Assisted conception after recurrent miscarriage part 5

[Mel3062]

Hope this is right ladies ...

We're in sync then brown, as I just got mine last night (day 13). Do you think the false positives were down to the sensitivity of the tests you were using?

Me, trying to figure out a way to get my completely oblivious OH to go along with doing our next cycle end Feb, or it might be mid-March now. Have discussed with Penny and she's suggested not down-regging, but doing this on my natural cycle, synchronising the donor's cycle to mine. Which sounds fine to me, the down-regging meds had a horrible effect when I did it last time, I felt awful for a couple of weeks. Had thought to do it in Feb, but I can't go out to Athens until after 16th Feb as DD has a hectic ballet rehearsal/performance schedule until then, and I'm due for OV next cycle about the 11th. So I'm guessing we'll have to wait till March, but waiting for Penny to confirm. Guess that gives me another month to try to figure out how to get OH onboard with it.

In the meantime I've ordered my sairei-to from the lovely John Bowen, after seeing what a great calming effect it had on DD's immune system I thought sod the expense (to a point!), and Penny has asked me to get an aqua scan done to just double-check that the last MC didn't leave scarring. Which can be done over here, but oh my it's expensive, the best I found was £250. Sigh. Still better than €200 but with flight charges to go out to Athens and get it done, which is what Serum wanted. Oh, and I still have no idea how I'm going to pay for the actual cycle.

Does your head in, all this, doesn't it?!

How's everyone else doing??

lol swlondon ... glad to hear you're letting Real Life take front stage. And congrats for your impending nuptials!!

Yes congrats swlondon and hope you are enjoying the ttc break. I think it does you good to step back for a while.

Brown good luck for this month and hope you had a good afternoon.

Ari I hope you can get oh on side, good luck.

Had a scan today to check lining and is 8mm and just to see if everything is ok. Take ovitrelle Friday and wait for smiley face on ov test, progesterone blood test Tuesday. If embryo thaws ok (desperately keeping everything crossed and might have to start praying!!) will be out back end of next week!

So you're doing a natural cycle too pebbles?

Sorry, I meant to ask too, what CD are you today, that your lining is at 8mm for? Which is a perfect depth, isn't it? Fingers crossed for that thawing embryo!! What are you doing differently this cycle, if anything?

Yes and it's so nice not having to hob through down regulation, like you that makes me feel rubbish and gives me terrible headaches. I am cd11 today and was really pleased with my lining, I had two large follicles. I get frustrated that all those bits seem to work but I just can't get pregnant!

I realised after I posted this morning that as I am having ovitrelle won't that effect the ov sticks??

Only thing I am doing differently for this one is taking hydroxy, I desperately hope it makes the difference but I know it doesn't work for everyone.

I found a paper today published in 2009 showing hydroxy seems to work in cases of antiphospholipid syndrome. At least I think that's what it was saying. I don't mind reading research papers as a rule but this was quite dense!
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2844013/
I was looking to see if there was any evidence of using hydroxy for recurrent miscarriage and that's what I came up with. My longest recent pregnancy was using hydroxy but I've stopped it now, in an attempt to reduce all the stuff I'm taking, but maybe that's a mistake, so I wanted to see what the evidence was. But you would think Mr S would have published something by now if there was anything worth reporting.
Why do you need the ov sticks with Ovitrelle, Pebbles? Good luck. Have you tried l-arginine? I got pregnant the first month of taking it and twice since. Not that it sounds like you have lining/blood flow issues, but worth a go?
As to my ov sticks, Ari, mine are the NHS pregnancy test brand ones. My positive this morning was much stronger than the control whereas my earlier positives were the same as the control. Maybe I need to get the less sensitive ones now for PCOS.

And good luck, Nanny and Ari. Maybe taking your eye off the ball is what you need, Nanny. And congratulations!
I'm in the same boat as you, Ari. I've got my phone consultation with Penny tomorrow and I haven't even mentioned it to DH yet! Glad to hear your DD responded well to the sairei-to. How is she now?

Hi, I am going to have a bit of a mammoth me post. Figure it has been ages since I have written a me post so hope it is ok.

I have been having a bit of a rough time. DH job appears under threat, so only taking the 9 months of maternity leave. Which I know I am lucky to have. So I am going back to work next month. Really don't want to. My contract runs out in May and so I am having to have to take another job. It looks like I will have to take another FT one since we need to be able to pay the mortgage if my DH get laid off.

