Going through IVF in February?

[TwinklingLight]

If so, please join the club. Let's keep each other going!

In our case, we're going abroad for ours - Norway. What about you?

Definitely worth the look NewRedShoes!

The prices (as well as success rates) are on the clinic's website (might increase a little as I'm not sure they've updated for 2016 prices yet - would only be a few percentage points or so). Just remember to divide all the numbers by 12.5 as 1 Norwegian Krone is roughly £0.08. .

So I worked out that if you need IVF + TESA/PESA + ICSI, that would come to about £2090.

You obviously have to add travel costs, but seriously... Norway is a beautiful country and it's actually nice to get a holiday out of it, too. So you don't feel you're just doing IVF, if you know what I mean. In fact, we might go there in future for a proper holiday.

And the people at the clinic are also really great. You don't feel like just another number. They do seem to really care.

Oh... of course the costs above don't include the drugs... but they're hardly ever part of the package in the UK either. Also, if you need to pay for the initial consultation (they do offer deals at events, such as free consultations), it's like £160 or so, which includes scans and blood works, etc.

I hope nobody minds if I join in too? Not strictly speaking having IVF, but I've just been accepted as an anonymous egg donor. Drugs are due to be delivered on Thursday ahead of my AF next week when I will start the 'down regging'

So excited to be at this stage but anxious about the side-effects and trying to keep things a secret from friends and from work. The schedule is so vague and I live a long way from the clinic.

Hi Ladies,

How are things going?

Norway sounds like a great option! We're paying £3500 + drugs for our cycle in the UK, so that's a huge difference! Personally for me though I think the extra stress of the travel and unfamiliar surroundings would be too difficult. But I wish I was brave enough to consider doing it that way!

Qu: Have any of you has a scratch before transfer?

I'm book in for one tomorrow and am not looking forward to it. I'm going to the appointment by myself so worrying how painful it will be and hoping I'm not going to bleed too much afterwards as I'm reliant on public transport to get home.

Also stupid question...I have all of the normal signs that my period is on its way so expect I'm going to be early this month. Can the scratch dislodge things and make my period start if it's 'brewing' already? I desperately need to keep it away until the 1st Feb...otherwise the clinic will make me wait another month to start the ivf (as I have been given a Feb start date not a Jan one)

muddyboots Good luck, welcome and thank you for what you're doing!

Goingcrazy53 It's not that stressful really. We just drive to the airport, park there and it's a 2-hour flight afterwards. We were really surprised how easy it was when we went there for a really short time. I get a lot more stressed taking the train to London and going on the Tube...

i'm back and start treatment on friday, having a injection to induce my period to get me in sink with my donor lady, all very exciting!!
Goingcrazy53 i had the scratch with my 1st cycle and have been recommended not to have it this time, my lovely consultant would like to do the cycle as naturally as possible! i don't remember bleeding after the scratch but it was really painful, luckily my friend was with me as she had to drive me home!

Hello ladies! I'm staring a long protocol this coming Sunday. Third ICSI for us, after two attempts in London (shocking experience through the NHS). I'm heading to Greece for this cycle. Can't wait to get over there as sick of the varying prices for blood tests and scans in London. Managed to get our drugs cheaper than Asda too.. Enjoying being in charge of our cycle this time and not the merry go round of an NHS referral. Husband and I felt like cattle previously. My drugs are being delivered tomorrow, flights and hotel booked in Thessalonika.. bring it on (remind me I'm feeling this optimistic when the menopur kicks in).

Amazing what your doing muddyboots btw :)

Hello - can I join you? I'm waiting to start my second icsi cycle with array cgh after first one failed at Christmas. Secondary infertility here after first baby, now 5, conceived easily. No obvious reason - just that I'm old (40) and dh sperm are a bit low. Although I wasn't old when we first started ttc, its just taken a long time.

I'm at the zita west clinic in London and we're having array cgh because of previous problems with chromosomal abnormalities (before ds). Last cycle actually did work in that we had three seemingly good quality blasts, but the tests showed they were all chromosomally buggered so essentially I paid an extra £3K to avoid three miscarriages. Starting on the pill mid Feb then injections through March.

Hi All,

Well the scratch was fine...I'm fact so much so I'm now worried the doc didn't do a good enough job as it didn't hurt and I didn't spot afterwards!

Af arrived yesterday so I have now officially started my next round. I did have a mini cry last night as it just seems so ironic having to start taking the pill when I'm desperate to get pg! hey ho.

Just interested to know what others with Secondary Infertility have told their DC if anything? My councillor suggested being more open with my 5yr old who keeps asking for a baby. She suggested just saying that I want a baby too, but sometimes its difficult and you don't always get what you want (or words to that effect). If it doesn't work I want dc to know that we did everything we could to provide a sibling, but I'm not sure if being this open now will just lead to a lot of curious questions and potential embarrassing moments at the school gates etc. I would be interested to hear your thoughts!

Twinklinglight - I hope the downregging is going ok.

Goinggray1978 - Did your appointment on the 30th go ok? Hope so.

Mehmehm3h - Have you now finished downregging and moved on to the next drug?

Badleg - Hope your consultant app. went ok and your all set to start this month?

Lintilla - Hope your finding the injections ok.

Its almost Friday - Hurrah!
X

yes my appointment on the 30th went very well, starting medication tomorrow and will find out more tomorrow too, so nervous and excited too!!

