#makeithappen TTC through Donor IUI or Donor IVF or just undecided. All welcome. Thread 12

[ButtonMooooon]

New thread, hope you don't mind I started a new one Kwick

Hi
I haven’t read the whole thread... but I am waiting to start medicated iui with donor sperm, so offer myself as a clueless buddy. I’m about to turn 34, have pcos and recently had a laparoscopy to remove endometrial polyps. I visited a few clinics, and some suggested ivf and others medicated iui. In the end I plumped for the medicated iui first because the doses of medication is lower and I’m at high risk of hyperstimulation as I have an amh of 85. The consultant said the chances were much lower with the doses used for iui, but she also said if I do produce a whole load of follicles she would switch me to ivf, collect them, freeze then all and wait for my ovaries to calm down. Anyway I’m waiting for AF. Currently on day 43 of my cycle, because my uterus is the definitive watched pot refusing to boil. I’m single, doing this solo as even if I met someone now I wouldn’t want to raise a child with them until I’d known them a good while, and even then I’d probably need fertility treatment (I ovulate very infrequently). I’ve concluded I don’t want to get older without a few roles of the dice. It’s a decision I’ve come to gradually over a number of years. Fortunately I have a supportive family who take these things in their stride and the sort of cheerleading friends I previously thought only existed in terrible romantic comedies. Good luck to you!

Hi @k10f1!

Sounds like we are both waiting for AF to arrive - I totally agree about the proverbial pot! I’m worried about what being anxious will do to my usually fairly regular cycle. I’m hoping the medications will keep it from going too haywire! I can’t believe up to now I’ve spent every month wishing that AF would not arrive and NOW I’m hanging all my hopes on it arriving soon 🤣
Your consultant sounds good to have planned both a Plan A and a backup plan B if you are hyperstimulated! Fingers crossed for plan A!
I am worried that my consultant has put me on medicated cycles despite me having a fairly regular cycle so far so I’m worried that overstimulation might happen to me too as I’m only allowed to have two developed follicles otherwise my IUI will get cancelled 😕 and I don’t think I’ve discussed a plan B for that scenario!
I’m fairly clueless on this process myself because this will be my first attempt and apart from my clinic information- a lot of my info has come from reading this thread (which has been SO helpful an insight into what is ahead!) I’m glad that you have a supportive family and friends as I think that is what you are your future child need! You can find a darling partner at any point in the future so I would wholeheartedly admire and agree with your decision to not hold off on having a child whilst you wait! Fingers crossed your AF arrives soon so you can get the ball rolling! Keep us updated with anything you want to share or any questions you have! I’d certainly appreciate any advice you have during the process! Best of luck and sending you lots of baby dust! 🌟 :)

I asked a lot of “what if” questions when I had my consultation with her (I’m a doctor, not a fertility doctor but I knew enough to have an unending supply of questions for her) and yes I liked that she had an answer for them (she’ll follicle reduce if one or two follicles over for example). She also volunteered things I hadn’t thought to ask about, for example “your thyroid is normal but tsh is slightly higher than we recommend for conception, it might not be a problem but if you’re not pregnant within one or two cycles I’ll start you on levothyroxine.” I liked that. It made me feel good to know she was thinking ahead, it’s one of the reasons I chose them. Maybe ask a few what ifs next time you go in? You’ll probably find your team has contingency plans too. Maybe they’ve gone medicated for you to give them more control? Also I suppose two follicles rather than one is double the chance of success!
The period thing is weird. I’ve never had a regular cycle, but they started me on metformin 5 months ago. I had three 28 day cycles. It was baffling to me and really reassuring. I actually told my best friend and we jumped up and down in the street like teenagers. Now nothing. At all. I have some progesterone I could take to force the issue but I’m trying to avoid taking it because I always get migraines when I do. Feel like I’m playing chicken with myself. It has to come before December 2nd in order to get a cycle so at some point in the next fortnight I will start the tablets if still nothing....

I keep reading people mention pineapple juice and Brazil nuts, are you doing any particular diet things? I can’t decide if I should be doing something... more.

Sorry that should read it has to come before December 2nd in order to get a cycle in before Christmas.

Nice to see some activity on this thread, good luck to you both. I hope you manage to keep the thread going once it's full, it was a great help to me during our journey.

Isaac is 13 weeks tomorrow! Flying by! Here he is having a bow put on him by his big brother!!

