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Infertility

Our Infertility Support forum is a space to connect with others in the same position, discuss causes, treatment and IVF, and share infertility stories of hope and success.

Anyone starting IVF soon? Join me.

999 replies

Shellster52 · 06/03/2014 03:35

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!

OP posts:
EmmaGH · 30/09/2014 21:30

Hi Anroga, I actually already had my cycle earlier in the summer, so that's basically it for me until we can scrape together IVF funds. We probably won't be able to do it until next June! I also had fibroids removed this summer (after the IVF -- because, go figure!), so in the meantime, we're just going to be trying the old-fashioned way. I'm sticking around here, though, because I know I'll probably have to go through it all again and this is an amazingly supportive group!

Blue, what an excellent outcome! He sounds really committed and positive, which is great. I've got an appointment with King's on Friday, so I'll ask them about karotyping tests. If you remember the other blood test, let me know! I want to go in armed with specific questions. For myself, I think it's implantation rather than embryo quality where it's all going wrong. Maybe they'll be able to suggest something for us that can help with that even if we're not doing IVF?

Purple, you suggested something really good to ask them; Shellster, you too... I'm going to have to read through all these posts to find them!

bluemoonday · 30/09/2014 22:15

Also, forgot to mention that the doctor talked about DHEA. He said there isn't any clinical evidence it works yet, but there are quite a lot of anecdotal success stories coming from the US. Apparently you have to take it for 2-3 months to see any affect. Personally I'm not convinced about it, not sure I like the idea of taking (more hormones). He said it would be up to us. Anyone tried it?

Emma I'll see if I can remember the other blood test thing. Senior moment, I should carry a dictaphone.

AnnieHoo · 30/09/2014 22:38

Was the test for Lupus anticoagulant? I had tests after 2 miscarriages including that, anti cardio lipin (anti-phospholipid) and the cytogenetics screening.

bluemoonday · 30/09/2014 22:46

Annie, yes! Those are the ones. He said it's pretty unlikely to be any of these things though.

purplemeggie · 30/09/2014 23:11

That's interesting, Blue - our consultant mentioned heparin, too, last time I saw him (debrief after failed FET), but was going to review the blood tests (incl Lupus etc) and heparin didn't get mentioned again. He told me to start on the aspirin while he considered heparin - I guess he decided against for us.

Emma - I'd forgotten that you are vegan. How do you do high protein, low carb - that sounded aggressive, and it's not meant to - lack of tone of voice in writing is so difficult - but it was asked with an interested tone of voice! At the outset of all of this, my insulin resistance test came back borderline and my consultant persuaded me to start eating a little meat (after 27 years!) because most non-animal proteins are quite carb-loaded. If I'm truly honest with myself - which I have started to be, during this process - I ate far more sugar than I ever acknowledged and I'm sure that was the real culprit. At some point, I'm going to make myself be brave enough to re-do the insulin resistance test and see if I've made a difference. I've more or less given up sugar.

Yes - I did one thigh injection as an experiment in the last fresh cycle and it really hurt. I didn't find the tummy injections painful and I didn't bruise last time round, so I think it must be the aspirin. And I'm sure the only reason they hurt is that my tummy is so bruised.

I'm back on self-mixed menopur now....and so happy not to be using the nasty Gonal F pen Smile.

I'm never much of a coffee drinker - a medicinal one now and then to wake me up at work, but only ever a latte, so giving up coffee's not been too much of an effort. We gave up the booze to conceive our son (the old-fashioned way) and did the same thing when we started ttc this time (all those years ago!), but in the end it took so long we reverted. We did both decide though, once we committed to IVF, that we would have 3 months alcohol-free before each cycle, to give it the best chance we could. There is so little that one is in control of, it helped to have something we could do for ourselves. I shall definitely have a cheeky glass of red between EC and ET - the time I absolutely know I am not pregnant - especially since our wedding anniversary will fall within that window.

