Starting IVF/ICSI this month - anyone want to join the journey?

[Rumplestrumpet]

After over 2.5 years TTC, we're FINALLY about to start our fertility treatment this month (ICSI). My nurse and husband forbade me from chats and forums, but after following MN threads over recent years I think it would be a great help to share the experience with those going through the same thing.

Anyone else want to share the joys/terrors of belly injections, hormonal madness and a series of medical professionals poking around your nether regions?! And, of course, hopefully a BFP at the end of it all

Sorry you've had a poor experience with your clinic Phoenix, though it does sound as if implantation is the problem, and I don't know what different clinics offer to improve this. But with all those top quality blasts it must just be a matter of time - all the odds are stacked in your favour !
For what it's worth I've been having treatment in France because DH and I live here. We weren't really sure what to expect but I've been completely satisfied with the whole process, particularly the patient care. I imagine private costs would be comparable to the UK (we're using national health insurance and only pay a very small contribution, around 150 quid I think. But one thing to bear in mind overseas - make sure you're 100 percent happy with the language barrier. Most places should have very good English, but levels can probably vary. It was a real struggle for us at first, but we got through with plenty of patience!

But anyway, I don't see why you;ll need to go overseas, as you're hopefully only a few weeks away from that BFP!

Hi girls

shell I find out today if any are ok to freeze but on Saturday the embryologist said it would be unlikely as they had all slowed down :( - it's a shame as if this does not work it's another 6k and you know how hard that is to find.

I have had cramping since the transfer on Saturday did anyone else experience this after transfer? They said I would but I did not think it would be constant.

This waiting is a nightmare I am analysing everything!

morning all. phoenix I'm due ec around same time as you!

scan was OK. 5 follicles on each embryo but lining only 4.9mm and they'd expect it to be thicker by now so I'm on 2mg oestrogen tablets 3 times a day from today. been warned my ovaries will grow from currently being walnuts to being grapefruits!

question for the bfpers and previous ivfers - did you do/consider doing the pineapple core thing after egg collection?

Just catching up with everyone...

lildottie re the ovaries, do you think the twinges was the gonal-f working - I am getting twinges as well - was wondering if that's the follies growing?! Seriously... grapefruits??? owch!? And what on earth is the pineapple core thing? Sounds like a lot of fruit talk today!

pheonix me and my other half are also getting married next year - agreed that its a welcome distraction but now I just have something else to obsess over! Have you set a date or is it a new development?! Re ivf - how was the scan? Not sure if I said before but I will be close to you, I started stimming last Thurs, scan on Wednesday this week. I think lildottie and toes are also quite close?

Shel I feel for you, everything's always a wait with this process, wait to be referred, wait for tihs appt, wait for a scan, wait, wait, wait - drives me mad!! (I'm sure anroga can understand what I'm saying right now as well!) But it's good to pick up tips and plan the next one :) I wish I'd come on here before this one and learnt what I know now - I would have started my acupuncture earlier for example!

Hope everyone else is doing well :)

Update - Day 5 of stimming today and I've had my first acupuncture this afternoon - even just felt good to talk to someone else who knew the process of IVF, clearly she'd make a good therapist as well as acupuncturist! She let me talk a lot about my 'rage'!! It comes with half an hour massage afterwards so I am feeling super relaxed today :) Fingers crossed it helps with the implantation once we get to that stage!

definitely Verney but I'm on menopur not gonal-f. I say definitely because I had more twinges last night after I injected but on my left this time. I have bee. doing all my morning injections (buserelin) in left leg and stimms in right leg. last light I did stimms in left and this morning buserelin in right as left ovary is behind right one a bit. in my head switching legs will help! mad I know but it can't hurt!

glad you enjoyed acupuncture, I had a session last night too. beforehand I was feeling quite down and defeated but felt much better afterwards

pineapple thing - there is a school of thought that the bromelain in pineapple core aids implantation. in a natural cycle you eat 1/5th of a pineapple including core each day from 1dpo. for ivf you do 5 days starting with et day. you gave to stop after that as high amounts of bromelain can cause uterine cramps. I tried it once when we were TTc the old fashioned way but clearly it did nothing for dhs swimmers!

Wow, I've never heard of that the pineapple thing but will keep it in mind! I agree swapping sides makes sense, It's funny how we're al going through the same thing but slightly different methods, my clinic said I have to inject in my tummy, a friend of mine, her clinic told her best to do it in her bum?! Does any of this actually make a difference?! I also have to inject between 6 and 8 in the evening specifically - what's that about!

I'm getting excited about my first scan tomorrow, feels like another milestone reached!

I'm just waiting to go into et. On my own so I'm bored. Desperate for a wee and more worryingly I now feel like I need a poo! God help me. Just want it to be over with now. Haven't seen anyone yet but seen as I'm here I'm guessing it defrosted ok. Hope it was the better one that made it.

