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

Congratulations on the excellent endometrium Persipan

Just sobering up from some excellent sedation - neither felt nor remember a thing as far as I can tell. I have biscuits, a cuppa, and 21 eggs!!!

Yeah, warrior, excellent egg production! Baton now passed to the swimmers... When do they let you know how many fertilise? Tomorrow?

Persipan It sounds like things are going well and good to hear you've got a plan for post-EC. Friday's not too far away now! What an exciting week for our thread. Well done on your wonderful womb! I am wondering if you are right handed? I think I've read that it's quite common for your dominant ovary to follow your dominant hand. The things you learn doing IVF - who knew that there was a dominant ovary!!

Any sign of AF Mrs WW?

How's down regging going Sunrise?

Hi All, I'm just lurking on this thread as we are having our first round of ICSI at the moment. We had EC this morning and had 5 eggs. I purposely haven't been googling about it but after reading this thread I'm thinking that with only 5 there isn't much hope.

makingdoo 5 is great!! Lots of cycles only collect 1 or 2 eggs so please don't feel despondent. My initial cycle and warrior's numbers are very unusual (and a result of being naturally susceptible to OHSS). The thread I was on 3 years ago had a range of responses but most were around the 4-10 egg collected mark, with some less and some more.

Good luck for the fertilisation and chin up. It only takes one plucky little embryo... Don't stop believing

Thank you Badger it's so nice to hear from others who have been through it. I'm just feeling a bit bruised and sorry for myself after this morning's EC. Can you tell me if the transfer is similar to EC?

The EC is by far the worst part! Transfer is WAY easier. It's a bit like having an internal scan. Similar probe with a tube on the end, if I remember correctly, that the embryo is then shot up. We got to watch it on a computer screen which was cool. There's no more discomfort than an internal scan, no sedatives (so no recovery from that) and no feeling bloated etc coz your ovaries aren't being pummelled about.

It's a v quick procedure. Lots of people go to work afterwards, although I'd have the day to chill out if I were you. Maybe go to the cinema or an exhibition or something. Plan something fun if you have the time.

Good luck with fertilisation. Let us know how you get on.

Today look likes it's been busy for all. Will have a better look when I get home.

AF arrived on Saturday and I've just had first scan. Two follies one side and four the other side am hoping they all play ball and some others catch up. Gonal-f and menopur to start tonight. Next scan Friday morning. And I've a bag from hotel chocolate to have a wee treat after the injections each night. Been quite stressful all day so going to dig out my meditation app.

Hey, makingdoo! Retrieval buddies!

Seconding Badger - those are great numbers. My ovaries are a touch on the overenthusiastic side, hence the crappy few days of feeling like my ovaries were trying to escape, in the lead up to EC .

We made it to retrieval! Yay! No cancellations! Our eggs are relaxing in a nice warm bath and hopefully making new BFFs from among the sperm... I've enjoyed feeling less tender-of-ovary this afternoon. Even managed a very gentle walk around the park which felt great! It's so nice to feel more mobile again.

Yay MrsWW - welcome to your follicles!

Thanks for the encouragement and the sharing of your experience Badger - it helped make today feel much less mysterious.

Hi everyone, I'm new here and about to start IVF. I have my treatment planning tomorrow so will find out what my AMH is and what the plan of action is - I'm a bag of nerves/excitement!! Should all be underway in a month now - it's been a bloody long road to get here!

DH has had a previous sample tested and all fine but was over 18 months ago when we first got on the waiting list so he's had to do another one - he wasn't best pleased about that. Obviously he has to do another one on the day they extract the eggs too so he's getting used to it :-)

I'm 35, DH is approaching 41

Phe x

Welcome Phe! Good luck today with the treatment planning. Good thing your DH is getting the practice in! I must admit, although we have to go through the jabs, pills, pessaries, ovaries ache and general hormonal maelstrom, the performance anxiety for the Dads must be TERRIFYING on the day of EC...

Hope you meditation app helped you chill out a bit yesterday MrsWW.

Good luck to warrior and making doo on the fertilisation front today!! Come on embies!

warrior I'm glad I can help a little bit. The ironic part is that although I partially know what is coming next for you ladies I have absolutely no idea what I am up for next in my FET... No idea how I will react to the oestrogen tablets or how many embies they'll have to defrost to get to a hardy looking one...

Thanks Badgerface :-)

We have been offered the opportunity for DH to produce a sample before EC day to be frozen and used in the event that he can't produce on the day - because once EC takes place that counts as one cycle even if fertilisation doesn't take place - has anyone done this as a precaution or actually had to use frozen sperm on the day? He's never had a problem - but never say never!!

Wow, that is a great back up plan! Is that on the NHS or private? I've not heard of it before as an option but think it is a fantastic idea. Although I have never heard of a non-performance (I had always assumed that perhaps a nurse put a finger up to prod the prostate if it really came down to a performance issue, but that is just me guessing).

DH had the option of producing his sample at home for our cycle as we live really close to the hospital. But he decided that it would be more stressful to sit on the bus for 10 minutes with it in his pocket than try and produce it onsite. Although that was before he found out the room assigned was basically a broom cupboard with a few magazines in hearing of the lift outside opening and shutting and opening and shutting and opening... Ha ha.

