Is anyone due to start IUI??

[victoria401]

There are plenty of IVF threads but it seems there is little talk of IUI. I'm starting a medicated cycle when my next af arrives mid January-ish. Well hopefully as it depends on dh's sperm! He was poorly and on meds for a month and the doc needs to check it hasn't affected his little fellas.

A bit about me... I'm 34 and dh is 36. We started ttc Dec 2012 when I had my implant out. We began having tests when nothing had happened after 15months. We have been deemed 'normal' so unexplained infertility. Referred to fertility clinic in Sept 2014 and offered 3 rounds of IUI on the NHS.

Hope to make some cycle buddies :-)

[victoria401]

Welcome fresh

I need to post on here later and catch up with everyone and wake this thread up again! Hope you're ok out there ladies of the thread! X

[victoria401]

Mary and non how are you getting on?

Bessie and ready when are you starting again?

Hubby's sperm has improved and we got the go ahead to start iui this cycle. Af was Monday so went for cd3 baseline scan yesterday and my body wasn't as it should! I didn't get to start! Wasn't expecting a cycle to be cancelled on day 1! This sucks. My lining was too thick at 4.5mm and I had a follicle of 11.5! What if this keeps happening?!

Next cycle due April 14th. Will I be able to go ahead if I'm on holiday the final week of the cycle? I'd just be on progesterone then won't I and it won't be jabs. I'm going abroad. Help?! Don't want to delay til May now I know its not that easy to get going!

[Readyforthefuture]

Welcome fresh, and hi again Victoria. Yes, things have gone a bit quiet on the thread.

I've just finished what feels like the longest cycle of my life after having my IUI cancelled. Was around a week late in the end, and very painful, I guess the drugs messed with me more than I thought. So I will start again next cycle (around the 14th April as well).

Victoria - the whole cancellation thing is incredibly cruel, personally I felt like I'd screwed up and couldn't get anything right - but I'm in a better place now, I guess we just need to see this as part of the journey and we just over performed ??

As for the next cycle, I think you'll be fine to travel, in fact maybe it's a good thing, you'll be lovely and relaxed. The progesterone is easy to travel with, I was planning to travel in my last week last month but never got that far.

Hope everyone is doing well

[Freshbreadandfaith]

Thankyou for the welcome. This is all new to me and I'm a bit scared of the discomfort element of the procedure.... I'm a bit of a pain wimp which you wouldn't think seeing as my labour three years ago was 50 hours.....

[Marymaymay]

Hey all. So, injections went fine. Went in on day 8, was scanned, 5 follicles total. 1 at 15.5, 1 at 14, 1 at 13 and 2 smaller.

It was a Friday, clinic closed Sunday. Nurse said possibility of waiting til Monday but would probably have 3 follies ready. She asked the consultant who said trigger there and then, come back tomorrow for insemination, Monday carried too high a risk of multiples.

Now 14 days later, pretty sure it's BFN.

Not surprising really as I think the follies weren't big enough and there was only 24 hrs between trigger and insem.

Feeling pissed off yet again at the clinic. We had to use 2 samples. We only have 6 more stored. In retrospect they should have waited til Monday or abandoned this round. Have not been charged yet so will fight my corner when it comes around. I actually feel our chances would have been better if I'd have gone for natural IUI, at least then it would have been one follie at the right size...

As we have so few chances left we're gonna do one more round of IUI and then go for IVF.

On top of all this, my right hand woman at work texted me yesterday to say she has a new job and my lovely job is at risk from September and I'm the main breadwinner. All of this conspires together to see me on Mumsnet at 4:19 in the morning!

[Readyforthefuture]

Fresh - I haven't actually got further than injections, but from what I understand the insemination isn't painful. If it's ivf I think it's a bit more uncomfortable when they retrieve the eggs, but nothing too awful.

