Anyone starting IVF soon? Join me (2)

[purplemeggie]

I see we've filled up the thread and thought I'd better start another one. How's everyone doing?

Hello! Thanks for starting a new thread purple

Thanks purple!

I got a positive today. Can't believe it! Really hope it's a plain sailing from now on. Thanks all for your support and wishing you all well and your happy ending v soon.

Good thinking Purple.

I'm fine - cervical stitch firmly in place ready for the transfer which will hopefully take place tomorrow. It wasn't too bad in the end and didn't take long. Worst bit was the local anesthetic injected into my cervix. That smarted for a moment, but after that I was barely aware of whatever rummaging the doctor was doing up there.

Congratulations inconceivableme!

Now that is a good positive start to the new thread.

Woop! Woop! inconceivableme! Lovely news to start a new thread with. So happy for you xxx

GoBigO glad the stitch wasn't as bad as it sounded. "Rummaging" haha!

that's amazing inconceivable, well done!! Great to kick off the new thread with some good news! You must be thrilled to bits.

GoBig everything about your post makes me shudder...you are very brave!

Hello, newbie here

I lurked for a while on your last thread and thought I'd come and say hi...

I'm 35, and have been TTC unsuccessfully for 4 years following a termination for medical reasons (please don't judge me, I feel bad enough as it is )

I had some minor adhesions following the termination, but most recent investigations show nothing wrong so going for first shot at IVF this cycle. All being well, should start gonal f injections 2nd nov ish.

My consultant is very optimistic, but I wish I was. AMH has come back as 12.8 which I guess is positive, and the fact that DH and I conceived so easily last time is also good. I just feel very gloomy this evening, feel like this is the start of a long and painful road...

...and congratulations inconceivableme fabulous news

Inconcdeivable - wow!
I was really worried for you.
I really assumed that spotting would only occur at around day 6 of embryo's life when it implants - not when your period is due.
But very glad for you that you have proven my theory wrong!

bluemoon, would be nice if we are IVFing around the same time.
Nice to have someone to vent with as we go through things together.
Albeit, perhaps I will be feeling slightly jealous as I watch all your embryos fertilise and grow to day 5 while only half of mine fertilise and then slowly dwindle away!
Glad to hear all tests so far were okay - but on the other side of the coin it kinda doesn't give you any answers for what to 'fix' for next cycle.
So will you still do heparin and low dose steroids?

Welcome Hen
I think it's a natural protection to not want allow yourself to be optimistic after having month after month of failure for four years.
Yes, an AMH of 12.8 sounds like a great start at least.
Mine was 2.5 when I was 34 - I'm now 37!
I will be starting IVF injections around 23rd Nov so a bit behind you.

Woo hoo! That's great, Inconceivable - and as Annie says - lovely to start the thread on such an upbeat note. I think you need a change of username...

Hello Hen and welcome. Poor you to have had to terminate for medical reasons when all you want is to have a baby. I can only imagine how heartbreaking that must have been. Wishing you all the best for your IVF cycle.

Orange - hoping that you've had your transfer by now, that all went well and that you have a zenlike 2WW with a happy outcome.

Hi Blue and Shellster

Hi

I hope you don't mind me joining I think a few ladies maybe have their treatment the same time as me and as I don't know anyone who's had IVF before it's been quite lonely.

I'm 34 and my Husband is 33, we've been trying to conceive for just over a year, I don't ovulate and my Husband has low sperm count due to being a prem baby - not that you'd know it as he's 6ft 4in.

We are going private for treatment at Wessex Fertility in Southampton as we don't get NHS funding as we don't meet the criteria as we've only been trying for a year and our CCG require you to be under 35.

My AMH level is 62 and even though hubby have low count we've been told there are few motile normal sperm so we are hopefully having our first ICSI treatment in December.

I should be taking my first injrction around 22nd Nov, but my cycle ranges from 28 - 48 days so who knows.

The thing I'm most afraid of at the moment is the injections, I'm still very much a needle phob and the thought of having them actually makes me want to cry.

I found it really useful reading the forums to see what others have experienced and have people that know and understand how and what I'm feeling.

Congrats inconceivable it gives everyone hope that we will all get our BFPs!!

Welcome aboard BatteryPoweredHen and Frazoz - IVF isn't an easy journey, so it definitely helps to have people in the same boat to vent to and sympathize with. Wishing you both all the very best of luck with your cycles.

