Anyone Starting IVF? Join Me (4)

[bessie84]

The other thread reached 1000 comments, so having to start a new one.

A puff of Babydust to all

x

flower I do it on side, bevel of needle flat to bottle like they showed me last time. Asked nurse about it today and she wasn't worried. Said maybe needle bevel isn't completely flat so could be getting air that way.

Also pleased to report 8 eggs on right ovary and 6 on left all between 6-10mm. Not bee. Put on oestrogen this time, apparently last time it was because I'd hit the magic 11mm in an egg. Apparently oestrogen production increases from 11mm.
Lining also looking good at 5.4mm so just keeping everything crossed for Fridays scan now. Hoping to get ec date on friday.

I don't have any tests in yet, am waiting for a delivery of ICs. My OTD is Monday 21st, was thinking of testing on Saturday. I don't want to test too early and get a false BFP/BFN.

Sounds like stimming is going well dottie, go follies go!

Sore boobs - check, feeling low - check, bloated tummy - check. I feel exactly as I do in the 4-5 days before AF so I think it is over for me. I was so counting on this as a 2nd round would use all my savings and they only got one egg out this time anyway.
To make matters worse work colleague is back after his wedding and making frequent jokes about him making babies.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you icsi.

Oh - I wrote a long post last night that hasn't appeared. That's annoying.

I went for my transfer today and the doctor had prepared a different sort of catheter because I bleed a little on both of my last transfers and he wanted to avoid that as it can affect the outcome. He said It was about 3 factors: embryo quality, smoothness of transfer and lining quality and he was confident that the first two would be fine with the special catheter. Then he checked my lining and it was only 5.2mm! I couldn't believe it - it measured 10mm last week . He said that The clinic had had successes with women with

(Sorry posted prematurely).
...a 5mm lining so all is not lost but it's not ideal. We put the best one back and an okay one. He's doubled my meds to give it a boost.

We should have some to freeze - they'll make a decision tomorrow.

Don't despair Icsi and Elbbob don't forget that the hormones you're on cause AF-like symptoms so all is not lost yet. Keeping everything crossed for you x

How frustrating purple. How can it be 10 last week and 5.2 for transfer???? I seem to have missed if it was a natural cycle or a medicated one, but either way, how could that have happened???? Where did it disappear to if you didn't bleed???? I don't get it!!!! I too can recall stories of women with thinner linings having success but I can totally understand being frustrated after going through so much already and not wanting to be left wondering 'what if' because your lining wasn't optimal.

Thinking of you Elbbob. Wish there was more I could say to make it work for you. I had the same pressure of knowing I was using the last money I could afford on my 11th IVF cycle and it certainly adds extra stress of 'needing' it to work. I assume there was a reason they decided to go ahead with EC for one egg rather than cancel - is age a factor and time is of the essence and they perhaps thought another cycle would not fare any better? Of course, I really hope your gut feeling is wrong. Thinking of you.

lil 8 and 6 follicles is fantastic. Funny, when I read that, my initial feeling was still that of jealousy at how well others respond when my record number of mature eggs from 7 EC's was 4, even though it shouldn't matter to me any more! Will check in for your update Friday :)

No, I don't understand it either, Shell. Very frustrating. It was a medicated cycle: oestradial to build up lining and progesterone to maintain it.

I have a suspicion that my endometrium not being as good as previous cycles may have to do with my weight loss - which I saw as a positive thing for the success of my fertility treatment. I have been keeping to around 1200 calories a day for the past two and a half months and although I feel much better for it, I think I should have increased my calories when I went on the oestradial. It didn't occur to me - if I was doing an own-egg cycle, I would have increased the calories for egg quality, but it just didn't occur to me. And although it was a bit thinner than previous cycles at 10mm it wasn't terrible, with a week to go. So yesterday was a bit of a shock.

Still. I've just received an email from the clinic to say that they have frozen four of the remaining embryos today, which means that of the 7 (my missing email explained this - you were quite right, Shell - they did originally say that they had collected 6 eggs, but that was the clinic receptionist and when I heard from the embryologist, she said there were 7) - 6 made it to transfer or freezing. Of the two I have on board, one is excellent and the other is not perfect, but of a quality where they have had successful pregnancies in the past. I haven't really had a chance to process it all yet - got home at 1.30 this morning, so I'm pretty exhausted!

