Assisted conception (and the bits in between!) - part 3 - all welcome

[Caitni]

Right ladies, time for a new thread.

And a big welcome to everyone . Here's to many more success stories and healthy pregnancies!

Thank you all for your lovely kind words. I don't know what I'd do without you.

Ginger - I wish we could all come over, help you paint your lounge and drink lots of wine at the same time. What a pain that your clinic's donor egg list has shut. Is that the same everywhere? I'm at the LWC and they seem mad on it there. Might be worth looking in to them if you're not aready with them. Quite a lot of people travel quite far for treatment and Worcester isn't that far from Cardiff or London is it???

Ailz - welcome back. So glad you seem to be in such a good place. Sounds like your clinic were really positive about everything and it's great that you've got a plan for the next one? Did they put in two embryos last time or one? DP and I are in discussions about this at the mo (he wants one as doesn't want twins, I want two to up my odds of getting one - and if we get two I'll deal with it). I've done a bit of research on it and apparently one taken to blastocyst is practically the same odds as two that are not. What will you do? I have my consultation on the 7th and my af is due the following week so hopefully I'll start then. Were you on a short protocol and if so what does that entail. I've got PCOS with an AMH of 53 and an FSH of 2.7 so they told me I'd probably go on a short protocol which I'm pleased about.

Thanks for the support with the friends thing too. Both my newly pregnant friends know my situation and both are trying to be sensitive but I still feel really sad about it. I think it has something to do with the fact that I had my ds first so when they had theirs they would ask me for tips and advice. Now that they're having their second and third it feels like I'm going to be left behind. You know the type of thing - when people who have their second start saying things like "God you think one is a lot of work, wait til you have two. then you'll realise what a walk in the park one is" - like they've graduated to a higher level of Mum-ness or something. People who don't know my situation have said that to me so many times and I feel like shouting "Just be bloody greatful you've got a second you great big bloody pain in the arse".

NPA - sending all good vibes to your little embryo. Hope it's a fighter. Hang on in there. xxx

Caitni -I am in awe at your selfless generosity. I don't beleive in this sort of thing but if I did I would think the universe had just paid you back for the kindness you showed. What a brilliant example of karma.

I had some absolutely brilliant news today. My SIL who just completed her fourth round of IVF IS PREGNANT and I can honsestly say without a shadow of doubt that I am 100% completely and utterly overjoyed for her. She's had such a rough time of it and when we last saw her after her ET I could feel her sense of desperation for this cycle to work - and it has!!!! She'd been feeling crap over the weekend because she was cramping and thought it was a sure sign of af on its way. I told her that this wasn't necessarily the case and that cramping was also a sign of early pregnancy but had been worried that I was giving her false hope but no - she is definately pregnant with a HGC level already at 103!! We were all crying in our house when we got the call. They'd been trying for five years with unexplained infertility and they were on the brink of giving up.

Anyway - I'll stop babbling now but just thought I'd share a good news IVF story with you all. Ailz - I've given the thread a BFP by proxy. That can keep us going til we get our next bit of good news - which hopefully is just around the corner!!!

Big hello to everyone else. xxx

Ailz - just looked back over the thread and found the bit where you explained how the short protocol works so no need to reply to that bit. Fingers crossed they'll put me on that one. Two weeks sounds far more dealable with than four!
xx

Evening! Thank you all. Lovely MN ladies.XX

NPA - Great news that yor precious egg has been collected. Wishing you so much luck for tomorrow.

Ailz - You sound really positive. I hope all goes well for your DD starting school. It's such an exciting and nervous time. I bet you will have a lovely holiday and be completely ready to start cycle 2.

Londonlottie - Thankyou for your sensible advice. You are right, it is a question of odds and weighing up the best option. I think I am panicking a little!! I have had a look now at fertility friends and there are some encouraging stories. They were good to read.

xsusie - I'm afraid I know very little about egg donation, although may have to learn. That sounds like a great scheme though. At least you don't have to go jetting off. I am laughing a little at the thought of all these sperm and embryos travelling around. My DH's sperm could certainly do with a speedier method of transport than they are using at the moment!!

