Anyone starting IVF soon? Join me.

[Shellster52]

After 3 full failed IVF's last year, I am about to embark on my second last attempt. I started an IVF thread during my last IVF, and everyone got pregnant but me. So I swore I wouldn't do that again this time. But I find myself wanting to chat with people going through what I am, so I am starting the thread again. Join me as I seem to be a BFP magnet!

Ha ha....you're in good company here - second-guessers and obsessive-researchers the lot of us!

I know what you mean - it's all part of the rollercoaster. And that horrible 12% stat - that's the general 41-year-old stat. That includes people who have been trying for a baby for 10 years, people who have a bmi of a trillion, people with AMH under the floorboards - has your doctor given you a personalised probability? It may look much more positive.

You definitely need to take care of your expectations, but you need to be positive and let yourself believe it can work, too. And you must do, or you wouldn't be doing this crazy thing, would you?!

Must be hard having to leave dh at home and do so much of this by yourself. Hope you're having an okay time of it. It would be lots of knitting and reading if it were me on my own for a week!

Annie, it is so hard to balance the power of positive thinking with don't get your hopes up or you'll have harder to fall. I go back and forth between each during my IVF. Either way, your follicles sound like they are growing nice and evenly so keep it up. Did they book a second scan for you?

Purple, you must have started the injections now too? How's your health kick going?

Well my keeping track of my food is a real eye opener. Tuesday, I had a bad day at work and came home to bags of chips. Wonder how often I did this before last IVF thinking it was just a one off when this time I did it just two days into my diet. Day 3 I thought I was good all day and while the protein intake was high as per the IVF study recommendations, when I logged my food into the website at the end of the day, I ate over 10,000kj! It adds up easily.

So going away now to pre-plan a few days of eating rather than just eat and calculate at end of the day. I figure if IVF is on my mind anyway, at least I am doing something pro-active to make me feel positive instead of just waiting and worrying.

Yes - three days into the injections now. Gonal-F in the evening (really don't like the pre-filled pen thingy! and Cetrotide in the mornings to stop me ovulating. I was just about to say "for some reason I'm bruising a lot more than last time" when I realised it's probably the aspirin, isn't it? I come from a family of easy-bruisers as it is, but taking an anti-coagulant on a regular basis to boot!

The health kick. Hmm. I started off really well - and lost about 3 pounds - and then it was a work night out, and then my brother's 50th - and although I've gone back to healthy eating, I'm probably eating more than I should be.

How do you track what you are eating? I should probably do that too. It's difficult to make the switch to low carb, high protein, isn't it? (Particularly when you're a non-meat eater - what would we do without fish? and I know that doesn't sit very happily with you anyway) and difficult to know whether you're getting the proportions right. I know I've increased my protein intake and reduced my carbs massively, but I couldn't tell you what the quantities were.

Hi ladies - glad to see everyone ticking along here - Purple i like the pre filled pens! On my last cycle I had to mix sterilized water with gonal f 'powder' , extract it and inject it. I felt like a medieval apothecary. Pre filled pens are much more 21st century :)

I'm in Moscow at the moment, doing lots of work travel which is taking my mind off looming cycle 3. My mum is convinced that air travel is to blame for my last 2 cycle failures which is not only nonsense but also highly irritating because I have to travel for work. I told her that I'd happily stop if she is willing to pay my salary in the interim! She means well but if I had a pound for every old wives tale I've heard since starting IVF....apparently I should avoid buses too, in case my ovaries get 'jolted'. Sigh.

Oh and Annie there is nothing wrong with being hopeful - you wouldn't be doing this if there wasn't a chance it might work, so why not focus on it working? You've got a realistic grip on things so think positive!

Blue - your mother sounds just like mine. Mine was convinced that my miscarriage was caused by me lifting my featherweight 3 year old. Heaven knows how she thinks that women who have manual jobs/live in countries where they have to carry the day's water home each day have any babies at all!

Do you find that work helps distract you, or would you prefer not to have the added stress?

No, I'm not a fan of the pre-filled pens at all. I had to do the mixing thing with my menopur last time (and again, from tomorrow when I switch back to menopur). You get a smaller injection when you mix it yourself, because you have the same amount of liquid however many pots of powder you need (in my case 3), whereas with the pen, you get three times the liquid as well. Added to the fact that you have to leave the pen needle in place for 10 seconds after plunging the plunger, it makes for a far more uncomfortable experience. My tummy is black and blue this time, and that never happened before. Although, as I said before, the aspirin's probably got something to do with the bruising.

