Assisted conception after recurrent miscarriage

[duggs1976]

Hey super ovulators and those struggling with infertility after miscarriage this is where we are! Come on over ...

How are you doing Brown? Hope you are feeling a little better now you have had time to absorb the news.

Thinking of you Ari and hope you are getting through the days.

Mel we have been trying on and off for ten years now so I know how you are feeling. When I look at my wedding pictures remembering how excited I felt because we were going to start trying for a baby can't believe I am still trying!!!

I was looking at the ivf results on Newlife and they are pretty good! Around 40% at 40-42 per embryo transfer and 63% at
36-39! I have an appointment for care on 17th July by am now wavering! I like the idea that Mr Gafar used to be the director at ARGC, such a big decision because of the ammount of money involved....

Really pebbles? When I was looking last yr there were no stats as so new so I am interested. I like dr Gafar.
Do you mind me asking about the costs? X

Ahh ok that is 2013 percentage so I wonder how many people that is ? A full year is 2012 and is18.2. Not I wonder what their protocol is? ARGC costs mount up because of the intense testing and monitoring on a daily basis to get the cocktail of drugs just right. Do you know if they take that approach maybe?? What do you think?

The latest June 2013 figures are out now for all top clinics taken from HFEA site.

www.argc.co.uk/ivf-treatment-results

Overall they look encouraging not sure how new life feature as not big enough to be monitored but probably worth asking how many patients the 2013 is measuring and also why they only measure clinical pregnancy rates and not live births for 2011& 2012. Would LOVE not to sell my soul (already sold house) to pay for expensive round.

Hiya ladies .. interesting reading about the success rates. How do they rate a 'success' - is it to seeing a heartbeat, getting to second trimester, a live birth, or what? I guess you also need to check that all the clinics listed are reporting the same way of rating?

Why does this whole process have to be so flippin' expensive? It seems grossly unfair that you are already being punished because of problems having a baby in the first place, and then on top of that you have to be able to find £££ for sometimes several cycles of trying. Crazy world.

brown How are you feeling now?

Thanks for asking pebbles, I'm really trying very hard not to think about it. I had a phone conversation with Penny Friday night that helped a lot (I now have her home phone number and an exhortation from her to call her any evening at all if I feel I want to chat!). She said she won't ever give up on a pregnancy that has any kind of growth since the time some years ago when there was a lady in almost exactly the same situation as I am - DQa match and all, slow rising hCG, slow growth, got to the same sort of point as me and was told to stop all meds as she wasn't showing far along enough for her dates and no visible foetus. So the lady stopped all meds, had a bleed that all assumed was her AF, she was prepped for a FET, went in for the transfer and on doing the initial lining scan check Penny found a fully active baby! Even without the meds support, the baby had grown against all the odds. So ever since then Penny says she will not stop supporting a pregnancy until it is absolutely certain there is no chance of further growth.

Now I'm not saying that will necessarily happen to me (although I pray it may do!) but I do take her point. So, on with the meds for now, I'm back on full immune support and clexane, and we wait and see what we see (if anything) at the scan on Friday. I'm trying very hard not to hope, but I know of course I will be gutted if there's no further growth on Friday. Trying not to think too much about it, to be honest.

/waves to everyone, hope you're all doing ok!

Ari clinical pregnancy rate is measured after visible heartbeat seen, live birth rates obviously live birth.
Ok well penny sounds so supportive and I guess you've come this far so you may as well keep going - is next scan Friday? Such an incredibly strong woman you are

Duggs as far as I am aware you don't have as much monitoring at New Life as at ARGC but haven't discussed protocols as wasn't planning to defo go there. The basic price is £2950 plus any scans, blood tests and drugs, seems to be around the average price.
I think Mr Gafar dies all the ivf, I don't think Mr S does. Does anybody know??

Ari stranger things have happened so you never know!! Penny sounds like an amazing support.

Just been on New Life and noticed that Mr S and Loyise are not listed under the fertility team anymore??

