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

Hi everyone! Hope everyone is ok. Is anyone on here taking letrozole? I can’t remember.

im on my first month and I went for my scan on day 14 and they said I had 26 AFC (it was 13 in Jan so no idea which it was so much higher?!) but there wasn’t a dominant follicle so I have to go back tomorrow. I feel slightly confused as it was assumed I ovulate naturally anyway (fairly regular cycles is what the assumption was based upon) so no idea what’s going on x

@thislittlebird thanks for sharing that article. It sounds very promising. Hope it will be actioned soon, but good to know we are moving that way. The funding for only one round of IVF is insane as it takes a few goes on average to get a desired result. Did you have much luck today ringing your clinic? It's so frustrating when they don't listen! It just always seems that you're alone in this and nobody cares. Hope TWW is going ok otherwise. So exciting!

@Kay00 glad you've discussed the next approach with your clinic and makes sense if you responded well to the stims that it maybe a quality issue. Was the original plan to go with ICSI or was it decided on the day? It would be exciting to start in August!

@Gracie2021 not long to go for transfer! That's amazing.

@99pctpractice that's annoying about the OPKs. Could it be you missed the peak? I've heard the peak can be very short sometimes and easily missed. But I think the CB ones are quite good at still detecting, so not sure what happened there. Do you temp at all?

@beckyCarlos amazing news on the scan! Does this mean you'll start stims soon?

@Hoping43 sorry no experience with letrozole. Could the increase in AFC be due to the letrozole this month? Did you do any OPKs this month or is it not advised on letrozole? Hope tomorrow's scan will shed more light into it.

I haven’t done OPKs. I did them for around 9/10 months and only one time did I not get a peak and I get a period every month so it was assumed I was ovulating so I deffo expected to ovulate on the letrozole!! Maybe was too early on day 14, however, I don’t really have any ovulation signs currently so not sure. Maybe this will be a good thing in that it will shed some more light on what’s going on but I’m paranoid it’s to do with egg quality and maybe my body won’t respond to the letrozole. My AMH is good though (18.6 and I’m 35) so I don’t know why all my eggs would be bad quality. It frazzles the brain doesn’t it!!

I tried to google whether letrozole increases the AFC but couldn’t really find anything. I thought it just made sure 1-2 matured. X

I did a lot of Letrozole cycles @Hoping43 and found it did turbo charge things a little bit. Bearing in my my turbo charged AFC is very different to yours (low AMH here). That said those are huge numbers. Fingers crossed you get one or two dominants coming forward. When is your next scan?

@beckyCarlos wwwoooooohooooooo. Bloody fantastic! Well done girl! How are you feeling after that start?

When is your usual ovulation day @99pctpractice? Some months on an unmedicated cycles I wouldn't until day 20ish. Hope it's coming soon. The digitalis are good though and shouldn't allow you to miss it. They're bloody expensive though and add up. Sorry you're stuck in limbo. TTC is all waiting isn't it..... yeah day 10 scan on Monday for me so just waiting on that....

Any luck getting through to them @thislittlebird?

@Gracie2021 thanks so much for replying. I just don’t really understand. We have unexplained “third” infertility as have two children aged 5 and 3 so nothing really makes sense. When my day 3 bloods came back initially my FSH was 9.6 so I was convinced I was going to have DOR but AMH was 18.6 and AFC was 13 so they said I have a normal reserve. Wasn’t expecting to have 26 follicles on the scan the other day as I had 13 in Jan so not really sure what that’s about. However on letrozole I hardly have had any EWCM (sorry if TMI) so I don’t feel like I’m going to ovulate imminently. I went on day 9 and nothing was said, day 14 I had one at 10mm and one just under 10mm and I go on day 18 which is tomorrow. Just so confusing! I don’t have high hopes for the letrozole for unexplained infertility anyway!

Hi @Hoping43 I haven't taken letrozole so don't really know how it works, but that sounds like an epic number of follicles compared to previously! Hopefully you develop a leader soon.

@beckyCarlos that sounds like a brilliant start, hope you're really pleased!!!