How are you doing, Annie?
You okay, Shellster? x

I don't mind all the travelling. It's a big part of my job and I've been doing for the last 15 years so I'm used to it. I actually don't have any travel scheduled after ET in my next cycle, so that will keep my mum happy during the 2ww! I think ideally she would like me to stay in bed, maybe with servants bringing me food and tending to me. I wouldn't mind that either.

Sorry to hear about the bruising Purple. I've started self medicating with aspirin too so perhaps I also have that to look forward to....

So you have seen the specialist then Blue and have your next IVF all booked in I assume if you know you don't have any travel scheduled after ET. Did I miss the post? Curious what your Dr suggested after two chemical pregnancies? What changes are there for next IVF?

I'm okay thanks Purple. When is your first scan. I am seeing my Dr this Wednesday and was planning on asking her if I can do pure FSH for this cycle after reading that LH promotes a few dominant follicles, or at least the first few days to get more growing before adding LH if she thinks it will help with quality, so very curious what your first scan shows before I see her.

I track what I am eating on a website called 'Calorie King'. It's a very easy to use site where I enter my daily food and at the bottom of each day, it tells me: '35% of your intake has come from protein, 27% from carbs, and 38% from fat'. Yesterday was a bad day. Went to a party and couldn't resist the food so I flew caution to the wind and just ate whatever. Then I got the attitude, 'well, I've blown my diet for today... may as well enjoy all those chips... ' and ate worse than I would if I wasn't being strict on myself!

Hoping I will have dates for my next IVF after my IVF Dr's appt in two days time and that will give me a timeline to count down to and some motivation to get myself in shape in that time.

Hi Ladies
Still keeping positive here! Thanks all for your help and advice re timings and when DH gets in on the act.

Had a lovely weekend down on the south coast with my little nephew which kept my mind off it all. I'm also doing the 3 vials of menopur to 1 water and Blue I also enjoy setting up my little apothecary every evening!

I've just had my Day 9 of Menopur scan:
Right: 11.8; 11.1; 8.5; 6.9
Left: 14.4; 11.1; 9.9; 9.4
Endo: 8.5

The scan on Thursday showed 2 on right and around 6 or more on left.

It is what it is. I'm neither up nor down about these numbers. I have tried googling this but it's irrelevant how many eggs and what size other ladies have had. They seem to be growing anyway so that's a good thing and my uterus lining showed 3 lovely clear layers which they seemed reassured about. I'm very happy to have 4 or 5 that look like they could be go-ers for now.

I'm back to the clinic on Friday for another scan and it's looking like trigger shot on Saturday and egg collection on Monday.

Yes Purple it is hard being away from DH. He's going to travel down on Saturday to make sure he's at the ready for Monday. There's no point in him taking a week off work to be here though. I'm staying with my dad so I'm not alone and the weather's lovely so I'm going to fill my week with walking around Edinburgh and having myself a lovely relaxing-and-letting-go time .

How are you all getting on? Shellster have you seen your IVF doctor yet or is it later this week?

Hi Shellster, good to hear that you have your appointment this week too. I actually haven't seen my IVF specialist yet, I'm seeing him tomorrow. I'm just assuming that he'll let me start on my next period which is due next week. If that goes to plan I have no travel planned after the ET, at least not during the 2ww. I'll let you know what he says about my treatment plan. My prediction is that he won't want to change anything for the next cycle. I get the impression that everyone thinks it's a 'numbers game' and that both chemical pregnancies are purely down to bad luck. Not sure whether I agree or not, but I do know that it's not a simple fix - especially as everything else seemed to go pretty well. Let's see.

I admire your calorie resolve - don't worry about having a bad day. Overall I'm sure you are eating healthily and doing your best. Are you doing much exercise? I bet it's hard when you've got a DS or DD?! I'm sure that is one thing I will miss about being child-free (if I ever eventually DO have a child). I love having the freedom to go for a run or do a yoga class whenever I like.

Anniehoo your scan results sound good! You must be chuffed. I would be - sounds like things are shaping up nicely for your EC. Sending you some follicle growth vibes!!

Oh and is anyone worried about Christmas?! That's why I'm keen to start on my next period, so I'm not mid-cycle during the xmas holidays. My clinic is quite disorganised so I can only imagine what a nightmare it must be in December. If I can't start next period then I think I'll wait until Jan, to save myself the mental anguish.