I found the injections very scary at first too Frazoz and for the first one I probably spent about twenty minutes with my belly out and syringe in hand panicking and trying to talk myself into jabbing it in. I shut my eyes and did a war cry as I finally wildly stabbed it in

I didn't find that the subcutaneous shots hurt at all, and it really does get easier psychologically the more you do - I can now do an injection at great speed without an ounce of hesitation.

But if you get offered a choice between progesterone pessaries and progesterone injections I recommend the pessaries as the progesterone injections do hurt a little bit and the needles are considerably bigger too (my subcutaneous needles are about 11mm long and very, very thin, the intramuscular ones I have for the progesterone are 37mm long and thicker) so not good if you're a needle phobe.

Or you could always rope your husband in to do them which some women find easier. I couldn't with mine though, because he is far worse with needles than I am!

As for me, I was really scared when I got the expected call this morning to go in (or stay home), as the embryologist who called sounded about as cheery as Eeyore and I was convinced he was going to deliver the bad news that neither of the little sods had defrosted.

But nope, both were fine and they wanted me in for transfer. So I now have one 3AB and one 2BB on board. So here's hoping one or both of them manage to hang around. Blood pregnancy test is booked for November 7th but I'll be peeing on sticks long before then

Hello again - Thanks for your welcome and you kind words purple, it was a horrible horrible experience and I am dreading the scans etc that IVF involves. Oddly fine with injections though, but I completely understand that panicy tearful feeling!

I don't know if it's allowed in IVF, but might a local anaesthetic cream like EMLA be useful for you Frazoz? It just numbs the skin (I used it when I first started epilating and it was really helpful)

GoBigOrange that is wonderful news! So pleased for you, I have everything crossed

How are you doing inconceivableme?

Well, current stress for me is finding someone to do my scans and bloods - I am being treated at the Lister, but live approx 2 and a half hours away. My local Nuffield 'might be able to' do the them for me, but it is just so angst-ridden getting an answer. Hoping to have baseline scan on Monday so time ticking on.

Also just found out that DH's GP hasn't ordered the full set of bloods that are required so he will have to go to the Lister to get them done this week.

All feeling a bit stressful tonight, but at least things are moving in the right direction!

p.s. Frazoz How are you finding the Wessex Clinic? They were 'on our list' so to speak - I hope you are getting on well with them?

Thanks for your message GoBigOrange I should have mentioned that I have no intention doing them myself.....my god id never make it into work..lol

I work in London so door to door it takes me about 2hrs so I'm "making" my husband get up early so he can do them before I leave.

I have gel progestrone for the same reason (work), I told the clinic my days are long enough as it is, let along having to get up at 5.30am to use pessaries so I do mine at night once a day.

Congrats on getting two good eggs!! Can I ask why you decided to put two back? We were told by the consultant that I could carry twins I'm 5ft 6in and that it would increase our chances above 45%, when I asked the nurse they said that two does increase your chances aswell even though they are being told not to recommend it. My concern with two, even though it may increase your chances of pregnancy does that translate into birth rates?

I had a call from the clinic whilst on the train and they told me that they had 8 straws from my husbands back-up freeze and when they tested one they saw some good motile sperm and said the remaining 7 would be used for one cycle. He also said that when we do our fresh cycle my husband should be able to produce enough for that to be successful for ICSI.

I will be keeping my fingers crossed for you for the 7th nov!!

BatteryPoweredHen I'm not sure if you can use cream and when we had our set-up we had two nurses and they didn't mention it. I might be terrified and might even cry but I want a baby so just have to deal with it

The clinic have been really good they respond to e-mails really quickly, we never feel rushed and our set-up appointment lasted 2hrs I was asking that many questions.

The only thing is they don't have a proper car park (stupid to mention) but my husband nearly had an accident trying to find a space before going in to do his back-up freeze so he wasn't in the best frame of mind.

Another good thing is they have a satellite office in The Candovers (Basingstoke) so I dont have to travel down to Southampton for the scans and blood tests just ER and ET.

Since going private Ive found that my stress levels have decreased trying to do it through the NHS was driving me crazy.

I hope you manage to find a clinic that's closer for you.

Some people swear by rubbing an ice-cube on the site before you inject. I found the injections absolutely fine - the thought is much worse than the reality.