@K10f1 having some medical knowledge must be SO helpful for you! I work for the NHS but not in a medical role - so all the info and lingo can quickly go over my head. I always have lots of questions for all the appointments so I start to worry they are going to get fed up of me asking - I just want to try to understand everything at least at a basic level 🤦‍♀️ I think I already have some more questions for my next appointment now too!

It sounds like the metformin had some effect on you for a few cycles - I would have jumped up and down in the street too! Strange that it didn’t continue -but fingers crossed that it will become more regular again soon and at least you have the progesterone as plan B if needed (shame about the migraines though😩)! I’m sure the medication with the IUI should help make your cycle more predictable - I think that is why they are medicating me too (so they can more accurately predict and control my cycle). I’m still waiting for AF here too. I know what you mean about trying to get a cycle in before Xmas as it’s such a busy time of year at work to have to try and get time off work for appointments and ideally I want the TWW to fall over Xmas and new year so I don’t have to cancel visits to see family far away if I need to be at the clinic.

I’m not doing any particular special diet or changes for TTC - just healthy varied diet with attempted weight loss, increasing my exercise levels and taking pre-pregnancy vitamins with folic acid . I have tried to lose weight earlier this year with slimming world and managed to get about half a stone off and I would really like to lose some more to get my BMI under 30 -but I am also aware that I need a healthy varied diet rich in particular foods that will hopefully give optimal egg quality. I am a pescatarian and eat a mostly plant based diet so find it easy to eat lots of fruit and veg and home cooked healthy meals -but I do have a big appetite and the reading I have done to seek advice to support increasing my egg quality ready for conception suggests increasing my intake of healthy fats like salmon, eggs, avocado, full fat dairy, nuts and seeds- which I’ve been trying to have a small portion of one item daily but am finding it adds extra calories and the foods are less slimming world friendly so it feels a bit counter productive and with the nerves about treatment coming soon, my weight loss has plateaued. I’m generally on my feet at work all day but have been trying to increase my exercise levels by joining a couch to 5k running group and I’m now running 4K three times a week along with a swing/jive dance class that I go to with my wife, and nearly daily walking to and from work or for leisure with my dogs - but again I struggle to not get too exhausted to be able to cope with full time work 🤷‍♀️ Oh and I’ve been taking my pre-conception vitamins and folic acid for 3 months but I’ve not really done anything other yet. It sounds daft, but I think I still feel that I need to have some options left (like pineapple and brazil nuts etc) to try for when (despite lots of positive mental attitude) the IUI might not work easily and if I have to keep trying repeatedly. I’m sure that some of these ideas are more to convince your mind that you are trying to do everything you can and to feel like you are actively ‘helping’ rather than the likely small
impact of any foods or fads (which of course I will probably try anyway just in case 🤪 if I’m sure they can at worst do no harm!) Have you been doing anything in particular that I should be aware of? I’m always willing to take advice- especially as you are a doctor!

I think my clinic will surely have options to discuss for if there is any curveballs like too many follicles maturing - and like you say I would ask if I could do a follicle reduction rather than waste the cycle - but I guess we haven’t discussed anything in advance in the hope it works🤞

@ButtonMooooon congratulations 🥳 Isaac is such a cutie! ❤️ And so lucky to have a big brother to play with too! How has the past 13 weeks been with a new little one in the family?

@TheAdventureStartsHere thank you, I think so but I am quite biased

It was a bit of a shock to the system at first but I am loving it now. So much easier second time round! DS1 is amazing with him, he's sometimes the only one Isaac will stop crying for (he sings George Ezra's Shotgun for him!). DH was off over half term and it's been lovely, dreading back to ground hog day of school run tomorrow!

@ButtonMooooon he’s beautiful, and I love the name, it’s one of my favourites. @TheAdventureStartsHere do you find you think about the names of babies you haven’t conceived yet? I do all the time. Then I kick myself because it feels like counting unhatched chickens.
I’m not doing anything special with my diet at all. I do take an omega 3/6/9 tablet, because no matter how hard I try I bloody hate fish. All fish. Every few years I try something else that came from the sea and nope... still hate it. Anyway my consultant wanted me to take omega 3/6 and I could only find it with 9 as well so I figured extra couldn’t be bad. Doing the pregnacare conception obviously, and then the metformin. She told me to reduce my red meat but no other changes. I actually think being medical makes me stubborn, like “if my consultant hasn’t said to do it then it’s not medically recommended therefore I’m not doing it.” I have made an appointment to go and see my gp as I take a regular medication for a pre existing medical condition that is contraindicated in pregnancy as it causes interuterine growth restriction (propranolol for migraine prophylaxis). My consultant didn’t tell me to stop it as it does not interfere with conception, but clearly if it works I will have to, and I’ve been on it for 10 years at a very high dose therefore have made an appointment to see if we can at least try reducing the dose so I don’t have to drop from current dose to nothing in a few days if successful. But nervous about this as migraines have gone from a weekly thing to only happening with progesterone. But I also keep telling myself that when I went on this dose I was a junior doctor working a busy and ever changing on call rota. Life is much more settled these days.