Bumpless - You made me laugh for the first time since Monday. Thankyou. I have had wine although did some painting first and as soon as I read your post I dashed downstairs to fetch chocolate. My DH thinks mumsnet is sponsored by Cadbury's as I told him I had been told on MN to eat chocolate!

Summermagic - A painting party sounds like a good plan! I will look into other clinics if our consultant says that donation is our only option. You are right. Cardiff isn't far and London isn't too bad either. I think I just want the chance to try IVF once or twice with my own eggs to be honest. Great news about your SIL. It's lovely to hear happy IVF news.

Caitni - I'm sorry. In all my wallowing I feel I rather neglected the egg donation chat and I just want to say how wonderful a thing I think you have done. A truly selfless gift. It may not have worked for the recipient but you will have given her hope and a chance at least.

As for me I have had a better day. Actually confided in a good friend today which really helped and am fairly clear that I would like to give IVF/ICSI at least one shot if nothing else to see what my response is. I am guessing I may need a short protocol so I too need to find out about that. DH and I think we would ideally try it a couple of times before reviewing our options. So that is our plan. We just need a consultant back to agree to it!!!!

Right. Time for some sleep.

Will look in again tomorrow.

Just a flying visit to say good luck to NPA - I'm rooting for your super egg and am hoping to check in later to see you had a good call from the clinic.

Waves to everyone else

PS Lottie super exciting about the 20 week scan, though understand your anxiety. Can't wait to hear if you're having boys or girls (or one of each!). xx

I was amused by Bumpless' official presription too - wine and chocolate are cure-alls in my book as well!

Best of luck with that packing and moving this weekend Lottie - how exciting! The carpal tunnel syndrome sounds like no fun at all though. Can you call in professionals to help you? I swore to myself that next I we move anywhere I'm going to get someone in to do it for us, it's a nightmare job.

Good news this morning from the clinic too - superegg has fertilised and is doing well, apparently, so I'm back tomorrow for the ET. Hurrah! One more hurdle passed. I started vacuuming in a bid to keep myself busy while I waited for the call this morning, which is possibly the first time I've ever voluntarily done housework

Oh, and best of luck for tomorrow's scan too Lottie xx

Hurray for the superegg! Or should that be the superembie!! Really glad to hear your good news NPA - here's hoping that little superembie continues to do beautifully

Lottie looking forward to hearing how the scan goes and hope the packing isn't too awful (carpal tunnel syndrome sounds so horrible ).

xx

Hi everyone, sorry for having neglected you over the last months - I know I have been terrible. will try to do better now!!

So pleased to hear your egg has done such a great job NPA. All the best for tomorrow, I'll be thinking of you!

And good luck for your scan Lottie! 20 weeks already, I can't believe it! Only a few more months and you'll be a mum of two little beauties. I"m very curious too to hear what you're gonna have. But the carpal tunnel syndrome sounds excruciating, and poor you to have do your packing with sore hands.

I have been following the donor egg discussion with great interest as I also may have to go down that route eventually. My plan at the moment is to try with my own eggs for about a year and if that does not succeed I"ll probably go for donor. Even if I might still fall pg with my own eggs eventually in a few years time I don't think I want to chance it and I also wouldn't want to have a bigger age gap than I'll have already. strangely enough after a bit of soul searching I don't think I'd feel that bad about not having a genetic link to my baby, it's more the implications for the child that I am worrying about.

So It looks like I'm in a very similar position to you gingerwine. I have been getting bad news at every scan and doctor's appointment over the last few months and it is so devastating isn't it. But I think now I'm over the shock of probably being much less fertile than I assumed I'm feeling ok. Knowing I have the possibility of using donor eggs as a back up makes it feel less tragic. And we may still conceive on our own. I have been reading a lot of stories about women who conceived even through their drs didn't think it possible lately. granted they are a minority, but it can happen. One of my friends fell pg naturally after being given only a 1% chance for example.