Ah he comes under the medical team bit the fertility team so just ignore me!!

ari you are doing amazing well

pebbles I looked at doing IVF with NLC my estimation of the cost was around £5595 that didn't include embryo storage if we had anything to freeze, Create was cheaper but they were a bit too disorganised for me

Ladies, now you have thrown a spanner in the works for me too! Where do they do the egg collection and transfer at new life as I would be interested too? I was told to compare live birth rates rather than positive pregnancy test or heartbeat seen as a lot of those results will show twins where one will generally disappear by 12 weeks.

The live birth rates don't seem to be reported at NL? The clinical pregnancy rates are not that great for 2011 & 2012 are they compared to others on the table so the big question is how many cases is the 2013 figure for so far? I guess is all personal opinion but think all clinics incorporate immune treatment anyway now a days so is really difficult as cost wise there isn't much in it is there? Or am I missing something?

Just a very quick check-in to say my homocysteine tested high! 12! Argh! Maybe this was my answer all along.

What does that mean brown?

Not sure if mines been tested.who did it? What should it be?could that be a reason? What can be done about it? X

sue wouldn't they do it downstairs at NL, thats where i had iui

brown come back and tell us what it means

Mel, this was the test I did for the trial looking at homocysteine levels in vegetarians and their B12 status.
Homocysteine is associated with miscarriage. This is what I've found from my own research, not from any doctor, and therefore I doubt any of you have been tested. Some people with MTHFR gene mutations will have high homocysteine; this may be the mechanism by which their miscarriages occur. But you can have high homocysteine for other reasons, like veganism.
The answer is to supplement with B12, folic acid and another B vit I've forgotten. Beats prednisolone any day of the week; if it works, that is.

brown Very interesting result, now I'm wondering if I should be tested too being both veggie and homo MTHFR. Question though - I've been supplementing with high doses of B12 (methylcobalamin), methylfolate and B6 (that's the other one) for a long time now, so theoretically my homocysteine levels should be ok. Were you also supplementing with these? Just wondered, as if you were, and your homocysteine still came back as high, then I'd better stop assuming mine are ok and go and get them checked PDQ!

Thanks a lot for letting us know about this, it's really useful to know!

Thanks for the info Brown, I have MTHFR mutation and take methyl folate but sounds like I should add some B vitamins in as well then.

Sue must be down on the bottom floor as Buzzy said as that's where I went when I had some tissue removed after my miscarriage.
It's very hard to know where to go for the best, having had ivf in two different places with similar results and protocols l don't really know how clinics really differ anyway as they seem to do the same??

Does Mr S do ivf as well or just Mr G? Think will email Louise as don't want to waste appointment money with Mr S if them need to go and see Mr G.

Ari, I have always supplemented with a standard multivitamin plus a B complex but not a massively high one. So debateable. is yours really high? If this turns out to be the reason for my miscarriages, I am very annoyed that I have had to find out about it myself, once my egg reserve is so low. What do we pay these experts for exactly?!

Does make you wonder brown!! I take 3200mg methylfolate (4 x 800mg quatrefolic), 1000mcg methylcobalamin and 82mg B6 (which also has 15mg zinc - it's called 'super B6') a day, since I found out I was MTHFR homo in Sept 2011 and did some research. Does seem the testing is expensive, I found one for £95 (to do at home, which I prefer anyway), but now I'm wondering if I should. From the little I've read on high homocysteine levels, they all do seem to say it's brought down by exactly these things - folic acid, B12 and B6 - but I don't know if it's safe to assume I'm ok because of this.

Did the trial you're on give any recommendations for you, or is it simply registering the level and leaving it to you to actually do something?

We will get full debriefing at the end on how to reduce our levels. I just contacted the professor running it and he said I'm not alone; many of the vegetarians and vegans being tested have high and very high levels, some up to 20, and he reassured me that I'm not going to drop dead by next week. We will be testing a particular form of B12 as a lozenge to see if that is superior. Or testing a sugar pill. One of the two!

Hope you get the lozenge!! I take a sublingual form of methylcobalamin after taking advice that this was the best form to take, but who knows! Let us know how you get on further with your trial, it's very interesting :)

I knew I'd heard the name before doh!! I'm now on Marilyn Gardner fertility supplement that has b vits in. Just another guru who's wrote a book!!