Icsi ivf may 2024

[Cloclo93]

Hi ladies I thought I'd create this thread to support anyone doing ivf in May 2024, it's great to have other people to talk to going ture the same thing!
My background I'm 31 with low AMH of 3, suffering from secondary infertility 2.5 years ttc had a failed IVF cycle in February where my 4 mature eggs just failed to fertilized so we have been advised to do ICSI for our next cycle! I decided to give my body a break and get back into end of April/may depending on how my cycle returns:)

@camelinastorm hey can I ask why did you get the steroids prescribed ? Is it just incase of immune related stuff ? Or have you had losses before ? Xx I will also be on blood thinning injections and steroids ! But I won’t have the progesterone injection , just pessaries …

@Ilovebees & @hopefullsosbry you are both so strong for carrying on after your losses with so much positivity & hope! ❤️

@Ilovebees glad your scan went well, sounds fab!

@hopefullsosbry it's definitely quality not quantity as I learnt from my EC. And you still have time for the small ones to catch up - grow follicles grow!!

@camelinastorm that's amazing - well done you & your ovaries! You must be so happy. How are you feeling?

Oh nice to hear from someone who was also with Create and their weird policy. Did they offer to thaw your day 3 and culture until day 5? They didn't really give me any choice about freezing it on day 3, I wish they'd have just left it until day 5 if there's less chance of implantation with a day 3 embryo. Which clinic did you move to? Have you had a better experience with them than abc/Create?

@Ilovebees I'll be honest no idea, I've had a chemical and a transfer that didn't work, so they are just adding these into this cycle, so before transferring im on progesterone pessaries and tablets then after also having the injections.
@Lcm11 nope they just transferred even though I would.ahve rather wait until day 5.
I've gone overseas to Cyprus for this round as ABC said I had to go down the full create route at 9.5k and I just cannot afford that on top of what we had paid

Sorry the thread seems to be muddled up for some reason
@hopefullsosbry yes will get a call tomorrow to let me know how many fertilised
@Ilovebees yes fingers crossed they all get to day 5, I am doing a fresh hopefully Monday, I am a little tender but only as expected.
I had 8 good sized follicles, my clinic doesn't count the smaller ones at all I could see there was a few on the scan though .

We are off for a nice meal and a walk tonight for gentle exercise

@Lcm11 I was with ABC create too. I did 2 cycles with them and only got 1 day 3 8 cell on my first cycle and day 6 4bb and 4bc won my second, which is extremely poor results when i had a total of 30 mature fertilised eggs and absolutely 0 sperm issues. I know what you mean about the embryologists, they dont like delivering bad news and want to get off the phone quickly. My first cycle they advised to freeze a day three and then said they would let me know about the rest on day 5, they called me and were like none have made it, a report will be sent across, OK thank you bye 😂 I decided to move clinics in the hope I would get better results. Currently with ARGC who have basically said the opposite of everything that ABC create had told me! Praying that argc get me much better quantity/quality blasts! It's looking like my EC won't be until the start of June now though as I've only just come on my period today! Are you going to transfer when you can or are you banking blasts?x

@Ecas88 that's so frustrating that you had poor conversions from so many eggs. I've heard really good things about ARGC. Do you mind me asking if you paid a lot more for your ARGC round? Hopefully this cycle will go much better, a lot of things I've read seem to suggest a change in lab really helps egg to blast conversions for some women so I hope that will be the case for you.

To be honest I want to swap clinics after I've had my FET(s) - feel like I don't even want to transfer the day 3 because it seems pointless but I'm probably just being pessimistic. I think the post EC care from abc/Create has been pretty poor and I don't ever want to have another EC with Create after the calls I had from embryology. Going to mention this on my call on Friday and see what my nurse says. She's lovely and has been amazing in the run up to the EC so will see what she advises.

Definitely having a negative couple of days - putting it down to the hormone changes! 🤣

Girls could you please help me out! Which needle is for mixing my trigger shot ? The green or the yellow ? The green one seems so thick , I don’t think this is for injecting ?

