Any on looking to start ivf/icsi in the new year?

[lucieloos]

Just wondering if anyone would like to keep me company and share the ivf/icsi journey. DH and I are both 35 years old and have been trying to conceive our first child for 10months. DH has lowish sperm motility and I have a low amh (7.24). We haven't had any luck so far and so the next step will be ivf with icsi in the new year. We are thinking of starting end of feb or march. Would be great to share the journey with others in similar situations and hopefully make some friends along the way

Oh thanks, good idea Badgerface. Will drop the nurses an email and see if they can help if not will ask asda.

How's everyone going? One week until AF shows so getting slightly nervous.

I'm feeling pretty good so far! I don't know whether the advice to drink lots and lots of water is behind that but so far no bloating. The injection sites are a touch tender, but my friend's eight month old was here bouncing on my midsection earlier to no I'll effect. Other than a cuteness overdose.

warrior You've just made me realise that I'll have a 2 stone 2 year old jumping all over my injection sites - I might need to up the posh choc intake to get through it...

First injection tonight, eeek! The annoying thing about choosing nighttime to do them is not being able to get it out of the way in the morning... I have now booked in my first scan so I can stop panicking about a potential clash with a meeting. Diary management is a bit stressful at the moment but that's one less to worry about now.

Oh gosh - tell me about it Badger! I keep being asked if I can make meetings in the next two weeks - I keep trying to push things back beyond the 10th of Feb but it's getting stressful. I'm not keen to pull out the "IVF Cycle One Dates" spreadsheet!

It's day 7 of my stims and I had my first scan today: 27 follicles! Twenty frakking seven! I've been told to drop my dose of fostimon and have another blood test tomorrow.

Twenty seven!

Four days into the drugs - a little bit headachey, and I'm starting to have more of a sense of my ovaries being there than I normally do, but so far so good. I had a queasy couple of hours on Saturday but that settled down, fortunately.

Nice one, warriorbot! (Or, you know, nice TWENTY SEVEN!)

Wow Warrior!! 27!! Go you! If biscuits were follicles then

Persipan I hope that the headaches wear off soon. I think it's a good sign you can "feel" your ovaries as it must mean the drugs are having an impact...

My first injection was fine. I'd forgotten that it's actually not the needle that's the bad part but the slight burn from the buserelin. Still, it's not too bad and soon forgotten. Especially as this is the busiest week of the year at work so I don't have much time to think about anything else (apart from trying to book surveys for our new house, look into life assurance, toddler wrangle and worry about scan dates!).

Any joy with needles from the clinic Mrs WW? How are the nerves? Calming camomile for you?

Thank you, badger .

When's your first scan, Persipan?

Wow, warriorbot 27 eggs is amazing. What is your bloods for? My clinic doesn't take any.

Persipan, hope your headaches go away soon doesn't sound pleasant at all.

Badger sounds busy for you, hope injections keep going ok.

Clinic says they can give syringes for free at first scan. Starting to get the AF bloat and although I'm at BMI 34 and can get treatment I hope bloat doesn't add weight. Have decided if treatment doesn't go ahead cos of bmi then I'm going to get full bloods done and see if my thyroid is wrong. And thought I was to work but and ex client wants we 24/3 next week and the. 24/2 the week after for her new born so hope I can work it. Feel like I'm on final countdown now.

They're measuring my E2 (estradiol) levels to check I'm not over-responding to the stimulation medication. This seems to be the rationale: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15202733

It's quicker (and cheaper) than scans but seems to give a good indication of the progress of follicle development.

It's 27 follies so I'm hoping that I'll get somewhere in the range of 10-20 eggs. It all depends on how evenly they mature, from what I can tell! They are currently all between 10-12 mm apart from one which is 14mm. Triggering should come when they get to 19-24 mm I think!

I've another scan tomorrow to see how quickly and evenly they've been growing. It certainly feels like they're growing! I'm taking Omega3 as well as the prenatal vitamins, eating oily fish and having more protein and less carbohydrate as there are good studies out there showing that these can all help with egg quality.

I've now been warned off impactful exercise from this point onwards because of the size of my ovaries. Not being able to use running as a way of managing my stress levels is hard.

Hmmm, that's interesting. I expect cos of my low AFC I'm not at risk of over stimulation even with the meds I'm on.

I'm taking a conception vitamin, vegetarian omega 3 and 6 and vitamin D. Water is at about 2 litres and have being on high protein low carb diet for a couple of years. Sometimes it feels like there's nothing I can do to grow eggs well. And I'm currently spotting which is a pain as it would be so much easier if AF can hold off til the weekend.

I just threw up... I don't think it's a bug anymore. Any veterans had nausea and vomiting in the stimulation phase?

Poor you warrior! No advice but I hope you're feeling better. Have you called the clinic? I'm sure it's a normal side effect but best to tell them I would think. Ginger tea if you can face it will be good for nausea and I was reading yesterday that ginger is good for IVF as a warming food so win win!

Hi folks. New to this forum. I'm normally a AIBU lurker. :)

We're starting IVF middle Feb. Planning session on the 11th of Feb, and then start with the nasal spray on the 13th of Feb.

