not successful at least you have another. It is so hard, it's like playing blackjack or roulette or something. I choose not to play these things specifically because I dont like putting things down to 'luck'! (Also, so many better ways to waste my money lol)

@jeaniej fingers crossed for you! That theyre giving you an appointment to discuss sounds promising x x