Hi eveyrone I am glad to find this thread as I have my first IVF consultation next Friday. Have been ttc for over 3 years now all tests have shown unexplained infertilty. Do not qualify for IVF on the NHS as my husband has two children from a previous relationship. After being told last August our next option is IVF but we would have to go private and pay for it we have finally raised the £6K required. I have mixed feelings of excitement and nerves. The thing is if it does not work first time we cannot afford to keep trying. Any information, positive stories would really help. Thank you xxxx

Hi Anroga, welcome! I recognise you from the clomid thread and others over the last 2.5 years - eek! It's good that you've made the decision to go for IVF. I feel happy just to be doing something. The Clomid was awful. The IVF drugs are nowhere near as bad as them.

I'm brand new to this too but the best tip I could give you at this point is to write everything down at the initial appointment / nurse consultation. I forgot everything instantly! Also make sure you get as many blood tests done at your GP asap. These include Hep B core antibodies, Hep B surface antigens, HIV, Hep C for both of you and you will also need to be tested for Rubella and have a recent Cervical Smear test result.

These should all be available to you for free at your GP's. I just booked appointments for both of us with the nurse for blood tests and handed her the list and said it was for IVF. Waiting for these tests was the most stressful part for me as it took weeks for some results and held us back from starting treatment by a month. You may of course already have all this in place!

The ladies on here are lovely, some of which are IVF gurus. This thread is a mine of useful information!

Blue oh good!! I wasn't sure if it was good or bad, that's given me a wee lift thanks!

Hi AnnieHoo

Thanks for your lovely message. Yep I have been on and off here for at least two and a half years so it is possible we have chatted! Wasn't the clomid awful, glad to hear its no where near as bad as that, phew!

We have all those blood tests etc done next Friday at the first consultation it is explained in our welcome pack (possibly as we are going private) so that should all be sorted on the day.

I can see you are well into your IVF, I assume this is your first try too? xxx

Ps - Your right about this being a mine of information - these threads are a god send! xxx

Oh that's great Anroga it's much easier just getting the clinic to do them. I'm doing it privately too and my clinic didn't seem to want me to pay for those tests so really pushed me to get them done at GP's. I felt a bit fobbed off but I guess they were trying to save us money as it all mounts up. The one test I did pay for was AMH.

Yes this is my first time doing IVF and I don't have any children. I'm on the NHS waiting list and thankfully my ob/gyn said it was ok to do a private cycle while we wait.

Hi Annie

Well the consultation is £250-00 and that includes all the tests, when you are spending up to £6K whats another £250-00....mind you what a good clinic to try and save you money!

I don't have any children of my own either. We have unexplained infertility and our consultant did say we could just keep on trying but its how long you can keep going with the monthly dissapointment when your period comes also I will be 38 in November and my husband 44 in December wo she suggested to start IVF sooner rather than later.

You are in a great position that you can get another IVF on the NHS if need be, fingers crossed for you that this will not be the case.

Out of interest have you changed your diet/added anything etc during your treatment? xxx

Anroga yes the monthly disappointment really got me down. After 6 months of unmonitored clomid it feels wonderful to be looked after by a top consultant and be scanned and tested regularly.

I have high protein low carb meals. I'm drinking 3 litres of water a day and trying to drink a pint of milk. I still have cups of tea but make them weaker. I don't drink coffee or fizzy drinks or alcohol. I gave up alcohol in July until this is over. I have a cup of freshly squeezed orange to wash down my vitamin and nutrient supplements in the morning. Chocolate or spicy food is giving me splitting headaches on the IVF drugs so I can't even look at them and treat myself with brazil nuts or apples.

Hello and welcome, *Anroga. I'm another one on low carb, high protein, 1l milk and 2l water per day. No caffeine or booze. An occasional cup of darjeeling tea, but there's not much room for other drinks with all that milk and water! Although I think the IVF drugs make me thirsty, because I don't find it a challenge to drink all that water.

Those are great results, Annie - I'd be very happy with that tally. Interesting about the headaches, - I've been suffering with them badly too, but I haven't noticed whether they're set off by particular foods...I'll start paying attention! I have to say, chocolate is a possible culprit, because I do have a weakness and often finish off the evening with a square or two of dark chocolate...

