Anyone starting IVF soon? Join me (3)

[purplemeggie]

Ha! I was just about to post the last message in the old thread linking to this, but I'm too late, we've already filled it up! I'll do the same as last time and send PMs to everyone who's been on the thread recently, but everyone's welcome

purple yes I can imagine it would be frustrating not only remotely considering future own egg IVF but also wondering if your previous own egg IVF cycle would have gone different. Yes, sounds like you'll be doing a similar treatment plan for inflammation anyway regardless of what the Greek serum result would say. But I guess no harm to at least fill in the questionnaire and ask for an extra opinion if the clinic is as helpful to you as they have been to luci. Perhaps you'll need to spend the next two week wait lying on your back so the embryo floats to the bottom away from your scar - LOL!

DarkChoc - how are you feeling after EC?

Glad the first jab went well, Trixie. Bet you're counting down to Friday and finding out how it's all going.

Gosh Purple, sounds like you were incredibly brave to sit (well, lie) through that. Sounds like you've got some idea of what to do next. It's good that you've got a team around you who are listening to you and involving you in the decisions.

Likewise, looks like you're more than gearing up to get going, Lucie. Here's hoping your pharmacy of drugs sorts you out!

Very brave indeed Purple! I am incredibly squeamish, got dizzy after my hyCoSy and had to lie down for a while which was rather embarrassing. Hopefully they get back to you about the antibiotics soon.

Shellster turns out I am not a fan of the coconut water at all, prefer the injections.

Karou yes, looking forward to tomorrow though feeling slightly apprehensive. I've not been feeling any different these last few days so wonder if there is much going on in there.

I tried the coconut water too Trixie and I agree - yuck! I don't think lots of people feel things going on, and when they do it's usually the women producing massive amounts of eggs as they near EC rather than in the early days.

Hope you're okay after EC karou and that the silence isn't a bad sign?

Greetings from foggy Chicago - not much going on with me - just taking my vitamins and feeling frustrated about all the wine in missing out on (lots of free booze on this work trip!).

Purple sounds like you had an interesting trip to CZ! If you Google 'Serum antibiotic dose' you can find out quite easily what they usually dose for hidden C. Hopefully your clinic can match that so you can avoid having to do the actual test. My doc didn't want to prescribe antibiotics, I can't remember the reason he gave but it was a definite no. I guess you have visible inflammation so it makes sense.

Hello everyone else!!

Purple I can let you know the dose of antibiotics that I'm on for hidden c if that helps although I'm not sure if they prescribe different protocols if you have a different infection to the hidden c.

Shell, sorry I missed your post further down. I am doing a different regime this time. Last time I was on 225iu Menopur but this time I am on 150iu Menopur and 100iu Gonal F. The Gonal is meant to be better for quality and the Menopur for growth. I'm on my antibiotic regime and also prednisone steroids. At egg collection I will have the iv intralipids and then I will start clexane and gestone. I will have another dose of intralipids before transfer and then another if I get a BFP.

I've just been looking into protein shakes and come across the fact that peas are being researched as a natural contraceptive and should be avoid if ttc. I know it sounds stupid and I haven't looked into it that much but just thought it was worth mentioning as think I saw somewhere that you use pea protein shakes

Gosh Lucie what a lot of drugs! I hope they improve things.

Fingers crossed for you tomorrow, Trixie

Purple sorry to hear about your scar, and I hope the antibiotics help. Can't believe how brave you were. I'm such a wuss when it comes to things like that.

Hoping that the fairy is remembering to leave some magic dust .

Thanks Cat

Bit of an injection problem this evening. Went to use the last 150 in my 300 gonal f pen and noticed some blood inside the pen - Googled and seems like it has happened to others and they've been told not to reuse the pen. Started my 900 pen and provided I don't have to up my dose it should see me through. I think my thumb must have slipped off the trigger before the needle was out last night - grr. Will have to be extra careful from now on.

I think you should still have enough meds Trixie. I was told that they have about an extra 100 in them and I have found this to be true when I've put it into practice.