@ButtonMooooon I hope the school run chaos goes okay- oh the joys of motherhood for me to hopefully look forward to one day 🤣 It’s lovely to hear that your DS is so involved with your little one and he reminds me of how I was when my little sister was born- I was 8 when she was born and my mum would give her to me to hold when she was crying as I was the only one that she wanted to hold her! It made me feel very grown up to help take care of her and we had a lovely bond growing up together. I hope your sons will be the same and they obviously both already have good taste in music with George Ezra!

@K10f1 I totally know what you mean 🤫🤭 ive been planning baby names for years and I even have a list 🤪 I always thought it was just me being daft but I like to think that it’s not the start of madness, it just helps with the positive mental attitude and visualisation of a family! That’s what I tell myself anyway 🤣 Phew I’m glad I’m not the only one! I also confess to loving shopping for my little nephews and friends babies as it means I get to wander in the baby sections and secretly choose things that I would like for my own child one day! I may have bought a pair of bootees for a friends baby then ‘accidentally’ hidden them at the back of a cupboard as I can’t bear to part with them yet! I don’t believe in jinxing things but I really shouldn’t be hoarding baby stuff 🤣 luckily I have a pandemic of reproduction going on with all my family and friends at the moment which doesn’t help my broodiness but does allow me to indulge in buying cute baby things!
Good idea to take your omega tablets instead of eating more fish - I do like some fish but it isn’t my favourite so I’m struggling to try to eat it as often as is recommended - plus it isn’t that cheap to buy salmon three times a week! TMI but do the omega tablets you take have a fishy aftertaste at all? That’s what’s put me off trying them!
Someone on this thread had written that the B vitamins in their pregnancy vitamin had stopped them from ovulating -but I wasn’t sure how this was possible and if it was just for their particular condition or is a common thing? I haven’t asked my clinic about that (I’ll put it on my questions list 😂) but to be honest they haven’t even told me to do anything at all even take any vitamins - but maybe they think that is pretty obvious. I was taking pregnancare for a while but then switched to an own brand cheaper version I found which seemed to have all the same ingredients and RDA so I hope I’m not scrimping in the wrong places or taking less absorbable vitamins 🤷‍♀️-it’s a minefield of worry. I do suffer rather with overthinking and anxiety at times but I think in our situation it’s understandably a bit worrying and nerve wracking! I have had propanalol prescribed to me before for different reasons in the past -although I didn’t realise it could affect pregnancy. I hope that you can start tapering it down slightly with no ill effects or return of your migraines! It sounds like your stress along with busy schedule (and I imagine slightly sleep deprived and caffeinated) junior doctor years may have been a large contributing factor to your migraines. (My sister is a medic and I heard all about her busy rota when a junior doctor)! Hopefully you are in a better position now and fingers crossed the migraines stay away for you!

I don’t think it matters what vitamins you use. I went with pregnacare because it was half price at a supermarket (I think
Asda) while I was on holiday in August so I stocked up! My first omega tablets had a really fishy smell, it properly turned my stomach when I opened them, but the second pack (Sainsbury’s) doesn’t have any taste/smell so are a much easier prospect.
“A pandemic of reproduction” might be my favourite new phrase, not going to lie I’m definitely dropping that in to conversation in the near future. Yes, most (not all) of my friends who have been trying are now parents. The next to pop is my cousin. I have no siblings but three female cousins and one male. I’m the eldest girl but we’re all of similar ages and are therefore close. Anyway out of all of us she’s the first to embark on parenthood and as a result my mum/aunts are super excited. She was talking about how she was going to try and keep her mum from showing up at the hospital, I said that as she was the first whose uterus has done anything useful she was going to have to accept an army of well meaning family showing up to sit in coffee shops and wait impatiently. I’m not jealous. This was a revelation to me. I thought I would be. I want a child, I wanted to start trying 12 months ago but the wait for first biopsy then surgery was long, and then suddenly bam she’s pregnant. I think when I first found out I felt a bit.. weird. For like a few days. What I’ve realised however is I’m just so happy for her, and I can’t wait to meet the new addition to our family so that over rides any jealousy I might have felt.
I was in the children’s section of a local book shop recently. A really beautiful book shop, the sort that doesn’t really do special offers but that has a children’s reading section with twinkle lights and a magic far away tree. At some point I realised I wasn't really looking for Christmas presents for the multiple small humans my friends have produced but had wondered in to fantasy “I’d love to buy this for my child” territory. I extracted myself, quickly, and took the dogs for a good brisk walk to recover.

