Bus 10 - All aboard the Donkey cart! Ivf, pcos, endo, unexplained fertility

[Marvellouslymadmum]

New thread 😊

@kerrym87 Only two transfers so far but 3/4 possibly coming up so hopefully a good shot. Over 3 rounds and 12 embryos I didn’t test 9, tested 3, 1 out of those 3 was euploid and that 1 is now living with us. So for us at least, testing was a good choice. I think other tweaks helped too, like the low dose steroids for me.

@thislittlebird I live I hope! We ruled out any immune issues after we saw Dr gorgy, everything was notnak so might just have been the ones transferred were just duds as we had fragmentation on all. Long protocol with different drugs and starting later in cycle seemed to work better with my body so here's hoping! So glad it's worked for you and baby is finally here!

@thislittlebird congratulations! How are you getting on? I'm 7 months with our second from IVF, after 2 and a bit years on the Donkey Cart.

@thislittlebird oh wow congratulations!! I'm so so happy for you!!
I'm still waiting for my appointment with the gynaecologist wheee he's going to refer me for a lap! They keep changing it and it's now July 🤦🏼‍♀️

Hope everyone is doing ok?

@Marvellouslymadmum don't suppose your gynae appointment is at Chelsea hosp? I'm likewise waiting for a mere initial telephone appnt there and also desperate for a lap referral. My appointment has been cancelled THREE TIMES and they've now given me a date at the end of July (but I know they'll cancel that as well)

@Marvellouslymadmum @moongirl if its not too far you can ask where the lowest waiting time is and get referred there. You can have treatment where you chose so could be another hospital. Unfortunately a fuss needs to be kicked up sometimes with these stupid long delays as its not fair to keep cancelling for you both all the time. Maybe try speaking to the secretary direct as well x

Thanks @kerrym87 - Chelsea was the one they said had lowest waiting times. I also took advice from here and kept calling asking for any spaces that came up sooner but they keep cancelling my appointments and the entire gynae clinic. It's outrageous.

I just wrote to my GP begging for help/a new referral on their new online system which is the only way to get through now and it cut me off halfway through as they've "reached capacity" which they do everyday.

The NHS is completely broken.

@m00ngirl that's awful. Wonder if you could go down to surgery to get t sorted or book a gp appt to discuss and get it sorted. Do you have any symptoms suggestive of something like endo? That might speed up referral x

@kerrym87 I have all the symptoms of endo unfortunately and it really affects my life. I've decided to leave trying to get a sooner appointment for now due to the stress it's caused, trying to destress over summer as I'm TTC (have never been pregnant though, unexplained infertility) and if the late July appointment happens it happens, if not I'll try again in autumn. So stressful.

Hope your treatment is going well x

Hi everyone, new to this thread. I'm 32, DH is 41. TTC for 2 years with anovulatory PCOS. On my second round of letrozole - the first one didn't work. We have 4 cycles left then will be moving on to ICSI. Thanks for setting this up, it's a rubbish club to be in but I feel for all of you.

@m00ngirl I get it. It's just not fair you have horrendous symptoms yet can't get seen. Might have to really push home how it affects you when you get there. Sending hugs!
@WanOvaryKenobi hi, I have pcos but I ovulate, have poor quality embryos and male factor too. Fingers crossed for you as I think stuff like letrozole can work quite well for someone with anovulatory issues, although obviously there's no guarantees x

@kerrym87 Thank you! I actually just got some good news today. My day 21 progesterone test came back as 1.7 n/mol last month - but this month it came back as 93 n/mol!

Completely baffled as the nurse said I should start having sex now. Even though I am on day 27. The 21 day test was taken on Monday and I got them today on Friday. Does this mean I am ovulating now? I thought the day 21 was confirming ovulation after it happened? Baffled!

@WanOvaryKenobi that doesn't quite make sense but there's no harm in trying. To be honest, it can be difficult to pinpoint ovulation especially as the blood test took so long to come back. It might be better to dtd every couple of days from something like d14 just to make sure until at least a week after suspected ovulation. When I had leteozole my clinic suggested that rather than risk missing a window especially when cycles are irregular as your cycle might actually get shorter with letrozole. Fingers crossed for you x

Thank you @kerrym87 thank you for taking the time to add a bit of context. I've to take progesterone to bring on my period if it hasn't started by day 30.

Thank you x @Marvellouslymadmum! it’s very weird how it took so long to get to this stage and now it’s all flying by. July? Ugh, that’s annoying.

@CycleGirl20 omg you almost have two? Has ivf worked first time for you both times? Impressive if so, 7 attempts for one was too many for me to want to try again, as tempting as it potentially is. I feel beyond lucky we got this (fingers crossed) healthy baby girl at the end of it all and can’t imagine I’d be bold enough to throw the dice again lol, or rich enough really, since this one took three collections 😭

@kerrym87 i came back with normal levels of NK cells but insisted on low dose prednisone anyway, just in case my immune system was part of the issue. My second to last transfer was a weird experience though, it very much felt like my body had rejected the embryo, like I was fighting something off and then a few days later I got the negative test.

Welcome to all the new folks on the thread, I’ve technically graduated after 5 years or ttc/infertility/ivf but happy to answer any questions if you ever have any about the processes etc

@thislittlebird congratulations again! Yes I'm in the last few weeks of me second pregnancy. 2 years of trying didn't work for us, then IVF seems to have worked really well for whatever what causing our unexplained infertility and/or we've been really lucky. The embryo I'm now pregnant with was a low grade and the clinic wanted to throw it in the bin on day 5 but I asked them to keep it, because why not try it. I got pregnant both times with the first and the second transfer from the same collection and we have some frosties still, so really lucky. I'm done with 2 though. I can imagine not wanting to roll the dice again. I guess it's easier if IVF works early on. Any kind of infertility makes you more aware of these things though and has a big impact, both emotionally and in other ways (still in the same job I've wanted to move on from for years following treatments and pregnancies!).

