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?

Shellster, I've just looked for my notes to see if I had progynova during my 2ww, but I can't find them at the moment....DH has had a bit of a tidy-up .
VeBee - so pleased we could pass on the helping Karma - I've found this thread and its pre-decessor so useful for info and support throughout my IVF journey...it's a group of women going through the same thing in slightly different ways, so welcome and feel free to pick our brains/compare symptoms/rant or just hang out and good luck with your appointment tomorrow.
Annie - you're being so brave xxx

Ok so now I'm intrigued by Synarel....why is it so bad? What happens when you're on it?!

I'm glad you'll be taking steroids Purple - makes sense. You'll be introducing a 'foreign body' (foreign egg!) into your womb so you don't want your immune system to kick in. I also took steroids during my last cycle as the doctor thought my immune system might be to blame for my chemical pregnancies. I'm excited for you - the success rate with DE is much higher than OE. I have a good feeling about your cycle!

Shellster time goes glacially slow when you're waiting. At least you can now get started on your pre-IVF prep. I quite like where I am right now....I can get on with the injections in blissful ignorance of what is going on down below....I guess my bubble may be burst at the scan tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Annie, as Purple says you are being very brave. Any sign of AF? I wonder if you've had a chemical pregnancy. Not a good result but at least it tells you the embryo was good enough to stick around for a while. That's useful info for a future cycle (if you decide to try again).

Welcome vebee

ahhh but I'm not really being strong I'm afraid. Very fragile and teary.

No sign of AF as I had an injection of Decapetyl on 29th Dec and that is a contraception injection to close everything down for at least 3 months. So not expecting her soon. I would actually quite like to see her as it would mean I can start trying again.

Yes I think it was definitely a 'chemical'. A positive last thursday and zilch since. What a long wait until beta and I really don't have the heart to go in there tomorrow to get it just to hear the result of 0.1 or whatever.

I do try to find the positive in the fact that I have been pregnant 3 times in 2.5 years if you include this one. That's good. It's just a shame they're not strong enough quality to last the pace but also it's a good thing that they don't last longer resulting in loss later in pregnancy. I'm hoping to find that elusive good one.

Today I'm mostly pretending to work at home whilst watching Mel & Sue under the duvet of doom. I phoned the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary ACU and they said there was no waiting list so that's good and I've achieved something. That is an option if I do decide to have another go although there are some bad reviews on Fertility Friends site but I could go round in circles looking at clinics and just need to decide and get on with it. If my period comes at the end of March then maybe I could start in April. Up until this phone call I was saying "That's it, no more IVF, I've been through enough, if it happens it happens". Anyway I'll go to my WTF appointment (love that name!) after the beta result and take it from there.

The Magne B6 sounds interesting Purple. I suppose they think it aid's pregnancy success in general rather than just for donor cycles as your body doesn't know the egg is from a donor. I stopped my pre-natal many moons ago as it was costing a fortune and BFP's were not happening. Might get back on them now and make sure they have these two supplements for my last IVF. Thanks for the tip.

Welcome *VeeBee. Wow, 6 years is a long time. I find this thread fantastic. Not only is it a place to rant away what's on my mind, but it is also an alternative to being on the internet researching which is what I used to do and only stressed me out. Hope your appointment goes well.

Oh Annie, i remember not wanting to go in my my beta blood test after I had received my period as hearing a nurse tell me negative only felt like rubbing salt in the wound. I am telling myself no more IVF after this upcoming cycle... well actually my bank account is telling me this. But I can imagine if it failed I really don't want to let go of this dream. Does your clinic offer a WTF appt as standard after a failed IVF that you will attend?