@Gracie2021 my cycle lengths had always been pretty regular around 29-31 days, but they are all over the place post-mc and ivf. The 3 I have had have been 47, 40, 30, so I thought we were back to 30, but it's always possible that it could go back up again...I asked the clinic what to do and they asked me to come in for blood tests to see if I have ovulated. Since then I have had lots of cm (sorry, tmi), so I guess it's possible that I might ovulate tomorrow or Saturday....the good news is that my immune tests came back fine (phew!) so there's one less potential delay to my next cycle in august. My oh also got his sperm fragmentation tests back but doesn't know what the results mean until he speaks with the clinic tomorrow. And he doesn't seem to want to forward them to me (probably because he knows that I'll do some obsessive googling, so fair enough really!). All fingers crossed they are ok...

Just posting this on my phone, will reply to everything else on laptop.

what the hell is this???? I have no idea how to respond to these emails. Am I supposed to just skip a blood test because the system is down?

@Gracie2021 So it turns out Guys and St Thomas's had a massive network meltdown in the heatwave. I saw it on the news yesterday, I have now given up contacting them. I can feel my boobs, that's better than most months so will assume the progesterone is working.

I'm in the headfuck stage of the tww now. Feeling very anxious about potentially getting another BFN next week.

Hi girls. I’m not sure how many people on here know much about letrozole but I’ve been for my scan today on day 18 and still no dominant follicle. I’ve got 25 follicles but all measuring 11mm or less.. they said my lining is 13.7mm though suggesting there is some estrogen coming from somewhere (normally given off by the dominant follicle) so I have to go back on Monday for a final check. Can anyone shed any light?!?!?! @Gracie2021 @thislittlebird

it wasnt even suspected I had an ovulation issue. I was given letrozole for unexplained infertility x

Hi @Hoping43 i took letrazole for four cycles (due to irregular cycles). Is this your first cycle and what is your dosage? The first cycle can often be a bit of a test for the clinic to see how your body responds to it and they would adjust your dosage for the next cycle accordingly. It can also be a bit of a gamble on how your body responds each month, just because it doesn’t work one month doesn’t mean it won’t work the next etc. When I took it I ovulated the first cycle, had a non response cycles 2 and 3 and conceived cycle 4 - I took the same 5mg dosage each month.

@magnoliasinbloom thanks for your reply. I’m glad to hear it worked for you. What was your reason for taking it?

this is my first cycle and dose is 2.5mg. It was believed I was ovulating anyway so a bit surprised to find I don’t seem to have ovulated on letrozole.

my lining had changed from 8.7mm to 13.7mm which sounds thick and also she said that it grows in response to estrogen from a growing follicle so I feel really confused!! Xx

@magnoliasinbloom sorry I’ve just seen you said irregular cycles. My cycles are 26-34 days so slightly irregular and I’m taking it for unexplained infertility x

@Hoping43 it might be that the dosage is a little low and they need to up it to 5mg next cycle. I know it’s probably not what you want to hear (it wasn’t what I wanted to hear!) but there really is no way of predicting how the body will respond to the meds and it all takes time unfortunately! For example after my non response cycle 3 I had a break and had a 30 day ovulatory cycle immediately after which I never have normally. Was it somehow triggered by the letrazole? Who knows!? Back to back latrazole cycles can be really emotionally draining and if you are still going in a couple of months it might be worth a break if you can bear to - I took 2 months off between cycles 3 and 4 to focus on my physical and mental health and really believe that made a difference for me. Good luck x

@magnoliasinbloom thank you. I was only going to do 3 months then move to IVF but not sure now that the first month hasn’t gone to plan! Maybe I do need to give it longer. Just sick of waiting. My two children are getting older and I am concerned about a big age gap too. Lots to consider xx

@hoping43 sorry, I can't really help because I haven't used letrozole. Hope you find a dominant follicle on Monday!! 25 is pretty amazing though.

@thislittlebird glad you found out what the issue was, and hope their system is up and running again soon! Was it hospital wide? If so, I really hope they have some kind of back up system for all the people who need urgent care...

I finally got my static smiley this morning! Yay! And my oh stopped being in a furiously bad mood with me so we'll have a pop at trying naturally too. probably completely redundant, but still feel like we ought to try.... His dna fragmentation results were that his sperm is "optimal". Delighted that we don't have that issue to contend with but also feel a bit rubbish that the problems are entirely with me. Oof!

