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

elbob I agree with others there's not a lot you can do other than try and be sensible. I've booked an acupuncture session for afterwards but other than just going to have a relaxing day and then I'm off to a hen do on Friday for the weekend so going to have to come up with an excuse for not drinking!

Feeling a bit nervous now and imagining that there aren't going to be any embies to transfer! There's so many hoops to get through!! Good luck icsi and elbob

I'm 42 too, Jessie. It's supposed to be the answer to the meaning of life, the universe and Everything, isn't it?! I can sympathise with the wee thing. The time before last, I was in so much pain, I got up the second I was allowed to and then gave myself a hard time when it didn't work. So last time, I went for a wee before transfer. The receptionist told me I shouldn't because I needed a full bladder and I assured her that it would be full again by the time I'd got into theatre. I was right! Good luck with the 2WW. There's some evidence that embryos give off a chemical "I'm here" signal and that if you put more back, the stronger ones have a slightly better chance of implanting because there's a louder signal for your body to hear. Not sure how reliable that "evidence" is, but it sounds plausible.

Welcome, Elbbob. Having attempted to be at least a bit scientific in the last paragraph, I'm going to go completely woo here and say "visualisation". The last time I had an embryo implant (sadly mc at 10 weeks, but it did implant, against all the odds as it turns out), I visualised a little rose-sapling taking root in my uterus and growing. It was a nice positive and calming image to drift off to sleep to, if nothing else. For my earlier cycles I took a week off work following ET - my SIL, who had successful IVF twice swore by it - but as a veteran of 5 transfers now, I'd have no holiday left if I kept doing that, so it's a 24-hour return trip to Prague and back to work next day for me these days!

It is annoying, isn't it Icsi when everyone assumes that it's the woman's "fault". And even that they feel entitled to attribute "blame" at all...infertility is miserable enough, whatever its cause, whatever your life stage. If you are yearning for a baby, it is a deep sorrow. Here's hoping its our turn...

Yes, the 'blame' thing does annoy me a lot. I find it very frustrating that the automatic assumption is that there is something 'wrong' with me, probably my closet feminist coming out...it just reminds how in general women are expected to take responsibility for the home, family, emotional needs of everyone in their life. Oh, and we're now supposed to do everything man traditionally does on top as well luckily DH is in agreement that we are a partnership and half the housework/administration/diy is his to do...and we have a cleaner

The fact that we have MFI is totally irrelevant anyway, we have fertility issues, there's no blame, no one is more virtuous than the other, its just shit and we have to deal with it. But DH is insecure enough about it for it to make me really angry when people ask whose 'fault' it is.

Feeling really nervous today! I have a bladder the size of a peanut so hoping I don't wet myself!

I had a day 2 transfer and got pg elbob think it ylwas you who asked

Agreed "Blame" is pointless. Regardless of the reasons the journey is the same on the most part.

Sat waiting to see nurse. Sonographer said looks good so hoping for go ahead to stimm tonight

Hi everyone

I was on this thread back in June/July for my first IVF, was a BFN but a success in that we had some blasts to freeze. Have had a few months off but am now raring to go with my first (and hopefully only!) FET. Had my baseline scan yesterday and started on prognova and suprecur. Transfer will hopefully be on 28 September. DH and I are both 34 and coming up to the 2 year TTC mark with unexplained infertility.

Purple, yay for finishing the antibiotics. Had a bit of drama with my sample, Serum close for August so long story short ended up sending my sample to the lab directly. Got the results (positive) just in time to take along to my nurses appointment and the Consultant prescribed me (and DH) 21 days of antibiotics, I finish them on Monday. Best of luck with your transfer!

Toes, congratulations on your BFP very reassuring that your FET was a success.

Good luck to everyone heading into the 2ww.

Re transfer on full bladder, I asked to go to the loo before my transfer as they were running behind and I was bursting. I was told to go for 4 seconds and then stop- impossible. I went, drank a bit more water and still had a full bladder for transfer.

Got the go ahead for stimms 225 menopur from tonight. Last time I did 225/150 alternating days. Not sure why theyve increased dose as they said at follow up last time they wouldn't do anything different this time. Lining 3.3mm compared to

Congrats Dottie on moving to the next stage, hopefully you wont have to stimm too long if you're on a higher dose.

Welcome back Trixie

I'm currently sat in the car waiting for DH to come out of tesco on the way home from ET (wasn't allowed in with him ). Got one top quality blast on board and two more in the freezer... Fingers crossed!

Did any of you who've been through cycles before do anything differently? All the nurse said was "no running marathons and no base jumping", which I laughed at as running is my favourite hobby (or was until 6 weeks ago when I cut back for ivf!)

Good luck to everyone else transferring today, update us on how it goes!

Hope Flower and Icsi you are both ok after today. I am now at home watching films and endless Friends.

Purple I followed your advice and tried visualisation during the transfer and periodically am visualising my embryo all snug and multiplying. If nothing else it helps me to think positive.