Mary - what makes you think it's a bfn? At first reading I thought it was great that they triggered you immediately (mine was just cancelled immediately at day 8 with no option), but I can see your concern with them not being big enough. I really hope it has worked for you.

As for the work thing, I think your employer has a duty to inform you if your job is at risk properly. Perhaps a direct conversation with your boss to understand the risks might help?

[victoria401]

Mary sorry to hear about your iui. I thought the follicles needed to be over 16 to be mature. This sounds awful that they might have triggered too soon. Especially knowing you have limited sperm. I though they would only use 1 vial each time, why 2? Everything needs to be just right and I hope you have a case against them. Feel angry for u have you taken the 'official' test?

[Marymaymay]

Pretty sure it's a bfn as test day is tomorrow and I did one today, very, very faint line and pretty sure this is the pregnyl shot from 9 days ago. Also, having had 2 previous pregnancies I definitely don't feel pregnant and by now the line was really dark.

Work stuff has to wait until prob May/ June as there's a complete restructure, not even sure which dept my job will be in as yet...they can't put me at risk til they know where I'm going and what the plan is. Sadly my whole team that I manage and have built up is being decimated...

Had to use 2 vials as apparently the quantity wasn't great, motility and everything else was apparently really good...I guess the main follie would have been at least 16 by the time it went but in retrospect I should have convinced them to wait til the Monday.

Thinking about going straight to IVF, fed up with Faffing around!

[victoria401]

Ivf would give you much much better odds and I think you should go for it if you can afford it. Don't waste any more of the precious sperm on iui with its teeny tiny % chance. The odds are not much higher than a natural cycle are they? My clinic told me 17-19%. I'm taken my 3 'free' nhs tries as I only get 1 ivf and I wanted 4 'free' chances and not just one. My Dr said I still have time to try iui as my amh is good for my age (35 in a few weeks) and she wouldn't recommend it if I was older/lower amh etc. Plus we have all the sperm in the world! Best of luck in your journey!

Girls, when are you attempting your cycles next?

[Marymaymay]

Thanks Victoria. Still getting very faint bfp and hoping AF will arrive soon so I can crack on with the next round. Still weighing up IUI vs IVF. Think we're veering towards IVF....lots of luck with yours :)

[victoria401]

mary when is your af due? If you have tested surely you must be past 14dpo? Are you sure it's not an actual positive?

[Marymaymay]

What do guys think? Seems to have got darker today....I'm now 17 dpo and 12 days past last pregnyl shot. Am going to buy a proper test on the way to work...will keep you posted. Not getting my hopes up yet.

[victoria401]

If you're 17dpo it seems good. I thought your lp didn't change with iui, or does it? I know nothing! Yes get a frer and keep us/me posted! Did you tell your clinic it was bfn?

[Marymaymay]

My lp seems to stay the same on pregnyl. I would have ov'd about 4 days before I usually do this month so would have expected AF Sunday or yesterday, not sure if second shot might delay it though. So flipping frustrating!!!

[Marymaymay]

So, looks likely its a BFP...going to keep monitoring to see if it gets darker. Did one this arvo which was darker than this morning. Can't quite believe it, not feeling pregnant at all. Clinic think it must be a BFP. They don't care about how dark the line is, they say a positive is a positive.

Feel bad about bad mouthing the clinic now!

When are you starting Victoria?

[victoria401]

Fingers crossed it keeps getting darker Mary please keep me informed won't you?

Go for my next cd3 baseline scan when my next af is due. Way into the future, mid April. Gonna try naturally of course this month. Need to start dtd today or tomorrow (cd9 today). Been oving earlier the last few cycles so don't want to miss it like last month! Girl on my other thread just got preg on cycle 26 whilst on ivf waiting list. This will be our cycle 30 but not tried every one of those, about 5 month off?

[Marymaymay]

Looks like a definite BFP. Very happy of course but it's kind of like my brain won't let me get over excited, I guess due to the m/c and the long journey to get here. But if all goes well I should be due end of November. After the mc last time my dd told me she didn't want to know til 12 weeks, not sure I can keep a secret that long!

