Fertility Appointments and Beyond: Electric Boogaloo

[thislittlebird]

Hit capacity on the old thread, will tag you in!

@Kay00 I can imagine, it sounds horrific tbh and I don’t know how they justify that for the sake of a bit of anaesthetic. Most people get put out, if only briefly but it would be nice for you to not have to experience all that again!

Yeah good plan. Ask all the questions and then do the same again to a new clinic/consultant. The other thing is think about some more tests you can do before trying again. I’m going to use the big gap we’ll have to tick some boxes by seeing an immunes guy at my clinic and maybe consider things like karyotyping just to rule stuff out.

Happy New Year everyone 💕
I hope 2023 is kind to us.
I start my baseline scans & blood end of this month for my first IVF/ ICSI cycle in Feb.
Feeling like it's Groundhog Day, as I was in this exact place this time last year & then the rollercoaster got a bit more tricky💔👼.
Really hoping that this year, I can actually bring a baby home 🙌🏻

Xx

@JeanieJ happy new year! Your cycle will fly round.

I definitely won't be having a baby this year but 2024 would be ok, not that I'm optimistic :/

I went to view a puppy yesterday, a poodle because I assumed I'd be ok with them allergy wise but then I came home and had a reaction so I don't know if it's the puppy or the other dogs that live there. I'm very sad that my body can't do anything normally, it feels very lonely facing old age without children or any animals to love. I'm going to revisit tomorrow and see if I react again, if I do I can't have the puppy because I can't risk aggravating my immune system during the IVF. I'm fairly sure it's already the cause of our failed implantation.

@thislittlebird oh, I'm sorry about that.I thought poodles were supposed to be good for allergies?

Pets are a small comfort during this whole fertility journey (although not a replacement for what we really want).
We have a cat and adore her.
I'd love a dog too, but I'm not quite ready yet.

xx

Hey everyone, how are we all getting on?

Another wtf update from me, had a 12 day oestrogen scan today for the equivalent of an FET next week... my lining if fine but my left ovary is in crack, its got between a 13m and 16m folicle on. I dont get that good ON stims!! Wtaf. Had bloods done and if my progesterone is too high fridays thaw/fertilisation is off, as is transfer next week.

Apparently this is very unusual. There's always one, and its always me 🙈

@beckyCarlos that sounds so random and just like really bad luck, I'm sorry.
What happens now? Are you on meds right now?

I'm getting my baseline scan tomorrow & some bloods (CD3) and then I think the next few weeks are about getting my meds & learning how to inject myself.
AF is due 20th Feb & then I'll start my injections .... hopefully. It's the short protocol.

I'm a little nervous about my scan. It's been more than a year since I've had a fertility scan & I've had a miscarriage, so I'm praying nothing is weird tomorrow 🙏🏻🤞🏻
Xx

@JeanieJ waiting for a phone call tomorrow to confirm what we do! Theres just always 'something' else. Eugh. I'm in a right funk, even though there might be nothing to be in one over. This. Sucks. I'm oestrogen tablets, didnt do a downreg...maybe that'd have been a good idea 🙈

That sounds positive for you! Totally understand the nerves though, hopefully you're all good to go, if you havent had any issues I'm sure you will be :) if it helps, my first post-miscarriage scan was absolutely fine (no pain, nothing that shouldn't have been there, 8 antral follicles)...if anything it lulled me into a false sense of security with my follicle count lol. X

@beckyCarlos wow... That's so interesting. Do you think they will want to cancel your cycle? Or upgrade to IVF? I guess there are too many follicles for IUI... Or natural conception? You might end up as octo-mum?! 😁

@JeanieJ how exciting that you are starting your round soon!! Fingers crossed your scan goes well xx you'll be fine with the injections I'm sure x

I'm just waiting for my post IVF WTF appointment to discuss my abysmal round. I am also lining up a second clinic to discuss potential options with them.

@JeanieJ yeah, sadly they’re better but not 100%. The lady let me rub my face on a freshly cleaned puppy and I got freaked out when I had a mild reaction. I kept thinking what if this gets worse once I’m living with a dog and my immune system goes insane again? I could probably cope any other time but with ivf ongoing until I have some kinda breakdown I decided it wasn’t worth the risk. Flaring up my eczema/asthma/allergies didn’t seem like a good idea. :/

Hello and what a weird update! Where are you at now? I can’t remember, other than you were egg shopping!

@JeanieJ fingers crossed your scan tomorrow is ok.

@Kay00 that’s so weird, I was only talking about octomum in work this week lmao. when do you think your follow up will be??? We had ours in November for round one and December for round two. don’t feel any more clued up, but they do think DH’s sperm was to blame.