Shellster - hope your appointment was okay and that you got some answers. Thinking of you.

How's it going, Annie? Just looking at my dates, my initial schedule has me down for egg collection on Monday, too - last time round I responded more quickly than expected, so it may be earlier, but we'll see. We could be going on the same day Smile

purplemeggie · 01/10/2014 11:18

Happy update from me: 7 follicles (so 2 more than last time) ranging from 11mm to 18mm. It is possible that the 18mm one might in fact be two - it looked like two stuck together from one angle and 1 from another angle. My lining's at 8.1. All but two of the follicles are in my left ovary.

I'm back on Friday for the next scan, but unless something surprising happens, I'll be triggering on Saturday night and going in for EC on Monday.

Hope everyone else is having a good day. It's really sunny here...hope it is where you are - physically and metaphorically x

AnnieHoo · 01/10/2014 12:56

That's great news Purple! Looks like we are totally in syncSmile! Lovely day here too.

inconceivableme · 01/10/2014 13:19

Great news purple!

Shellster52 · 02/10/2014 03:19

You must be pretty stocked with that scan Purple.
2-3 more than last time!

inconceivableme. Wanted to say thanks for the recommendation about the Zita West hypnotherapy. I have said I would relax for my next cycle but it is difficult to simply 'forget about it'. So the alternative is that if it is on my mind anyway, I may as well be actively listening to relevant meditations and hypnotherapies. Have just bought a meditation and will have a listen after this post.

Blue. Your Dr sounds very thorough. Must really help take the pressure of you feeling like you have to go away and research everything because you can trust in him that he is working hard to solve your issue.

Yep, I tried DHEA. I started it after reading this study showing that it improves embryo quality for women with diminished ovarian reserve like myself:
IVF Study Both Before and After DHEA

It seemed appropriate for me as the study showed it helped with embryo quality and my embryos don't make it to day 5. But for you it certainly doesn't seem like an issue anyway.

If you want to feel confident in your decision with DHEA, this site lists the blood tests that will tell you if you need it or not:
Blood Tests To Determine If Your Require DHEA

So I saw my IVF Dr yesterday. The one thing I was sure about was that I wanted to try FSH alone, or at least delay adding LH until my follicles have established growing. So I am doing FSH alone and adding LH once a scan shows the largest follicles are around 13mm. Dr Hope actually said this mimics what happens in a natural cycle which sounded good to me.

There is one thing I still can't decide and I would appreciate your objective opinions on. I am 3 days into my new cycle after my failed IVF last cycle. I could start estrogen on day 20 of this cycle ready for IVF next cycle. Would be nice to get IVF over with sooner and each month that passes is only aging my eggs more.

Or I could wait this cycle out and start estrogen on day 20 of next cycle. Would resting my ovaries and allowing my hormones to settle down after the last IVF perhaps mean a better outcome for next IVF? It would give me 2 months of being able to do my high protein/low carb diet which is exactly how long the women in the study did the diet for to increase the amount of embryos that made it to blast from 30% to 50%. But I seem to be caving here and there on the diet anyway and will it just mean longer that I keep stressing myself out that I am not eating perfect.

I can't decide!

OP posts:
AnnieHoo · 02/10/2014 10:07

oh Shellster that's a difficult decision to make. Did the doctor give you any advice on this? Are you feeling strong enough emotionally to go through it without a rest? I'm not sure how long it takes for the hormones to settle or what effect this will have on the cycle.

I used Lucy Coffin's meditation downloads for Clomid and found her voice very soothing and listened twice a day. It worked for me! She has an offer on for a free download of her "mini IVF" tips and meditation if you want a taster www.catchingrainbowsfertility.co.uk

Don't worry about the diet too much. I think i have painted myself as a nutritional purist who grazes on apples and brazil nuts but in reality I'm a bit of a chubster and every day as well as the high protein I have either bread, or a crumpet and jam! I gave up the alcohol because I can't just have one Wine and with the hormones I just end up crying about things. I have never been a coffee drinker so that's easy for me too.

