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

Hello Choc - sorry to hear you had a tough time of EC - but sending you lots of good wishes for the 2ww and beyond.

Hello Toes - I've done a few FET cycles - one with my own eggs last year, but now we're using donor eggs, so all cycles feel like a FET for me, even when they're fresh cycles, because I obviously don't need to stim. You're right - it's much less of an upheaval than a fresh cycle. So are you cycling abroad? I went to Prague when we switched to DE, as our clinic in the UK had a long wait for donor eggs. I've been very impressed - and you're right - much cheaper.

Mary I'm sorry to hear you've been through so much already and hope that IVF solves things for you. It does sound like you have a good chance. I allowed myself a wry smile at your "four goes" rule...I remember saying something similar and we've moved the goalposts twice now when we've got to the end of our allotted goes and it hasn't worked. And I really didn't want to do IVF either, but decided it wasn't fair not to try as DH wanted to eliminate the "what ifs". It hasn't been nearly as bad as I expected. I've got a 7yo ds, so our gaps will be similar if we're both successful....does your dd know that you're having fertility treatment?

Chin up Shellster - sounds a bit as if the fight has gone out of you - are you okay? Sending a hug.

Blue - I've lost track of where you are in terms of IVF. How was Chicago?

Good luckTrixie

Toes, glad your period has finally arrived and you can get on with your FET. The counting down and waiting is the worst isn't it. Every clinic seems to do FET a bit different. What does your cycle involve?

Trixie, any idea on how many mature follicles from your scan. You sound so relaxed with your casual comment 'day 10 scan - all progressing well'. I guess if you have PCO, you just expect several follicles to grow and don't worry, unlike me who is anxiously trying to glean from each scan if at least 4 growing to make the cost worthwhile to proceed.

Thanks for your concern purple. I guess you are right - I am all positive in the lead up to IVF, knowing I taking supplements to get the highest follicle count I can and am on the IVF diet that statistically gets 50% of embryos, but now I'm in the IVF cycle and having scans and seeing my pathetic low follicle count of 7, it does punch you down and make you feel defeated. I've accepted that now and just hoping to see at least 4 of the 7 growing at my future scan to make me feel like I've got a remote chance. If I see that, I'll be okay. If there are 5 growing, I will be ecstatic.

Mary, I second purples wry smile as I too said I would not and could not afford IVF. I am now on my 11th attempt!

Oops purple, I meant I am on the IVF diet that staticstally gets 50% of embryos to blastocyst stage.

Shellster - I meant to ask you what the magic ratio of carbs to proteins was? I know it's not so important for me since I'm doing DE, but I'm trying to keep my carbs low to fend off the dreaded diabetes that was looming a couple of years ago. And I've signed up for myfitnesspal to help with the weight loss (after seeing a friend at the weekend who has done really well with it) and it logs the nutritional breakdown of your food. I did my first day yesterday and ate more protein and less carb than the recommended levels, but stayed within my calories - and I think that's probably what I will aim to do...

Well, I'm not sure for general health purple but I know the IVF study said that pregnancy rates increased when protein was greater than 25%. And that the pregnancy rates were even higher at 80% when not only was the protein above 25%, but also the carbs were below 40%.

To be honest, I am a bit skeptical that we really do need so much protein. I have read contradictory articles saying that high protein diets increase ammonia in our bodies and a study on mice showed that this made it difficult for the embryos to implant. So I plan to stop this high protein as soon as EC is over in hope there is enough time for my ammonia levels to decrease before ET.

Thanks Purple

Shellster, I'm not sure I am quite as relaxed as I sound. I think having pco I have been very lucky to not have to worry about producing enough eggs though I have heard about people not responding to the meds so I was slightly worried before my first monitoring scan. Unless DH and I have just been incredibly unlucky there is some reason why we've not conceived naturally and my fears lie more in the fertilisation/implantation bit. I had a dream last night that none of my eggs fertilised and I went shopping with one of my friends for some sperm as if it was the most normal thing in the world. For now I am trying to stay really positive and bear in mind that whatever happens we will learn something from this cycle. Yesterday I had 6 follicles on one side at 15mm and several on each side around 10-11mm. The nurse said they like to see them at 17-18mm before triggering.

That's interesting about the protein after EC, will definitely bare that in mind. I have had pretty much the same lunch (quinoa with chicken/prawns and salad) everyday for the last 3 months so will be nice to have a change.

