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?

blue so sorry to year it was bfn but really glad you have a plan. Perhaps a fet might work better, I've been reading a lot about the benefits of frozen cycles and how its more 'natural' as you don't have all the stimms etc. fingers crossed it works for you x

Shellster - just realised that my "pep talk" was delivered with no emoticons or happy punctuation or anything there...I was on my phone, so typing was a bit of an ordeal....hope you know me well enough by now to know that it was intended to be delivered gently and kindly, rather than as a rather terse instruction! With a cup of earl grey tea and a magical slice of low-carb cake xxx

Did anyone else get period type pain after their transfer? I had one transferred on Monday and knew to expect some pain but it's getting worse. Can't test till 23rd so feeling quite anxious. Also fed up of sticking pessaries up my bum lol

Should add that I had a 3dt. Do you include the day you had the transfer - am I day 5 or 6 post transfer?
Thanks folks
Phe x

Oh blue. I am so sorry. Somehow my gut says that it doesn't seem all about embryo quality. You have the strongest embryos on record from what I've seen. If they were genetically abnormal, I would think that you would miscarry at say 6 weeks, then one at 8 weeks, but to have them all just implant before failing, or not being able to implant in the first place it does feel like there's something going on. Something has caused your blocked tubes. Is it possible the same thing has also affected your uterus? I know you need time to grieve now but when you have strength and before you move on to FET, I personally (research obsessed me), would do some research in this regard. Of course, it's your journey and you do what feels right for you but my gut just screams that something else is going on to cause failed implantation other than embryo quality. Sending you a big cyber hug.

purple, I think I needed the first stern pep talk with no soft emotions! Although to be honest, with my 9 IVF history, I have done so much visualization in the past and then get disappointed when I go for a scan and it shows otherwise. So this time I just don't feel like doing the same thing as it feels like it's only going to lead to the same outcome.

How are things with you purple???? What's the latest embryo update? Must be a whole new feeling doing embryo transfer while holidaying with family and exploring new things.

Phephson, we are all so different and there is just no definite answer as to whether period pain means BFP or BFN. I am sure you know that but of course the 2ww drives us all insane and we pay attention to every symptom. Does your period normally come around this time. If not, perhaps you can take that as a good sign that it must be something else going on (ie. implantation) to help keep you sane while you wait.

Phephson I had period type pains after transfer. I don't think it means anything in terms of pregnancy or not - I think is just your body reacting to being poked around. I had them for the first couple of weeks of pregnancy too though, if that makes you feel better. Waiting To find out is the hardest thing. Stay strong !

Shellster all good here. Yes It's nice to be relaxing with Mr Purple and ds and Prague is lovely. Five of our embryos were looking good this morning. The other two were beginning to fragment. We'll have to see how they look tomorrow. Xxx

Woo hoo. Five. Lets hope that's both our lucky number this cycle. Hope Prague keeps you distracted and sane until Monday!

Thank you Shellster - of to see the castle today.

Safe journey Blue

Morning purple enjoy the castle, it's beautiful.

So I started sniffing Synarel this morning. I fought the urge to blow my nose after for at least an hour, and then couldn't stop blowing it for an hour. Is this normal? How can you make sure the stuff actually gets absorbed instead of blowing ££££ drugs onto a tissue? .

Sending positive vibes and lots of fingers-crossed-ness to all...

Ha ha! I think it gets absorbed pretty quickly Cat, nasal membranes are pretty efficient, hence that being the route for delivery for various illicit drugs. I down -regged with Synarel this time and although i didn't like sniffing it at first, once i was used to it i loved it. I am a big fan of down regging and having a small holiday from the crazy hormones! It used to Make me sneeze a lot,but fortunately not straight away soI think some went in !

I'm a bit confused by today's update....it is a little lost in translation. The pictures all look a bit messy, but it's day 4 and they should be morulae now, shouldn't they, which lose their definition. The text says:

Three embryos have slowly development. There are good embryos for transfer and other embryos have physologicall development too. So we expect that we will freez other good embryos tomorow.

• which I am taking to mean that 3 of the embryos have slowed down, but that they expect to have two to transfer and two to freeze - do you agree? In which case, I'm hoping that the three that have slowed down include the two that were a bit fragmented yesterday...

My transfer is scheduled for 8 am tomorrow (that's 7 am UK time) - and we have a two-hour drive to the clinic, so it's going to be an early o'clock start!

Purple.. I have no idea what that message means! It's confusing. Maybe they are saying that 'slow development' is a good thing? Ie, slowly but surely they have developed? Hard to decipher. It seems that you definitely have some to transfer and some to freeze though, so that's great news.

I'm in Azerbaijan now - got back from Zurich on Fri evening. At least all this travel is taking my mind off infertility misery. Shellster you are sweet. I'm pretty convinced that the failure is related to my 'diminished ovarian reserve' though. It seems the fewer eggs you have left, the worse the quality. The likelihood of 'anuploidy' (spelling?) is much higher. Even though my eggs fertilise and 'look' great, they probably aren't. Our doctor said we have about a 10-15% chance of a successful live birth using my own eggs. I think it's about 25% in general for all women (miserable statistic).

