Pregnant with donor IVF

[Sara237]

I keep looking for a thread for those newly pregnant after donor IVF but can't find one so thought I'd start one!
I'm 10 weeks on Wed. It's been horrible so far. Just physically horrible. I've been pregnant before and don't recall this level of nausea but wonder if all the drugs intensify things. Plus the accumulation of IVF stress! Coming off all drugs on Dec 13th. I've not told many people. I'm still working on how to tell family and most importantly my son. This is where donor pregnancy feels a lot different for me. Just a lot to think about!

Hi @Sara237 I’m 28 weeks pregnant with DE. I had a bad 24/7 nausea until week 18 or so and a very rocky pregnancy start, so was anxious about many things. I’m trying to do everything step by step. I don’t want any more stress, so once baby is born, I’ll start thinking how to tell our daughter and then family. I have enough to think about lots of appts, maternity cover, birth etc. So, I decided one step at a time. Our daughter knows it has smth to
do with the clinics we went to as we always took
her abroad to our ivf appts/transfers.

@GingerFox2021 That's a good approach to take, one step at a time. Sorry to hear you felt so rough till wk18...it's so hard to function with the non stop nausea. I do wonder if sickness and fatigue are extra with DE due to the immune response. I've read a few studies on this. I'm just assuming that I'll wake up on wk12 feeling like a new woman...oh God, please! 🤞 🙏
Wow, congratulations on being 28 weeks. So close now! I think with telling family I'm mostly thinking about inlaws and how they might feel differently about this pregnancy than with my son who is their genetic grandson. I feel pressure to tell them before due to this but it is an additional stressor so think I'll just leave it a bit longer and have a think. We also went abroad for treatment. It's surreal when it works isn't it?!

I am not currently pregnant but gave birth to our perfect baby girl early this year. We went the donor conception route as I have a very serious genetic condition which is prevalent in my family so I was keen to avoid passing this on to our baby.
I just wanted to send you some support and wish everyone currently on this exciting yet terrifying journey all the best! I had an extremely straightforward pregnancy and delivery. I felt really well throughout and everything was just so easy. I think this was as big of a surprise to my specialists as it was to me since my pregnancy was so high risk on paper, but I honestly felt great throughout, though horribly anxious obviously!

@Everlore Congratulations on your baby girl! And lovely to hear that it all went so smoothly for you. I'm just living in hope that second trimester gets easier, I felt great with my first pregnancy - now a perfectly enormous boy of 8! I'm actually ok on the anxiety front ATM it's the nausea that's got me! I do envy people who are sickness free!

I was the same with my 1st pregnancy - no symptoms whatsoever throughout pregnancy and until week 8 I even didn’t know i was pregnant. This one is very opposite.
My partner’s family is open minded, they’d understand DE. My family is opposite, they won’t get it what’s that urge for DE was, nor what DE is. But that’s okay. Initially, they’ll have a shock, but they will be fine.
It feels surreal and I still can’t believe. I won’t believe it until I see it, I guess. We also decided to keep a sex as a surprise for us as with our first.
I’m actually full 29 weeks now, sorry.

I was never sick once, felt slightly queasy a couple of times early on but nothing else. In a weird way I did find myself wishing I would be sick as I just didn't feel pregnant, so any symptom, however unpleasant, would have been a reassurance. However, my mum was never sick in any of her pregnancies so it probably just runs in the family.
I also hardly gained any weight during pregnancy, only had a tiny bump. There are photos of me at full-term and you really can't tell I'm pregnant and most of my normal clothes still fitted fine. I was having regular growth scans so knew our baby was growing well, but it kept worrying me when people kept telling me how small I was and how massive they were when they were as far along as me. I was already pretty slim before getting pregnant so had anticipated having a nice big bump! Thank god, our little girl was born a healthy 7lb, so no idea where she'd been hiding!
I really hope your sickness abates soon and that you have a very happy and healthy pregnancy.

Congrats! I am newly pregnant with donor egg IVF and also don’t find much online. T would love to find a community.

Hi all. I’m nearly 9 weeks pregnant with our first baby via egg donor. I’m definitely feeling the nausea and fatigue - Christmas was hard & I’m still recovering 🤣 I’m really hoping things improve in a couple of weeks. Equally, trying to find the positives in that I’d rather be pregnant and feeling like this, rather than not be pregnant, especially after so many IVF rounds and infertility for so many years.

looking forward to connecting with others on the same, or similar, path ☺️ x

Hi I am currently searching doner sperm . Very overwhelming but so exciting.
Any suggestions on what to look out for or avoid please ?
i have currently been given a list of clinics . London sperm bank seems the best so far .
great forum as haven’t been able to find anything online .

@Applewisp Congratulations and I hope you are feeling ok. I'm on a couple of other threads for IVF but it feels good to find other people who have used a donor or donors. Hope you had a good Christmas.
@Lebe14 Sorry to hear you've been feeling so rough and fingers crossed you feel better soon. As you say, there's the intense gratitude and excitement of actually achieving a pregnancy but at the same time the accumulative effect of the drugs, the hormones, the exhaustion! Honestly, I've never felt so ill as with this pregnancy. Today was probably the first day I didn't feel ill. That said, I've picked up every germ going which hasn't helped. Hang on in there!
@Gemzie123 How exciting and yes overwhelming. I don't know much about choosing really as our clinic presented us with options and we just said yes or no! We only really got to select certain physical traits. Height, eye colour etc. Because we went abroad and our traits were very different to the majority in the country we chose so we were just pleased to find blue eyes etc. I've read so much on epigenetics now that I'm confident with our choices...but I remember it all felt surreal for quite a long time. I'm 15 weeks tomorrow and still in shock! Good luck.

Ah thank you for coming back to me .

yes I was thinking eye colour, hair colour etc is all irrelevant to me . I am looking more at the characteristics .

ah amazing congratulations . how you feeling?

it’s been a long process to get where I am. I find it hard to get to excited as no guarantees the ivf will work. I pray & would love to conceive my first . I’m 40 this year.

did you conceive on your first round of ivf ?

thanks again as information is so limited on line I’m finding.. is there any other forums you would recommend to join ?

@Gemzie123 Sorry for slow reply; I missed this thread in notifications. I'm feeling a bit better. Sickness has eased though keep getting headaches and permanently exhausted! I know what you mean about trying to keep hopes manageable - it's such a rollercoaster. My first frozen embryo transfer with donor treatment was successful yes. Previously, I had standard IVF with own eggs and husband's sperm and we had 2 rounds and got our son. I kind of wish I'd done this sooner. Any mumsnet thread seems good for support. Just put IVF/FET and the month you're having it and there's usually a group. Good luck!

I’m now 12 weeks and have had nausea right along but no vomiting. Mine doesn’t seem as severe as what many women experience so I don’t think the DE makes a difference in nausea but 🤷🏼‍♀️

Hope all is still going well!