Oh yes, lucie - I've read that too about the peas. And while you a right that it might sound silly and I am sure there is a world of women out there who ate peas the cycle they conceived, when I am pouring thousands into my last IVF, I want to give it 100%. I will research that and see if it applies to the pea my protein is made from. Curious to see how you get on with your cycle with all these changes lucie.

Well I had my baseline scan today. I had a baseline last cycle and only had 7 follicles. I've had prior cycles with 15-16 follicles and hoped last cycle was just a one off bad month, so postponed IVF one cycle. But today again only 7 follicles! Grr. Then to make matters worse, the estrogen priming protocol I am on was supposed to suppress follicle growth so they all start nice and evenly and grow more co-ordinated. But nope, my body denied me that too with a whopper dominant follicle already at 9mm.

But despite everything looking bleak, I've decided to pay the deposit and push forward. I'm turning 38 next month and I am going to fall in a black hole if I that happens and still no baby. So I'm hoping for a miracle.

Going back Monday for a follow up scan and desperately hoping a few more will show up, (despite the lady counting twice and trying very hard to find more for me after she knew I wanted more than my previous cycle's low of 7)

That's good to know Shellster. Fortunately my dose is staying the same so I should have enough to see me through. I will just have to be really careful from now on. I know you must be disappointed but 7 is a lucky number and I really hope that one of them gives you the best birthday present ever.

I seem to have one lazy ovary and one busy ovary as I have over twice as many on one side....I have to start the cetrotide tomorrow and then back in on Monday for another scan. Looking at egg collection on Friday possibly but most likely Monday 29th.

I have exactly the same trixie. I have one smaller, lazy ovary and then the other one is bigger and produces the majority of follicles. Glad it all went well.

Coconut water is a bit like marmite, you either love it of hate it. On mobi again so :(

Shellster sorry to hear you are disappointed with 7 follicles. When I was disappointed with 9 my nurse put it into perspective in that we shouldn't compare our results with younger ladies or those with ohss. So very true, we can only work with what we have.

Purple, good to hear you have a potential explanation regarding implantation failure. I've had a cs too and often wonder about it. Not sure if you are moving forward with d.e again?

Cat, great to see you are still popping in :).

Blue, running in Chicago sounds good fun, though how crap re: free wine.

Karou, awaiting your lovely updates too about pregnancy.

I've had a busy time judging work, being a mum, and this ivf lark. Had egg collection earlier in week and was so poorly this time with horrendous tummy pains and tiredness. Got 9 eggs and 5 made it to day 3 - today, but 2 started to fail. Today I had 2 transferred at day 3. None for the freezer. Now the long wait.

Hey Shellster, quick one from me as I read your post and wanted to send you a quick virtual hug. I know you must be disappointed with 7 but I don't blame you for pushing ahead regardless. 7 is a good enough number and you're doing all you can to increase quality, so hopefully you'll get a few good ones. Fingers crossed for you...it is definitely your turn for some good luck.

Good luck to you too choc, now the interminable wait begins! Must feel good to have 2 on board.

Darkchoc, so you say 5 made it to day 3, 2 on board and 2 started to fail but none for the freezer? What happened to the 5th? Yes - now the long wait! For me the long wait is these 1st two weeks as crazy as that sounds. You see you had 8 follicles growing at day 8 of injections, but for me I only had 7 follicles at my baseline scan of which they say about half grow so if you were disappointed with 9, you can imagine my disappointment at 3.

Just hoping at least a few grow at a co-orinated pace. Thanks for the thoughts blue. I have thought of you and your example with few follicles but doing your yoga and jogs and still having most of them grow and become good quality embryos (albeit no pregnancy :( ). That thought is keeping me remotely motivated this weekend to keep exercising and eating healthy. But if Mondays scan still shows the one dominant follicle without many others growing strong, my will is going to fade!

Lovely as you guys sound, I was hoping not to have to join you but here I am!

Story so far:
DH 37 - me 37
DH had radio treatment for cancer 9 yrs ago. DD was conceived just before this started after docs told us it could affect our chances so we have our 8yr old DD. We had been trying for a while and found out in Feb 14 that DH had no sperm.

We had stored 12 vials of DH sperm. So far I have had 6 rounds of IUI, 4 unmedicated and 2 medicated. Number 2 and 5 were successful, number 2 was a mmc at 11 weeks in Sept 14 and number 5 was a mc at 6 weeks in April 15.