@Ilovebees I had the same trigger shot - green for mixing and yellow for injecting. Did your clinic send you a video with instructions? I can dig mine out if you need it x

@Ecas88 I have the same AMH and had a disappointing round on short protocol 300 Gonal F. I got a lot of mature eggs, no male factor but only 66% fertilised when expected is up to 85%. I did PGT-A on the 5 blasts that made it and only 2 were euploid. 2 from 36 eggs 😭 I'm also banking euploids for 2 children.

I was hospitalised with severe OHSS so I'm scared to do it again. They offered the same treatment again but lowering to 225 Gonal. I don't know if it'll just get even less euploids.

What meds and doses did you do previously compared to now? How did side effects and outcomes differ?

@Lcm11 argc have a monitoring cycle with bloods at the start of your cycle, a mid cycle scan with bloods and then more bloods at the end of the cycle so in theory it should cost approx £300 for the monitoring month. They also ask you to do a load of other blood tests which you can get the majority on the NHS for free, i had to pay for some urine tests that the NHS don't do, which cost an extra £200. I did end up paying more than the above as I ovulated later than expected and they couldn't find a dominate follicle so I had additional scans and bloods. They have their price list on their website.
As I'm starting my cycle I have no idea what the costs will be, they do ask for a 5k deposit which they will just take money out of instead of you paying everytime you visit (which will be everyday!) I'm happy to let you know at the end what I do pay. I've seen ranges from 7-30k for a single cycle at ARGC 😂

My nurse at abc was super lovely as well but was also really vague when I asked questions about why it didn't work for me. I did a round with their Bristol team and one with their Birmingham team. I got better results with Birmingham.

I'm the same with my create blasts/embryo...even though they aren't bad grades and day 3 embryos historically used to be the only things the ivf clinics put back! I still feel because the cycle didn't go great, they won't work 🤦‍♀️

@Lcm11 thank you so much for confirming ! And no need for the video thank you , because my stims had the same mixing procedure (meriofert) so I know exactly how to mix it 😘 thank you so much anyways ! Xxx did you have the same trigger ( decapeptyl) 0,1 mg ? I take 2 powders so it would be 0,2mg and 1 water thing x

@mt9m 300 is insane....ive never heard of clinics giving that much to a pco/pcos patient, it's usually extremely low as we respond too well to the medication.

cycle 1 - I was on bemfola 150 which moved down to 112.5 after a few days as my estrogen spiked massively and I was then triggered when my estrogen was around the 8k mark, day 10. I had the smallest amount of fluid on that cycle and felt my ovaries were very heavy but nothing bad at all.
Cycle 2 - bemfola 100 for the whole time, again estrogen spiked to about 9k and they triggered me day 10 again. Absolutely no pain after this cycle and better results. Still poor though 26 eggs collected 14 fertilised and

Argc won't do short protocol for pco/pcos patients as they say it doesn't work and they have less control over the cycle so more riskof ohss, which seems to go against everything id been told at create. I've been put on a long protocol but my stims will be even lower than ABC create gave me. Argc do bloods every day and they tell you how much medication to take every day so it's completely tailored to what my hormone levels are doing. Not a one size fits all approach that most other clinics have.

Estrogen levels are what can predict ohss, do you know what your levels were when triggered? Most clinics won't trigger above 15k estrogen. Create won't go over 10k and that's why they have very very low severe ohss occurrences.

@Ecas88 thanks for sharing the prices it's really helpful. Not cheap but the amount of scans and tests you have had already shows that they are on it. Really hope a change of clinic, protocol and lab will be perfect recipe for your BFP. 🤞🏼

I'm glad you feel the same about deciding the embryos from a bad round won't work - makes me feel better. That's why I'm going to give them feedback about the embyrologist calls. I think how the messages are delivered on those calls makes or breaks the cycle for you psychologically.

What will you do with your Create embryos?