I'm on day 12 of Menopur and did my last stims injection this morning. Feeling my ovaries now, it feels heavy down there. Time is going slowly now I just want this over with! Feeling a little bit emotional today so will make sure I surround myself with happy and beautiful things!

Hope everyone is well xx

EmmaGH · 02/10/2014 10:58

Annie and Blue, thank you!! I've written both down to ask the consultant tomorrow. My list of questions is actually really short: supplements (yay or nay), immunology screening (yay or nay), please scan me to make sure I'm ovulating.

Shellster, what a hard decision. I think I would want to have a break in between myself. I don't think your eggs will age that much between now and November, but I do think it might be worth while to give yourself a rest. I found IVF itself really stressful, so a little break might be useful to relax both physically and mentally. Plus, you make a good point about giving yourself time to adjust and stick to the high protein/low carb diet that worked so well in the study.

Purple, that's great! Well done, I hope everything goes well tomorrow!

And don't worry, I read your intentions right the first time! I've been vegetarian nearly as long as you about 21 years but I started giving up dairy about 2 years ago. I've never had a doctor try to convince me to eat meat, though! I'm kind of shocked by that (what would they say to a Buddhist or anyone else who doesn't eat meat on religious grounds? It seems like general ignorance on the doctor's part.)

It's actually pretty easy to get all nine essential amino acids by combining foods over the course of the day, but it helps I really like all the food I'm going to list -- none of this is a chore for me, unlike my vegetarian brother-in-law who has the WORST DIET! Or would do if his wife didn't force him to eat his veggies.

I tend to kickstart it first thing in the morning with a smoothie that has some combination of a banana/pineapple/spinach, couple of spoonfuls of oats, a tsp. of chia seeds, some peanut butter or a tsp. or spirulina powder (which is revolting, but good for you). My proper breakfast is usually avocado on toast, drizzled with EV olive oil and sprinkled with nutritional yeast. Lunch is usually leftovers from dinner the night before, or else falafels or hummus or something in a sandwich. Dinner is the only place we have something of a rule established: virtually every meal follows the vegan bowl practice of 1 grain, 1 protein source, two+ vegetables and a sauce.

The grain might be rice or quinoa or pasta (or corn on the cob, yum!); the protein could be beans/lentils or vegan sausages or tofu or TVP; the veggies are whatever we have; the sauce might incorporate all the veggies and the protein or it might be more of a dressing/garnish. You should check out Appetite for Reduction or The Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. She's the best and she explains the whole essential amino acid thing really well.

bluemoonday · 02/10/2014 13:31

Shellster thanks so much for the DHEA info. Exactly what I was looking for!

My consultant is making me wait a cycle before we start our next treatment. I was hoping to start day 21 of my next period (ie, late Oct), but he is adamant that I need to give my ovaries a break and have a 'regular cycle' before for the next treatment. Like you, I've had 2 back to back IVF cycles over the last few months. He said that it's better to wait until hormone levels and menstruation cycle have normalised before getting started again.

Anyway maybe this info will help - given a choice, I'd probably want to get started straight away because I'm impatient. Perhaps it really is better (from a medical and a psychological point of view) to have a break, though.

Emma your diet sounds great but work intensive! You must spend hours preparing, shopping and chopping?! I can barely sort myself out a packed lunch for work in the morning. If I win the lottery perhaps I'll hire you as my personal chef (although I am a fish addict so you'll have to alter your menu a bit :)

bluemoonday · 02/10/2014 13:34

Oh and Purple that's great news! Sounds like everything is going to plan. Fingers crossed for Friday.

purplemeggie · 02/10/2014 20:47

Thanks everyone. Yes, Shellster, I was pretty delighted by the scan - I hadn't dared hope for more than last time, so it was really good news. I'm back in tomorrow to confirm dates for EC.