Round 6 has just failed and we have 4 samples left. IUI was needing 2 vials each time so we are into IVF territory.

I have 'excellent reserves', no obvious issues apart from a 5cm fibroid (not impinging). DH's samples are apparently as good as you get for frozen sperm.

I am terrified!

So many questions, so many things to think about. Main one is whether to go to local clinic (1.5 hrs away) with 25% success rate or splash out on ARGC, take a month off and live in London for a 50% success rate. Both would be in September - I've just been given a new head of department job in education, starting in September!!!

In the meantime I need to ask the doc for investigations into the mc which I know they don't like to give unless you've had at least 3 but I don't want to waste precious time or money if there is an issue. Also need to get DHs non production issue looked at to see if rectifying this is easier than IVF.

Bloody hell!!!! Anyone got any help/advice/ had similar issues? Would love to hear from you.

hi ladies, sorry for jumping onto this thread but i always forget which one i have introduced myself to and which one im new too. lol

my background: 32 years old. started icsi early this year with NHS. went as far as EC but due to hormone levels too far i had to wait for ET. at which point i decided to go private as i wasnt confident with the fact i only had 1 embryo that survived for transfer.

currently with ARGC and starting my down regs on 30 june.

marymaymay - i saw your post and felt/hope i can help you. im with argc also. if you choose to go with them... they will do a 'monitoring cycle' where they check your normal cycle to understand your body. also looking at your history they will most likely recommend 'immune testing'. please google this as im not sure on the medical pros and cons but my understanding is they check your NK (natural killer) cells. my were high so i had to take a course of humeria injections (which btw delays you starting your cycle).

feel free to ask me questions about argc (or PM whichever you find easier) and hopefully I will be able to help xxx

Mary and aussie82 always lovely to have new people popping in, so welcome on board. Mary sorry to hear your experience to date. On the issue of using a London clinic, but not living in London, I am in the same boat, but I'm not with the ARGC. They do things rather differently from my clinic. I seem to have 2 weeks of going back and forth to London (7-8 hr round trip), often with a small child in tow. I have found this manageable, if not stressful at times (and painful after egg collection), and it inevitably increases overall costs quite substantially. However, I have made the logistics work with forward planning etc. Not sure if that helps at all.

Shellster I find the whole IVF cycle a 'waiting game' as I am fully aware that a cycle can be cancelled at anytime due to poor response. I am nearly 42 remember! I spent my two weeks prior to egg collection believing my cycle would indeed be reduced to IUI as the scans were poor. I won't bore everyone with how my EC was nearly cancelled on the day, just minutes before it was due to take place, as I don't wish to dwell on the traumatic experience that it was, or how I haven't even made it to blastocyst stage this time, let alone put any in the freezer. I have learned to focus on my body and what it can achieve in piss-poor circumstances at my ripe old age rather than what high egg producers can do in their 20s and 30s in comparison. You mention, disappointment...disappointment is different for everyone, just as trauma and heartache in IVF are different for everyone. I wish you look with your next scan.

WelcomeMary, even though I wish we were meeting in different circumstances! I have been through 10 IVF cycles and while I don't have your circumsntances of a limited number of vials and the added pressure that must bring, I do have a limited amount of money and after 10 previous IVF attempts, this is the final go I can afford. So I do feel the pressure even though circumstances are different.

Hey aussie!

Darkchoc, that sounds emotionally traumatic, being all geared up for EC and then being told on the day it would be cancelled. I think I'm just frustrated not because I am comparing myself to others, but because I myself have had cycles of 15-16 follicles so can't understand why suddenly the last two cycles in a row have dropped to 7 follicles. It's just nice to rant away and let it out here. I shall now go away and try to have a positive day and hopefully get better news at my scan tomorrow to help me stay positive for the next few days. Somehow, I find myself quietly hoping that a few more will pop up that the lady just missed on Friday, even though she checked and double checked for me - but my mind knows that is unrealistic even though it continues to hope for it. As a plan B, I at least hope that 4 follicles are growing co-ordinated as I have set 4 as my minimum number to proceed to EC to make the ghastly cost worthwhile.