I just wanted to pop in and post a positive story. I am 42 years old. I had a dd at 37 naturally. This was followed by two miscarriages, a failed iui and a further IUI and ivf cycle which both ended in miscarriage. I did all the miscarriage testing but the reality which I always knew was my old age and old eggs. I had amh testing 2 years ago which came back at 1.8. So odds stacked against me for success with treatment. At christmas we agreed we would give it two more attempts and then give up. DE is something neither of us wanted nor were prepared to do so it was going to be the end of the road.The first thing I did was to stop looking up quack stories on the Internet, attempting to self diagnose and medicate. I am not not a doctor and that's what I pay all the money to the clinic for - their expertise. So I cut out all supplements vitamins aspirin etc except folic acid and vit e (took vit e at direction of my clinic). I started a very high protein diet for 1 month before EC and continued up to date of testing. Such a high protein diet is hard going, I put on a stone, it was difficult to keep it up as your body has to adjust. However at EC collected 11 eggs, 6 went to blast, 2 high grade transferred and I froze 4. I am now 22 weeks pregnant with a singleton. Pregnancy is all well and I never ever thought it could happen. I am absolutely convinced that high protein and low stress were the keys to success. I felt calm, I didn't over analyse everything. I know that it won't work for everyone but I gave the advice to two other girls I know who are both since pregnant following IVF.

Sounds like you've got a good crop of eggs there trixie, but I can totally understand if you have unexplained infertility that your fears lie in the fertilisation and implantation aspect. Are they doing IVF because your husbands sperm seems fine, or do they do ICSI 'just in case' because you are unexplained and perhaps the uniting of the egg and sperm is the issue?

I just came back from my day 8 scan today. She saw 3 follicles on my left when only 2 were seen on day 3 and day 6, so I hope this means one extra that is popping up, although she also mentioned and noticed that my corpus luteum is still left over on my ovary from the previous cycle so I'm not sure if that's included in her count and the reason for the one extra.

There were still 5 on the right. I was told on both day 3 and day 6 that the largest on the right is 9mm and today I was told it was 8mm so that one follicle is not growing. I thought it was unusual for a follicle to already be 9mm at day 3 when normally they are just 2-3mm and now that it hasn't grown, I am wondering what exactly it is?

Hi all, sorry I've not been around much. I've mainly been sleeping!

Sorry to hear EC was hard on you DarkChoc, how are your two embies doing?

Welcome, Mary. I'm afraid I can't help with any advice about ARGC, I didn't go there. Looks like the others have helped out though. That's why I love this thread - there's always someone with something helpful to say!

Toes, fingers crossed as you start your cycle. It's an odd thing to think of being happy your period has arrived; but as it heralds the Beginning of the cycle it totally makes sense.

Hope your scan today goes well, Trixie. Sounds like we've got fairly similar set ups with the PCO. With me, the follicles grew frustratingly slowly, so I'm hoping yours are a bit less lazy than mine!

Shell; sounds strange that you've got some unexpected things going on in there. I'm sure it's nothing to worry about. Any mention yet on when EC is likely to be? Or are you just dealing with it all one scan at a time?

Thanks for the advice, Pessim, glad it worked for you. Congrats on your pregnancy.

AFM, well, as I said, I've mainly been sleeping. My date with DildoMike is still an unbearably long week and a half away. I bought a two pack of Clear Blue digitals to get me through the waiting. Did one last Thurs and will probably do the other on Friday. Not that there's anything wrong, I just can't really believe it. I'm getting the occasional twinge in my lower belly, but otherwise feel normal, but tired. Definitely wish there was a more reliable symptom; the blue pee idea is still my favourite. I had some nausea last week, but it turned out to be trapped wind and bloating rather than anything exciting. My stomach's definitely all messed up, which I'm blaming on the awful Cyclogest. Hopefully if all is good on scan day I'll be able to give up the Cyclogest.

Had my day 12 scan today and my egg collection is going to be Friday which I am really pleased about as it means I can spend the weekend recovering rather than getting anxious.
There are quite a few small follicles getting left behind but the nurse thinks I have a good chance of getting between 9-13 eggs which is what we were aiming for so very very happy.

Shellster, we are doing IVF as DH results came back absolutely fine so there is no issue there and hopefully no reason why they can't fertilise my eggs. I did ask today about switching to ICSI if it turns out that there is a fertilisation problem and the nurse said it's not possible.

Good luck for your next scan, hopefully you can get them to confirm that the new follicle is indeed a lovely new follicle. One of my ovaries dropped two follicles between baseline scan and first monitoring scan and then suddenly grew some more. All very confusing.

Karou, lovely to hear from you. I can understand why you would worry about lack of symptoms (other than tiredness!) but I have heard of those of people (including my best friend) whose symptoms didn't kick in until later. Hopefully the next 1.5 weeks fly by.

Thanks for posting your positive story Pessimoptimistic and congratulations on your pregnancy.

Off to do my last Cetrotide and then need to trigger at 9pm.

Hi,

I read your story about the high protein.
Can you please tell me how much protein you eat ? And did you also cut down on carbs ?

So you took nothing except foluc acid and vit e.. Wow
On which medication were you regarding stimming ? And down regging ?

Enjoy your pregnancy :-)

By the way i am 43...