Glad you had such a good review appointment Ailz, that is really very reassuring.
With a great response like you had it's bound to work out soon.
My dd will start school next week too, it's very exciting and on the practical side will leave much more time for ivf appointments on the days I'm not working.

summer I feel exactly like you about all my friends who had their first babies after me and are now having two children. It feels like they have overtaken me and I'm the beginner mum now. I am actually embarrassed about only having one and have been tempted to pretend my bigger kids were at school when another person asked "so have you got other children or ONLY the one." I know this is really ridiculous but I cannot help it. fantastic news about your SIL though, this should give hope to us all.

hello to xsusie, I cannot believe what you have been trough! it's not fair and you're very strong. very interesting to read about your egg donation model, never heard of it before. why is it done in dublin, are you based there?

are you cycling at the moment islegrin?

Hello to flibberty, bumpless, sooty and whoever I may have forgotten.

Now I have started my next round of ivf. Am taking progesterone tablets until friday and will then have my scan after af arrives and hopefully be able to start stimming then. Will be on the short protocol this time and very different from last time too. wil be taking letrozole, menopur and cetrotide. They have also suggested growth hormone as it can help with poor responders but it is obscenely expensive and quite experimental so I'm not sure I will go along with that. Has anyone had any experience with it?
Anyway I'm in a completely different state of mind this time round. while last time I thought I could be pg soon this time I'm only seeing it as a diagnostic tool to see if I can produce enough follicles to make ivf or gift viable for me. apparently I will need at least 3 before they want to collect them. I am very keen to get to EC so they can see if my eggs really are as rubbish as they assume. Currently I feel like they haven't been given a chance to defend themselves.

Morning everyone.

NPA - Fantastic news yesterday. Wishing you all the best for today.

Lottie - Glad to hear that you self medicate with wine and here you are pregnant. I keep thinking that every glass I have is potentially harmful. I will go easy on myself and allow myself a glass here or there! It's so true what you say about AMH being a new marker. If we hadn't had it done we would be feeling much more positive now! Having said that I am grateful for the fact that they can target my drugs etc.. to hopefully overcome it. Counting down the days til my appointment! All the best for your scan. I will be looking in later to see how you got on.

Duplo - Hello again. I like reading all those 'pregnant against all the odds' stories too. It does give you hope doesn't it. I'm afraid I have not heard of using growth hormone. It's hard when all these experimental thigs come out. You want to give yourself the best possible chance but when it's an unknown it feels like such a gamble. I would have a search on the net and see if you can find anything.(Apologies if you already have). As Lottie said you need to make an informed decision.

I have to go now to build a lego castle!! My DS's request, not my own private hobby, although lego is quite theapeutic except when you can't find the piece you want!

See you later.

Aloha all!

Sorry to be neglecting you, I've just been trodding along over here - not doing much ttc, for the last month. Went in for my scan and water - test run on tuesday and they found a big cyst. They say it happens on some women on the bc pills... and they went in today to aspirate it - 55mm big! It took up 4.5 test tubes and they asked DH to hold them for the doc! HA! He was shocked. I was a bit scared beforehand and it's been very emotional, but now I have my $2000 worth of shots and I start meds on Saturday! woo hoo!

I'll try to catch up with all of you over the weekend, work has also been crazy - so much so that I took a carrer assesment test today - turns out I'm in the right profession - ha, maybe I just need to change my job description! cheers to all~ thanks for keeping me in your thoughts.

Isle good to hear from you though OMG at your cyst . Glad it's been sorted but must have been a bit of a nightmare. Getting exciting that you're so close to starting though

Gingerwine meant to say I'm sorry to hear about the AMH. Though I'm glad you're taking some solace in the stories on FF. I found that site quite inspiring at times.

