IVF TWW - a lot of people seem to take oestrogen as well as progesterone?

[merricat]

Hi all, I'm in the first week post 3dt, and during my casual trawls of google I've noticed that a lot of women seem to be put on both progesterone and oestrogen during the TWW. It's got me a bit worried, because I'm only on progesterone. My clinic never mentioned oestrogen for the TWW. How come?

Sorry for the boring technical question, but google isn't helping with answers, and just makes me more concerned

Hello, is it an own egg fresh cycle? It's for donor cycles and frozen transfers usually you have both as you need it to build a lining

Ohhhhh, okay, thank you. Wouldn't the TWW be a bit late for building a lining though? Or would the extra oestrogen help to maintain the lining in a FET / donor egg situation? Sorry for the questions, it's embarrassing how ignorant I am! Mine is indeed an own-egg, fresh cycle, so you've reassured me a lot, thanks

Us fet and donor ladies usually will have started the oestrogen maybe a week before transfer, I started mine 5 days before the donors Ec, your body responds to stims and your lining thickens as your follicles grow but we don't have that so when your having Stimms scans we are having lining scans, when I had own egg ivf I never had estrogen. We don't have a trigger shot either so the body doesn't know where it's up to so its all forced with meds (although I do believe some clinic trigger even with a donor or fet) when's your test day? I did 4 ivfs the 2ww is my least fave part it's hell! The progesterone will be doing its job in supporting your lining for you now. Just think natural pregnancies have neither it's all 'self made'

Hi merri. All 3 of my IVF cycles were FETs and I was on high doses of both progesterone and oestrogen for the first 3 months of the pregnancies.

After normal ovulation (or artificial egg removal) the follicle cells that are left in the ovary produce both progesterone and oestrogen. Progesterone is especially important in making the lining develop blood vessels and special glands so that it is a suitable environment for implantation, but oestrogen also helps. (Later in the pregnancy, the placenta takes over the job of producing both these hormones, but obviously the placenta is not present at the start.)

If you are doing an own-egg fresh cycle, the follicle cells will be present in your ovaries and so you will be producing your own oestrogen. This is not the case for women using donor eggs or frozen embryos, as normal ovulation is stopped during the cycle prior to ET. Therefore they need to take oestrogen tablets.

It might seem odd then that women with fresh transfers take progesterone, given that the ovaries will already be producing it. I understand that this is like a back-up, 'just to be safe' situation, since progesterone really is THE pregnancy hormone, and insufficient production (which happens naturally in some women) is linked to early mc. Your progesterone dose will probably be lower than women using donor eggs or frozen embryos.

Best of luck for a happy outcome! And lots of and to get you through the tww.

I had a fresh cycle, and I was on progynova 3 x per day for 14 days on the run up to embryo transfer. I stopped taking it the day of ET.

Thanks so much for such detailed explanations Lauren and Guin It all makes perfect sense now. I'm glad of the back-up progesterone given how vital it is, but man am I feel its side effects. Heartburn anyone?! Yeesh.

Lauren, my OTD isn't till 3rd May, but given that that is 18 whole days past my EC, and also because my husband will be away that weekend, I'm planning to test earlier than that with a FRER, probably on 30th April. If this has been a success, it would show up then. But it's far enough away from the trigger shot that I won't get a false positive.

Are you both currently cycling now? (In the IVF sense; not with bikes...) I wish you so much luck if so. Having to do this multiple times must be so hard. I've definitely found this first round hard, physically more than anything else. It's so draining! And it takes up so much of your life! People on the outside have no idea.

Thanks again, please let me reciprocate with and and, if you're presently free to partake,

Tootsiepops, I'm guessing progynova is oestrogen? Was there a specific reason you had to take it? For me, obviously the stims helped to increase oestrogen levels, so I didn't worry about oestrogen levels pre-transfer (I had no reason to). Was just confused by the numbers of women talking about taking it in the TWW.

Def no bicycle here but plenty of food welcome! I actually tested positive last week. I'm still in shock. OTD was 18/04 which was 18dpo but I tested with a frer on 11/04 at 11dpo and got a faint bfp that got darker. Word of warning do not use a CB digi though they showed negative all week even at 14dpo so been mega stressed. I had no signs apart from some mild cramping over 9 and 10 dpo and a tiny bit of watery Orange discharge on the morning of the 11dpo, that's what made me test. I never had cramps in previous cycles

Oh wow, congratulations, that's wonderful news!!! Tip noted, I will stay away from digis. What do you count as the 'o' in dpo - I presume EC? I will be 11dpo, in that case, this Sunday. I sense it'll be hard for me to restrain myself from testing from then onwards! I might go for it on Monday. Best of luck with your pregnancy, I'm thrilled for you

Thankyou! we count the donors egg collection as ovulation and I had a 2 day transfer. If you are debating testing early (I don't advise it but neither do I follow my own advice) then stick to one type of test I think FRER or the Internet cheapies ones the little sticks but try get the sensitive ones. There's a good website called 'countdown to pregnancy' and it tells you your chances of an accurate result at each dpo so do look at it before reaching for the tests

No cycling of any sort here! I've been very lucky to have had two successful IVF treatments (out of three attempts). The first of those is currently squishing pear into the armchair and the second is asleep in her bassinet, having kept me up for several hours last night. I'm bf, so no , but it's a great justification for lots of !

Great news Lauren, I hope it all goes smoothly for you. And good luck to you again merricat.