Enjoy DTD Victoria! I know April seems like miles off. IUI makes you look at your life in weekly chunks rather than being able to enjoy the day to day. I found meditation really helps. I also spent a small fortune on acupuncture and co enzyme Q10...

[victoria401]

Great news Mary! Shows that iui does work! Fingers crossed everything goes smoothly x

Ttc in general makes you think in monthly chunks! Or even fortnightly chunks, the 2 before ov and the 2 after! Lol! May I ask how old you are?I'm sure you said at some point but I forget these things! I'll be a crumbling 35 year old geriatric when we finally start iui!

The only vits I take are folic acid, do you think I should take something else? I didn't want to take pre conception ones as they are expensive and imagine how much that would have racked up over the last year and 3 months! Guess I could buy some pre-iui? My GP just said folic acid is fine. I try to eat seeds, salmon, kale etc to get good ttc vits in me and dh though. Plus he's taking wellman and vit c for his sperm, we fork out for those as we know there is a problem there and they have helped a little.

[Marymaymay]

If you're geriatric then I am positively ancient! I'm 37, 38 in Sept. Had my dd when I was 29.

My mum in law is a nutritionist and she gets me Solgar pre natal nutrients, apparently better absorbed than others. I always take a fish oil (Mercury free) as I don't eat fish. Co enzyme was recommended as it can possibly improve egg quality. I'd suggest taking them ASAP, eggs take 90 days to mature. Then again, thousands of women every day conceive without taking anything extra!

If you can, I found acupuncture hugely helpful as it makes you feel as if you are in control. It's the only medically proven alternative therapy to help with fertility. I think I read it increases chances between 2 and 5 %. yet again tho, thousands of women don't have it and conceive

[Nonconformist34]

Hi Vic Found you! I think I was on this thread a while ago somewhere. The months all merge into one when you've been ttc for so long!!

Congratulations Mary You've given hope to all us IUIers even though I'm on my final third cycle. I too am a firm believer in acupuncture, sending DH off to his appointment tonight to boost him up for insemination next week.

I'm on cd 8/9, second scan tomorrow so hope my follies are doing well. It will be the first time I hit the weekend so close to insemination so fingers crossed it will be my day off Monday. Not sure if they'll give me ovulation sticks to determine when my trigger shot us timed over the weekend.

[Marymaymay]

Hope it goes well for you non. I was on cycle 1 of IUI but had had 4 rounds of ICI previously (inc a mc). Loads of luck with this one - I got triggered on day 8 and inseminated on day 9 with teeny follies and it's worked. I know I got so het up about the statistical chances etc of the timing, size, quality, quantity, blah blah. in the end it seems to all come down to luck....

Let us know how you get on, sending you good IUI vibes :)

[Nonconformist34]

Morning everyone! Just got back from the clinic and have a nice 1.6 follie on my right on cd9. Insemination booked for Monday, gonal f upped to 150 today and tomorrow (was 75), trigger shot tomorrow night at 9pm (when I'm out on a girls night,will have to set alarm and dash to the toilet!).

Mary - did you use the progesterone pessaries for your cycle post insemination?

[Marymaymay]

Sounds perfectly timed non! I didn't use pessaries, just a 5000 shot of pregnyl 7 days after trigger shot. I asked my clinic about progesterone, they seemed to think the pregnyl shot was better. I think maybe it depends on the reasons for the infertility as to which drugs you get.

Hope all goes well on Monday :)

[Readyforthefuture]

Congratulations Mary, I've been away with work and just caught up on the thread. It's really inspiring to see that IUI can work.

I'm just in the middle of a natural cycle now, getting ready to give IUI another go in mid April. Just need to order some more drugs this week ready to go again.

[victoria401]

A cycle buddy! See you mid April ready! Unless its bloody cancelled on day 3 again!