AF has arrived so I rang up my clinic and booked my baseline scan. I chose my clinic because when we were doing our initial information gathering on clinics, this FC was due to be opening a new satellite clinic only 5/10 mins from where I work, and we were told we could use for all appointments except insemination (which is carried out at the main clinic nearly 2 hours away from where I live). We then waited over a year for the satellite clinic to open whilst we had our tests done at the main clinic and other satellite clinics further away. The new satellite clinic has been open for a few months and we were so glad to be able to use it for a blood test and our consenting appointment but then when I rang to book my scan they said I’d have to have my scans done at the main clinic as there isn’t enough demand yet to make it worth running scans at the satellite clinics. I ended up getting really tearfully upset (hello day 1 of my period!) and they said they would call me back. We than had to chase them after waiting two hours for a callback whilst I was getting really stressed out and they agreed to book my baseline scan at the new local satellite clinic. Now I’m really nervous that they are going to do this to me every time I need an appointment and I’m worried that I should have gone with a different clinic 😩 I feel like they know I’m a bit over a barrel at the moment as they have all our notes and sperm at their clinic and it’s too much hassle to change now. I’m just hoping that they will make the satellite clinic available for all my other appointments like they promised when we signed up with them! 🙄 I hope I haven’t been duped! It’s not the greatest way to fill me with confidence at the start of all this- but maybe I just expect too much from a private clinic 🤷‍♀️

I feel like all the odds are stacking up against us for this first IUI cycle already as we just realised our fridge with my medication inside had stopped working and was warm inside. The meds say they need to be kept between 2 and 8 degrees C - and I think the fridge has possibly been off for a couple of days now because our milk had gone off yesterday but we didn’t realise why. So I’m now having to pay for more medication to be delivered AND a new fridge and to replace most of the contents too 😩 Please tell me I shouldn’t read too much into this bad luck and that everything else will go swimmingly after this hiccup is sorted!
Hope everyone else does not start their journey of TTC in such a chaotic fashion 🤦‍♀️🤞Adventure gathers up PMA and starts singing things can only get bettttter

So yes I agree this has been a slightly chaotic start but on the other hand you’ve done some excellent problem solving. The fridge was broken - new medication/fridge. Very frustrating and costs money which is upsetting, on the other hand it sounds like new medication is on its way. This problem has been addressed - well done you. The clinic stuff is also irritating. When your told one thing, then something else. The good news is they’ve backed down and booked your scan in the right place. You’ll also probably book the second scan while at the first scan. This is even better news. They can’t tell you they don’t do the scans there when you’re literally stood in the building having just had a scan. I therefore suspect you will find it smoother sailing moving forward.
You definitely shouldn’t read anything in to all of this. Life has bumps, and you dealt with a few of them today. Congratulations for starting. Nothing to report here....