Thanks ladies you are slowly putting my mind at ease, maybe just using the ice would settle my mind even if it doesn't actually make much difference. Part of me thinks just do it so you know that it's not that bad otherwise everytime having that anxiety which can't be good with TTC

Frazoz are you big or small?! I ask because I have skinny legs and I found it painful to inject the (non existent) fat bit of my thigh. The nurse at my clinic was insistent that it's better to do the thigh than the stomach, but when I looked into this I discovered that's a load of rubbish and I could have done stomach all along! Stomach is much easier in my opinion....especially for the scrawny legged. As others have said, it really doesn't hurt. You just need to get over the initial psychological barrier and you'll be ok once you've done it a couple of times.

Shellster pleased to hear that we might be cycle buddies. I had the hysteroscopy today and the doctor spotted what he thinks may be a small septum. I'm going for a 3D scan on Saturday so he can check it out properly (?!), I might have to have it removed before we start another cycle. I've read that if embryos implant on a septum, the chance of miscarriage is pretty high. Who knows if this is the culprit but I guess he just wants to rule everything out before we start again. I think I'll be doing a short cycle with Menopur, Gonal F, heparin, aspirin and steroids this time.

GoBig congrats on the good news and please keep us posted. Hello to everyone else....Purple, good to see you are doing ok. Thinking of you and Annie

Thanks Blue. Fingers crossed that the septum is the culprit and they can fix it.

Shellster and Bluemoonday I think we are all starting around the same day? I'm on a short protocol aswell I only hope AF shows (never thought I'd say that)

Bluemoonday I'm a size 14 so I wouldn't class that as small. The clinic have only ever told me to inject in my belly below my belly button alternating between sides. Good luck for your scan.

Welcome Frazoz, I can only echo everyone elses words re the injections. The Puregon pen is absolutely the least painful thing. I still manage to hesitate every time before I put it in and then after I always wonder why I hesitate when it feels like nothing. The Menopur is a little more tender, but glad you have hubby to help. Is that a type that your AMH is 62? Mine is 2.5! I guess because you never ovulate you have loads of eggs just waiting for IVF. Meanwhile I am a poor responder. I think I am going to be jealous if we do IVF at the same time while I hear your ultrasound reports of having 30 follicles while I have 5 or 6!

Blue, very interesting about your hysteroscopy result. I too have a deviated septum. I have had several ultrasounds and only one person mentioned it so I gather it isn't very major. But now that you mention it could be an implantation problem, definitely something I am going to ask my Dr when I go for my scratch in two weeks. Didn't realise surgery can fix it. Keep me posted on how you go as it might help me know what to ask my Dr about my septum. Hope we still end up cycling together - would be nice to have you along side who also isn't a great egg layer but still gets blasts as a reminder of quality over quantity.

Hello again,

I know this info re injections is directed at Frazoz but thanks so much for sharing your knowledge ladies, it really means a lot.

I hope everyone is well? Good to hear that the Wessex are looking after you Frazoz, annoying about the parking though - I'm not sure whether I am going to drive to my appointments or not yet - consultant has given me some Valium to help with my anxiety re scans and I don't really want to drive while taking them.

Interesting re septum, I guess it makes sense, the septum tissue probably isn't as vascularised as the actual endometrium so implantation not possible there. It sounds (fairly) easily fixable though, which has to be a good thing.

Well, I have finally managed to find somewhere locally to do my scans and bloods - after several days of faffing with several hospitals, my local BMI hospital were so helpful and reassuring, so we have decided to go with them which is a massive weight off my mind.

Also have received the results of DH's SA today - not sure what to make of it really, count is 8million/ml, motility 39% and morphology good. The embryologist who gave DH the results said that she would definitely recommend ICSI based on this sample. Would that be right? The results don't seem that bad (do they?)

Expecting AF any day now, I've turned into even more of a fractious harpy than I usually do so I know she is heading my way. Anticipating baseline scan on Monday-ish and starting stimms tues/weds, I imagine?

Can I just ask, does anybody have any idea why I am heading straight to stimms without any down-reg? is this normal?

Thanks, I can't tell you how much I appreciate having someone to talk to about this, haven't told anyone IRL and really feeling quite stressed...

Just a quick hello to battery. I did short protocol on my fresh cycle. No down reg, just birth control pill for month prior to IVF cycle, but many clinics don't bother with that. I did low dose stims short protocol due to having PCOS. Consultant said long protocol with full down reg would shut me down so I'd need large amount of stims to produce eggs which is too risky for PCOS women. HTH

Purple - yes, name change needed, happily!

Will post more later. Thinking of you all esp the 2WWers. x