Lottie very best of luck with the big move. I'm pouring you the virtual champers now for the virtual leaving party on here (though thank god you're not leaving us ) as I'm away now until late on Tuesday and don't expect to get onto a computer at all.

Duplo sounds like you're in a good place, and good idea to use your own eggs.

Wish I could write more but am literally trying to get out the door at work. Have a plane to catch to Ireland.

Have a good weekend all
xx

Waves to everyone else. I'm off to Ireland (about to leave work) until Tuesday night and I hope everyone

Hi everyone. Especially Islegrin and duplomania. Hope you're both OK.

I too am on a short protocol this time around (2nd IVF attempt). for those who don't know me i'm 35 and have never been pregnant, have been down the IUI and clomid route already. Been TTC for five years now. First IVF went very well but did not work.

I start my menopur injections tomorrow (sat) and after that will be using Cetridine (like Duplo).

Islegrin - are you IVF-ing now?

Hi Summer. What wonderful news about your SIL. We'll all be the one the other ladies are talking about one day.

Hi all, especially to those who're just postng again after a break.

Islegrin your cyst and the aspiration sounds horrible! What are your plans for th enext few moths?

Duplo, good to hear from you too. All the bad news can get very wearing, can't it. I agree with you wanting to give it a o with your own eggs though, and hopefully your clinic will be supportive. Mine were really good - their normal policy too is only to proceed to EC if there are 3 follicles but they bent the rules for me, and I was so grateful to them for giving me that chance. I don't mind the bad odds (like you the fact that there is another option was reassuring), I just wanted to give it a go, as I firmly believe you only regret the things you didn't do.

Hi KC11, best of luck for cycle two.

How did the scan go, Lottie?

My one egg has become a grade A embryo (clever eeg ) and is now back inside and hopefully continuing to develop. The embryologist was really sweet, she was really excited by how well it had done. As was I. And my acupuncturist - seems I have a lot of people rooting for me (along with all you too of course!).

Yikes! Should have proofread that a bit more, sorry

NPA - Fantasic. It's a very clever little embryo! Stick, stick, stick! Hope you are chilling out and relaxing now and have things to keep you occupied for the next 2 weeks.
GW

NPA - hooray hooray hooray for superembie. It's a fighter like you.

Islegirl - welcome back. test tubes of cyst juice sounds gross. Exciting that you're now ready to move on to the next stage though. Have everything crossed for you.

Lottie - how did it go? Can't wait to hear your news.

Duplo - it's good to hear that I'm not the only one that feels like that about being demoted to beginner mum. I feel so childish feeling like that but I just can't help it. I'm not very good at controlling my feelings. Has anyone got any tips for positive thinking?

Hi KC11 - your comment about my SIL bought a tear to my eye. Hope it's you we're all talking about on here soon. I think they'll put me on the short protocol too but I don't get it. It seems that some people just start injecting on day 2 for 12 days and then go to EC and then others have to take meds before their af. Do you know how it works?

Ginger - I find lego therapeutic too though train tracks are also quite relaxing.

I'm watching Dirty Dancing. Nobody puts baby in the corner - unless it's a very cozy sticky corner of NPA's uterus

Hi to everyone else. xx

Hurray to your little girls lottie. So glad they are both doing well. I think it feels so much more real once you know the gender!

Well done to your superembie NPA!! So excited for you. Hope you manage to take it easy now. You can relax, all the hard work is done!

Hello there, islegrin. Sorry to hear about your monster cyst, must have been very unpleasant. Sounds like the two of us will be cycling at roughly the same time. will you actually start stimming on sunday? I'll probably start mid next week.

Hi KC11, again we will be cycling together more or less. You had a great response last time didn't you? Why did they decide to put you on short protocol?

