Immune/NK cells - pred thread 30

[Sezmarelda1]

Starting a new thread as the last one was full. Please tag anyone I may have missed from the old thread...

@Sophi81
@InvisibleDreamer
@birdbybird
@Ralowi
@HoldingOn2Hope
@MyEasterEggs
@Tgrf55

I have everything crossed for you and your little embaby @MyEasterEggs 🙏You must be so full of hope and anticipation right now! How soon will you be able to test?

They’ve suggested a week Sunday, which will be 10dp5dt. Hope I’m not tempted to test sooner! Might try and stay in this bubble for as long as possible!

Best of luck @MyEasterEggs

So I’ve had some more bleeding just now
and my boobs (which have been aching and sore all week) are feeling back to normal again. Think this one is on the way out.

Ugh I hope not @Ifitistobesaid . Is it worth a call to the clinic to see if they can do anything in terms of medications or scans? Are you already on progesterone as part of your treatment plan?

@Sezmarelda1 I tried but there was no answer. I was actually waiting for them to call me back about something else so hopefully I will hear from them today.

It’s an IVF pregnancy so already on progesterone (and a million other meds from Dr Shehata).

I was supposed to have my first scan on Thursday at 6w1 day but will see if the EPU can see me on Monday.

This is a PGTA tested embryo so don’t know where there is to go from here.

@Ifitistobesaid have you been having progesterone checked? One of the reasons my levels have been closely monitored is because the clinic didn’t want progesterone dropping and causing an unnecessary bleed. I don’t want to give you false hope but I wasn’t fully clued up on withdrawal bleeds until now, and now see why they wanted my levels so high and to keep on rising. Maybe it could be related to that?

@MyEasterEggs My IVF clinic tested my progesterone levels a couple of days before transfer and said it looked good but they haven’t monitored me since then

How have things been today @Ifitistobesaid ?

@Sezmarelda1 I had more spotting around 11pm last night and today just occasional brown when I wipe. I’ve stopped aspirin on the advice from CRP but still taking everything else as before. I’ll see how things go over the next couple of days but I will probably just wait for my EPU scan on Thursday.

Sending lots of strength @Ifitistobesaid , I know it's just a few days but will feel like eternity waiting for the scan. Don't give up hope x

Good morning everyone. Hope everyone is well. Congratulations on all the positive results 😃.

I had my 7th superovulation this month and due to test tomorrow. Not sure I'm feeling very positive about it but still hoping for a miracle. I don't feel pregnant but is that normal?
I did end up with an issue of overstimulated ovaries which was quite painful as a result of using Gonal-F and ended up in a&e. The scan showed my ovaries are very enlarged so they will scan again next week to see if they have reduced or not.

I informed CRP who now want me to come in on Monday for a scan following my a&e appointment to assess and do another plan but I just can't go last min bcos of work etc. Hopefully I get a positive test tomorrow but not feeling too hopeful 😩

Hopefully symptoms ease up @Ifitistobesaid will be thinking of you and we’re all here if you need to check in 💛

@Sophi81 try not to be too concerned about symptoms. With my one healthy pregnancy I had nothing besides dizzy spells around 8 weeks. All of my pregnancies have been so different and medication (not sure if you’re on anything wise?) can impact natural symptoms 🙂

Oops I meant anything else

@MyEasterEggs thank you. It's just such an anxious time when you get to this stage 😬. I'm on loads of drugs, metformin, progynova, prednisolone, Cyclogest, GCSF, to be honest I think CRP have thrown all the meds at me now. My GP referred to it as "cocktail of drugs from fertility clinic" which Dr Edge found quite funny to read.
I just feel like the issue is trying to get pregnant now instead of pumping all these drugs into me without any pregnancy🤷🏽‍♀️
Well I don't have long to wait I guess to see the result 🤞🏼

Yes seems a few of us will have news over the next week. I’m on much of the same and all I have is achy boobs and tiredness. Likely down to progesterone as I’m on prontogest injections too. Good luck!

I tested negative again today so that's officially the end of S0 for me, I've done 12 cycles in total and just can't afford to be doing this each month. Only had 1 pregnancy on SO cycle 5 in May 2021 which ended in mc.

Plan next is to have another egg collection at Create Fertility and send of embryos for pgta and then consider a transfer or my best friend who has offered to be my surrogate will have a transfer. Most likely after Xmas as we have holidays planned.

Hope you've all had a good weekend x

@HoldingOn2Hope sorry to hear you’ve had another negative. We are with Create as well and did PGTA testing. How incredible that your friend has offered to be a surrogate for you.