I'll be doing pineapple. Brazil nuts and cat cow exercises. Never done any before!

Had acupuncture this morning and I'm going again tomorrow morning.

Wish me luck!

Hi all,

I've had my scan this morning to see how I'm doing on the gonal f - I've been stimming since Thursday. It all looked fine, I had 4 follies on my left ovary and 5 on my right, but they took my blood too and I called for the results this afternoon and they said to put my dosage up to 225 (I was on 150) and not come back till Monday for another scan. They reckon EC will be either next Wednesday or Friday, depending how I do on the drugs!

Seems we're all in within a few days of each other phoenix lildottie verkey it will be good to be in nice company for the 2ww!

Best LUCK allchat positive attitude and mind, everything is going to be perfect!! everything cross for you!!!

I was reading all your posts and I am glad that things are progressing for all of you. Rumplest your history encourage me a lot, I imagine your mixed feelings!! anroga all the best for the following weeks!!
Just one question Rumplest how did the ICSI helped with your pregnancy? I wonder considering that I am waiting for the ET.
Yes shell it seems that my procedure is different than allchat, I wonder why? I am beginning to do the ovulation test by myself, however the clinic does the scans as well just to do follow up of the follicles and the lining, tomorrow I have another scan.
At the moment my biggest follicle is 17mm, and my lining is 10.5mm so the clinic is waiting until my follicle grows more and they said that the lining is good enough?, I asked that maybe I wont ovulate this cycle but the doctor said that I will, that my cycle this month is longer, however if things are not accordingly I imagine they are not going to proceed. So patience and just wait is what I am doing with positive mind of course.
In the mean time I am doing the acupuncture. Finally we decided to put 2 embryos after the doctor explanation. allchat I am 41 this year so that is why my chances with 2 embryos are greater than if I would choose one at a time. However due to my age the success rate is not that exiting but there are many cases that had babies in their 40s so lets see!!.

Good luck everybody!! finger cross for all of us!! ;)

toes Im glad your scan looks good, I guess your estradiol levels are on the low side so they've put your dosage up? I had a similar thing on my last cycle. My follies were growing too quickly so they dropped my dosage which caused my estradiol levels to stay too low! They're keeping me going this time so I hope I haven't gotten huge! I have another scan tomorrow.

Thanks for your advice rumplestrumpet. We will definitely put a lot of research in before we commit! It'll be a few thousand cheaper but still a lot of money so we need to be sure.

anroga did you get any embies to freeze in the end? Sorry if I missed the post.

verkey we're getting married on 1st October 2016. I have the venue booked and have £200 deposit on a dress already. I'm an annoyingly organised person. It annoys me sometimes.
My scan went well on Monday. It looks like I'll have 7 one side and 8 the other for certain, she didn't measure my lining but said its looking very good.

lildottie I was told my ovaries would grow to the size of large oranges with lots of 'grapes' inside and the first time round I did struggle. It was uncomfortable and such an odd feeling being heavy in my abdomen. It's much easier this time but I may have spoken too soon!

No sadly phoenix no embies good enough to freeze which was disappointing as it seemed so hopeful at the beginning of the week.

Just got to hope these two are doing what they should be doing :)

Glad your scan went ok and good luck with another scan tomorrow x

Sorry to hear that anroga but you're right to have faith in those two! They could be the ones

Yep trying to keep positive phoenix x

allchat what's all this now about Brazil nuts and cat cow exercises? Are you guys just messing with me now or am I totally clueless to ll these little tips! How did ET go?

toes its getting really exciting now! Not looking forward to the 2ww - far too long!! My first scan is in the morning, how did you find it? Could you see anything on the screen? Why would they put the drugs up, do you know? Scan numbers sound good :) So many questions!!

Phoenix just read your question to toes, I've not even heard of estradiol before, I feel like I don't know anything today!! How exciting you have booked the venue and have a date already :) I went to see my first venue today and actually think it might be the one, but will probably feel like that at each one. Did you feel that way about your dress - they say you know when its 'the one' but I've looked and haven't seen even one I like yet :( All quite new to me though and so much to do. Sounds like you have a good number of follies as well?! and seriously... oranges and grapes??? That's huge

angroga Fingers crossed for your 2 xx

Was writing this, then stopped so we could do my injections and just realised I don't seem to have much gonal f left - the new pens aren't 900 iu like the one I was using (though I got 1000iu out of it?!!) they're 300 iu, and I've just used 50 out of one, so at 150iu each day I only have 3 days left of stimming? Should they give me more tomorrow do you think, or do they expect me to stop on Friday? Do you think they sent the wrong amount?