@K10f1 sorry I think I cross posted that (I must have been writing mine whilst you posted so I hadn’t realised you had posted already -so I’ll backtrack to what you were saying earlier...
Sounds like I could give Sainsbury’s omega tablets a try if they dont smell/taste fishy! Thanks for doing the taste test for me :)
I wasn’t expecting to feel anything when other people got pregnant but when my two best friends got pregnant (one naturally and one with medicated IUI) within weeks of each other that made me feel a bit ‘left out of the club’ at first which I felt a bit guilty for and childish to admit, but I wasn’t in the position to try myself and it’s nice that I can now ask them both for any advice in the future if I need to. Plus I feel really close to their kids as if they were my own family (even though I don’t get to see them often) and they are completely adorable 😍 Possibly adding to my broodiness 🤣 Then whilst my wife and I were looking into our fertility clinics and tests, I found out my younger brother and his wife were expecting their second child (even though I knew to expect it as they had been planning to try after my sister in law had finished her important exams)- luckily they text me the news as my wife and I both just burst into tears. I wasn’t expecting to feel like that at all and I feel awful that that was my reaction. Im ashamed to say it but I guess it was a bit of jealousy but mostly just from how easy it was for them to conceive straight away for fun and for free right when they wanted to -when other women in same sex couples (or those without a partner or indeed some less fertile heterosexual couples) have to pay so much money, have tests and get poked and prodded and inject and be in pain in order to get the same result! And same as you I just always thought that I would be first to have children, as I was the eldest so I felt a little put out of place when my little brother married and had his first child before I even met my partner! Luckily after a few days after the 2nd baby news we soon just felt excited for our new nephew to arrive. Indeed he has now arrived and I have just met him - he is very cute but cried every time when I held him and he strangely didn’t make me feel so broody this time - but maybe it’s because I know our plans to TTC are well developed now and we are soon to start our journey - or maybe it was just the remarkably loud angry crying for such a tiny little thing! 🤣
It’s nice that you have a close family and cousins K10f1. I feel lucky that I have always been close to my cousins growing up but now 6 out of my 8 cousins all have tiny babies too- like I said it’s a pandemic 🤣 We even have a set of baby twins!
Thank you for your wise words about my fridge and clinic stress today- you speak (write) a lot of sense! It is easily solved but I could just have done without the extra stress along with my crazy TOTM hormones 🤣 it does sound rather ‘first world problems’ though doesn’t it - I’ll stop being an ungrateful brat now 😂 Anyway fingers crossed that AF shows up soon for you - that silly ‘watched kettle never boils’ seems to apply here - I remember others on this thread earlier have recommended wearing white knickers or trousers to tempt AF out 🤣🤷‍♀️

@TheAdventureStartsHere you definitely didn’t sound like an ungrateful brat! I know how easy it is to start feeling overwhelmed when multiple things go wrong on one day. I find it’s always important to start with the things you can fix (or indeed already have fixed) first. Then it seems less overwhelming.
I’ve set myself the deadline of November 11th. If nothing by then I’ll start norethisterone. I will attempt white pant theory tomorrow!
I do understand what you mean by it being easy/free for other people. Single people in my area don’t get fertility treatment on the nhs, even if you a fertility problem. So my known problems (literally known for 10 years) don’t qualify me for treatment even though my consultant advice was “if you went a biological child get a wriggle on because you don’t want to add being older to the problems you already have.” I mean I’m paraphrasing but it was roughly in that area. It was quite frustrating to look at the list of conditions that would qualify me for nhs referral and realise that if I had a partner (of either gender) I’d get NHS treatment. For a moment I felt somewhat judged. But you accept where you are, build your “war chest” and go find a private doctor. The NHS has to put boundaries somewhere and on this occasion I came on the wrong side of them.
When is your baseline scan? And when will medication arrive?

@K10f1 good luck testing the white pants theory! It might just work! TMI - I was definitely wearing white shorts the day I started my periods when I was younger 🤦‍♀️😳

I didn’t realise that being single would preclude you from fertility treatment on the NHS - especially with know medical conditions that can affect fertility. I understand they have to draw a line but it is a tough pill to swallow and seemingly rather judgemental! You shouldn’t have to feel like you need to grab the nearest partner or settle down with someone and make a family with them when it isn’t right for you or to wait until it is too late to be able to make your family! I have overheard a couple saying that they just told their doctor they had been TTC for years together when they had only been together a few months -just so they could access NHS tests asap, which didn’t seem fair somehow. I found it hard to get my head around that for same sex couples, access to NHS fertility treatment was a bit of a postcode lottery depending on the local CCG. It’s seems like unfortunately our CCG has stricter criteria than some other areas, so we are self funding for as long as we can afford it, as we are unlikely to ever be able to reach the NHS criteria, although we are grateful that we are able to consider trying privately as an option when plenty of other people cannot access private treatment either.