Is it stupid that I now consider myself pregnant? It is the closest I have ever (knowingly) come so I am enjoying it, although I obviously won't be telling anyone.

Thanks lildottie it's good to hear of someone else who has had a 2 day transfer.

Ah icsi didn't see your post before I posted! Glad to hear you are ok and being looked after.

Glad it went well icsi and elbob

I'm just back, same as you icsi one top grade transferred and two more for the freezer. Transfer went fine, went and had a spot to eat and then had an acupuncture session. The only thing they did say was that my lining was a bit thin so in addition to the clexane and cyclogest I'm already onI'm now on another injection gestone or something like that which I inject into my bum and some progynova tablets! So many things!! But I'll do anything to make it work!

Now sat down to watch a comedy - apparently it helps to laugh!!

I was given 23rd as my test date what about you two?

I was told 20th which will be 16 days after egg collection which was on Friday the 4th. Seems a bit late to me. 23rd seems very late!

Can't believe the cocktail of drugs you're on either flower, I'm only on cyclogest!

I know, I was expecting them to say 20th not 23rd! But we have my parents coming to stay 19th weekend so perhaps we'll leave it until they've gone, who knows how I'm going to hold out that long though! I think they're just throwing everything at me given my history. It makes me feel better to be doing something different though too!

flower elbbob and icsy CONGRATULATIONS on being PUPO (pregnant until proven otherwise!!)!!

I've just been discharged from the clinic - I didn't want to say on here before as you guys were at such a stressful stage, but we had a bit of a scare at the weekend - I started bleeding and was convinced it was all over. Ended up at the Early Pregnancy Unit on Sunday morning to get a scan and luckily everything was ok - we saw our little bean and it had a lovely heartbeat. The bleeding was apparently some bruising in my womb, but they said it was nothing to worry about. We had our actual 7 week appointment today and the bean was still there, heart beating away so that's it, I have to call a midwife now!

If you don't mind I'll still come and check how you guys are doing - I remember you from the 10+ thread Trixie wishing you oodles of luck. I found FET so much more straightforward than the fresh one. I've got everything crossed it all works out for you dottie

My test day is also 23rd which I counted as 16 days after EC which was Monday 7th. Sorry to hear about the bum injection flower - do you have to do that for the next two weeks? I hated injecting into my leg, I imagine bum would be ok - although a bit awkward to get to.

Congrats Toes that must have been so amazing to hear a heart beat!

So glad your OK toes, it must've been such a relief to see the heart beat, wishing you a healthy and happy 7 months+1 week!

Good luck everyone

Eek Toes! Glad all OK. you rest up and take it easy! Was the bruising from the IVF?

Oooh, Toes - glad it worked out okay.

Hey Trixie, welcome back. Yes, I nearly got caught out by Serum's August closure too - just squeaked in with about half an hour to go to say "please could you put a hard copy prescription in the post to Pharmacy2U?" - it got there in time. Phew. And I echo what Toes said - FET is much more straightforward. Good luck x

No, Elbbob, not at all stupid to consider yourself pregnant. All part of the positivity and visualisation thing. In fact, I was saying to DH this evening "this time next week, I will be pregnant" and his response was "and I'm hopin that you will be pregant this time next month" .

Congratulations Icsi and Flower too....hoping for a happy outcome for all of you.

Icsi - re doing things differently. The clinic we were with in the UK for our OE IVF advised against swimming in pools (I typed "poos" then...I'm sure that is also discouraged ) for 12 weeks - apparently there is a slightly higher miscarriage rate. They think it's either something to do with the chemicals or the warmth encouraging bacteria to thrive. I said I swam in open water and they didn't bat an eyelid about that, which really surprised me. I've lost a stone since my last cycle and I'm feeling far healthier. I do regular yoga and will carry on with that...I am spoiling myself with some 1:1 lessons at the moment and my teacher knows about the IVF, so she tailors the class to what's going on at the time.

Our donor is due to have EC tomorrow. I feel weirdly detached. For our previous donor cycle, we went out to Prague the day of EC, and had a short break out there with DS. This time I'm just flying out the night before ET and flying back a few hours afterwards...I've just had a reminder from the clinic to start taking my progesterone tomorrow, which I would have forgotten otherwise. I'm hoping it will all feel a bit more real after tomorrow, when we know how many eggs our donor produced, how many have fertilised, etc. Our clinic has a secure website where it posts pictures of your embryos each day from day 2 onwards, with a little report telling you how they are developing, how many cells etc. It's all a bit surreal!

Congrats on losing a stone purple. That's an amazing effort. I ate so healthy while pregnant with DS and thought I would do the same when I finally got pregnant again, but after being so desperate for IVF to work and being very strict with just salads, vegies and fish for SOOO long, I have guiltily been indulging and am sure that I shouldnt have put on this much weight at 12 weeks. I guess you just have to go with the flow of your detached feeling and even forgetting progesterone if it weren't for the reminder. As the 2ww end draws close you might be sending yourself insane and wishing for zen detached purple to return.

lil - can't believe it's finally all happening again! I can imagine that being on a set dose of stims rather than alternating can only be a good thing as there is science on the net showing that a steady EGR (estrogen growth rate) results in optimal embryo quality and I saw first hand that my estrogen levels rose much higher the morning after my dose was increased so I think a consistent dose of meds would be much better for quality than being on alternating doses with your estrogen levels rising sharply one day, less so the next,ou're n then sharply again.