Also, that's the first time I have done my injections myself and I only did the pen one today (going away at the weekend on a hen do so I need to learn myself) - I was shaking so much, its going to be the biggest bruise, it was bleeding straight away and has gone all blue around it - ooops - is that going to cause any problems, or just a bruise?

Ok, my DP does not believe me about the ovaries getting so big - he's just laughing at me!! Is that real!? lol

Verney a mature follicle is about 25mm (2.5cm) so imagine 4 or 5 of them I your ovary - yes its real! and its just a bruise, I have a few too so font worry.

glad everyone is doing well with scans, liming and follicle numbers! they were happy with my follies so no change to dose, I'm doing 150iu and 225iu on alternate days.

allchat et came around fast! hope it all went OK. have got everything crossed for you.

Verkey I have attached a picture of a mature follicle at 18mm in an ovary. I will eventually have 8 or more of those on one side so you can imagine the size my ovary will grow to! It's very real

Phoenix, wow - 5 embryos that made it all the way to day 5 transferred and not a hint of a BFP. Did the clinic give you any reason? Assume someone thought the stimming protocol was no good and you are now trying new protocol since you are starting fresh with 3 still frozen?

anroga, I am sorry to hear that your other embryos all slowed down. I know how upset I was when my spare embryo didn't make it to freeze and I am now having to save $$$$ to start fresh. I didn't have cramping at all from ET onwards - but then again, I didn't get a BFP so here's hoping it's a good sign for you.

Yep lil, I've tried the pineapple thing. But what in the world are these cat cow exercises you mention allchat?!?!

gcerron, you don't sound happy with your lining at 10.5, reporting it as 'good enough'. From what I have read, it sounds perfect!

Okay, with everything happening here and I am waiting, I am off to prepare my list of questions for my IVF planning appt next week to feel like I am doing something productive.

I shall add my ignorance to the pile. No idea about pineapple or cat cow exercises or whatever the third thing was! I'm always scared about taking things that you have to stop at certain times. It always worries me that it's good to take it in the run up but then it's bad afterwards (or vice versa). I'm much happier with pigeon holing things as either 'good', or 'bad'!!! Still, now there are even more things to add to my anxiety over whether I should or shouldn't have taken them!

My husband forwarded me an article on IVF this morning. Thought you might be interested. It's praising the protocol of only transferring one embryo. Not just for improved health and birthweight for singletons but also seems to suggest the vanishing twin thing isn't a great idea (though possibly only a problem if they have to intervene physically in order to remove the foetus - it doesn't really go into massive detail). www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jan/21/health-ivf-babies-stillborn-births?CMP=ema_632

I'm still waiting for AF. Boring, and beginning to worry I'll run out of lucrin and have to pay another $300 for another vial, from which I'll probably only need one or two doses.

phoenix and verkey it must be good to have other things to obsess over, and weddings are such fun!.

I got married last year, and was keen to do it ASAP (as had been waiting so long for the proposal!). My hubby proposed on 14th may and we got married 10 weeks later on the other side of the world! (In the UK where my family and friends still live, despite us living in Aus). Managed to get his parents and two sisters to fly over too. It was beautiful - I found the perfect dress in Sydney and had my final fitting 2 days before we flew to England. I made our invitations myself and we booked the florist, venue, hair/make up and registrar from Australia, and did a whirlwind viewing the week before the wedding. Amazingly everything was perfect, including the weather. I think it was made a bit easier actually by being restricted on availability and not having to go and check out each place first etc. Loved it! (Left the dress on the plane by mistake on the way home, mind you, but (a) it was after the wedding so didn't really matter and (b) it found its way back to me in the end courtesy of a friendly BA pilot)

Wow shellster that really hit home when you put it that way no one has given any reasons, just that it's one of those things but as I said it's NHS! No frills involved, very basic treatment. We're on to our private cycle next so all tests etc will be paid for, we're not allowed to part pay as NHS.

Oh my gosh smidge as an organised freak that would drive me crazy! A wedding planned in a few weeks? How would I change my mind to make sure it's right? Aaaah!

verkey if I'm honest I didn't get that feeling with my dress like I thought I would. I thought I found the one and loved it but after only
24 hours I knew it was all wrong! I've transferred the deposit into another dress which I will try on again next month to make sure it's what I want. The bridal shop have been very lovely and patient hehe!

On my way to my second scan now! Fingers crossed my follicles haven't grown massive and sprouted legs!

Oh and I did try the pineapple thing.... Now I can't even smell pineapple without throwing up! Bleh!

Just left the clinic and as you mentioned shell my lining is great, today I did the ovulation test in the morning and it was positive so after check my previous result the doctor said that all the conditions that I need to go ahead with the ET are there so they don't need to do more scans. I will have the ET on Sunday, for now I need to have cyclogest and clexane at nights!!
Allchat I hope everything went well for you yesterday!! All the best for everybody

Just had my first scan at the clinic, a bit of an emotional experience! I think she said my lining is 7.4 which she seemed happy with at this stage, she went to my right ovary first and was quite quiet, poking around, then she went to my left one and seemed relieved! She said there are 8 follicles on my left but only one on my right.