Tears are good, Annie - (really they are - they release cortisol and so actually leave you feeling less stressed). Thinking of you. I can imagine that the last thing you want to do today is go and have that blood test x. Just a thought re next time, if you decide to go for it. Rather than go to the clinic in Edinburgh that clearly doesn't fill you with great confidence why not check out ours in Cz? I mean, you've got to fly anyway, you'll only need 2x 24 hour trips there, it's cheaper and they get extraordinary results. It's the Arleta clinic, if you fancy a bit of a google. xxx

Blue - I'm just making a fuss about the Synarel. Not a big fan of sticking things up my nose (!), you can taste the drug at the back of your throat for ages afterwards and it's not very pleasant. That's all, really - I don't like change and I quite liked the way that buserelin made me feel! I've had mild nausea with the Synarel - nothing like the crippling headaches that poor Shellster described.

Shellster, the other thing that the clinic recommended - and I think I just take this from ET onwards, but I'll check my schedule - was Metafolin - an alternative form of folic acid (from my research it sounds closer to folate, the natural form of folic acid) which they recommend for people who have had multiple pregnancy losses after a first successful pregnancy. He said that some people cannot absorb folic acid and although they will have adequate reserves for a first pregnancy, this first pregnancy tends to deplete resources and the woman then cannot sustain subsequent pregnancies. The brand name is femibion.

Sending you a hug Annie - hopefully you can get some useful information out of the WTF meeting regardless of the blood test results. I think Purple has a good point about foreign clinics. I had a really good Skype consultation with Dr Hausken from 'Hausken Klinikk' in Norway www.klinikkhausken.no/en/ . They have great results and the prices are cheaper than the UK. There is a direct flight from Aberdeen to Bergen! Anyway, if you'd consider using an overseas clinic I definitely recommend doing a free Skype consultation with him. He's very sensible and gave me lots of useful advice.

Shellster I'm interested to hear that you aren't taking a prenatal. Do you just take a regular multivitamin? Anything with the word 'pregnancy' seems to be twice the price of regular medicine. I also spend a fortune on 'pregnacare conception' but when I read the ingredients it's basically a multivitamin. Just another way to extract some £££ from my dwindling supply of cash!

My scan went well this morning - still got 8 follicles and they appear to be growing nicely. I'll be back for another scan on Saturday. Menopur is making me bloated but apart from that I feel pretty good. I think I'm still riding on the crest of my CoQ10 wave (ie, I'm still a complete CoQ10 addict).

Hooray for growing follicles, Blue.
I've just had a call from the lovely PA of our lovely consultant from the UK clinic. Although the clinic wouldn't do an endo scratch for me as I'm no longer a patient, he's agreed to do it at another clinic and they've had a cancellation tonight. It needed to be this week or not at all, so I'd rather given up hope that it could happen.

Annie I don't usually post on this thread but saw your post and wanted to let you just that I just got my BFP from doing ICSI at ERI and I found them to be great. The consultant in charge of the department is Dr Thong and he's wonderful. I was also at the spire which I believe is shitting down so if you're self funding you'd be under his care still!

I found that ERI were less fluffy and super nice like some clinics are, but that works best for me, I like things told to me straight. You do have to badger them for information though, if you're a person who needs to know things! The only time I was unhappy with ERI was with the information provided after egg collection. The 5 days between EC and ET were annoying. All they told me was that they collected 19 eggs and 14 fertilised. It was only on transfer day that I found out that only 2 had survived to day 5 because they didn't tell me anything after day 1! On the other hand, thinking back, I'd have been even more stressed about transfer if I knew so maybe it was for the best!

All the nurses and doctors were really fantastic though, I had some very horrible experiences (medically due to the shape of my cervix) and they all looked after me so so well.

Holy crap so many typos! I'm on my phone, sorry!

HE was also at the spire, which I believe is SHUTTING down!

Congratulations, Toes and at the typo!
(ironically I typed "gin" instead of "grin" then!)

haha Toesandfingers, it probably IS shit that the clinic is shutting down! . Nice to hear from you.

Purple that is FAB news about the endo scratch. Perhaps this is a karmic sign from the IVF gods that this is definitely your lucky cycle!

Oh, let's hope so, Blue. I certainly feel much more optimistic now that we've taken my rubbishy old eggs out of the equation...

Oh thank you SO much for popping on toes i really really needed to hear that this afternoon .