My blocked tubes are caused by scar tissue from bowel surgery. I've had a couple of hysteroscopies, a 3D ultrasound and a HSG and they're satisfied that my uterus is OK. I read an interesting article that abdominal surgery/scar tissue can actually speed up the 'egg aging' process, leading to premature diminished egg reserve. So perhaps my bowel surgery is the reason for my pathetic egg supply.

Anyway we're going to give this frozen embryo cycle our best shot. My lining is always pretty good and I think I might give horrible old acupuncture another try. I'm also going to try and avoid work stress this time around and make sure I'm not travelling anywhere after egg transfer. I'll stick with the CoQ10, L-Arginine and other supplements. If anyone has any other ideas, please do let me know!

Sorry for the mega long post. I need to think about something else ....IVF is giving me brain ache! Shellster, Purple, all eyes on you for the next few days. Cat, enjoy the downregging....I also liked it. It gave my raging hormones a rest.

Oh and one other thing I've decided to do ....I'm going to up my dose of prednisolone (steroids) from 10mg a day to 20mg. I've never had my natural killer cell levels checked but apparently 20mg is the recommended dose to put a stop to any NK activity. My doctor thinks NK cells are load of rubbish but I think I'll (secretly) up my dose just for peace of mind.

Blue that spins very much like the conversation we had with our consultant in the UK after the last cycle.

On the steroid front, if you up the dose to 20mg, how long will they last you? Just remember being told that if you were on them for longer than a couple of weeks you needed to wean yourself off them rather than stopping overnight. When I had them last time I was given a steroid card to carry so that if something happened to me they would know to give them to me in hospital. Cheery, I know!

We've been having the 'how many to put back in distention scenarios' conversation this evening. Not sure we've reached any conclusions!

sounds, not spins.

Shellster is it scan day? Hope it all goes well xxx

Oh, okay blue. So bowel surgery is the reason for you blocked tubes. So your Dr thinks fewer eggs = worse quality. My old IVF clinic Dr told me much better to be my age (then 35) with my AMH of 2.5 than to be older with higher AMH. And I am happy to continue believing that while I go through my last IVF! You've obviously done your research. I didn't realise that surgery/scar tissue can speed up egg aging process. I wonder how???? Perhaps the scar tissue reduces blood flow to ovaries?

I chatted with a girl from my clinic. She got a BFP on her cycle but miscarried. Biopsy showed downs syndrome. She had an endometrial biopsy which she said showed higher than normal killer cells. .Her next IVF, she had PGD and 1 of her 3 embryos were normal. She took killer cell medication and had the transfer which didn't work. I just found it interesting that her abnormal embryo took which seemed to show no issues with uterine environment. Then taking the killer cell med, her normal embryo did not. My Dr tested my killer cells and said my level was normal, so I've never researched and no nothing about it. But just wanted to share this story. Is it possible over there to consult with a Dr who believes in 'the scratch' and testing for killer cells then do FET with your current Dr?

Purple, I've read and re-read that update and I can't make sense of it. I think you should be driving to the clinic now if I have my time differences correct so hopefully you are not in suspense too much longer.

It's 7.30pm here and my scan is 10am tomorrow when my fate will be decided.

Best of luck today Shellster, hope you managed to get out and about and put some of this out of your mind for a bit.

Purple sounds like there should be some to transfer and some to freeze? Hope it all goes smoothly this morning.

Blue I'm so sorry it didn't work out. You sound really focused and have a good plan for the future. i hope you are having some good chill out time to process it all and have some relief from it all.

I've stopped my downregging and am waiting for my period to turn up. I had some spotting on Saturday and Sunday morning and was worrying my period had turned up early due to the scrtach, but it stopped. Should start stims on Wednesday. Will be good to get going with it all (and never have to take Norethistaerone again - I didn't like it all).

Good luck today purple

I have no news other than iam still taking my levothyroxine and trying to eat very healthily and fingers crossed blood test on 26 th will be good news-seems like such a long wait and I'm desperate to just start.
We have been trying to keep busy with things around the house so that by the time it gets to cycle start everything is all sorted out and we can hopefully be as relaxed as possible

Good luck today Purple and Shellster! I will be checking regularly to see how you both get on. Got my fingers firmly crossed for both of you.

Shellster thanks for the NK cell story. My lack of NK cell info is an annoying niggle that has been at the back of my mind for some time. I've emailed my doctor to see if he'll sign the consent form for the test. I can't have the test done without a doctor's signature, which is a bit irritating. If he says no then I'll ask my GP. I don't want to have to pay another clinic £250 for a 'consultation' which basically entails them signing the form and nothing else! I should be able to get it done quite quickly. I won't start the FET drugs until day 21 of this cycle anyway so I've got time.