@HoldingOn2Hope sorry to hear that, brilliant that you have the surrogate option (although I know that has its own stresses, I did look into it and just didn't feel I could justify it when I've not actually tried the immune protocol yet, for various reasons)

So I had my nhs follow up, it turns out that the miscarriage we had in December was trisomy 16 and not normal results as I was told at the epu. So had I known that I may not have gone down the nk testing route, although my results were positive for high nk cell count and active cells. We have now been referred for karotyping and have to wait 8 weeks for the results. But I do have a healthy almost 5 year old so hoping the trisomy 16 was just down to a poor quality egg that month. Which is making me wonder if ivf with pgt would be our best option although I'd still need to follow the immune protocol. So confused!!

@Sophi81 I asked my nhs consultant to refer me for ivf and in the letter he also mentioned the 'cocktail of drugs' although when I saw him he did seem to have some knowledge of nk cell testing and didn't completely shut it down, he just said he believes in the benefits of progesterone more (which hasn't worked for me twice and in fact I believe made my lining so thick I ended up in surgery at what would have been 12 weeks just to remove the excess lining,
so personally don't think I need any extra but if we do decide to try again obviously I'll still do it! Must be very frustrating for you going from one problem to another, you can't help thinking the meds are part of it can you. It's a worry of mine x

@HoldingOn2Hope so sorry, that’s a lot for you to process right now, though surrogacy is a wonderful alternative if it’s possible. I know of someone who went through surrogacy during lockdown and after many years of infertility finally brought home her baby.

@Ralowi it’s disappointing that it’s taken so long to get those results. We had a loss due to trisomy 15 and as it’s quite rare (so I was told) we still went down the immune route as I believed there was more to our losses. In the process of having additional testing on my partner (earlier this year) we decided on ICSI IVF with PGT-A and mt FET cycle ended up highlighting mild progesterone issues. I suppose my thinking was that if we were going to do IVF we’d throw everything at it. But then our first loss was six years ago so we’ve had a long time to consider taking this step and I don’t want to be carrying on past next year. Just a personal choice.

It’s been a lot to take in but I feel confident we’ve done all we can now and IVF has given me back some control over my circumstances. And my life I suppose. Still anxious as hell awaiting results of first transfer but there’s an underlying sense of relief knowing I couldn’t have done anything more so I think that counts for something if IVF is a valid option.

So it was another big fat negative for me 😩. Feel so deflated after all that. Why is it so hard to get pregnant I really don't understand how our bodies work anymore 🤦🏽‍♀️. So Dr Edge called me yesterday as she was worried about me after the Episode I've had with OHSS. She has advised that we stop this month and have another 1 month break to allow my ovaries to recover. She wanted me to come in for a scan yesterday but I said it's just not possible to take time off last minute etc from work for both of us. I have a scan booked on Friday anyway with nhs to see if the ovaries have reduced or whether I will need the blood clotting injections as a result of my superovulation attempt this month., it's just such a mess, I think dr edge said she will drop Gonal-f from my plan next month or reduce it to half the strength as it seems like I'm quite sensitive to it.

My husband was really frustrated with the whole thing yesterday. He was saying how we not getting any younger and need to make a decision on when we going to stop 😩. I asked dr edge why am I not getting pregnant and she said it's not easy at 41 to get pregnant. I really want to be pregnant before the end of this year but not sure if it will ever happen 😔

@HoldingOn2Hope I feel the same like I'm wasting money on superovulation. That's lovely of your friend to consider that for you x

@Ralowi lol @ cocktail. Must be common for them to see this from fertility clinics. It does make me think how strong we all are on here. What we put ourselves through or have to go through just to have something that should be so normal to do, to have a family. I didn't know the lining can get that thick you have to have surgery 😬. I really need a miracle right now. I've not had a pregnancy at all this year. Not sure what to do anymore

My bleeding / spotting was a bit heavier this morning so I asked if the EPU could scan me today. They saw a very small subchorionic haematoma which could explain the bleeding, or it could be from the pessaries.

There was a heartbeat which measured 168bpm but the crown rump length was only 2.5mm which seems small for 5weeks 6 days. I have another scan in a week with my fertility clinic so guess I will know more then.

@Ifitistobesaid i dont think that sounds bad at all? I had a scan also at 5 weeks 6 days and they couldn't even measure the CRL because all they could see was a yolk sac. No heart beat. That heart beat is perfect i think it all sounds positive for you so fingers crossed.