Can’t remember what I last updated, but essentially we asked guys for a urology/andrology referral. They sent one for Feb, I lost my mind and sent mental emails when I saw it wasn’t with an andrologist. Turned out it was a joint clinic (my bad). Before I knew that I’d emailed various departments all INCORRECT REFERRAL and cried loudly on the phone to a nurse. Dh then got a letter through a few weeks ago for a January appointment, we had no idea where it had come from and it turned out to be my moany email 😭. They just sent an appointment out in response. Soooo we saw urology (still not the main man we wanted, but maybe in Feb), they refused male hormone tests because it’s definitely not his hormones, he has lots of body hair and normal balls! 🙃 (when I say I’m sick of this shit I’m not kidding, why can’t they rule stuff out?) Anyway, they said he’ll have an appointment for an ultrasound in 3 weeks and there won’t be a long wait for a varicocele if they think he should remove it because all the fellows are dying to have a go at one of those. So that was reassuring.

I ordered the male hormone panel today from medichecks. £79 isn’t too bad now we’ll be getting the ultrasound and varicocele embolisation paid for.

My tests won’t be as cheap. Need to get immune testing done which is ££££ and maybe consider karyotyping (£££) just to rule out anything genetic before we get to the point of PGA-T testing, if we ever make any embryos again.

Meanwhile my mental health is in the fucking gutter. I was off work for two months, then I went back and I’m still not ok. Triggered by a heavily pregnant woman yesterday, by HR moaning about my sickness and so on. Then between my age (pushing 40) and the waiting for DH’s sperm to improve I’m losing the plot tbh. Had a panic attack about it all at 3am last night. Very tempted to ask my GP for antidepressants, they said no before because we were ttc but that was years ago. Also requested counselling with my clinic and started doing exercise and Pilates again. Going to try to shift the extra weight I’ve gained in time for my 40th and our next round. Anyway, sorry to give such a long, ranty update. I’m so very sick of all this shit.

@thislittlebird aw love I'm sorry its so shit for you x x x so frustrating they won't do hormone tests for your partner noones ever considered much for mine, but has like 3 chest hairs (but I assume normal balls?! 🤣) maybe I should suggest it...

Yeah so we selected a donor and the eggs are in the clinic waiting for a potential defrost friday, but not if my pissing large follicle is giving off too much progesterone already indicating ovulation tomorrow, instead of just medicating it with progesterone on Friday :( i literally struggle to grow follicles on stims and then this one is just wanging out there on oestrogen only. Wtaf. No chance for an IVF conversion, or IUI, as we're in for the equivalent of an FET with donor eggs :(

I feel a bit like you @thislithislittlebird ... just why is there always something, I'm getting pretty done with being 'strong' and 'just getting through the next hurdle' eugh.

@beckyCarlos thank you for the positive vibes. I'm just worried because I had a D&C, but I hope it'll be fine 🤞🏻 I'm sorry you're having such a shitty time with all this nonsense 🫤

@thislittlebird I'm really sorry you're having such a crap time, it sounds like a nightmare. I've also considered anti depression over the past years. I think sertraline is the safest (I was on it in the past), but when I said it to my fertility doc before, he wasn't so keen, but not against it. It's a benefit/risk weigh up & ultimately your choice.

@Kay00 when's your follow up appt?

If anyone has any tips leading up to a cycle, that'd be great. I've limited caffeine, given up alcohol & tried to eat generally healthy (although I'm not too restrictive). I've been on all the supplements for years.
Maybe there's more I can do? I dunno

xx

Update from my appointment,
All is fine with me. I had about 8 follicles on each side.
However, we were shown DH's results from his recent sample & everything has gone down 🙄. For example, he was 4% morph in 2021 and now he's at 2%. He's had a varicocele embolisation in Sept for high dna frag & we thought it would at least make a difference on a standard semen analysis. I'm actually in shock that his results are down 😵‍💫
We're still going ahead with ICSI, but I'm feeling less optimistic now.

@JeanieJ just jumping on this thread but we had a SA with 2% morphology and it was repeated after 6 weeks and it was 6% but we got pregnant between these two tests so I wouldn’t get too down on the morphology as it does fluctuate. However, I guess it depends on the rest of the measures too x

Thanks @Anonbaby - that's hopeful and congrats on your BFP 😵‍💫
The thing is that he had High DNA frag which we got the varicocele embolisation for in Sept, in theory the damage should be dropping now.
Low morphology is an indicator for high dna fragmentation, so we're just upset about it.
They said we should just still crack on with ICSI.
I just don't know how this happened 🤷🏻

@JeanieJ thanks although that was a few years ago. We have secondary infertility so have been TTC again for 2 years now. I can’t help with the DNA fragmentation as we never had that done but definitely did achieve a pregnancy with low morphology. Our most recent SA was low on every measure but previous ones have been fine and we have two children so we don’t really know what’s going on, if it is MFI, if it’s not. We are just in limbo debating IVF at the moment.