Sorry, this last post should have been a private message..
So you can ignore this one

Shellster do you feel any better with your latest scan? Have I counted correctly and you may have 7 or 8 follicles? I keep fingers crossed that they all keep growing at a steady and even rate to produce lovely eggs. The wait between scans can be torturous and I hope you find some nice distractions. I found walking helped (when it wasn't raining). Yeah, this protein thing has me in a head spin...and despite adhering to it, along with pharma quality DHEA, this cycle of IVF for me was uneven in contrast to the first cycle. Of course, there are so many other variables involved, but my body grew a fabulous baby on a high carb diet (albeit 4 yrs ago) and I also feel better when I'm not consuming vast quantities of protein.

Karou I doubt you'll relax until you meet DildoMike, but hope you can enjoy and find lots of pleasure in these early days of pregnancy, they go very fast. Yes, that good old cyclogest does cause havoc, hope it settles down soon. Though, your pregnancy may be playing a role too with your tummy issues...my pregnancy did, all the way through!

Trixie good luck for Friday and your EC. That sounds like a fantastic number to look towards.

Well, I had my first 'AF like" lingering cramps today. Pretty scary as it was around this day during my first cycle that I started to bleed. I'm taking two different lots of progesterone this time, bit like a double whammy of cyclogest re: symptoms. Light-headed yesterday and feel a bit spaced, presume from the prog, but nothing else to report. Had lots work-wise to concentrate on so trying very hard not to think about what might or might not be in the conception department. I even cancelled a work event yesterday as it was far too stressful. I must have let down lots of people (I know I did - not good for my career) and I do feel hellishly selfish, but for once I listened to my body and just knew that the stress would have an adverse bearing upon this cycle. I figured I want another baby more than I wanted the benefits from the work event. Wish we didn't have to make such decisions as women.

Wave to everyone else.

Fingers crossed Trixie that hubbys sperm fertilises your eggs. I can understand your concern without having any diagnosis and wondering if this is the issue, butI know that IVF allows the better sperm to be naturally selected, unlike ICSI where they can only go by what the eye sees. I assume you will get a call Saturday and won't be in suspense all weekend?

Karou, I'm just waiting for a scan to reveal if enough follicles are going to come to the party first before I even get hopeful about EC. I can imagine 1 1/2 weeks seems like forever to wait for you scan. Although I must admit while I am sitting here on this side of the BFP fence and not even knowing if I will ever have success, I would much rather be in your position!

Darkchoc I too am confused if high protein really is good for us, especially since other studies show high protein causes ammonia build up and is bad for fertility! I've since concluded that probably the women whose diets were high protein low carb and had 50% of embryos make it to blast when they did this study, were probably eating foods like tuna and salad for lunch and chicken with veg for dinner - so not necessarily HUGE amounts of protein, but just healthy vegies which are naturally low carb, so that even just two servings of protein puts their protein above 25% and carb below 40%. I have adopted this diet for this IVF, as opposed to before my last IVF where I was chowing down protein powders and bars, so we shall see... if I make it to EC!

Yes, all I know for sure if 7 or 8 follicles counted with the largest being 8mm on both sides. Which sounds great when summed up like that and I would be thrilled to bits with 7 or 8 mature eggs. But I definitely do not think that is the truth of it as my estrogen levels were only 170 which indicates that the follicles are really small. So I assume the rest are not doing much. Had a glass of wine as consolation after yesterdays scan. I read that Mediterranean diet is good for fertility and since they drink wine, I talked myself into it being okay! Going back tomorrow for another scan and hopefully I will finally be put out of my misery of this uncertainty.

I hope the stress of cancelling work and letting people down has not outweighed the stress of the actual work event darkchoc. It's so hard, especially when we don't want to reveal the reason why so they are not understanding towards us.

Shellster, yes, apparently the embryologist will speak to us tomorrow after collection regarding DH sample and my eggs and then we get an update on Saturday.

I have heard of consultants advising a glass of wine after transfer to help relax you and my clinic said a glass of wine here and there is absolutely fine. I love my wine, had a really lovely glass of red on the Saturday night before my baseline scan and then a glass of rose on the Sunday, thoroughly enjoyed both.

Darkchoc, I would have made the same decision. I've not made any plans at all during my IVF cycle, just doing what I need to at work and at home. Missed a big meet up with friends at the weekend (would have involved a 3 hour journey each way) because I didn't want to tire myself out. They understood because they know about the IVF. And I was supposed to be in a dance show soon after transfer but under the advice of my clinic have pulled out, felt bad for letting people down but this comes first by a mile.

Did my trigger last night and POAS this morning just to see two lines come up

Starting to worry about the journey to the clinic in the morning. Should be a simple taxi to station and half hour journey by train but terrified that there will be delays/cancellations.