My baseline scan was this morning- just how I like to start a Wednesday - with a long prod to the ovaries 🤣 The consultant was softly spoken and seemed nice (I have met him before, the last time someone was prodding my ovaries for the HyCoSy and scan -he was observing). The scan wasn’t too bad except my left ovary was feeling a bit shy and needed a bit firmer prodding to find it, which was a bit strange and slightly less comfortable (but nowhere near like the HyCoSy jeeeeeeez that thing was NOT fun!) I got to see all my little follicles on the screen which was interesting but I was a bit worried when he said I had a fibroid and started measuring and taking snapshots of it. They didn’t find one before now at the previous ultrasound scan, which is strange, unless it just very recently appeared. The consultant said it wasn’t much to worry about but I googled fibroids and wasn’t very excited by the chance that it can affect conception and pregnancy and as it is a non cancerous tumour it can grow over time (🤦‍♀️Why don’t I learn never to google anything medical!). Well I will have to trust the consultant when he says it’s not too much to worry about and hope that it isn’t a very big one. Next scan is booked (at our local satellite clinic 👍) for a weeks time!

I also had to do my first injection straight after the scan. I’m slightly (extremely!) needle phobic so i asked the consultant to supervise- i ended up with my hands shaking so much I couldn’t even take the lid off the pen! He ended up guiding me to put the needle in my thigh and I was surprised that it didn’t hurt at all 👍😁 so I think it will be easier next time and I’ll try to do it myself! It definitely smarted for a bit afterwards and I didn’t stop shaking for ages (I’m such a wuss!) but hopefully now the first one is done I’ll put my big girl pants on next time and be less petrified! I like to think it will help me get over my fear of injections- which is daft because I’ve been a blood donor since I was at uni and I haven’t managed to get over the fears yet! I keep trying though! Respect to all the ladies doing multiple rounds of IUI with medication or IVF - you girls are STRONG 💪 🙌 👏🏻

@TheAdventureStartsHere Congrats on your first injection! The first few are the hardest, you will soon be a pro! By the time I got to my 5th round they were just another chore to get done!

I had a private scan this weekend, I'm carrying a little boy and he looks healthy so far. Starting to think this one might go the distance. Next milestone is 20w scan in early December.

@TinyPaws what lovely news! Congratulations! How far along are you now? Did you do IUI or IVF (sorry I’ve got confused from reading so many peoples stories!) It’s so helpful to hear success stories and it gives hope to those of us who are starting or still trying! Any tips for making the injections easier or do you just get used to them? In facts any tips for the whole process? My next injection is tomorrow and I already started lying awake last night worrying about it 🤣 I know it’s all for a good reason though! Hope you are reassured and feeling excited for your next scan soon! Look after yourself well and do keep letting us know how things are going! ❤️

@TinyPaws congratulations - it’s so lovely hearing about successes. I spend a lot of time googling treatment diaries/blogs etc. I think I’m just trying to reassure myself.
@TheAdventureStartsHere how are the needles going? I’m hoping they’re going to show me how to use the pens when I go for my baseline. Injecting yourself feels really counterintuitive doesn’t it. We go through our lives not wanting pain - but now I’m going to voluntarily inject myself. I did once have to help a nurse get a cannula in to my arm because she was struggling and we were on her 4th attempt so I decided to get involved rather than find ourselves on a 5th attempt. I’m hoping that when it comes to it that practical part of my brain kicks in...

I'm almost 17w. Did 3x IUIs, 1x IVF and a FET and had 3 miscarriages/chemical pregnancies along the way.

Don't worry about the injections, they are really not very painful at all, much less so than a vaccine or a cannula. Injecting yourself just takes a little getting used to is all.

@TinyPaws I’m glad that your journey has brought you to your BFP and 17 weeks pregnant! It sounds like it’s been a tough journey but worth it to get to where you are! Keep thinking positive and try to enjoy the pregnancy - I know that will be hard after everything you have been through! Thanks for the reassurance with the injections! You are right - the injections are not painful like I was dreading!