And Purple thanks for the note about prednisolone. I've got loads at home so I can definitely up my dose if I need to. I think you only need to 'wean' yourself off once you've been on them longer than 2 weeks so I should be ok within the 2ww period. I know it's a bit naughty but I don't care, I am an IVF renegade.

Sunset waiting for AF is a tedious business. Vigorous exercise usually helps me...maybe you can go for a run!?

Hi all,
Very new to this... Havent turned to a chat group before but unfortunately none if my friends are trying to have a baby or are faced with IVF
I have endometriosis and one ovary... Im starting all the tests at the IVF clinic to hopefully proceed with treatment
Any anyone had similar problems and gone through IVF?

Hello Frank. I don't have any wisdom to offer, as you have a very different diagnosis from me, but you're very welcome in our friendly little group of IVFers .

Blue - my UK clinic didn't believe in NK cells either, but since the treatment is steroids, you've had what they would recommend if they found them, haven't you?

Sunrise - that's interesting - I always continued taking my down-reg meds through AF and for some time in tandem with the stims. It seems that there are almost as many protocol-variants as there are patients with IVF!

Waiting - more interminable waiting! We shall have to keep each other distracted....your blood test is a couple of days before my test date, so I'll be itching with impatience by then, too!

Shellster - keeping everything crossed for you tomorrow, lovely - it surely has to be your turn now xxx

So, everything went smoothly this morning. When I got to the clinic this morning, there were 4 hatching blastocysts and one other good embryo just behind them. The clinic's policy is to transfer two. They choose the very best one, freeze the next best ones and then transfer a second one that they believe has a good chance of implanting but is not one of the front-runners. I think they transferred numbers 1 and 5, and froze 2, 3 and 5 (Sometimes there's a bit of a language barrier with the medical staff - the admin staff all speak excellent English). This is to give the frosties the best chance of surviving the freeze-thaw process, whilst still benefitting from the halo effect of transferring two.

I got to watch the transfer on the screen as it was ultra-sound guided and it was magical. You could clearly see the two embryos as bright white spots - I'm guessing that the fluid that they are in glows or something - but it was like watching two tiny stars being put into my uterus. I'm holding onto that imagery....they gave me a memory stick afterwards and (language is a bit of a problem with some of the medical staff, so I'm not completely sure) I think I have a video recording of the process. I'm going to wait until ds is in bed and investigate the contents of the memory stick with DH.

And now we wait. Test day is 31 March.

That's great purple! How exciting. By the way, those bright spots are air bubbles. They put the embryos between the air bubbles so they know where they are. My clinic also does ultrasound guided transfers and they've told me that a couple of times. Makes me feel good because I know they are definitely in the right spot! Fingers crossed yours are getting nicely settled in downstairs

Good luck Shellster, thinking of you. Welcome frank

Must be exciting sunrise to finally get started.

Waiting, I am not too sure that the words relaxed and IVF go together! Or at least not in my experience. I hope you can achieve this better than I!

Frank, I do not have your diagnosis of endometriosis or one ovary. My ovaries are however aged before their time and I produce less eggs in my IVF cycles from both my ovaries combined than most women produce from one ovary. So perhaps we share that in common. This is a great place to rant/vent as I too don't know anyone in real life going through this.

Purple, after that hard to decipher message, it must have been reassuring to have 4 out of 5 embryos to be hatching blasts and 1 not far behind. They seem to have done exactly as you suggested to me a few days in selecting which to embryos to transfer. Unfortunately it does not seem like I will have that luxury of choice this cycle...

My day 11 scan today revealed only 3 follicles growing. 2 at 13mm and 1 at 18mm. I feel heartbroken but I think I am pushing forward with this anyway even though this is the last cycle I can afford. I just can't take it anymore and would rather continue on to give me a slither of hope of a BFP in two weeks with 3 eggs rather than cancel and watch my dream die as I continue to age. I am turning 38 in July and feel like time is fast running out.

The clinic wanted me to have a repeat scan Thursday night but I want to trigger tomorrow night. Studies show the first to mature follicle/s contain the best egg (makes perfect sense as this is the one your body is naturally selecting to grow that cycle). So I don't want that biggest follicles egg to be over mature and break apart with ICSI as has happened previously. Apparently my Dr allows the follicles to grow a bit bigger than standard. The nurse has booked me in for a repeat scan tomorrow instead of Thursday after I expressed my concern about this. So we shall see what happens tomorrow.

Shellster I'm so sorry to hear that. You must feel terribly disappointed - why do our bodies let us down like this? Based on your history I think you are absolutely right to push for an earlier trigger. I hope this is something they are willing to do.

Please try to stay positive. I only had 2 eggs collected in my first cycle and I got a BFP (albeit a shortlived one). Same on my 2nd cycle. It really does 'only take one' and you know that you are able to successfully get pregnant, your DS is testament to that. Hopefully you can stay focused on the positive. I know Purple is a big proponent of PMA and I'm sure she is right, negative thoughts and stress really don't help our cause.

Sending you love and hugs x