Good luck to those on the cart. There are some success stories amongst us, although with various timelines and hurdles xx

Hey everyone, hoping someone can offer me some advice!

We’ve been TTC our first since December 2022, we’ve finally had my OHs SA and his results have come back as follows:

Volume: 3.7ml
Count: 1 mil
Morphology: 2%
Motility: 60%
Forward progression: 58%

So obviously his count is incredibly low, any success stories on improving count/morpholgy?

We need to repeat again in 3 months but his GP has been pretty useless so far and not given us any advice or even how to interpret the results, they just text him and said he could collect a paper version from the surgery and that was it!

Hey
Please can i join i

I have pcos

We had a miscarriage last year

.im on metformin and myo inostol for pcos

Fertility clinic have prescribed letrozole which we will start soon

@kalixxx my husband didn’t have low count, he had low motility and vitality, but also had low morphology and he took impryl (as recommended by the private andrologist we saw) and he did see an improvement in morphology, it went from 3% to 8% from what I recall. I would say get him on a supplement early because they take three months to see any improvement in quality.

I have very little good to say about the nhs experience with male factor infertility, I don’t think they take it seriously enough, act fast enough, they don’t let you see the specialists you need to see. They called my husband last week to offer a follow up appointment with andrology when we’ve just had a baby after 5 years trying, and we would not have had that baby if we’d waited for them to see us each time. They insisted my husband was fine on multiple occasions because his count was normal, despite most of his sperm being dead, so I can’t say I trust them, other than one specialist we saw at Guys who also has a private clinic. I would strongly suggest getting a second opinion or paying to see a private andrologist if you don’t get any help/referrals from your GP.

@kalixxx we got advice from private clinic and him fertility, ivf northeast. So there is some advice that these things can help:
*losing weight
*quit smoking reduce alcohol
*Mediterranean diet
*avoid hot tubs, cycling anything that can overheat testicle. Can use a vasectomy cooling pad hiur a day to help reduce dna damage
*Can ask for a urology review to check for varicocele and bloods for hormones. Our nhs fertility clinic referred him and got seen quite quickly
*impryl can help
All these can help with any dna damage and improve numbers.

Sometime even this doesn't help my husband still has variable low volume and count but motility and morphology improved. In these situations icsi (where they inject sperm directly into egg) overcomes a lot of issues.

Hey, I'm just feeling so frustrated and thought this would be a healthy place to vent!!

16 cycles since a miscarriage at the start of last year and nothing. It's exhausting. The constant loop of trying to get pregnant, getting my hopes up by over analysing every 'symptom' and then the heartbreaking negative tests followed by my period..again! It feels never-ending.

I had an ultrasound and transvaginal exam last week. No issues, it all looks good, which is equally frustrating as it is reassuring. Only managed to get a telephone call with a GP for next week to discuss the results and next steps. I'm going to ask if my partner can be tested. At our last appointment, the GP said there was no need as we have conceived before, meaning there is unlikely to be a problem with him, but we would like it done. Also, I guess the next step is an HSG, which makes me pretty nervous.

Can't get it off my mind today - I'm just feeling so angry, and that is so unfair!!

@BussiBop23 I can’t offer much comfort but yeah, I’ve been there. It really does suck. If you and your partner have a child already I assume the nhs will only do so much? Get him tested for sure, things can change, sperm quality can vary, you can get lucky or unlucky.

I had a hycosy which I think might be similar to an HSG and I didn’t like it, but it didn’t go on too long at least and ruled blocked tubes out.

Hello

Just thought it may be worth sharing our experience with male factor infertility. DH has a history of testicular pain since his early 20s. He was reassured by GPs nothing wrong. Same when we attended together about not conceiving. Standard NHS sperm analysis showed his results to be OK. Not great but not horrific. Morphology 4% ish others normal range. It took so long for NHS to do everything I needed before we were finally referred for IVF he had to repeat the SA 2 more times! And similar results. He'd been taking proceice and other supplements recommended by 'it starts with the egg' we both were on them! We had a round of IVF which didn't work so . . .

We got a DNA fragmentation test done and it showed he was infertile, even with ICSI chances would be low! The private professional we saw advised investigating varicocele based on his symptoms so we did that via BUPA as by this time his testicular pain was becoming unbearable. Turns out he had a really bad varicocele! So he had that repaired. And it made a huge difference to his next DNA fragmentation results.

Long story short, although unexplained it looks like I was the issue due to low ovarian reserve and poor quality eggs. We used an egg donor and are now 26 weeks pregnant tomorrow with our first. It's a 6 year journey for us to get this far and we've had to borrow tens of thousands of relatives money to be able to use an egg donor! So not a simple solution at all. But here we are.

Back on here for some support after a difficult day.

A bit of background, we had a MC in March 2023 and have been TTC baby no.1 since with no luck.

Today my partner got his sperm analysis results back. All good except 3% morphology when the normal range is between 4-14%.

His initial reaction (after a quick Google to try and understand what that means) is that it's an absolute disaster. Our chances are minimal and it's his fault. He's clammed up since then and clearly doesn't want to talk about it.

I've said it's not a disaster and that we should stay positive. We've got a GP appointment next week to discuss it so let's not panic.

But the truth is, I am worried. I don't really know what to make of it it all. When you google it - it doesn't sound great. I really don't want him feeling guilty or responsible because he's not but I'm upset and need someone to talk too. Anyone been in a similar position? Is 3% really that bad?