ICSI anyone?

[Sillyshell]

Hi

We have been told that ICSI is our only option as DH has a zero sperm count. We've had all of our blood tests done and I've had a internal scan and we're now waiting for out next hospital appt to find out the results and when/if we can go ahead with this procedure.

I just wonderd if anyone else has been through this and can give me time scales and any advice really?

Thanks

Hi SillyShell, I can't give you any advice about ICSI, but I noticed no one had replied to you! I wanted to let you know there are some IVF/ ICSI/Assisted conception threads over in the Conception boards you might find helpful.

Good luck!

Hi,

DH and I had ICSI in August and we were v lucky as I am now 27 weeks pg with a wriggly little girl.

Where are you having icsi? We had ours at Guys in London and their website is very good at giving you an idea of what an average schedule looks like.

I think this is it.

Are you going for short or long protocol? We went for short protocol as we tried long but I reacted badly to the down regs so had to abandon our first cycle. It's definitely worth asking about both as they didn't tell me about short protocol first time round.

FWIW, our schedule went:

Appt with consultant to get prescriptions and appt with nurse to be shown how to use everything: end July

Started stims 11 August
Started ovulation inhibitor 18 August
Egg collection 24 August
Embryo transfer 27 August
BFP 3 September

It took us a little longer than normal as they needed to coast me for a few days before egg collection as my estradiol levels went really high.

I second the recommendation of the ivf/icsi/FET thread in conception as the ladies on here kept me sane throughout the whole thing.

Wishing you all the very best of luck and do shout if you I can tell you anything else,

Xxxx

PS in terms of advice, I'd just say make sure you do nice things for yourself to help you get through it all. Facials, massages, etc are all good!

I can also recommend the Zita West ivf cd which I found really relaxing. I ended up doing tons of exercise too to keep me sane.

The best bit of advice I was given was from the clinical director who said that lots of women put pressure on themselves to stay positive and worry that if they get upset or frustrated that they are going to undermine their chances but he said in his experience, it's persistence that counts and there's so much else to do that you shouldnt feel bad about getting down every now and having a rant.

DH can confirm I certainly followed this advice ...

We are probably having icsi although consultant agreed to decide on the day if swimmers looked strong enough to go for normal ivf. we should be starting beginning of April, and we are on short protocol as we are with create.

We're doing IVF but our consultant recommended creating a few of the embryos via ICSI as well, just to maximise the chances of sucess.

In our case it has invovled 2 weeks of down regulation injections, then 12 days of stimulation injections, then egg collection then embryo transfer. The only difference in the process for ICSI compared to IVF has been what the embryologist did after the egg collection.

Thank you for your replies. I dont even know a short or long protocol is yet! We have another appt on Thursday to discuss the results of our tests so hopefully I will find out more then and we can get started.

Thanks again.

Hi Sillyshell, how did your appointment go?

We had ours two weeks ago and last week we had our nurse consultation that Elsathelion described before she started the drugs cycle.
Congratulations Elsathelion on your pregnancy - It's so encouraging to hear successful (esp. 1st cycle) stories x

We are due to start our ICSI cycle in April, as I wanted to give us some mental space to prepare, but we are really ready for this now and looking forward to it...

Sillyshell If you are going ahead with your procedure, it would be lovely to have a cycle buddy

AngelFairy can I join in? We had our nurses appointment on Tuesday to learn how to inject myself and start Buserelin on March 24th (Day 21). Husband is away for work for most of the first week so will be solo!

We're most likely on ICSI due to low sperm count but they may try a mixture of the two if there are enough eggs. Fingers crossed.

One tip one of my friends gave me was to have a hideously expensive box of chocolates as a reward for the injections each day. Hotel Chocolat box bought by DH (as a surprise). Although now they are sitting looking at me and I have 9 days to wait!

Hi AngelFairy

We're still waiting for our appointment at the clinic, so I'm still none the wiser as to when or what we're going to be doing.

At my appointment at the hospital she thought I might have a small cyst but thinks we should be able to go ahead without too many problems.

Would love to be your cycle buddy if I only knew when it would be, I really will be a wreck by the time we start this!

Hope everything goes well for you. xx