Hi Aussie - thanks for your offer of help - will PM you as don't want to bore everyone here too much with my stuff before I even start!

Choc - Can I ask which London clinic you are at and how you chose? I'm veering towards ARGC because of the previous MC and their high success rates - I'm guessing you are finding your clinic 'do-able'? Im concerned that the number of trips to ARGC might finish me off before I even start!

Shellster - The funny thing is that Im probably not that limited by goes now we are into IVF as hopefully we will be able to freeze embryos. Like you though - limited by money, especially as ARGC seems like it will be at least £10K a go. We don't get anything on the NHS as we already have a child, this is so frustrating as it seems it was medical negligence which has led to the infertility - we are currently having it investigated by the NHS and have a medical lawyer on standby.

Mary, you are quite welcome to rant away here. I enjoy hearing details of others stories as it makes me feel not so alone and I assume that's part of the reason everyone else is here too.

You say you are not limited by goes in IVF, but wouldn't they have to use up one vial of sperm per egg retrieval? So with 4 vials, you would have up to 4 shots at IVF? Before a first IVF cycle, everyone has the theory of producing several eggs, having some transferred and the rest frozen. But having been on this thread from the get go and watching everyone go through IVF, it seems that while some of us produce 3-4 mature eggs and others produce 15, we are all just having one or two embryos available to transfer and occasionally someone has had one embryo left over to freeze. Not one person has had several on ice, regardless if they have high or low egg reserve. It goes with the research I read that no matter if you are on low or high dose of drugs to produce few or several eggs, only the same percentage are genetically viable. Just feel like I should give you a heads up as it can be depressing in your first cycle otherwise if you have expectations of ending up with several frozen embryos and 'not limited by goes'. Though with 4 vials and IVF attempts ahead of you (depending on finances!) and knowing you can actually conceive, it sounds like you've got a fighting chance.

Mary - Have you considered cycling abroad? It's much cheaper than in the UK, and some clinics have very good records when it comes to recurrent miscarriages. If travelling to London would be a huge faff anyway, getting to somewhere like Prague or Athens could actually turn out easier, and they have very high success rates! The people I know who went abroad didn't need to live there for a month either, have done a whole cycle on one trip abroad - they do fantastic skype consultations etc. I'd suggest having a look at the fertilityfriends message board - they have a whole section on clinics on the continent.

afm I have finally got my period and so am ready to start our frozen cycle. I'm pretty terrified about it not working, but keep reassuring myself that there are 3 possible outcomes and 2 of them have silver linings of sorts (and the third is obviously having a baby which is the good one!). But if the cycle doesn't work at all, we'll have to do a fresh cycle, but that will mean that hopefully a few embryos will be produced and we can keep a few in the freezer for more kids (currently just have one frostie). And if I get pregnant and then have another miscarriage, that will be "enough" miscarriages for them to investigate why they keep happening, so hopefully lead to answers and therefore a baby soon!

Anyone else had FET? It seems to easy compared to a fresh cycle!

Sorry to hear you had a terrible time of it with egg collection Choc I hope being busy will help the wait pass fairly quickly and you are managing to find some time to relax.

Toes lovely to see you (I remember you from the 10 months + thread) great that you are all geared up for your FET. I am desperately hoping that we will have something to freeze.

Day 10 scan for me today and all progressing well, back in on Wednesday and depending on how things look will either have egg collection on Friday or Monday- eek!

Hi Toes. Just thought I'd drop a line in answer to your last question. I've only had FETs, no fresh cycles, as we had pgd testing done on all of our blastocysts. Two out of three transfers were successful!

Wishing you (and everyone else on this thread) the best of luck.

Hey shellster - I had a look at abroad, it might be something to consider for the future, definitely.

Just registered with ARGC who have a 6-8 week waiting list but this kinda suits me, could do with a bit of a break.

I guess maybe I don't have as many goes as I was thinking but I can't imagine doing more than 4 - age wise, money wise and emotional well being wise but, never say never! At the start of this whole process we said we would never have IVF and here I am about to fork out life savings on it!

Just have to keep telling myself it's all a process...