So good to here ERI is good, i did read some positives too and hoped that some of the nurses would get jobs there and I'd see them again. Dr thong is brilliant, I have total trust in him and like his direct manner. I find him really pleasant to deal with. And I did get pregnant! The nurses and embryologist at spire have been so professional and caring. They do seem really rushed so if expect that at ERI but even more so because of time and stretched resources.

The only thing I'm worried about is having to renew tests that have expired since sept/oct last year but that's a hurdle I will just have to jump and not that difficult really. Things might be easier 2nd time round.

Today I'm feeling like I do want to go ahead with ERI under Dr Thong's care again and get a consultation booked after my beta result and then my post ivf consultation with Dr Thong.

And yes blue is shitting well shutting down !

Thank you so much for all the info on clinics abroad too I do really like the idea and it makes sense, I just don't have the heart for it at the moment. I'll definitely look into it next week though when I'm feeling stronger.

Went for blood test this morning and told to phone for result Friday pm.

Thank you all so much lovely lovely ladies xxx??

purple fab news on your scratch for tonight . It feels so good when things click into place like that xx

*hear ... Lots of spelling errors with me too and autocorrect on phone drives me mad! My posts are always littered with mistakes!

Actually blue, I'm not even taking a multi; just folic acid tablets. They are SO much cheaper than the pre-natal and I figure that since I am eating lots of vegies with my IVF diet and also adding either super-greens or kale powder to my protein shake each morning along with linseed and cocao, I am getting enough vitamins naturally. Although I just used my last folic acid tablet this morning so tomorrow I will be switching back to a pre-natal that I purchased after my transfer last IVF cycle which contains magnesium and B6, just as Purple's clinic advised.

I didn't know about tears releasing cortisol purple. Very interesting. Thanks also for the tip regarding the metafolin. My prenatal already has 500mmcg of folic acid so I wonder if I will be overdosing on the stuff if I go and buy this natural folic acid to add to my regime? Does your clinic advise a re-natal on top of this? I am so glad you got your scratch organised. It's one less thing to stress about.

I checked my cervix today for signs of ovulation so I can start the progesterone post ovulation and it is still low instead of high as it should be right before ovulation. I then realised that I normally stop the Aspirin on day 10 of my cycle (as Aspirin inhibits ovulation) and today is day 12. Really hoping that I still ovulate normally so I can go ahead with IVF next cycle. Will be OPKing like a mad woman over the next couple of days!

They didn't say anything about my multi vit, Shellster - not that I thought to ask - so I'm continuing to take it for all the other nutrients.

Had my scratch last night. Turned out that my lovely consultant bent the rules a bit to fit me in, bless him.

I was the only person in the waiting room and the nurse came in to say hello and said she hoped I didn't mind, but that she'd spotted on my notes that I was doing DE IVF overseas. She showed me a picture of her beautiful 5yo twins and said that's how they came about. So lovely to hear about the happy endings

That nurse would be the lost lovely person to have along side you for women doing IVF at that clinic... a woman who has been through it and actually understands. And a Dr who bent the rules for you. I hope this is the first of many good things continuing for you throughout this treatment. This whole change in vitamins regime is getting me all confused. Should I take magnesium, B6 and Metafolin, or just continue taking a pre-natal which should have the correct amounts of all essential vitamins for pregnancy... although perhaps I am not absorbing the folic acid as I should. But then again, re-current miscarriage is not my issue. Will finish my current two week supply of pre-natals and then see what my pharmacy stocks here.

blue, when is your next scan? The last one seemed early days and didn't give too much insight into how many follicles are going to mature. The next one must be soon?

I stopped the Aspirin last night - CD12. I hope it wasn't too late for it to get out of my system so I can ovulate. Wish I had my own scanner at home and I could see if there is a follicle there ready to burst. Instead I shall be OPKing like a mad woman today. Probably get a blood test to check my progesterone levels are starting to rise naturally before I start the Crinone.

Hi all - I have another scan scheduled for tomorrow morning so I will keep you posted. I started the cetrotide this morning so I'm now on 2 injections a day - cetrotide in the AM then 450 menopur in the evening. Feeling pretty good, not overly bloated (yet). Hopefully things are growing down there.

