Anyone starting egg donation July/August?

[Leala20]

We maybe starting our egg donation treatment (first time) July/August and I thought maybe there’s anyone here that would like to join me. Ive found this forum very useful and supportive and thought I would reach out as I cannot believe it is so soon and getting a bit nervous. We had a year of rollercoaster of trying for many years to being finally told my amh is too low and I wouldn’t qualify for IVF. We did our research and found DCN very useful and are really excited about it.

Had my transfer today, nice and easy (except for the progesterone injection, that bloody hurt!)
So we now have 3 frozen and they are just waiting a bit longer to see what happens to the other two.

@Cleozeta that’s great news. Congratulations on the successful steps. Every step is a milestone and now take it easy and treat yourself well.
Did they give you additional progesterone? Mine wasn’t checked at transfer but when I had my consultation last week I was told they would check it next time. Not sure why this is not normal procedure as I remember @tikha also mentioned she had it tested. Are you staying in Manchester for a while or heading home now? Was everything ok Covid wise as I remember you worried initially about it? Have a lovely weekend

@Cleozeta that is great news!

My transfer went well it was over so quickly I had it built up in my mind as a huge deal but I was in and out of the procedure in about 5 mins!! My dh said it’s finished already?’ when I arrived back so soon😂

So I’ve been told to continue with my medication as before. I have been taking progesterone 400mg every 12 hours. On the way out the doctor gave me a list of instructions and I’ve just noticed she has listed the dose as 200mg every 8 hours😭 I know there’s only a 200mg difference in 24 hours but just wondering if anyone has any experience of this and if it would make a difference? Gosh as if I don’t have enough to worry about. Thanks everyone

@Parisinthesummer it probably should be ok. The progesterone supplementation that we are given is a lot higher than we usually need in natural cycles. You should just mention it to the clinic and clarify with them? They might want to supplement.
@Cleozeta great news. My dh have me the progesterone injection. It was pain free really. But he gave it slowly and made sure it was in the safe area after we watched a couple of how to you tube videos. Do you have to take the injections regularly?

@Cleozeta great news! Hope tww is gentle to you! One day at a time.

I had progesterone injections for the first time in this pregnancy, upto 14 weeks or so. Didn't find them painful at all and in the end just got used to them. But was relieved when finally finished injecting. My poor belly was like a needle cushion. And a bit bruised too.

@Leala20 thanks!
They didn't check my progesterone but I think it's their standard thing for us to take cyclogest 200 x 2 a day and then progesterone injections in the bum cheek every 4 days. Is no one else on the injections? Also continuing oestrogen patches. Test date is 2nd Sept!
Yes we are still in Manchester, staying until Monday. We've had a nice little holiday. Apart from a few minor restrictions and some precautions, it's almost like covid isn't here (which is weird)

@Parisinthesummer congrats on your transfer, fingers crossed for you! It was so much quicker than I expected too, it was so simple from our perspective. I guess all the hard work was already done!
I wonder if your additional suppository was an alternative to the injection?

@tikha my DH will be doing mine too, my first one was done by the nurse at the clinic. I imagine DH may be a bit more gentle!

@Russkispy that's interesting you have yours in your belly. I had to be injected every day for 6 weeks in the belly after my stillbirth. That felt like a pin cushion. These are in my bum cheek, every 4 days.

So the difference is sub cutaneous (sc) -- into the fat versus intra muscular (im) in the gluteal areas i.e lateral upper outer third of your bum..presumably for "sc" you need to give everyday and "im" slow release oil based every three days. I stopped mine after i got the bfp as my progesterone levels using suppositories was high enough when they checked on transfer day.

Hope everyone is having a relaxing weekend

@tikha interesting, thanks. I did wonder why it was the bum! DH doing the first one 'unsupervised' tomorrow. Aaargh!

Just out of curiosity, was there anything any of you were told to do, or not to do after transfer? Want to give it the best chance I can! Just arrived back from Manchester, so normal life will resume.

Also just wondering, what do they mean by a 'cycle'? For example, I have paid for 2cycles of treatment, but I have 3 embryos frozen now. Does that mean I can only use one of them in this package?