@K10f1 We got shown how to use the injection pen by the nurse/midwife at our consenting appointment and if in doubt there is a link on the paperwork to online tutorials (that I haven’t watched yet but I’m sure is helpful). Yes I agree it seems so counterintuitive to inject yourself but I was watching a documentary from BBC’s fertility week last night on catchup which was about the IVF process and one of the ladies said she liked doing the injections 😲 I think she said it felt like she was doing something positive to help her conceive. I’m not sure I’m feeling that at the moment but I can report back on my 2nd injection and say that it is done without any tears this time and just a bit of shaky fingers. My wife put the needle in for me whilst I counted to 3 because I can’t look at the needle itself or it going in, but it didn’t hurt at all and once it is in my leg then I managed to press the top of the pen to dispense the medication and held it in to 10 seconds then took it out. I was so proud of myself 🤣 and hopefully I will get more used to it to the point where I can do it all myself! It’s a shame I didn’t get a sticker and a sweetie like after my flu jab at work though- maybe I’ll start awarding chocolates to myself after I have my injection! The needle didn’t hurt at all going in and my wife said she was surprised that it just ‘melted’ into my leg with not force at all - just like my leg was butter! Thank goodness for my ample thighs - I knew they would come in handy one day! 😂 So in conclusion I think that the pen injection is not too bad even if you are a massive drama queen like me! It did reassure me that the TV programme showed another lady who was scared of needles and she was crying into a pillow whilst her partner administered the injections. I thought the programme was useful to watch and good at showing how much emotional and physical effort has to be put in for IVF (although be warned that it definitely showed when IVF was not successful and that was quite disheartening to see but it also was an honest and realistic documentary.) I feel that although I am going to try IUI i feel that I need to be mentally preparing that it could lead me to IVF further down the line so I’m still trying to gather all the information that I can.

@TheAdventureStartsHere I know what you mean about being prepared. I often find myself saying “I’m doing thee cycles of iui and will then go to ivf.” How are the needles going? Any side effects? What medications are you actually using?

@K10f1 I think I’m thinking the same on trying IUI three times then considering IVF or egg freezing whilst I take a break from TTC. I read an article that said most people for who IUI is going to be successful for, is going to work by attempt 3 or 4 and definitely not worth carrying on past 5 or 6 attempts. Having said that, my friend conceived via IUI on her 5th attempt. She didn’t take any medication previously at all -except the trigger and only on her 5th attempt.

My consultant has prescribed me 4 x 75units of gonal F and a trigger injection (ovitrelle). I had the 3rd gonal F injection today and had a bit of a palava with it. I didn’t quite follow the instructions and ended up with a small
raised bruise and it was smarting afterwards (tip - squeeze a chunk of flesh, slip in the needle, RELEASE the chunk of flesh, then inject the medicine and KEEP the button pressed DOWN whilst you remove it from your body!) I hope won’t do it ‘wrong’ again but at least I only have 2 more injections this cycle (one more gonal F and one trigger!)

As far as side effects go - I had a noticeable headache the evening after the first injection -but that may have been my day and not the medication- because I got up early for the baseline scan, had my scan and injection, worked all day, didn’t get a drink or a break all afternoon and then went for a 30 minute run with my group in the rain straight after work! I didn’t get any side effects that I noticed for the second injection. I had a very slight headache after the third injection today but again I’m not sure that it was the medication or me just being busy ....clearing out the shed, tidying my garden, taking rubbish to the tip and painting the house! I’m trying to get all the heavy jobs done before I hopefully get pregnant!

Finally got a new fridge freezer ordered and the gonal F has been living out of the fridge as that is supposed to be okay for up to 3 months out of the fridge. The FC said that we could have one of their ‘emergency’ sticks of the trigger injection but we haven’t received it yet - I must follow that up this week. I’m hoping the consultant might bring it along to my next follicle scan on Wednesday if we don’t receive it sooner! I’ve been wondering how my little follicles have been growing so far - I’m excited to find out on Wednesday.
@K10f1 have you any news on your cycle? It think you said that you were going to take your medication to bring on AF if she hasn’t arrived by tomorrow- is that still the plan? I’m taking it that the white pants may not have done the job?

@TheAdventureStartsHere that is still the plan. I’ve had so many promising symptoms of impending AF. Shitty skin, aching at the bottom of my back in a period not musculoskeletal kind of a way, Cramping, craving chocolate, crying at the slightest thing... but nothing. Nada. Zilch. So definitely time to get this show on the road. I have the same medication, but I think I’m using gonal-f daily. They actually haven’t given me a copy of my protocol yet (will get it at baselin scan) but the box says daily. Had a family birthday party (I turned 34) and as lovely as it was I kept worrying someone would leave the fridge open, they didn’t but it’s reassuring to know it could have survived a warmer environment if needed. In much the same vein as you trying to get the heavy jobs done I am finishing the open bottle of wine left over from the party... there’s about 2 glasses left which seems the perfect way to sooth my Sunday night...

TinyPaws congratulations! It's been a long time coming for you! For all you lovely ladies on your journey, keep going. It can be hard and heartbreaking but it can happen. Hopefully here is a pic of my donor egg miracle xx