Congratulations on brewing a great crop of follicles, Lil - sending you plumping thoughts .

Hope you've got the meds nailed, Flower

Sending don't-go-mad vibes to Icsi and Elbbob - this is the hardest bit - it really messes with your head.

Oh purple that's bonkers! Glad you got to transfer though and have some to freeze.

shell don't be too jealous, I may still end up with nothing on the basis only 2 were any good last time and I haven't been good diet wise this time!

elbob as I have said before, your normal cycle and how you normally feel pre AF is irrelevant. You are being controlled by drugs and on high doses of progesterone. Progesterone causes BOTH pmt and bfp symptoms so you have no way of knowing as all the symptoms can be either. I felt really crampy right the way from ec to past bfp and was sure it wasn't a good sign. I guess in the long run it wasnt a good outcome but it did become a bfp, however brief!

Hi everyone,

Received my meds today. Didn't realise there would be so much.

I understand the progynova, then I have gonal for injections in the fridge which I understand are the Fsh. Then I have cetrotide as well. I get all that but I also have been given a vial of suprecur which isn't mentioned on the leaflet I have.

Does anyone have any experience of that?

Oh and in also have 65 cyclogest pessaries in the box.

Vixx hard to say without knowing your protocol but Gonal-F and cetrotide are usually short protocol - whereby you start stimulating your ovaries to produce multiple follicles with thr Gonal-F (usually on day 2) and then add in the Cetrotide (somewhere around day 6 in my case but we'll see how I go and they will advise when to start taking it) as a blocker to prevent ovulation from occurring

I think it's possible the Suprecur might be intended as a trigger (less risk of OHSS than an hcg trigger, for for women with PCOS) rather than as a down regulation drug. They should advise what you're supposed to take when and what the drugs are for, so this is only a guess

I'm not sure how the progynova fits into short protocol - hopefully someone else can advise. My consultant said as my lining had been thinned by clomid, if it wasn't thickening up sufficiently once I started stimming then he might prescribe supplementary oestrogen to help thicken it up - either as oral progynova or oestrogen patches. I think it's normally prescribed in medicated FETs to thicken up the lining in preparation for transfer, but not sure where it fits into a stimulated cycle...

The Cyclogest pessaries are progesterone supplements to help implantation and to support a pregnancy -as without ovulation there's no corpus luteum to produce progesterone naturally, so the fandango bullets do the same job artificially! Although didn't you say they were recommending a freeze all cycle? You'd only need Cyclogest for transfer and if you're doing a freeze all cycle you wouldn't need the Cyclogest till after your FET....do you know why they've recommended a freeze all cycle?

Thank you that was helpful.

The progynova I thought was to shut down my cycle before the Fsh. I'm so confused.

They recommended you freeze for a period of time to prevent ohss and apparently the success rates go.up to 55 per cent.

Maybe it's a trigger shot but there's enough for 5 doses in the vial. Have to wait until the seventh of October to be able to go.over this which seems quite long as I am starting progynova on the 24th.

I would def ring them up to check. As far as I'm aware if you're on short protocol you might take birth control pills to quiet your ovaries and enable them to time your cycle - and if you have pcos and don't have periods naturally then I would have thought you might be prescribed Provera to bring on a bleed. But don't know where Progynova before a medicated short IVF cycle would come in. Maybe someone else can advise! I would def ask your clinic -It's their job to make sure you know what you're taking when, and why xx

Hi all, been away for a while as have been really really unwell (some kind of evil virus!) and had to really battle through as felt very ill. Postponed my TSH test till next Monday as couldn't manage to get to the clinic.

Couple of weeks ago I had private tests for thyroid antibodies and am waiting for those results. Need to get TSH down as the clinic will not treat me otherwise so I very stressed

Hope everyone is doing ok x

Hello Vixx - I have had all those meds in previous or current cycles, so I can answer your questions!

Are you on a long or a short protocol? Suprecur is a brand name for buserelin, which is the down-regulation drug if you are on a long protocol. This shuts you down prior to your cycle. If you're on a short protocol, it is probably your trigger shot, as I can't see another trigger drug on your list - mine was pregnyl.

Progynova is oestradial, which builds the lining. I was on this with a short protocol OE IVF - and it's also the drug they use for a FET and to build lining for DE IVF.