My instinct is that you would help yourself by taking a cycle out and giving your mind and body a rest. You've had so many ups and downs this year with the IVF and one month is not going to make a massive difference to your eggs - and certainly no more than getting to egg collection and then calling it off. I certainly found that giving myself a month when I knew I wasn't going to inject or ingest anything over August helped with my frame of mind. And if you plan to use it to improve your general well-being, that all sounds good to me.

I couldn't access the second DHEA link. I'd be interested to read them. I was taking it for a while pre-IVF (but on the basis of the first article, that was pretty pointless anyway!) on the recommendation of a fertility expert I spoke to, but my consultant at the clinic wasn't convinced and I decided that (possibly for the first time in my adult life!) I was going to put myself in the hands of my doctor and do what he told me and nothing else. I'm now thinking that maybe we should consider another cycle if this one doesn't work with DHEA!

Emma that diet sounds very healthy. I agree with you - you can be perfectly healthy on a vegetarian diet, if you are very careful. I think my consultant was right in my case - my diet was definitely too carb-heavy not helped, as I say, by the sweet things I loved. I was not a "real" vegetarian - not since I was about 21 anyway- as I've eaten fish for most of my life. I liked it too much to do without it, although I do worry about overfishing a lot. My main reason for not eating meat is about farming and slaughter, so my compromise has been to eat a small amount of wild partridge and pheasant. I do feel healthier for it, but that is mostly, I'm sure, about addressing the carb-balance of my diet. I feel far more "even", rather than having peaks and troughs of hunger, and all of my food cravings have disappeared. I've really gone off sweet things - I think I want them, but when I taste them they seem too aggressively sweet, if that makes sense.

Annie - how exciting. Not long to go now! So when are you doing your trigger shot? I think I've got another menopur shot left tomorrow night, but I won't know for sure until tomorrow.

I was at my parents' house today. My mother commented on how much I was going to the loo - and I was thinking "that's because I'm drinking gallons of water and my ovaries are like tennis balls!" They don't know that we're off on another cycle at the moment - they know in general terms that we are doing IVF, but my mother can't help herself needing to know all the details and I don't want to discuss every step with her, so I just tell her after it's all over.

AnnieHoo · 03/10/2014 10:49

Hi ladies

Hope your scan goes well today Purple I'm thinking of you.

EmmaGH hope your appointment with consultant goes well today and you come out with all the answers to your questions and bloods for the investigations. Little bits of progress make all the difference.

I had my day 12 menopur scan today and they told me to come home and take my 2.25 menopur today and they're going to phone me later and let me know if I need to take it again tomorrow or not and to confirm my timings for trigger and EC. At the moment I'm scheduled for trigger shot at 8.30pm tomorrow and EC at 7.30am on Monday.

I didn't catch the follicle sizes this time as my mind was a bit all over the place. I remember there was a whopper at 24.5 and one at 18.5 and around 4 between 11 and 18 and then a couple under 9. My endometrium was 11.5.

AnnieHoo · 03/10/2014 10:53

oops I'm day 13 menopur not 12. My brain is fried btw. I can hardly remember what I'm doing from one minute to the next.

purplemeggie · 03/10/2014 16:48

Ha ha, Annie - looks like we're going to be IVF twins! I'm due to take my trigger shot at 8.30 tomorrow too :-)

So, my scan was full of surprises today. I now have 7 follicles on the left and 3 on the right - so 3 more than on Wednesday. The new ones are fairly small at the moment so they may not be mature by Monday, but they may be okay. And the others are fattening up nicely and ranging from 14mm to 25. My lining's at 11.7 now so all good. I can relate to the fried brain though...

And we had the heparin conversation - it turns out that this is something I do next week and can do at the same time as the aspiring (let's hope I don't cut myself!!) I'm also going to try a steriod - can't remember the name, but I'll post it once I get the prescription - which is the treatment for killer cells/immunological reasons for non-implantation. My consultant said he doesn't believe it makes much difference, but that it doesn't do any harm, so if I want to try it I can.

