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

[Marvellouslymadmum]

New thread 😊😊

@Marvellouslymadmum I’m not sure that magic egg is in there, sadly. 10 eggs now down to 6 mature, 4 fertilised and are in the running for blasto stage but lbr they might not make it. This cycle has been a joke tbh. I have some regrets rushing back into it after our first cycle achieved decent numbers.

How are you feeling @thislittlebird ?

Welcome @anotherscroller i don’t ovulate naturally and have tried letrozole and now gonal F injections but no IUI yet. Hope it’s all going well for you

Are you doing ivf or iui with gonal f @Alexis7890? What dose are you on?

I think i have mild ohms tbh. Breathing issues again, occasional shoulder pain. I've reported it to my doctor but this is why I didn't have a fresh transfer last time. I really don't want ohss, it's so frustrating that we have to go through this.

*OHSS

@thislittlebird Annoyingly neither just ovulation induction with a sex schedule. I would prefer IUI especially as the sperm isn’t great and I think would give us a better chance but was told no under our NHS trusts rules so either this works within 3 cycles or we go to ivf with icsi. Oh no! Will they see you quickly? Hoping for you that isn’t the case and it can all carry on and you don’t have OHSS

@anotherscroller hi and welcome

@thislittlebird four is not bad but I know what you mean about the waiting, it's such a rubbish choice because everyone goes in and on about age it makes you want to rush but sometimes that's not always best! Hope they get you sorted to check you for the ohss.

I'm the same with the do I wait or do I go forward, in one way I want to go straight off and start ivf abroad now, on the other I want to shift this weight or at least some of it and see if that makes a difference then go for ivf if not. I know this means I'm delaying ivf with my own egg but I'm planing on a tandem cycle with de anyway so if mine doesn't work I'll have the de as backup! However that doesn't stop me thinking maybe I should just go now as I'll have a better chance with my own egg!! 🤦🏼‍♀️ plus and minuses both ways 🤷🏼‍♀️

Thanks everyone 😊

@thislittlebird how you getting on? Are you able to go ahead with a fresh transfer? Fertilised embryos looking ok?

Welcome @anotherscroller

@OrangeBengal tbh no one seems even remotely interested in the fact that I definitely have ohss symptoms. Same old same old shit. I'm so fed up. They keep saying my breathing problems are the anaesthetic when a quick google tells me it's a sign of OHSS, alongside the intermittent shoulder pain. I'll go ahead with the fresh if I can, might not be anything to transfer tbh.

3 embryos left. One has fertilised abnormally. On a very confusing call they said 1 in 3 make it to day 5 on average, worst case none. I'm so sad about how this cycle has gone on higher stims.

Oh @thislittlebird , I’m so sorry this is happening. There’s probably not much you can do about it now, but make sure you create a log of questions for your WTF meeting. If you haven’t felt comfortable / heard this time round, then change your team, you are a client now.

Well, I can safely say this cycle has been a fucking horror show. We got 0 blasts this time. One morula and some other kinda embryo that's not a blast were transferred today, so it's really not good odds. Probably nothing to freeze, one is still in the lab but not looking good for tomorrow.

Spoke to the doctor today at my transfer in-between bouts of tears at this shitty cycle and he still thinks it's an anaesthetic reaction, so fine, I'll believe him.

I’m so sorry @thislittlebird, I do know that @CycleGirl20 had success with a morula though, so it is possible. I really hope it’s not OHSS too. As impossible and as annoying as it sounds whenever anyone says this, all you can do now is just try and feel as positive as you can. Listen or watch something that’ll make you laugh. It does help.

I’m so sorry to hear that this private cycle has not met your expectations whatsoever @thislittlebird.Very disappointing 😔

@OrangeBengal yeah I’ve seen a few stories like @CycleGirl20’s and it’s just hard to imagine it will work for us. We’re too old, his sperm is very poor quality, it’s just not good odds.

@Misty84 thanks, yeah it’s shit. I can’t really believe how unpredictable it all is. Higher stims resulted in a terrible cycle for us, but it wasn’t just me, every stage went badly. three embryos were grade 1 on day 3 and then womp womp womp, no blasts for you. I’m glad we transferred something but it doesn’t feel like I should get my hopes up since this will be embryo 4 & 5 and our three good ones haven’t worked. We’ll do a lot more prep before our next/last cycle and that’ll be in the spring probably. Need a few months to work on his results again.

I can’t continuously believe this will work eventually, I have to be realistic. We can’t afford to do more than two more attempts probably. If we aren’t getting blasts after the first cycle then I just don’t see ivf as being a realistic solution for us. Someone suggested donors to me but I also don’t really see that as a solution. We get a sperm donor and it could be my eggs, we get an egg donor and it might still not work with his sperm. It’s a big gamble we can’t really afford.

