Bus 9 - Donkey Cart departing soon, all aboard with ivf, pcos, endo, sub/unexplained fertility jump on

[Marvellouslymadmum]

New thread 😊😊

@CycleGirl20 i hope so 😩, what fun these ttc years are!

@thislittlebird, you’re line is lovely, I reckon you can maybe relax a little and start getting excited :)

@OrangeBengal I think I’m too anxious to relax truly but I’m going to aim to tick off weeks and go from there.

What’s next for you?

Whatever you can handle @thislittlebird. I start oestrogen tomorrow and will transfer roughly 20 days from now (based on the ERA). Will start visualisation today and continue every day, maybe even up until my test. Will also continue doing acupuncture, making sure I have a session on transfer day. Then it’s a lot of positive thinking and fingers and toes crossed!

@thislittlebird it feels like a long journey but it will fly by! That test looks brilliant too!!
One of the ladies on the over 40 thread I'm on (both been there ages the same as us) is the same age as me and she's just got her bfp from her 2nd de cycle in Prague! It's one of the places I'm looking at, they've got brilliant results and are so positive about age and everything, I'm looking at there, Greece and Spain I think, I could go straight to de but I feel I need a try with my own, especially as I strongly feel it's a spent meets egg issue we have

@thislittlebird that's a great line! Do you get a viability scan at 8 weeks? The 3 week wait was worse than the 2 week wait for me!!

@Marvellouslymadmum good luck with your new route my love. Did you ever get anyone to take you seriously on the endo front? A laparoscopy or anything?

@becarefuloutthere hello! Hope you're well. Are you on any more appropriate threads for me to pop over and ask how you're getting on?

@thislittlebird once you get a few more weeks in, I found using an app that gives you a daily update great to help you take things day by day and keep nerves at bay.

@becarefuloutthere my scan is on October 20th, so I think I'll be 7 weeks 2 days ish. It feels like a mountain to climb. Oh and they're bound to charge me for the scan, which is annoying me. I had 3 frozen embryos and 3 frozen transfers, but was funded for 1 fresh and 2 frozen so they keep sending me bills.

@CycleGirl20 I'm aiming for 5 week, 6 week milestones at the mo. Hoping small goals will feel more achievable than looking further ahead.

@Marvellouslymadmum I've heard good things about some clinics in Prague. yeah the sperm and egg meeting is a huge obstacle.

@thislittlebird please may I ask what your underlying fertility issues were?

@Hoping43 There’s no easy answer for us.

Primarily our issue is that my husband has low motility which is why we needed IVF/ICSI. Whereas for me, at first I thought I had an ovulation issue but I don’t think that’s the case now. I ovulate monthly as IVF has shown, but I do have, and continue to have, repeated low progesterone levels, as well as other low hormones and I’m on Cyclogest three times per day. My FSH and LH are very low, my AMH is quite high for my age. Age of my eggs could be a factor in our 2 x failed IVF, I’m 39, my eggs might not be fantastic.

Additionally to that I know I have immune issues and have had all my life, so I took low dose prednisolone this cycle and maybe it made the difference, hard to say. It’s a lot of guess work unless you’re prepared to go through many expensive tests.

Oh and I also took antibiotics right before this cycle because I had a uterine and vaginal microbiome test with a clinic in Greece which showed abnormalities, so I’ve been taking good bacteria tablets since the antibiotics/throughout this cycle.

Sorry that’s probably not a very clear answer.

@CycleGirl20 good thank you 😊 hope the same for you too! Erm not really now tbh. Happy for you to dm me tho!
@thislittlebird that's good. I had my scan at 7+6 and it made all real then. Annoying about the charge but you'll care less once you know the pregnancy is viable.
I'm glad you got some clarity throughout your journey. Far more education is needed on our reproductive bodies I think!

@becarefuloutthere did you have an private tests before your scan? I’m not sure if that’s a thing you can do, but I guess I’m worried about getting there and it’s not viable. Got to get that far first.

I don’t mind paying them for the freeze and thaw but I don’t see why I should pay for a whole FET cycle, meds and a scan.

Definitely need more education/research/funding because this whole area is not fully understood. They barely did any tests or investigations, I’ve done everything extra myself, including self-medicating with pred I have at home (because of immune issues) which I know I shouldn’t do but I know my body, I did some research and here we are.

