Fertility Appointments and Beyond: Electric Boogaloo

[thislittlebird]

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

Ok panic averted! I have had the scan and there’s 16 growing, 11 on the left and 5 on the right. Some are under 10mm (maybe 3 or 4) but there’s still two more scans to go on Friday and Monday. What a way to spend my Easter!

I’m relieved, I was getting in such a flap about having to pay more if it didn’t work. I’m so pleased the 225 gonal F has worked so far, hopefully the double trigger will help mature them too.

@thislittlebird woohoo, that's great news 🙂
That's more than I had before my trigger too! What a relief. When is your estimates EC date?
xx

@JeanieJ not entirely sure, she said they’ll tell me more on Friday and just booked me in for another scan at 9 on Monday. I’ve got Tuesday booked off so I’m sort of hoping it’s Wednesday, rather than have to sort my holiday because I’ll likely have to go off sick. I seem to react to the anaesthetic after EC and end up off work for up to a week with bad breathing issues, it aggravates my asthma.

@thislittlebird fingers crossed for you. I also felt rubbish for days after EC ... no breathing issues, but I was totally floored, bloated, sore and constipated ... took much longer to recover that I expected. Take care of yourself xx

Bit of news from me - had my scan yesterday and everything measured ok at 6+1. I'm booked in for a 2nd scan in about 2 weeks to check on it's development and I've been put on baby aspirin due to my miscarriage history.
It's definitely a milestone that we're relieved to get past, but still a long way to go knowing our risk levels. I'm pretty traumatised by last year and the timing is almost identical - it'll be a year since we lost the baby on the 25th, so it feels like an extra worrying time.
Praying that the combo of DHs embolisation and the ICSI has done the trick and this little one stays around 🙏

How did your scan go @thislittlebird ?

@Kay00 good! I was so relieved. 16 follicles so far between about 8 and 15mm but a few are under 10 so not sure what what will happen to them. It could go up or down but it’s not one follicle, and it’s working. Happy I don’t have to have cancellation conversations with them. Got another scan on Friday and another on Monday which seems like a lot of scans.

@JeanieJ fingers crossed the next scan is as good!

Waaaaawww!! 😁 What a turn up for the books! You must be chuffed ☺️

@Kay00 yes! I came out just so relieved. It’s such a shitty process as it is without even more stuff you didn’t predict going wrong.

@thislittlebird how did your scans go? x

@JeanieJ yeah ok. 18 were there yesterday but a few will likely be lost to being too big or small. Did the double trigger last night and today I’m packing a bag and remembering how much I don’t want to do any of this again. My clinic is a pain in the arse, I end up in there all bloody day long and the embryologists have said two different things about same collection from dh (timings wise) so right now I’m thoroughly done with it all.

Not sure how much more of this I want to do tbh. Part of me is just tempted to get on with childfree life before we die because this really isn’t a way to live.

@thislittlebird good luck tomorrow with your egg collection.

I can understand your disenchantment with this whole process. It has been particularly rough for you, as your clinic have been rubbish.

I hope you get some positive news tomorrow... You certainly deserve it xx

@Kay00 thanks! both my clinics have been annoying but maybe my expectations are too high. I really just want a nice, compassionate doctor. I’ve spent 4 years in this process and have met one doctor I truly wanted to use and she retired immediately after the first meeting with her and the rest have pissed me off all the way through this. I feel like a lot of the good reviews of these places come from people who it worked for. Suddenly all the ivf clinic stress melts away because they have new baby worries and they’re just grateful to get over that hurdle.

I hope we do too 🙏. I certainly don’t feel like I’m desperate to do this all again if it goes to shit though. We can’t afford to either, not really sure what we want but the vision I had of a very small family of three is increasingly distant and more often I’m thinking about what we can do as just the two of us.

@thislittlebird good luck with the egg collection tomorrow. My fingers & toes are crossed for you 🤞🏻🤞🏻

So we had 10/14 mature eggs, 9 fertilised normally and we await the day 3 update tomorrow. I feel very detached from it this time, like it’s just another thing we do. Transfer is booked for Monday morning if there is anything to transfer, and any excess will be PGT-A tested so probably 0-1 embryos from this.