I’m sure you’ll get where you need to through ICSI. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you xx

@Anonbaby oops sorry!

I'm just disappointed, but I think we'll crack on. My husband is convinced this is a blip, but he's always an optimist - one of us needs to be 🙄

My drugs teach is in 2 weeks & my cycle starts in about 3.5 weeks 😬

Trying not to pin all my hopes on one round working.

@JeanieJ thats disappointing, but they're basically miracle workers with ICSI, and they can pick the best, swimmiest, sperm to fertilise with!

Our cycle is cancelled, I'm just over the progesterone level, so probably ovulating today. We are, naturally, going to have sex anyway just in case but the last 1234847372 times havent done it yet so dont have too much hope 🤣 good news is we can start prepping with oestrogen as soon as I bleed, and I'll be having fyremadel for 8 days to make sure I dont ovulate, so 🤞 for Feb cycle!

@JeanieJ my OH had 0% for morphology on our most recent IVF round and they were still able to successfully fertilise 15 eggs, so I don't think it's too big an issue. It's interesting what you say about high DNA fragmentation being indicated by low morphology... I think I need to persuade my OH to get this test done.

@beckyCarlos sorry your cycle was cancelled... But it's good that you'll be starting again in a couple of weeks (assuming you don't get pregnant in the meantime) ☺️ and with a good strategy!

My current clinic still haven't booked in my follow up appointment with the consultant. Although I have sent an email in advance with questions I want answered (thanks for the tip @thislittlebird ). In the meantime I have an appointment with a new clinic on Tuesday... I'm intrigued as to what they will say!

@beckyCarlos I’m sure if his sperm are fine then the balls are too 😭. I’m no doctor but that’s probably a key sign. The medichecks kit arrived, hopefully his hormones will be ok.

Sorry your cycle is cancelled, but I know exactly what you mean. There’s always another hurdle, there’s never an end to any of this in sight. I’m not convinced I’m very strong anymore, it’s ground me down. Between ivf, infertility and my other health issues that started around the same time as ttc, I feel so exhausted. Ended up having an argument with my GP surgery today after they cut me off and then refused me an appointment for antibiotics despite the fact I’d done the 8am call bullshit. I’m just over it all. Might get myself a private GP since I’ve had to go private for so many other things at this stage.

@JeanieJ yeah I’ve heard that about setraline too. I just want to feel better, I think I’m going to push for it. It’s not like I’m going to conceive naturally any time soon, probably never, naturally or otherwise, so there’s not really any risk.

Like others have said, I really wouldn’t worry about morphology. It’s not a big deal really, as long as they’re moving and it sounds like are.

@Kay00 keep us posted on Tuesday’s appointment.

I had to take my passport photo today and it made me cry. I look older, I look like my mother and I don’t feel like I’m young enough for this ivf game now tbh. It’s all so exhausting and we have no hope of anything working when DH hasn’t even had the tests and procedures he needs.

Hello all. How are you?? I'm back again with a new name! Last round in August time. Had a break until now and have only posted sporadically here answering questions about varicocele embolizations.

I'm looking at Access Fertility now but have no idea which London clinic to go with. If anyone has any recommendations I'm all ears!! www.mumsnet.com/talk/infertility/4731703-which-access-fertility-clinic-in-london-for-40yr-old-me

Will have a read of the thread and catch up.

Hey @Particularprick, how are you?

I’m in the same boat, but not 40 until May and we got the multicycle package with the Lister.

What’s the latest on the varicocele embolisation for you? We are waiting for a scan for DH.

@ththislittlebird I'm so sorry to read you're having such a tough time. One round can seem to take months and months and sounds like you have other stuff going on too. I would definitely push for ADs if you can take them while doing IVF. I do wonder for myself sometimes how far I will go with it all before I make peace with the simple bad luck of not having children. I certainly won't keep going and going and have ruled out donor eggs and sperm so I guess I have that limit anyway.

My DP had the op on his testicle a long time ago now (two years? I've lost track). I came back to recommend where he'd had it done - think someone was quoted an awful lot more than we paid after seeing Ramsey. It did improve things.

Have a chat with Access Fertility tomorrow. Don't know what the conditions are and what to tell them/not to tell them, like I've had two miscarriages with previous partners etc.

Will try and keep up with the thread!

Wishing you good luck as you approach your next cycle @jeaniej

@Particularprick welcome back. I'm sorry you're still on this journey & I hope the consultation with Access Fertility goes well.
Ugh, it was probably me with the expensive embolisation - ours cost £6k 🤢 haven't seen any improvements yet.

xx