How did you get on, Emma?

Anroga - how was your consultation?

Hello everyone else x

Shellster52 · 04/10/2014 01:27

Well the consensus on here seems to be to give myself an extra bit of a break. Already kinda thinking it was the right thing to do for my ovaries and hormones to recover. Although most people on here seem to say this is what they would do to give themselves an emotional break, but I am with you Blue that I am impatient and would rather get on with it than counting down and waiting. But I am going to be patient and wait to give my body a physical break and time for the high protein low carb diet to take effect. Took two months in the study and I will start IVF late Nov so that will be two months - If I can stick to this diet that long!!

Annie, thanks so much for the link. At work now but will have a listen later.

Blue, I'm glad you found the DHEA link helpful.
Not sure what I did wrong with that second link.
Let me try again...
Blood test to determine if you require DHEA
It's point number 3.

Purple, maybe it's the Aspirin thinning the blood and getting more of the injection filled blood to the ovaries. Or the fact that you didn't add the LH until later. Either way, fantastic!

Going to the beach with family this afternoon so that will be a nice weekend. Looking forward to checking in and seeing how you both get on with EC Annie and Purple!

OP posts:
AnnieHoo · 04/10/2014 10:23

I'm pleased for you Shellster that you've decided to spend this month giving your ovaries time to breathe. I'm impatient too and every month is precious but your body will respond best when it's had a chance to rest. It's good to stop and be still (oh god I'm sounding like the hypnotherapy tape already!).

I had to go back to the clinic this morning to get more menopur today as they want me to take a smaller dose today to give the little follicles a final boost.

Purple I'll be thinking of you as we do our synchronised trigger tonight!

anroga · 04/10/2014 19:11

Hi purple
Thanks for your message but my consultation is this Friday will keep you posted on how we get on x

Sounds like things are going well for you so far so good to hear xxx

purplemeggie · 04/10/2014 22:36

Ooooh, bad moment with the trigger shot this evening. I got everything ready, snapped the tops off the 2 pregnyl vials and promptly knocked one of them onto the floor. I had visions of powder all over the floor, but fortunately it was in a lump in the bottom of the vial and was stuck to the glass, so no harm done, but I did have to do my trigger shot with very, very shaky hands! If that had been any of the other jabs, with their little rubber lids that you stab the needle through, it wouldn't have been a worry. If it had been any of the other jabs that don't need to be done on the dot of a particular time, they could be replaced...took my heartrate a little while to return to normal!

Hope yours was less eventful, Annie!

AnnieHoo · 05/10/2014 10:34

Blimey purple thank goodness it stayed in a lump!! I was so nervous that I'd cock mine up it took me 5 minutes to go through every step to make sure I was doing it right when it should have taken 60 seconds. DH is with me now so he was behind me saying "it's fine, just do it!" Which didn't help one bit. I had the Ovadril pen so you'd have to go out of your way to get it wrong but I was still crapping it because its so crucial to get it right. I'm left handed so when it said "turn clockwise" my brain seize up!!

Glad that's done and we can have a normal day today injection free. So good to see DH again after 10 days away Smile.

Early to bed tonight! X

purplemeggie · 05/10/2014 12:58

I know what you mean! I counted up last night....I have administered 97 injections over the last 7 months, but that was by far the most stressful of them all!

Today feels a bit like the day after my last exam at school - I always used to wake up the next morning thinking about revision planning and then remember I didn't have to do any. I woke up this morning and thought "oh no! I haven't done my cetrotide jab!"....

Glad dh is with you now, Annie, hope you're enjoying your "day off" in Edinburgh.

AnnieHoo · 05/10/2014 15:33

I'm feeling quite uncomfortable on my left side this afternoon so putting my feet up this afternoon. It's like a tender swollen feeling, my tummy is sticking out so much I can't get into my jeans. I think that's normal though.

purplemeggie · 05/10/2014 17:16

Glad it's not just me....my jeans don't fit!