It also makes deciding if to try and have another baby difficult. I really want more that one.I know before I got pregnant with DS I was saying just let me have one baby. But I know the pressure I got from my parents when I was struggling to conceive about how I was there only chance of having grandchildren, how it was their grandchild I had lost etc. The problem is it has taken me 6 years and 5 pregnancies to have one child. I don't feel I have the time on my side to wait. I don't know why this one worked and the others didn't, I was off treatment in this pregnancy. I am not sure if I can wait for things to settle down before TTC again. I am still breastfeeding so my periods have not returned. I am not sure why I am writing this. I guess I just want some advice about what to do.

Hope everyone else is OK

It's very difficult, lemon. Oddly enough I was just walking to pick my son up earlier thinking about how there's almost never a good time financially to have a baby so therefore you should go for it when you're still fertile. The important thing is to be stable in a relationship. But obviously you don't want to be homeless! Even if you do try, it might take some time, and you don't want to not try and then regret that you wasted some precious time. How easy would it be for him to get another job in his line of work?
And I know only too well the 'Please God, just one baby, then I'll be happy!' scenario. Unfortunately once you have them you really know how adorable they are and want them even more.

I think it may be a bit difficult for him. I have a job that is quite hard work. The plan was originally that after this contract ended that we would look at me taking a step back and maybe changing directions. I have already been informally offered a job after this contract ends. So I will stay employed just will be difficult for child care and will be stressful. I just think that my first baby would of been due when I was 34. I will be 40 next year, it took till I was 39 to actually getting a living one. Before the joy of recurrent miscarriage took hold we were planning on 3 before I reached 40!

lemon It's a very tough time when jobs are under threat, and harder when you're trying to make decisions about trying for another baby. My OH and I are both under something of a permanent threat of redundancy at the moment, and I've had to think that I can't let this interfere - I just don't have the time to put everything on back burner for a couple of years.

You staying in this job may make things a bit difficult but you'll be surprised at how you can get around things. When I had DD I was on my own and full-time employed, with only enough money to have 3 months' maternity leave (my employer is stingy; 4 weeks of that I had to use annual leave for). I really didn't want to, but I put DD in to a nursery for 2 days of the week while I was in the office and managed to be able to work from home for the other 3 days. It is horrible putting your child into nursery so very young, but she really didn't seem bothered by it; she loved nursery and the people there, as it turned out. It still bothers me now that she had to go to nursery so young, but it actually stood her in good stead when she started school - she didn't bat an eyelid, took it all in her stride, while others were really struggling to be parted from their mums and to be in a class with other children.

I know things look bad at the moment but hang in there, these things have a way of working out. I hope the worries over your DH's job end up being ok in the end, and you manage to settle into a new routine with minimum grief.

Thanks Ari think it is just a question of when rather than if. It is horrible with this threat hanging over us. I imagine it must be the same for your DH and you. I am having to put DS into nursery FT. My current contract did not want me to go part time. I agree about feeling horrible. I think we have to go for it with having another child. I know in an ideal world we would wait and year etc and then start TTC. But, it took so long to have this one at an age where my eggs were "good".

It is also difficult to know if we should go and see someone like Mr S. My NK cells were already one of the highest he had seen prior to having this baby. So now they must be through the roof :-)

Hope everyone is having a good weekend.

Not necessarily lemon - from what I've read a pregnancy can 'reset' your immune system, which then over time ends up back mostly where it was. I've heard of ladies on FF who had v high immune problems, managed to have a successful pregnancy, and were successfully pregnant again within the next year. Now obviously everyone's different - but don't write off your chances just yet. Also try not to beat yourself up about putting DS into nursery - I've been there, and as far as I can tell DD hasn't had any ill effects from it.

Good luck with everything lemon

Going to ask a random question, was due to have my hair highlighted Saturday but found out today embryo transfer planned for Friday if goes to plan. I don't know if to cancel getting hair coloured, my hairdresser always says that highlights are ok in pregnancy because they don't go on the scalp like all over dye. Wondered what the general opinion is on hair colour in pregnancy/ivf.

Is my dh's Birthday drinks in London on Saturday with most of our friends, haven't told anyone as get sick if talking about it all but as i won't be drinking will be obvious....