@thislittlebird that sounds mad, like what are they just not seeing anyone now?! I sympathise with IT situations, we had a thing at my work in March where our internal systems were off for almost three weeks, but we got round it... and as @99pctpractice says, wtf are they doing for urgent things?!

@hoping43 I'm sorry, I dont have any experience with that x

@99pctpractice woo! For static smiley! I live in hope, so you never know, this could be the one!

So after my surprisingly good, for me, scan on Thursday, we now have a nurse consultation on...Monday! I feel like 'money talks' is definitely true (which makes me happy because I'm lucky to be here and I'm 'getting what I want (noone truly wants IVF) but also really fucking mad and angry for people who dont have it, and all that time spent waiting for initial stuff! X

Yay for the static smilie @99pctpractice all that work for it. And great news on the dna frag. I'm the issue here too so know how you feel.

I'm no help I'm afraid @Hoping43 as I did a ton of Letrozole cycles but I'm on the opposite side to you in terms of numbers so apples and oranges. Hope your next scan shows a dominant.

So glad everything is moving for you @beckyCarlos!! Good luck Monday.

Omg the frustration @thislittlebird especially when you'd communicated the need for this well ahead of time. Are you able to get in contact at all or is it just a waiting game now? Hope the TWW is going smoothly for you but can only imagine the anxiety especially with this extra stress.

Incredibly bloated and crappy here, actually as bad as I've ever been on stims and just got an announcement this morning too. Thankfully i was expecting it and asked a friend to let me know if she heard so that I heard it through her delicately. God bless good friends!!

@Hoping43 I have a lot of follicles, I tried letrozole and had no issues with missing lead follicles. Had 2 or 3 dominant follicles each month of the three months I did it. It didn't work for me though. I was on 5mg.

@99pctpractice @Gracie2021 @beckyCarlos It was hospital wide, yeah. It made the London news that evening, that's how I found out, they were cancelling appointments all over the place. Not sure why they couldn't be more specific/helpful. I emailed them again today. I feel so stupid keep sending emails and getting the same response. I emailed them panicking about my levels earlier too because it felt like my boobs were no longer tender and now they're back to being tender again, so I will assume progesterone is still fine for now.

@99pctpractice Amazing news on the elusive static smiley! Definitely try naturally. I was even debating it this cycle lmao.

@beckyCarlos are you private now? Sorry if I've totally lost track of what's happening.

@Gracie2021 ugh, fuck the announcements. Glad your friend helped out! My friend did that for me before, I'm waiting for baby no. 2 announcements now :/

Eugh @gracie2021 sorry about the anouncement! Hope you're ok, and hope that we all one day get to just be happy about them again!

@thislittlebird yes, only 1 go on the NHS in Leeds, and after my solitary egg its straight to private for us x

@beckyCarlos that’s crap but it’s also good because everything will move more quickly.

I’m feeling like I’m out today. Last FET ended in three days of headaches, then a migraine on the fourth day, and I tested that day because migraine = AF for me. Guess what I’ve got today? 🙄 The first headache is here, AF would be due tomorrow if I wasn’t on Cyclogest.

Oh @thislittlebird really really hope you're wrong and still keeping everything crossed for you. The TWW is such an absolute mindf**k!!!! You still haven't tested then? When is OTD? You're 7 days past tomorrow?

Looking forward to the day I can be happy and not salty @beckycarlos. One of my best friends is starting for her second next month and another is due in four weeks so having that overlapped sensation again.... good luck tomorrow. What are you expecting to get from the consult?

Day 10 scan tomorrow so keeping my fingers gets crossed for quiet ovaries and a thick luscious lining ladies!!!

@Gracie2021 thanks 🙏. It’s so hard to believe it could work, especially when I start getting headaches. I worked it out wrong, AF would be due Tuesday. I’m going to be anxious af the next couple of days.

I’m 7dp today, 8 tomorrow, OTD is Thursday, if I get that far without a migraine.

I desperately want to be happy and not bitter af. It’s so exhausting doing this for so long.

What’s next of all is as expected on your scan? I’m not so familiar with the medicated process.

@thislittlebird I have everything crossed for you x

@gracie2021 so the nurse will talk us through my protocol, drugs, and also plan when we'll start!

Ima need guidance from both of you if we every get a frozen cycle!