@thislittlebird ah ok. Thank you for getting back to me. Have you had two failed fresh cycles?

I don’t know what my issue is. I’m 35 now but was 34 when we started TTC 18 months ago. We have two little children already. My AMH is good at 18.6 but my FSH was 9.6 so I’m worried that’s the issue. Every consultant has told me AMH is more accurate than FSH but I feel it’s the only explanation x

@Hoping43 no, I had two failed frozen transfers. We had one round of IVF in Feb where we collected 15 eggs, 9 fertilised, and 4 turned into good quality embryos. One didn’t survive the thaw, the other three were transferred as frozen embryos in April, July and September, so this was my last one and if this doesn’t work out we’ll have to do another egg collection privately.

I know it doesn’t help but they do say it can take up to 2 years if there are no issues. The thing is if your husband has no issues, as long as you’re ovulating then the FSH/AMH shouldn’t be a big issue but it is unusual for FSH and AMH to be like that. FSH is usually high when AMH is low.

@thislittlebird yes they don’t seem to correlate. But they said FSH is only 70% accurate. I don’t know. I’ve had a previous c section so that could be a culprit, we just don’t know. We are going to start IVF. I don’t have it in me to wait 2 years. Especially we don’t know the underlying cause, if it is to do with my c section it may never happen and I am only getting older. I have to have my AMH redone as it was last done in Feb so wondering how much that could have changed x

@thislittlebird may I ask what your AMH was? X

@Hoping43 C Section could be an issue, have you looked into whether you could have endo? 34 isn't older really, it's only a concern if you have diminished ovarian reserve which it doesn't sound like you have. My AMH was 36 pmol (5.04 ng/ml) when it was last done 18 months ago, but that's not standard for my age tbh. I have fairly high amh and low fsh/lh at 1.something and these aren't typical results for 39 so I'm not a good gauge of very much. It does mean I was on low doses of IVF meds.

@thislittlebird at least that’s one positive from a cost point of view!

im nearly 36 now so it could be age playing a part now too even if not at the beginning.

hmmm I’ve had an HSG, they said tubes aren’t blocked and no evidence of any scar tissue but they said there’s no test to see if tubes are functioning and that’s a risk of a c section. There isn’t really an option to find out anything further short of paying £5k for a private laparoscopy. I don’t have any symptoms of endo so I’m not sure. I’m thinking it must be egg quality x

@Hoping43 36 is still young, most people I know had their first kids around that age or older without issue.

I’ve just got out of urgent care. I can’t see this lasting, I started bleeding today, it seems to have stopped now, or gone back to being spotting, and the doctor said my test was light which I knew. I was hoping to make it to five weeks tomorrow but maybe I won’t/haven’t got that far. I’ve been referred to the EPAU and need to talk to my clinic, the aftercare isn’t great, you’re just left to your own devices and don’t know what to do when this stuff happens.

@thislittlebird I'm sorry to hear that. That sounds really stressful and horrible 😔. Hopefully you can get hold of your clinic. Did the hospital not scan you? I had a heavy bleed, although at 13 weeks, and everyone was really unhelpful and insensitive until I saw the right doctor who was actually able to scan me and confirm everything was fine.

@CycleGirl20 no scan, just a urine test and referral to early pregnancy unit. I don’t understand why that’s not a walk in thing anyway. Have to wait for them to call me and schedule me in, this is exhausting.

I’m supposed to be accepting a new job offer (internal) today and I’m so scared im making a mistake. In my current role I know i can just do what I did today and go to the hospital if I need to. I don’t know what will happen in the new role. The timing is awful.

That process sounds difficult.

I don't think you can put your life on hold with infertility. If the job is what you want, make your decision based on that. I know it's easier said than done.

@CycleGirl20 i’m calling to discuss the job tomorrow and hopefully I’ll bite the bullet. The flexibility does worry me.

So I had a chat with Guys. They’ve now decided I’ve had “consultant led care” and I’m absolutely baffled since the first time I’ve met a consultant was today. I’m so tired of arguing, what a shit clinic experience all round. If this pregnancy fails any day now I’m looking forward to going private where at least they won’t pretend I’ve had consultant led care when I haven’t.

*First time I’ve met one other than for a FET.

@thislittlebird good luck with your job conversation.

I'm hoping for you that you won't need to go private, but if that happens it's good you have a plan. It sucks that they would say you had a standard of care that you didn't