That's on the NHS, I'm going to ask how common non production wasting a cycle is this afternoon at the appointment. I really hope they do stick a finger up his bum - it's the least they could do really to redress the balance

Hey guys, how is everyone today?

I got a voicemail message a couple of hours back (stupidly left my phone while I went to the loo.) Only 4 fertilised. I'm waiting for a call back (and slowly going insane.) I don't want to ring my husband til I know what our next steps are.

I know we're not totally out yet but I'm worried that if 17 failed the four that are left might not be such great shakes...

/curls up for a little cry

Hi All

We had 2 eggs fertilise overnight and transfer is booked for Thursday. I don't know if it's good or not as they didn't say much more than that on the phone.

Fingers and toes crossed waiting to hear your news Warrior

Phe I laughed so hard when you said you hope your DH gets the finger prod

Warrior x-post with you (I'm a very slow typer)

4 is good! Better than 2 I'd have thought. It's so hard to know

warrior and makingdoo well done on the fertilising! Don't think about the ones who didn't make it, concentrate on the ones you have.

warrior I hope you get to speak to the clinic soon to put your mind at ease. I can't see that the performance of the ones which didn't fertilise have anything to do with the ones that did - and it could easily be down to the sperm and not the eggs remember. They only use 1 (or maybe 2 depending on age/cycle number) so at the moment you're in surplus by 4x.

Good luck on Thursday makingdoo - that's not far away at all! I think that a day 3 transfer is pretty standard when you have 2 embys. Are you having 1 or 2 put in or do you discuss that with the clinic on Thursday?

Phe I entirely agree with you - one prod for the dad's is only fair!

Thanks Badger I'm do glad it's on Thursday although I'm still really tender from yesterday!

I'm not sure if they will transfer both. We will discuss on Thursday. This is where me and DH tend to disagree. I'd like to have both put in but think he will say 1 as he's worried about multiples.

I just want to go with whatever gives us the best change if this working!

Warrior hoping you hear ftom the clinic soon.

I think (and it might be that clinics differ) that some clinics will only freeze spare embryos if there are 2 or more. That could be specific to my hospital though. Just thought I'd tell you so you and DH can think through all the options before Thurs and that bit of info isn't landed on you at the 11th hour!

Multiples are a factor but at least then they have a sibling and you don't have to go through it all again if your ideal is 2 children!

Finally heard from the clinic - apparently we may have "signalling problems" - DH's sperm don't seem to know my egg is there. Good to know that if this round is a bust we can try ICSI. I'd joked that he and I were such introverts that we'd need someone to make the gametes mingle, maybe spike the medium. Looks like I was right!

In some ways it's good to have a working hypothesis as to why we haven't been successful. And as it seems to be an inter-gamete problem rather than a problem with either the eggs or sperm (as far as we know) the four that made it shouldn't be affected. Apparently my eggs looked okay so that's a huge relief!

Hugs, makingdoo - it's hard to make these choices when everything is still just a bit hypothetical, isn't it? Here's hoping your zygotes and ours divide nicely overnight and have at least two cells apiece in the morning.

Phe - maybe you can add "prostate massager" to the list of IVF expenses. Though it seems a touch unfair: all we get are little pricks.

Wishing all those waiting overnight all the very best, exciting/scary times!

Been to treatment planning today aaaaannnnnd (drumroll)

I have AMH of 17.4 - so my fears that my reserve was low were unfounded.

So I start long protocol on day 21, which happens to be 11th Feb! ?? so I've got my needles and suprecur ready!! I didn't expect it to be so soon, scan is booked for 23rd Feb. after nearly 2 years on nhs list I can't believe it's finally here ??

They will only put one embryo back as I have health issues.

Discussed the finger up the bum with the nurse, lucky DH has a sense of humour - she said that I should get to do it before I go in for EC, and then winked. He looked horrified for a second until he realised we were joking ??

Wow, Phe great meeting then and starting next week! Woop woop!

Wishing all those embys strength to do their thing over night.

That sounds awesome, PhD. Great news on the AMH and on finding a nurse with a good sense of humour!

Our 4 made it through the night really well. 4 cells apiece and less than 10% fragmentation. We definitely won't get our freezer full but it's a relief to know that as long as eggs and sperm meet they can actually form zygotes!

How are yours doing, makingdoo? I've been crossing everything for you too.

That's great PHE it's all go from here!

Warrior that sounds good. When will they transfer?

I feel really dumb but I didn't realise I could call today to ask how they are! the embryologist just said to come tomorrow for transfer. I must admit that I'm a little clueless and h ave relied on the hospital to keep me informed.
Should I call them? What do I need to ask?

I'm a fairly intelligent person under normal circumstances I promise!

Ooh, good question. They volunteered the information so thankfully I didn't have to think of any! They told me how many cells each had and how that compared to what they'd like to see at this stage. They also told me how much "fragmentation" they saw. This seems to be waste where the cells have broken down a bit. Perfect zygotes have no fragmentation but that's pretty rare as far as I can tell. Mine had around 10%. From what I've read since, that's pretty reassuring. You could ask them to tell you what "grade" or "quality" they think they are because I know that fragmentation is only part of the story (now I've been reading!) Your embryologist will be looking at how spherical the cells are and how nicely spaced they are too.

Massive fingers-crossed hugs for you tomorrow. I have no idea yet if I'm joining you tomorrow or holding off a few days but good luck starting the TWW! xxx