@Ilovebees yes I had the same (0.2mg decapeptyl), only difference was I got two glass vials and two syringes. They told me to do two separate injections back to back. The way you're doing it makes more sense. Good luck with it. I was so excited doing my trigger x

Is anyone else feeling anxious that everything is just going to go wrong ? I convinced myself tonight that when I go for egg collection that I’ll only get few eggs and they won’t survive and then I’ll have to pay thousand to start again 😖😞the closer it gets the more anxious I am ! Wishing us all good luck , hopefully we have some good news this year from all our trasfers together 😍

I’m a bit anxious that I’m overbaked or that I’ll ovulate before collection. I feel so much like I do when I’m right about to ovulate, a lot of EWCM too. I know this is probably bogus and the chances of that happening are very low and I can’t compare the feelings I’m having this cycle to a normal one. And then they’ll probably tell me tomorrow that, no actually, I’ve barely responded or smth.

I just did my trigger ! What a shit show 😂 the green needle I got from the clinic was sooo short , didn’t even touch the end of the glass vial , so I panicked , didn’t get all the liquid out with it , so I got one of my stims mixing needles (long ones ) I have loads of unused ones, and that did the trick perfectly . Phewww , I was 4 minutes late to injecting it , hopefully it won’t be a problem ? X I know some people turn the vials upside down to get all the liquid in but I was so scared that the top will fall off and I’ll lose it all 😂 I like sticking the needle to the bottom of the glass to get every drop out . Hopefully I did okay ! 😪I wish they did pre filled triggers , that would make life so much easier !

@Lcm11 I hope so, I spoke to a few others who had really bad results with PCOS and short protocols and then got amazing results on long protocols so I'm really hoping it makes a difference for me.

I'll use them a back ups I think if I get better ones from this cycle.

Culturing the day 3 to day 5 is a good option. See if if gets to a good grade then use that one, if it doesn't then use the other blasts. I really think it has a good chance to be a good grade as they freeze the best one on day 3 and if some others in the cycle made blasts then it's likely that one will make it and be the best grade! X

@@Lcm11 hey, can I ask one question about the trigger injection , so I was told to mix 2 powders and one vial of water together . I injected the full thing after doing that , but now thinking, did I have to measure 0,2mg on the syringe ? And not use all the mix ?

@mt9m I forgot to say..... it still sounds like you had a really good cycle. They say 85% but that's for people with a normal AFC, with PCO it's never going to be 85% because there are so many follicles and so many immature ones! The fact you had 11 fertilise and 5 of them made blasts is better than what they expect and then 2 being euploid is also a great outcome from 5, again I think that's about what is expected. I wouldn't be disheartened at all. The fact you got ohss sucks but it sounds like you actually had a really good outcome. Forget you got 30 eggs, a lot of them would have been useless, the rest of the numbers are great so I'd focus on that.

I can completely understand being reluctant to do another cycle due to being hospitalised from ohss though, that is rubbish 😔

No you did it right as the powders are 0.1mg each so you've had the full dose 0.2mg dose. I don't think 4 minutes will make any difference. Some people do get a pre-filled pen for their trigger I think. Lucky us to get the difficult ones! I think they go for this one if they're worried you may get OHSS x

Good luck everyone! We start our first ICSI cycle in June so I’ve been reading along this month! Hoping for positives for you all. 🩷

Really interesting about the protocols. Why do you think abc put women with PCOS on short protocols - is it to prevent OHSS? Excited to hear how you get on with this protocol!

Yeah I think you're right and I'm going to push to have it cultured to day 5. If it isn't going to make it blast then I'd rather not have the transfer and save myself the upset. I had plenty of other good embryos on day 3 so I wish they'd have left the best one on to day 5 and frozen the second best one. But I need to remember I'm not the expert and there must be a reason why they did. We all want the same outcome. Oh well I'll see what Friday brings!

@Lcm11 thank you for reassuring me 😘 xxx

@adviceneeded1990 welcome to our group 😍glad that you’re reading our stories to get prepared for yours xx

Yeh my last trigger was a pre-filled pen .. I think if they suspect OHSS they give you a trigger without extra HCG hormone ?!