@Cleozeta no baths, no spicy food, no more than 2 pieces of salmon per week, avoid seafood and I don’t eat meat so I wouldn’t remember meat wise, no goat and mould type of cheeses. No strenuous exercises but encouraged to walk and do yoga, other things like no alcohol are I think the same as in pregnancy. I heard somewhere that eating pineapple helps implantation but not sure this is real. Be good to yourself and it’s true we all have a heightened sense in those two weeks. Every twitch, twinge, bloated or not you notice and overthink! Try to embrace it all. That’s great news you have 3 left and I wouldn’t know how this work. They will definitely not discard it but keep it frozen and if you needed it in the future you may just need to pay for transfer, in our clinic it’s about 2K. Or they may decide with you if 2 being transferred is the right approach. I was told if this coming one wasn’t successful then the last one they would consider inputting 2.

@Cleozeta i second what @Leala20 has to say except i never had pineapples when i had my transfer didnt do much as was on holiday but then once i was working i went back to walking for fairly long periods but made it a point to avoid any heavy lifting or strenous activity...the progesterone initially really made me sleepy

@Cleozeta I was just told no hot baths, sports/working out or sex for the first three days. After which I could go back to normal. However I’ve been taking it fairly easy I feel exhausted and have a real tightness in my belly. I have been eating pineapple but other than that I didn’t hear anything else about specific foods.

Thanks everyone. Useful info. I didn't know about the spicy food thing. I put tabasco on pretty much everything.
I have been so busy since transfer I've not really had a chance to overthink, which is good.
Hope everyone else doing well?

@Cleozeta I have had a bfn so gonna start my patches and wait patiently for hopefully a donor to arrive. How long was your wait?
Hope you are ok!!

@Pingupp good luck with your donor, remind me, are you doing fresh or frozen? So if you are starting your patches then you must be going for it this cycle?
We got matched with a frozen donor straight away. We weren't hugely fussy though to be fair.

@Cleozeta hi - no - not frozen egg. They are looking for a donor now for us now but consultant wants me on the patches and progesterone now to get me ready for it - I am slap bang in the middle of menopause from what they have told me and she doesn't want any bad quality eggs to get in the way which I suppose makes sense. We do want to crack on with it as soon as we can.
It can take up to 6 months to find a donor but hopefully it will be less.
How are you feeling?

@Pingupp oh that's interesting, so will you use oestrogen and progesterone every cycle until transfer? Will you even have a cycle or will it just be continuous until you have found donor? I hope they find someone soon for you!

@Cleozeta yep i believe that is the plan. Patches continuous and progesterone for half my cycle monthly. It will also help with the hot sweats I am getting with my peri menopausal symptoms too!! ( hopefully!!)

@Cleozeta we are using fresh eggs. Forgot to say x

How old are you if you don't mind me asking? I am 43 and started peri symptoms at about 39

@Cleozeta 45 and have been peri for quite a few years but symptoms have got worse now- and it's such a shame I didn't think about egg freezing. I just wasn't clued up enough.
I do question if 45/ 46 is too old but I don't feel that and have quite a young outlook.

Not to old, but yeah wish I'd thought of freezing too!

Silly me looked into egg freezing at 34, but didn’t do it because I thought I was bound to meet somebody nice soon! Fingers crossed at 42 I’ve still got a couple of good ones left...
Hindsight is a wonderful thing isn’t it?

Peri is another topic that’s not very often known and what I find about it online it very generic. I experienced sweats ( hot flushes) at night and as soon as hot and uncovered myself would be fine again. This happened a few times last month and before in Feb. I have low amh and shorter cycles at almost 39 and was told I would have menapouse early. Are hot flushes( not excessive just woke me up a few times) at night the signs you had? Is there anything else I should be aware of and anything that helps?

@Leala20 so I had really bad anxiety and started to get panic attacks earlierlast year. It was really bad - I went to the docs and they wanted to prescribe antidepressants which I turned down as I wasn't!! So I just managed it myself with the headspace app, calms tablets, cut down on caffeine etc.
I also got bad head rushes.
Putting that together with hot flushes - not just at night but during the day too and really long cycles, high fsh ( in Feb it was 89 ) and very low AMH 0.2 - my doc now things I am in meno or could perhaps post! Which is mad as not that old!