Gonal F is, as you said, FSH - the stimulation drug, to persuade your ovaries to mature multiple eggs rather than the single one for a natural cycle. Incidentally, you only need to keep it in the fridge until you start using each pen (assuming you have a pen - it's also available in a syringe, but not many people seem to use these) - and the injections are less painful if you let it warm up to room temp before you use it for the first one, so take it out of the fridge an hour or so before you need it the first time.

Cetrotide is to prevent you from ovulating too early.

Hope that helps!

You ladies are all great!

I don't know if im on long or short protocol they didn't say.

I have to wait until day 21 of cycle to start progynova. After I've been on for 2 weeks i have a scan then start fsh.

Is/was anyone as clueless as me? I am finding all the names and abbreviations hard to understand

Ha ha - yup, I remember listing all my drugs in a "wtf" post and Shellster explaining them all to me .

I found this book really helpful - it's a patient's view rather than a doctor's view of IVF. Written by an American, so some of the drugs and protocols she describes are different, but I found it a really helpful and demystifying approach. And I found it on kindle late the night before I started injecting and it helped calm my nerves .

Thank you!

Vixx, I took Progynova before my IVF cycles. If you want to send yourself insane, you can google 'estrogen priming protocol' and will get everyone with their two bob about it. I personally preferred to focus on the evidence based studies like this one that shows estrogen before an IVF cycle results in an increased number of eggs, increased number of normally fertilised embryos, and increased number of good quality embryos. It got me my current pregnancy.

I wouldn't beat yourself up about the diet purple. The calories were obviously enough to get your lining to 10mm thick in the first place, so it doesn't seem logical that it would then cause your lining to thicken, although I'm still confused as to where it disappeared to!?!?

I can understand your hesitation about a positive outcome lil after only 2 made it to day 2 last time. I really hope that the steady dose of meds rather than going up, down, up, down like last time is a good thing for the quality this time.

I'm not going to look at that link shell as I'll get the fear that I'm not on oestrogen this time!
Man my ovaries ache!

I was wondering about the oestrogen priming protocol too. It's funny how both the oestrogen and testosterone priming protocol are sometimes recommended for poor responders. Though in Vixx case if you gave pcos and don't have periods I was wondering how that worked as it hadnt occurred to me that oestrogen priming might be used if you were expected to over respond. It's so complicated!! X

There's so many different protocols aren't there!

So a quick question, if I'm 7dp5dt should my trigger shot be out of my system by now???

It definitely was for me flower and if I recall correctly, lil had a negative test 4 days after the trigger so she new it was out of her system by then. Although I got a negative test at 13 days past EC and it shattered me even though I turned out to be briefly pregnant on my second last IVF, so the last time I preferred not to test and live with a glimmer of hope for a day or two longer than to break down when the test came up negative. Up to you what's best for you.

Sorry lil, I wasn't thinking that by reassuring vixx that the estrogen priming protocol is a good thing, that it would stress out women who are not doing it! Although this protocol is about taking estrogen prior to stims, not during it. You took the BCP instead which also contains estrogen but it's just that poor responder women's ovaries don't bounce back as well after the BCP so I took estrogen instead.

I didn't realise that vixx had PCOS banana. Yes, I thought it was best for poor responders. Although I have a friend in the USA who did IVF and her clinic did EPP for everyone as standard regardless as it produced the best results So many protocols and so many clinics with different opinions!

Morning all,

So it looks like I will be joining you. DH had the snip during his first marriage and we've been advised due to my age (37) that our best bet is IVF rather than a reversal. I've also got adenomyosis which apparently the clinic we're using (ARGC) have some new fandangled testing/treatment for.

Am just arranging my monitoring cycle, and have just booked in for HIV/HEP bloods to be taken from DH and I - so we really are RIGHT at the beginning of our journey.

As we have children (DH has 2 and I have 1 from our first marriages) we (rightly so) have to cover the costs ourselves, and both sets of parents have been incredibly generous and offered to cover about 1/2 the costs as a wedding present, which was really the only way we could have done it.

So...deep breath...here goes!

Hello Cuppa and welcome. ARGC has a really good reputation and I have a friend who is having treatment there, who has told me that they are really thorough, so I'm sure you're in good hands. It's a crazy rollercoaster, but I find this thread helps - it's a lovely, supportive group of women in the same boat for a plethora of reasons.