Yeah I hear you @thislittlebird. As you know we’ve given up with IVF after 2 hopeless cycles and in a way I’m sort of relieved to have stopped. You’re right, you cannot carry on forever.
Similar with donors really, we def can’t do sperm donor because I don’t have enough eggs for that to be a viable option. Egg donor MIGHT be a possibility in the future but we would have to improve OH’s sperm heaps loads (which is what he’s currently trying to do). But that’ll be another massively costly risky gamble. Probably wouldn’t work. At least not as much time pressure with that because it’ll be younger eggs…so I’m just giving myself a break for now. Not mentally there anyway! Especially as thought I had my baby, getting that far it’s so difficult to accept a donor now.

I’m making nice plans for us to do as a couple and our dog. Trying to get some sanity back. I don’t want to waste all these years being sad over something I can’t change. We’re all doing our best.

Really thinking of you and even though you’ve transferred 2, I can understand why you don’t have high hopes and it’s hard to imagine it happening. I just can’t believe no blasts considering your last round. Miracles happen to other people, I would love it to be your turn. Our turn! Never seems to be does it!☹️

@Misty84 I think relief is understandable. It's such a burden, especially when it doesn't work for you like it seems to for other people.

I think that sounds like a sensible path, work on your dh and spend some time doing nice things. We're going to try to get some second opinions on dh's varicocele/cause of his issues but we really don't have much hope, we've never conceived naturally. Maybe it's just premature ageing for him.

It's incredibly hard to imagine it happening, I just don't think these were good sperm, I'm very hesitant to be optimistic.

Yup, never, ever our turn apparently. Which makes it even harder to swallow, that you get the bad luck, you can't catch a break when others do, you can't be one of the people who gets pregnant with ivf first time, or before, or during or after ivf naturally, or you do and it doesn't work. It's not for us. It just makes me really sad that all of these years will have been wasted time and money.

One thing I have learned about myself this cycle is that I just do not have symptoms from progesterone 90% of the time, naturally or medicated. I've only ever had sore boobs a couple of times on cyclogest, then they tested me yesterday on transfer day and it was 311, which is very high for me but I guess that's the now empty follicles putting progesterone out there + lubion and cyclogest.

@thislittlebird have your clinic not taken any learning from your last NHS cycle, as you did get pregnant then, which is a big deal after so long and something you should cling on to if you can. It seems crazy that the clinic didn’t put you on all the drugs you were on then.

It seems like that, plus the right levels of stims and PGS, would give you the best chance of success. Have you considered natural or modified natural, if you react better to low stims that might go doubly for no stims?!

I’m assuming your on ubiquinol, vitamin E as well as all the standard supplements pre egg collection? DHEA is maybe one to investigate too? And for your DP, proxeed, no booze, no coffee, clean eating etc.

Maybe try and speak to a fertility nutritionist, I think a few people we’re on chats with use them. It’s a lot, I know, but if you’re giving yourself two more shot then at least you know it’ll only be for a certain amount of time.

Apologies, I meant trying natural not natural modified (I know the latter is your standard protocol)

@OrangeBengal no I was on the same stims but more of them. They looked at what worked and replicated it but with a higher dose and then added Cyclogest (the one I used before), clexane and Lubion in. So it should have worked in theory and it didn’t. I feel like I need to push for low stims since based on two cycles 150 Gonal F produced a lot more than 150/225 Gonal F did.

Yeah we do all of that stuff but obviously we didn’t have months to prepare like the first cycle. We sort of assumed it would go better than this since our first went fairly /well/.It happened so fast so there wasn’t much time for all the supplements again. DH also had covid and wisdom teeth removal infection since then which I suspect could be part of the issue. Well going to be more serious about it like the first cycle next time.

I do natural modified yeah, do you mean a fully natural cycle with one egg? Not sure how cost effective it would be tbh.

Yeah, natural,@thislittlebird, but it makes sense that this would maybe be a final final option, when you’ve tried everything else? I can’t remember who initially recommended this approach as I’m sure they could provide more details.

If you can spend the 3 months getting back on all the supplements it’s probably worthwhile, but I get weighing this against age.

How are you doing @thislittlebird? xx

I’m at Epsom hospital pharmacy waiting for my pills. Had to pick up the prescription and a blood form from the antenatal unit so I was in a waiting room SURROUNDED by pregnant women. I’ve been strong recently by avoiding all this but I stood there fighting back tears! Considering these are miscarriage investigations it’s a bloody insensitive place to send someone!😢😣

Aww@Misty84 thats horrible for you that you had to go there they shouldn’t do that. Hope you’re doing okay

Thanks @Alexis7890 I’m ok now I’m home!! How are you doing lately? x