Hope you're not sending yourself too insane with symptom spotting jessie.

Waiting to hear how your transfer went Icsy and how many of your 3 strong on day 3 made it to day 5.

Flower, I never believed in acupuncture as I am a facts and figures person and thought acu seemed a bit alternative airy fairy treatment. But I then read a study online showing that acupuncture on the day of transfer significantly increased implantation rate. Cant remember the exact figures but it was significantly higher than those not having acupuncture. Of my 4 embryo transfers, the first two did not result in a pregnancy. I then had acupuncture before and after the transfer of my 3rd and 4th transfer and both resulted in a pregnancy (with the 3rd ending in m/c). Of course, I did lots of other research as well and the high protein low carb diet could have also played a role in better egg quality for the latter ET's, but to the person on here who mentioned that there is lots of opinion and not much science on the net about increasing implantation success, acupuncture on day of transfer is definitely one thing you can research with impressive results. I am told it needs to be done by a fertility specialist though who knows the correct points and I was lucky that my clinic is associated with a fertility acupuncture clinic a few doors down.

Oh and purple, that duo fertility monitor sounds interesting that you were able to tell a pregnancy occured but implantation did not take place. Glad I didn't know about that earlier... would have been one more thing for me to obsessively research.

Hi Ladies.. This is my third round of IVF.. first resulted in pregnancy unfortunately premature labour started at 20wks, my daughter passed away. Second round resulted in MC around 4wks after transfer so I'm back again.. had a scratch yesterday my first one. Painful but was ok. Did my first suprecur injection last night and baseline scan on 24/9. Feeling very anxious any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated

Congrats all, watching all your news and keeping fx for you

All my meds arrived, due to start stimming on day 2 of my next cycle, which should be 2 weeks today (as long as AF arrives when she should - def ovulated so no reason I shouldn't...unless I get a BFP, yeah right!!)

Short protocol with a sledgehammer dose of stims (450iu Gonal-F), depending on how I respond, EC provisionally scheduled for 5th Oct.

Short protocol def feels very short, as that's not very long away at all!

Welcome Justus - my goodness, you've been through the mill, haven't you? I know that nobody ends up on this thread having got off lightly, but I'm so so sorry to hear about your daughter...that must be so hard. I hope this cycle has a positive outcome for you.

Exciting times, Banana - good luck to you too.

Shellster (or should I just call you "Stalker"? - I couldn't tell from the monitor output, but part of the service is data-interpretation from their team of fertility experts and it was them who told me I had almost certainly conceived on several of the cycles. On the two chemical pregnancies and the cycle in which I definitely conceived and later miscarried, they called me before I had tested and recommended that I did so, so I was convinced by their interpretation of the other cycles.

So. Our donor had EC today and they collected 6 eggs. I feel a little bit disappointed - that doesn't feel like very many for a 20-something - last time (different donor), they collected 10, 7 fertilised, 5 made it to blastocyst and 4 made it to transfer - one fresh and one frozen transfer of 2 blastocysts each. 6 doesn't feel like very many. I get the impression that they don't over-stimulate the donors because they are young and the quality of the eggs is usually very good. So I'm trying to be positive. Tomorrow I will know how many have fertilised and then the surreal stuff starts. We will get a log-in for their secure website and each day they will post a picture of our embryos and a short report on how they are doing. Horribly addictive stuff. And on Sunday I will fly out for a transfer on Monday.

Thanks Toes So pleased to hear that all is well, must have been so amazing to hear the heart beat!

It makes sense that they don't over stimulate with a young donor Purple, remember those 6 are the very best ones. Ooh, I wish we had been able to check our embryo's progress, we only got a day 1 and 3 update with the basic info. Not long to go for you now

The FET cycle certainly feels a lot more relaxed, I think the main plus for me is that there will be no risk of dreaded OHSS. After transfer DH and I are planning a few days at the seaside. It won't exactly be bikini weather but walks on the seafront will be lovely. Planning on having some reflexology in the lead up to transfer too as it really helps relax me. Ooh, and will definitely do some visualisation.

I'm sorry to hear about your losses Justus, does your clinic offer counselling? I have had two sessions following my failed IVF, they were included so I figured I would make the most of them. I know my situation is very different but it really helped to talk about everything. I am terrified that this cycle will fail but she said that I have to tell myself that this will be the lucky one. I think being on here with others is also a great support- really helped me last time.

FX for all of you in the 2ww!

Thanks Trixie. Yes, the daily updates and photos are strangely addictive .

We've just had today's instalment and all 7 have fertilised which is great