How are things with you Duggs and how did your oh get on?

pebbles I understood as long as the chemicals don't touch the scalp it should be ok. But having said that, when I was pregnant with DD a lifetime ago, I didn't redo my highlights, I used henna instead. But then I was always a very cautious soul!

Best of luck with your transfer :)

Well, becoming pregnant came quick, but keeping pregnancies from miscarriage became a recurrent problem.

Thanks Ari, I checked with the head nurse at Newlife Visha who is really helpful and she advised against it. I thought to save me worrying about it I wouldn't risk it!

Waves to all.

pebbles Just wondered how your ET went on Friday? And duggs, you're very quiet, how are things going with you? brown, sue, mel you too, how are your plans coming alone? lemon, did you decide whether to start on the road to DC2 yet?

Looks like I'll be going out to Athens for ET in mid-March; have to have an aqua scan & endo scratch this cycle first. Thought I'd save money (and time) by getting that done here but boy I'd underestimated how much more expensive procedures are over here than in Greece :( .

Hi Ari is so quite on here!! Thank you for asking, transfer all went well was a six day blastocyst of above average quality. Procedure went really smoothly and then I had intralipids. Emotions going from wanting to cry, desperately worrying it won't work, then worrying if it does will it be another miscarriage and occasionally letting myself be positive!! Keep wanting to just sit with my feet up but nowadays they say better to be active to keep circulation going.....

Two pregnancies announced at work, one of the girls was pregnant the same time I had my first proper miscarriage so hoping that's not a bad omen!!

Good news you have your plan in place, have you spoken
to your dh about it all? If so I assume he has come round?

Hope everyone is ok, let is know how you are all getting on.

Excellent pebbles - how come a day six blast? Isn't it hatching by then, or was that the point? Fingers so tightly crossed that finally this is the one for you!

No bad omens allowed, only good ones!

lol Oh no, I still haven't spoken to OH ... I did leave out my Serum prescriptions, which he has seen and studiously ignored! Still haven't figured how to bring up the topic, better do so soon I guess :)

Really sorry to gate crash your thread but know this is the 'sister' thread to the pred thread. Do you know if a new pred thread has been created since no 11. I know some of you post on both. Can't find it.
I wish you all so much luck. I often read on here just to see how you are getting on xx hope that doesn't sound stalkerish! Having read the pred thread from the start, I would so love to see happy outcomes for you all x

Hey Clabbage ... there certainly is, it's at www.mumsnet.com/Talk/conception/1947629-TTC-or-pregnancy-on-prednisolone-or-similar-part-12?pg=12

Thanks Ari, all okay here. It was day 2 for me yesterday and I debated all day whether to take letrozole but didn't in the end. My melatonin arrived and I took it last night: ha ha! I can vouch for melatonin not being an effective sleep aid. I've been sleeping lately brilliantly lately but last night had about 3 or 4 hours, mainly because I was kind of observing what effect it had on me!
Good luck with all that, ari. So did you mean you are having the aqua scan, etc. done here or not? I'm still debating whether to go out there or not for a hysteroscopy and get the antibiots, etc.
Great news, Pebbles.

Now that's interesting brown .. I know lots and lots of people swear by melatonin to help them sleep - admittedly these are people with adrenal issues (like me), rather than the ladies taking it for fertility reasons. I confess although I bought a bottle of melatonin tabs way back when we were trying naturally still, I ended up never taking them because I was worried about the reports that stated it could have an adverse effect on ovulation.

I am having the aqua scan & endo scratch here, yes, on day 21 of this cycle (day 3 today), but only because flying out to Athens this month simply isn't an option for me due to things going on with DD. I would much prefer to have it done out in Athens, having experienced the much greater level of care while having the hysteroscopy out there last April, plus it's the only GA I've ever had that I felt pretty much instantly fit as a fiddle afterwards. And the antibiotics, well both OH and I have done them twice now and we managed ok - I'd say it's got to be worth a try? I know several ladies now who have reported their DH's sperm count/fragmentation levels improved drastically by taking this course of anti-bs, but also having seen the DVD of my own hysto I saw the red threads of what Penny told me was infection (I tested pos. for both 'hidden' C and ureaplasma) so to me it's a no-brainer to get as much cleared up as possible. I will be doing anti-bs again start of next cycle, nice! :)

I'm kind of looking forward to going out to Serum again in March, even though I think DD will be going with me, as it's rather like visiting old friends going there! Never felt that about going to New Life!