I asked if this was due to me having a small right ovary but they're so good at being reassuring and making out it's not a problem, I wasn't really sure of the answer! Also I think I didn't take much in after that as it shocked me a bit - I expected there to be the same ish on both. She said not to worry as some ladies with less go on to have better results - but I think that was her being nice?! I asked her if it meant the right one doesn't really work, so without the drugs maybe I'm not making eggs on the right? She said maybe it does work normally and just has the one follicle normally and just hasn't done any more on the drugs - but I'm pretty sure it doesn't work - I've always had the twinges and pains on the left, hardly ever the right hand side, so I wasn't surprised back in my laparoscopy surgery in October when the surgeon said I had a small right ovary - he thinks maybe since birth? But most of my inside damage is on the right hand side - surely it's all linked!?

I know I'm going on a bit - sorry! Anyway she definitely said my follies need to grow more, but we're on the right track, so I'm not sure if they are the right size for the time, or if they're worried but she said to stay on the 150iu for now, unless she calls me to say otherwise, back Friday for a scan, probably Monday and EC wed-Friday depending on how I respond. Overall l have 9 follicles, just mostly on the one side

I have to say, even though she reassured me, it was the first time I felt like this might not work - I've been told by everyone and anyone "think positive" "you just have to know it will work" etc etc and I had convinced myself, its just my tubes that are a pain, bypass them, do ivf and boom, babytime, but today I think the reality of it all kicked in and my heart sank. It took everything I had not to burst into tears :(

Phoenix I started to read all the replies in the waiting area at the clinic, then went in and now I can't remember if she said mine were about 18mm or if I think that because I read your post just before I went in! Thanks for the picture :) Also, what do you mean by part pay - what would you have extra that you're not getting now? My friend has NHS ivf and went back and forth between private and NHS - but maybe that was only in the referral stage, not the actual IVF? How was your scan today? Do your follies have legs yet?!

Smidge I'm not sure if the wedding is a welcome distraction, or more of a worry as I'm trying to plan the dates based around if/when the ivf works! Not wanting to be 9 months and walking down the aisle etc! You way sounds amazing - I'm worried about money as want to make sure we have some left to be able to do more IVF if need be! It sure makes me think twice about how much I want to spend on centrepieces and decor compared to how much IVF we could have for that money!!

gc that's fab news re your scan, best of luck for Sunday and allchat hope it all went well yesterday!?

Oh verkey don't worry there are a lot of positives of being where you are right now, trust me. I think we're basically in exactly the same boat - 9 follicles, EC probably on Wednesday or Friday, keeping up with the stimms. Here's how I've been looking at it: fewer follies means less chance of OHSS, which I've been very worried about since before we started this whole journey. With a reduced risk of OHSS there is less chance that the cycle will get cancelled and they'll have to freeze all the embies for a few months until the eggs. Obviously there is all the health concerns with that, but selfishly, I want to be pregnant now so any delays would be frustrating.
The other positive I take from it is that a lot of people say that slower growing follicles produce better eggs, so though we might only have 9, there's a good chance they'll all make brilliant eggs, whereas if we had 18 massive ones already, we'd still end up with 9!
The other great thing is that egg collection on Wednesday would mean that the due date would be the 21st October, which is apparently international Nacho day!

Hiya. ET was ok. Bit late going in, but they were all lovely. Had a female doc this time which if I'm honest makes me a bit more relaxed. It was slightly more uncomfortable than last time at the beginning but the actual procedure was quick and smooth which is good and the biggest worry.

Unfortunately the first embie they defrosts didn't make it, but the other one did. So this is it for me. Really need it to work this time.

Can't remember who asked but I was ttc for a long time doing rounds on the boards so picked up quite a bit. Someone else explained the pineapple thing really well. You can't overdo a pineapple! It's not that big. Just one portion a day for 2 days. Brazil nuts for protein to help implantation and cat/cow for blood flow to uterus. I cramp if I walk as I recall last time, so I'm taking it a lot easier but doing little things.

verkey - you sound really panicked and emotional. Things can change so much in only one day in ivf and I think it's better to take each stage as it comes. Be grateful to get to EC, then for fertilisation then to get to EC. Each stage is a triumph and not everyone gets to complete all stages, so it is a worrying time. You seem to be doing great though and remember the bigger numbers don't always yield the best results. I think I was a high achiever with 12 eggs and 12 fertilised, but I'm one of the few that didn't get a bfp. Every day my DH tells me not to over think it. After shouting at him, I totally get why he says it. You drive yourself mad. Despite the science and the odds and the text book cycle, IVF is a lottery.