Good luck Trixie...
....and thinking of you Choc. Glad you found a way to put yourself first. We are pulled in so many different directions at once and this is so much bigger than work x

Hi all...remember me? . We're just coming to the end of our one week holiday in Nashville and Kentucky, we drove down here after my work week in Chicago. It has been fab, VERY relaxing and I've been sleeping like a baby. IVF diet has gone out of the window somewhat and I've been having a cold beer or two here and there (it's 30c), but I feel ok about it. AF is due this weekend and I think I'll be in for my first scan early next week. Hopefully all this relaxing has been encouraging some follicle growth!

Glad to see everyone is doing well, especially you Shellster. I know you'll be disappointed with the follicle count but you only need a couple of good ones and I'm convinced you'll get there this time x

Thanks blue. I am so happy to hear that you are feeling VERY relaxed. I took a holiday mid last year and then had my highest follicle count ever of 19 at my day 2 scan next cycle when IVF started. So I hope you are right and the relaxing has done you good. And yes, you are right and can imagine my disappointment with 7 this cycle when you see I had 19 in a previous cycle.

Todays scan showed follicle sizes of 10mm, 9mm, 7mm, 5mm & 4 more small ones. These are very small for day 10 compared to all my previous IVF cycles where follicles that have become mature in time for egg collection have been at least 13mm by day 10 so if my history is anything to go by, the 7mm and 5mm are out of the race. But I have set myself a minimum target of 4 mature follicles to feel like I have a glimmer of a chance and make the huge cost of EC worthwhile so I need the 5mm and 7mm to grow please! Even the largest follicle that was measured as 10mm today has been 9mm from day 3, so even though it seems like my leader of the pack, I am not sure that this one is actually growing and going to become a mature follicle. Clinic will call thisafternoon and I assume a repeat scan on Monday. It's going to be a long weekend!

How are you travelling purple. What are your next steps now that you've decided what will be changed for next cycle.

Wishing you the very best trixie as things really get going for you now and all will be revealed in the next few days.

Shellster that sounds very frustrating. It sounds like those follies need a good talking to! I'm sure I don't need to ask if you're drinking lots of fluids.

Blue you sound wonderfully relaxed. Glad you had a good holiday and some time away from IVF.

Big wave to everyone. Kitten has stopped making me feel yuk, so I really hope I'm on my way to second semester glow [glow].

Incredible how your first trimester seems to have flown by cat while the same amount of time for me waiting to start IVF and now finally starting and waiting between scans to see if I will have just four mature follicles to proceed to EC is painstakingly long!

Yes, I am drinking fluids, but thanks for the reminder. Will measure tomorrow and make sure I get down 3L. If anyone else has any other practical tips on what I can do over the weekend to help my follicles along before my repeat scan on Tuesday, I am happy for all tips! I figure if I can't forget, I may as well be doing practical things to help me feel positive. I just did yoga and am about to do my injection, hoping that the extra blood flow helps get the injection flowing through my body better.

Thanks Shellster and Purple really helped having read about egg collection experiences on here. All went well, was over before I knew it. They got a few extra eggs than we were expecting but pretty sure they won't have been mature. Home and DH is taking good care of me. Waiting on the call in the morning....

Shellster sounds like you are doing everything you can and I am crossing everything for your follicles to grow! I've read that vitamin D is really important for IVF and although we've actually had a fair bit of sun over here in the UK I've been taking a supplement for months now, that's the only other tip I can think of though with all your research I guess you will already know about it.

Blooming heck! I think through embarrassment of forwarding me someone else's booking in appointment (personal details and all) ARGC have got me an appointment on the 8th July which makes an August cycle totally possible and skipping the 10-12 week waiting list! Makes it feel a little bit like it's meant to be...

Oops, what a stuff up on ARGC's part Mary - but what a bonus not to have to wait 12 weeks! So what will happen at this appointment? They will explain all the meds and set everything up so you are ready to go the following cycle?

Thanks for the tip Trixie. Yep, I've been taking vit D for many months now. Guess, you are right, I've researched everything and am already doing all I can. Glad EC went well. I think you are 11 hours behind my time, so hopefully you are sleeping soundly and when you wake up you'll be anxiously waiting for the phone call! Can't wait to hear.

Hey shellster, from what I've heard, argc do their own monitoring cycle (even thought I've had this done elsewhere) and then they may do nk tests as I've had 2 mc and then this may take some time for treatment as well but it could be august/sept. I had just managed to adjust to nov/dec do it's a nice surprise!

Hope your follies are coming along well - have you tried co enzyme q10? Have heard it can help with egg quality, just about to order a shed load

Morning ladies, thought I would let you know that my 12 week scan went well this morning. A very snoozy kitten but eventually woke up to give us a wave!

I'm not sure about posting a picture as I don't want to upset anyone.

Hope it's good news from the clinic this morning Trixie x