That's great about your scratch Purple and it's always nice to hear success stories! I saw someone I hadn't seen for a long time yesterday and he revealed that his twins are the result of IVF treatment 4 years ago. He and his wife had 2 go's, she got 16 eggs on the second attempt (!), 8 fertilised. Wow. Not quite my reality.

Shellster you are like a clinical researcher when it comes to IVF...you should publish a paper! I'm amazed at how you keep up with all this stuff. I can picture you in your lab kitchen down there in Australia, figuring out your ovulation charts/vitamins/progesterone/temperature. I am impressed. You are definitely overdue a dose of good luck.

I think that's just my way of dealing with this blue and stopping me from having an emotional break down and 9 failed IVF attempts. I just try to stay practical and so after each IVF, I have tried to take an objective look at what went wrong, and fix things for the next cycle. I did have a positive OPK yesterday so I do feel hopeful that I have ovulated and can start IVF next cycle. Will get a blood test Monday to confirm.

blue, wow, 16 eggs! Yes, in some ways it's nice to hear success stories, but in another way, hearing these stories can be a bit depressing as we can only dream of 16 eggs. Albeit, I have actually had 16 mature eggs retrieved in total, of which 9 have fertilised normally, 1 arrested at day 2 check, 3 were transferred on day 2, 2 arrested at day 3 check and 2 were transferred at day 3 and 1 arrested at day 5 check. So I guess with her 16 eggs and getting twins, while I have had 16 eggs and got squat, my eggs must just be a bit suckier! Grrrr.

I am so hoping you get good news at your scan tomorrow. C'mon 8 little follies!

blue wishing you so much good luck for scan, come on follies!

purple what a wonderful compassionate experience! Not everybody can have a scratch like that??

Stay strong shellster we all think you're amazing, we are putting all our hearts into you getting there.xxxxxxxx

I FINALLY found out my beta result and it's 0.1 - so that's a negative. All I want right now is to start another cycle and will be putting all my energy into that.

Have a lovely relaxing weekend ladies, I'm going to try to take time to just "be". I look at my little dog and think how great it would be to just live in the moment! "Where's my food? I need sleep. Look at me running into the sea!" That kind of thing . Xxx

Thanks Annie. You sound like me; wanting to put all my energy straight into plan B to help me move forward. This next cycle really has to be my last due to financial reasons so it would be difficult when my mind says don't quit but my wallet gives me no choice. But I am obviously focused on doing all I can for my egg health and optimal embryo quality so I don't have to worry about that.

I like your little dog observation and I think I shall try to follow suit this weekend too! Mmm, think I'm going to go for an evening walk. Goodnight.

Annie just so you know, I've heard Dr Thong likes you to have a few bleeds after a negative result even for FET but especially for another fresh cycle, so you might want to mentally prepare yourself for a 3 month wait even if you're self funding. It might be annoying but some people think that's why ERI have such a good success rate with FET (better than fresh cycles!)

Thanks so much fingersAndtoes that's really good to know. I will be mentally prepared for next EC not being until possibly July then - which gives me plenty time to get fit, lose weight and build up emotional strength again and I really need to do that. I also gives us a good chance to try naturally again which we both want.

shellster yes, all focus on this cycle. You know you CAN produce good grade embryos. I think there is something in FET being more successful than fresh cycle, someone suggested I ask for only one embryo to be transferred for fresh and save the other (if I get two) for FET. I think it's worth researching and makes sense to spread the risk.

Must go and walk the dog it's very cold here today and he hates the snow!

Hi all can I join you? Posted here before but not often on as I mod on FF so tend to be kept busy on there. Shell pointed me in the direction of this thread.
I'm on cycle number 4, 2nd time with Donor eggs, last donor cycle the donor gave us one :( We are having...
Scratch
Glue
Clexane
Prednisilone
Gestone
Embryoscope
So hoping for a better donor. My infertility is caused by POF dye to stage 4 endo and knackered tubes. Good luck to everyone cycling