Not very good at that either summer. Actually some days I feel really calm and just think so what if we only have one, it's actually nice and easy that way but of course I can't fool myself for long. For some reason I get really depressed whenever we are in the zoo (I've got a season ticket) as it's just overrun by families with hoards of children, like making them is the easiest thing in the world - and I guess for most people it is.

I have been doing a bit of research on the internet gingerwine but there is v little. some people say it helped, others had their worst ever cycle on it and all the medical research suggests that more research needs to be done. but I agree, the problem is if I don't do and it fails I will always ask myself what would have happened if.. Good idea about ff lottie will post on the clinics board and on the poor responders board there.

Have a nice time in Ireland Caitni!

Good night everyone, have been ordered to bed by dp who keeps telling me I need more sleep!!

LL - TWO LITTLE GIRLS!!! I couldn't be happier for you and your DH! Wonderful news, many congrats! Now I hope you have as stress free of a move, as can be - and those ailments will give you some break for a few weeks. Although the pictures of your girls must overwhelm thoughts of anything else at the moment.

Summermagic It wasn't too bad, but they did give me a bit of valium - not enough to even make me babble though... ahem! But DH's reaction was very memorable, he thought they were kidding, then they kept filling up tubes and they said - No, really hold these!! Just clear liquid, so it wasn't too bad. I kept having DH show them to me while they were still taking more. ha ha (being raised by a nurse must have warped me)

NPA I'm so glad to hear of your wonderembie - as it's been called! I'm sending you lots of sticky vibes for your miracle in the making!!!

KC11 When do you start your stimming for your second round of IVF? Mine starts with Lupron to "wake up" the ovaries then a batch of three drugs twice a day starting on Monday.

So I got lucky this time, and the cyst wasn't producing estrogen, so we can go ahead with stimming for my first IVF cycle. I was scared to bits about the water-scan test run, but it didn't hurt a bit and even the cyst removal wasn't bad - it was the equivalent of a needle stick. The doc said that is the same exact proceedure they will use during EC. So at least I don't have to worry about that now. Things have turned out to be less painful and not that big of a deal after the fact, but the anticipation has got my nerves all on edge! Part of it is work stress too - I just feel completely out of control, just rushing around putting out fires. Now I can't even control my own body. It's just frustrating when I let it get to me. My doc suggested a nice glass of wine, so I made sure to do that.

Best to all of you! Can't wait to hear more good news...

duplo I'm so glad to hear you'll be stimming at about the same time too. It does help to have company along this bumpy road. I think they are aiming for my EC around 9/9 or so and transfer around 9/12.

Wow - I can't believe I'm really doing this!

HI ladies
I am still here - now 3 days over due and feeling rather grumpy as dd was 1 day early. But had a show yday and slowly losing my plug and getting twinges - so fingers crossed something will happen soon.

xSusie - the clinic you refer to in Dublin is the clinic i used. and we had that exact protocol. Dr Walsh and his team are brilliant and I have had two IVF's, both resulted in BFP's, both from the same donor, am hoping to pop baby #2 any day now! - I can;t recommend them highly enough.

Sorry if I forget anyone on personals.. my head is a little overtaken with trying evacuation tactics at the mo

caitni - hope everything is ok for you
NPA - good news on the super egg
LL - congrats on your two little girls.. - wonderful, sorry to hear you are suffering from all of pregnancy's wonderful plights!

summermagic - sorry to hear about your sadness re your friends, I know how tough it is to go through that - sending you some hugs, great news for your SIL.

Islegrin good to hear from you, sorry to hear about cyst- but good luck for the rest of the cycle - fingers crossed

Duplo - hello and good luck for cycle

gingerwine - hugs for AMH, don't give up hope just yet

KC11 - hi!

Right off to bed, fingers crossed this baby decides to make a move tonight. The inlaws arrive on tuesday and the thought of my FIL being around whilst I try and have a homebirth is really not the look I was going for.

hugs and love to you all xxx