Blue - my clinic shuts completely mid-December and have a two-week deep clean. That was one of the reasons for getting straight back on the rollercoaster - that and the fact that a number of my tests expire in January, so I'd have to have them done again.

First scan is on Wednesday, Shellster. My ovaries are already feeling decidedly tender, so hopefully I'm brewing a decent clutch of eggs...

Annie, I would honestly be happy with that scan result. My follicle sizes are always all over the place. I think at my last day 9 scan the sizes ranged from 20mm to 6mm. So to have 7 follies between 9 and 14 is absolutely fantastic.

blue, not sure I should be admired for my calorie reserve. Not quite gone as planned. But yes, I have to forget a bad day here and there and have a good day today. Okay, getting back on track. Yep, I am worried about Xmas but it seems for different reason to you. You seem to be worried about the chaos of the clinic at Xmas - I am worried about having to face relatives, babies and pregnancies without having one in the oven myself - or at least be in the two week wait with a glimmer of hope.

Welcome Anroga. Mmm, helpful info or positive stories you say. I am about to embark on my 9th IVF attempt so I feel like a hypocrite for dishing out any information since it obviously isn't working for me. As I just mentioned to Annie, my follicles grow at different rates so I don't get heaps of eggs. Really trying to work on high protein low carb diet before next round to improve egg quality instead.

Purple, of all the women on threads who report of feeling swollen and sore, I have never once felt like that. Can only assume it's a good sign. Can't wait to hear how many follicles are growing in there.

Okay, my IVF Dr appointment is tomorrow and I will have my dates set. Okay, must go make myself a high protein low carb breakky.

Hi Anroga, welcome to the thread! I'm finding the dietary stuff fascinating! I love seeing what others are eating/ditching/testing out.

Since joining this thread, I have:

• started taking a daily aspirin and CO-Q10 with my daily multi-min/vit
• been drinking a glass of almond milk every day -- I was drinking soya milk, but Shellster and Purple pointed out heightened oestrogen levels as a result of soya intake might actually impede things
• been trying to drink at least 2l of water every day
• started adding pineapple to smoothies

In terms of diet, I'm pretty healthy to start with and generally have a high-protein daily menu. Most naughty things I either don't like or can't eat because they aren't vegan. I do, however, LOVE Oreos and tortilla chips and beer and baking. The rebellious part of me wants the disciplined part of me to stick it whenever any of those things enter my field of vision. I'm trying to be more like Anniehoo and stick to nuts and apples, but the heart wants dark chocolate.

The no-coffee/alcohol/carbs issue is an interesting one. I lived for almost two years without coffee, alcohol or bread in an effort to help our fertility and it sucked. This year, I'm trying to keep bread to a minimum, but I've totally taken to heart my IVF consultant's assessment that a cup of coffee a day and a couple glasses of red wine a week may, in fact, help lower stress levels (which is "not biologically necessary to getting pregnant but makes life more bearable" -- such sound NHS advice).

Has anyone else reverted back to enjoying a cup of coffee and a glass of wine after a long period of abstinence?

Blue, the Christmas question is a biggie. I've had dreams of being able to reveal we're pregnant at Christmas for so many years -- wouldn't that be marvellous? I hadn't thought about how IVF would interfere with it, though. I would definitely wait till January given the choice.

Your and Purple's reports of your mums made me laugh: my mum has decided that I'm probably doing too much yoga (re: maybe twice a week if I'm lucky) and it's interfering with my chances. Because labourers never get pregnant!

Shellster, you cannot think of yourself in any terms other than our Resident Font of Knowledge, except for maybe our Hope Springs Eternal. There is no hypocrisy in having less-than-stellar follicle growth OR facing this process with such enormous determination and optimism. You remind all of us to never give up. Where are you in the new cycle? Yet to start revving, is that right?

Purple, have you tried injecting in the fleshy part of the upper thigh instead of your belly? Unlike on my tummy, I couldn't ever even feel the needle being inserted. It was so much easier and I think I only bruised once. Maybe try that instead? (Be aware: I'm talking about the fleshy part at the front of the thigh, not the nice fatty bit between the legs -- according to the nurse that is a NO-GO area.)

Anroga, I'm in the unexplained subfertility camp, too. No children on either side, however, so we got our one shot on the NHS. I hope your first cycle makes it!

Anniehoo, you're at the most exciting point! Sending heaps of positive vibes up the Scotland. (Also, so jealous -- I love Edinburgh, it's a great city. How lovely to have your treatment there, even if you are far away from your DP.)