I'm very nervous. But I'll be here to keep all of you company as well. :)

Welcome, Athena! Exciting times ahead!

No vomiting today, Badger, thank you. Great news about the ginger because I am all over that spicy root. Ginger boiled sweets, ginger tea, ginger biscuits...

I rang the clinic and they're keeping an eye on things. My follicles are growing; the ten on the left have grown nicely, according to the sonographer, while the 17 on the right have become 16, of which about 12 are growing as she'd like (~2mm a day).

The only downside is my E2 level which doubled from 3,000 to 6,000 pmol/L in 24 hours earlier this week. My dose of Fostimon was halved and hopefully today's blood test will show that everything is back in bounds for retrieval. Otherwise we might be looking at cancellation due to the risk of OHSS.

[tries desperately to stay positive]

I have so many lovely follicles. I really hope we get to retrieval.

Anyone got any idea of how high an E2 level can go before they'll boot me off the protocol..?

Stay positive warrior! Things can change so quickly. I don't know about E2 numbers as my clinic didn't measure them on my first cycle but I was at risk of OHSS due to lots of follicles and it was fine in the end, so there's my positive story! Anecdotal success rate of 100%... . I ended up with 27 eggs so the risk of OHSS has its upside. Although I did then have to wee into a jug to measure output ml for the week after EC so you've probably got that fun to look forward to! I hope you don't work in an open plan office, the measuring jugs are not that subtle...

Hello Nine, welcome to the crazy train!

Has AF held over Mrs WW? Not long until the weekend!

Twenty seven! Badger, you hero! I'm sore already and I'm looking at maybe 15-20 according to the sonographer. The great news is that they plan to have me do the trigger shot tonight.

Sadly I do work in an open plan office - maybe I'll get a cheap jug (yay poundland) and try stashing it somewhere discrete in the ladies'!

How is everybugger holding up?

Trigger happy warrior, woooooo hoooooooo, that's great!! Good luck tonight!

You could also buy a cheap handbag from poundland and use that to take the jug back and forth to the ladies. I'd be worried otherwise that someone in the office might find the stashed jug and think, "oooh, a jug, let's go water some plants..."

And I hope this isn't TMI but if you're doing progesterone pessaries via the front door then your jug will no doubt get wax stains... Sorry!

Exciting warriorbot, when will collection be?

Welcome nine, good to have you onboard.

Badger, how are you doing?

AF has held off but I'd like her to come by Monday so I can have scan Wednesday. Hate having no control over her. Next wed, Thursday and frid I'm working with a newborn so want to limit scans. Leaving a lovely chubby six week old today who I've been with for four weeks. So just want my own bb. Have a good weekend.

Had my first scan today (after 7 days of stims) - 6 follicles on the right, two on the left. So, not overwhelming but not totally underwhelming! They have cranked me up to the highest dose of gonal f a person is allowed to take, and we'll see what's happening on Monday...

Good luck for Monday. Fingers crossed they've all grown well.

That's a strong start Persipan! Good luck with the stronger dose of Gonal F.

Hope you're okay warrior as if you were triggering last night I'm assuming you would have had collection today...

I hope AF turns up soon Mrs WW! It must be very tough to be in your line of work, surrounded by newborns.

I am missing booze today. I know that is silly but my busiest month of the year at work is finally finished and I want a drink to celebrate/decompress/coz I love a drink! Off to find some fancy ginger beer in lieu...

Hope everyone's having a good weekend.

Hello all! They put my trigger back another 24 hours to get a bit more growth (at least I assume that's why...) EC is tomorrow at 11:30. My...um..."topical" progesterone is a gel so that's a "Yay! No paraffin in my pants!" this cycle.

Top beginning, Persipan - eight is a great number. And everything I've read says fewer follicles tends to mean better quality eggs and fewer complications. Seven to 15 seems optimal so eight is right in the sweet spot!

Seconding Badger, MrsWW - you're an absolute trouper being around babies. I was with my friends' eight-month old today and it's wonderful because I love her to bits but my word it does bring on the pangs! Hang in there. You're doing everything right.

/pours Badger ginger beer and breaks out the emergency posh chocs.

Good luck good luck good luck today warrior! I hope you have a good result and it's not too uncomfortable. Rest up afterwards! A word of warning that I felt absolutely fine after my EC until about half an hour after I got home. Then had a funny five minutes of feeling really sick I think as a reaction to the end of the anaesthetic/local sedative wearing off. It soon passed but took me by surprise mid-conversation so just wanted to warn you!!

Good luck warrior! Hope it goes well.

All seems OK from my scan today - the 6 on the right are coming along nicely, the two on the left are still a bit smaller/harder to make out, and there are a few additional small follicles dotted about, though they probably won't come to much. Also my lining is apparently looking lovely.

Another scan on Wednesday, and then they reckon my egg collection will probably be Friday. And I think I've managed to recruit a friend to come and take me home afterwards, which is good because I was having a bit of a meltdown that no-one would be free so I wouldn't be able to go ahead. Talked this over with the clinic today and they said worst case scenario they would just make me stay all day to check I was OK, which is a relief.