EC also feels like it was harder this time, going to get myself a hot water bottle and hide under a blanket.

We had a last minute clinic drama where they said they didn’t need to do any special for procedures for DH’s antisperm antibodies and then they decided they did after I kicked up a fuss once more. Anyway, he did a later sample and had to do it into a liquid to stop the sperm clumping, and we also paid for IMSI.

@JeanieJ belated thanks!

It sounds as though you have put up some firm defences. This has been so hard for you, and I am really proud of you, that you have come this far.

Your results today are very good!! I'd be chuffed, and it will be really interesting to see if the anti clumping liquid and IMSI make a difference.

Look after yourself today xx hot water bottle, Netflix and lots of treats are in order xx

@Kay00 thanks 💜. It honestly is exhausting, as I’m sure you know. I have come to expect nothing from this really, because it just doesn’t work for some people in the way it does for others. And we have had to fight for our bloody lives every step of the way, nearly 4 years of constantly advocating hard for yourself and having to challenge their decisions and claims. An embryologist who analysed his sample called and said they need to do xyz next time, and then I emailed to check they were doing this the day before and some other embryologist rang me and basically said no, that’s not our procedure and made it sound like I’d made this up! I was very pissed off the night before EC and then my consultant backed her up. Lab manager then spoke to original embryologist and agreed they did need to do xyz 🙄🙄🙄

I’m happy with the 9, I just know this can all go to shit between day 1 and 5/6 so just trying to take each update as it comes. It’s the same as our first round at this stage, weirdly, so I’m very curious to see if the higher dose stims, dual trigger, solution and IMSI for DH make a jot of difference. Next update is tomorrow.

I’m definitely going to chill today, might sit here and watch White Lotus!

Well done @thislittlebird those numbers are good & it sounds like you've a good plan. What a nightmare with your clinic though 🙄😡 - as if you need more stress. All my fingers & toes are crossed that you get a good bunch by day 5 & hopefully you can test them too. Have you done PGT testing before? x

That sounds like a good plan.

Interestingly in my next round my consultant plans to put me on a higher dose too. In my second round we went for a much lower dose, and I ended up with even more eggs than the first! (All rubbish quality of course).

I really hope that IVF does work for us, like it does for others, but I have a sneaking suspicion it won't for me. I'm hoping so hard that it does though, for you and for me 🤞🤞🤞☝️☝️

@JeanieJ yeah, I really didn’t need a last minute fight with them. Not done PGT-A before, hoping we have at least one good one but it’s not great odds at my age!

@Kay00 I did read somewhere that higher stims can = fewer follicles, at least on some people. What happened in your last cycle, I can’t recall? High number and low mature quantity again?

I think the same thing tbh, as much as I hope it works for us both. I just can’t see why it will change and work now. I’ve been mentally adjusting each passing round from the optimistic start to now where it feels like incredibly slim odds that an embryo will be genetically competent and will hang around. The first five were/did not!

I suppose I am on Clexane and Lubion this time and that’s different, but I was last time too, we just had terrible non-blast embryos transferred.

Ok day 3 update was all 9 are still in the running but one is a bit behind. I’m relieved, we were down to 3 by this time last cycle.

@Kay00 will be interesting to see if the higher stims, IMSI etc do make a difference to the outcome. Still got the biggest day 3-5 hurdle yet 😬

@thislittlebird that's good news. At day 3, I had 4 in the running and 3 on day 5, so hopefully you'll have a great one to transfer & a few to bank & test x

@JeanieJ did your partner have dna fragmentation issues? I can’t remember.

Yeah, i think we had 6 at this stage on cycle 1, 3 at this stage on cycle 2, so 8 or 9 is better, but now the sperm content hurdle kicks in which may well take a lot of them out. My husband’s fragmentation is ok, but obviously we can’t know what sperm the embryologists are picking.

@thislittlebird yes, DH has 38% fragmentation, that's why we're really worried about another loss because it sperm can look totally fine on the outside, but can be messed up on the inside, so the embryologist doesn't know for sure. It's such a gamble 😵‍💫 Morphology is supposedly a good indicator though 🙏🏻