Thanks for your message EmmaGH, very helpful. So you just have one shot at the IVF like us (we couldn't afford to keep trying have already had to re-mortgage to raise the funds for the first treatment). Its a awful feeling isn't it as you are pinning all your hopes on it working.

The diet information is interesting. Since we have been ttc I have stopped drinking coffee, only have two weak cups of tea a day maximum. I eat healthly but I do not do this high protein low carb diet (even though I do not eat bread, I still eat pasta, rice and potatoes) so perhaps will start trying that. We have both cut back on alcohol but do still indulge now and again with a glass or two of the vino (need it sometimes to help me feel better about it all!) Obvs take multi-vitamins, folic acid and my metformin for my PCOS. Always have drank alot of water every day at work.

Really wish you lots of luck with your IVF journey, when do you start treatment? xxx

Sorry for not being around much on this thread! I needed to get online again from a desktop (not just via my phone!) to name change as I have a different name for some mumsnet topics! Been super busy with work, hence the delay.

So, here I am again. My initial attempt at FET with just Elleste (oestrogen?) tablets to down regulate (as recommended by my clinic) got abandoned, as my lining got too thick and a mid-cycle scan showed I was about to ovulate (?) So I had to take norethisterone (first time ever - it's horrible stuff!) to make me bleed and then start burserelin injections to down regulate. The burserelin essentially puts you into menopause, with the associated symptoms, and it's usually 2 weeks of those injections before you drop the burserelin dose down and add in 10 days or so of Elleste and then have the embryo transfer. But at my 2 weeks into the injections scan last week my lining was still too thick so I've had to stay on the injections for an extra week and hopefully at my scan on Thursday,my lining will be thin enough for me to start the Elleste and have ET around w/c 13 October. Fingers crossed!!

I've found the FET so far to be far from the walk in the park I imagined. I thought I'd only need tablets and yet have needed injections, albeit the burserelin is no where near as painful as the Cetratide I had on my short protocol fresh cycle. I hated that one. It stung so much, you had to mix the powder with the liquid and the needle was quite thick. The Gonal F pen was a doddle in comparison.

The hormones are making me raging hungry and pretty moody and nasty - poor DH! I'm injecting in the tummy, but putting ice on the area beforehand. I've never injected in the thigh.

Is anyone else doing FET? I've lost track.

Anroga, our fresh cycle was NHS and was successful. All these stories of things that could be preventing pregnancy are just that - old wives tales. It's awful having to deal with them isn't it? We're unexplained infertility too, and though we have one child from the fresh cycle, decided to do FET with our frosties rather than try naturally because we felt a 'duty' to them (weird, I know!) and because as far as we know, nothing has changed in our fertility situation etc. (My ovaries are still polycystic etc). There are so many unknowns still though. What if none of our frosties make it? What if this cycle works, what do we then do with the other frosties? If this cycle doesn't work, should we do FET again or try naturally. At least my frosties are 'younger' than my eggs now. I'm 37 now but had my fresh cycle aged 34.

I want to arrange pre- ad post-transfer acupuncture, assuming we get that far. Last time around, I didn't have acupuncture pre- and post-transfer but I did have it weekly for about 4 months prior to the IVF treatment. I just don't have the time to do weekly sessions now though, so just going to get the before and after ones.

I need to get up the loft and dig out my Zita West hypnotherapy CDs too. They were so helpful last time. Would recommend them.

Good luck to all!

Hi all - back from the hospital, had a pretty good meeting with the consultant. Shellster good luck today/tomorrow with your follow up appointment!

Basically he said that he'd like to rule out anything that could potentially cause miscarriage before starting the next cycle, so I'm having another hysterogram, a karotyping chromosome test and another blood test for something else that I forgot to write down (duh). Once that's all done, we can start cycle 3 using heparin (not aspirin, apparently), low dose steroids, maybe menopur and injectable progesterone. All this extra stuff is to try and help with implantation. He did say that with 2 chemical pregnancies our chance of success in the next cycle has improved.

Anyway lots more stuff to do/think about. Overall I'm pretty happy, he's being very thorough and if the next cycle doesn't work at least I'll feel that we tried our best to overcome the persistent miscarriage situation. He did say that we should think about using donor eggs if the next cycle doesn't work, and I think he has a point. I don't want to keep doing this again and again..!