Hi everyone, can I join? I'm due to start short protocol in mid-February and could do with some hand holding!
Goingcrazy, I think it is worth telling your daughter that you want a baby too. Obviously I don't know what your daughter is like but does she tend to ask many questions about where babies come from? She might just accept you saying is not something you can plan. My daughter's only 2 (nearly 3) and I don't think she realises that a sibling is something she could have as she's never mentioned it. Naturally, I now worry that a successful treatment for us will send her into a jealous rage :-)

Hi wester. Excuse my ignorance, but what does a short protocol look like? Unusually for me, I'm keeping away from Google for ivf, and haven't got involved in mn until now on it. I have a bad tendency to over think so figured that wouldn't help in this case. Instead, I'm practising mindfulness and having occasional acupuncture.

My ds often asks if he can have a little brother or sister and I think tbh that's the main reason I'm doing this. I don't think I could tell him what we're doing though. I was lucky last round that I didn't get many side effects and wasn't much more than my usual grumpy so hopefully he didn't notice. This time I'm hoping the melatonin will help me sleep more and maybe counter some of the stress.

Hi goingcrazy I started stimming on Wednesday and can see the bloating already! Gah. It's weird, it feels more real now than when I was downregging! It's scarier now than ever before - mostly because I'm not sure how I will react if it fails :-(

hi everyone, all went well, i think i'm having a long protocol as i had an injection yesterday to make my period start and i have my baseline scan during half term as well, as my consultant wants to do this cycle with the least medication possible, if that makes sense!

Evening ladies, I hope everyone is well.

We've had a change of plan and decided not to go ahead until next cycle. We've been discussing the proposed treatment plan with the doctor and that has taken some time, plus I am going skiing next weekend and would have been left with very little time to get a hysteroscopy and source the drugs if I had started this month. It was making me feel under a huge amount of pressure, so notwithstanding that I am not gettig any younger, I thought we'd give it a bit more time. Plus I've had some shitty virus for the last 3 weeks, and ended taking a day off work with a high temp etc on Friday, so definitely not feeling like will produce primo eggs at the moment.

Someone asked about the short protocol? That's the one i am on (not sure why). It consists of norethisterone (progesterone) from day 14 to day 25 of my cycle, then a bleed starting 2-5 days after stopping, then stims from around day 3 of the bleed for 10 or so days and then egg collection, so there's no lengthy downregging. They seem to recommend it for women with poor ovarian reserve or PCOS. Not sure why it has been recommended for me!

How are the ladies who have started drugs already? Would be v interested to hear how that's going.

Hi again
Finally starting a LP tomorrow, starting with a week of norethisterone and down regging from Thursday.
Have had an awful stressful couple of weeks wondering if I could start this month, given my thyroid levels going out of sync and this appears to be the reason my last 2 cycles have been very short. I am pretty confident that my period is not going to come on overnight and I can start in earnest in the morning. I ve got poor ovarian reserve and complicated fertility at best, but have really done all I can to get body and mind (altho less so with the mind) ready for this treatment. Just want to see how I initially respond, so to keep emotions as minimal as I possibly can. Am trying to take it step by step and viewing it as a bit of a scientific experiment. My fertility nurse even said, "why are you a scientist?" ...which am totally not but its my way of coping. I really hope it will be a success, as well as for all of you who are about to embark or have already got the ball rolling.
Oh and am also doing this on my own using donor sperm. Its been the most important decision in my life so far.

ViewofHedges - its nice to meet someone local-ish and also a vintage model hehe. I actually used to live in Bristol but have since moved away. However I decided that having gone thru an op to remove an endometrial cyst last year, that I wanted to stay with the team who had been brilliant and the endo was also found during a fertility MOT - have been wanting to push fwd with treatment since Oct '14 - feels like eons. My gynaecologist recommended the Fertility Consultant who is lovely, as is the nurse, so feel am in good hands. Are you still feeling overwhelmed with making a decision?

LittlePoot, short protocol for me (assuming I've actually remembered properly what I'm having) is as NotSpartacus described it except for first bit ie I'll just have the injections from day 2/3 of my natural cycle. AF due any day this week for me so highly likely that this time next week I'll be on the injections.

Just given myself my ProStap injection so there's no going back now! Trying not to think too much about the side-effects as I've heard so many varied reports. I'm hoping to try and hide it from most of my real-life friends.

At least I know this will be my only go at this (too old to do it again)
Hope everyone is doing well at the various stages of their journeys.

Ooh - well done muddy. Not that I know what pro stap is! Is that for downregulating or stimulation? Can I ask how old you are? I thought I was too old as well but I'm on round 2 now and honestly not sure I can rule out a third round if this doesn't work. That would definitely be the end though or else we'd need a second mortgage.... I'm almost 41 by the way - will be 41 during downregulation. Fingers crossed you do ok with side effects. I wasn't too bad - certainly nothing anyone else would have noticed. I was advised to have a high protein diet and drink lots of water - don't know if that helped?

Thankfully I'm only donating eggs so at (very nearly) 35 I'm at the top of the age limit - which seems a shame as it's this sort of time that many women have finished their own families and are willing to think about donating. Especially as I've had endless bloods and scans to check my egg reserves are ok this far. Presumably there's good evidence for the age cut off though? From what I have read, many people seem to prefer a younger donor.

I'm in the down-regging stage until a scan on the 24th and then hopefully start stimming on the 26th. I'm worried that I'm going to be a flushed, sweaty, emotional mess!

Muddyboots am in the down regging stage and stimms at almost the exact time as you. I hope am not going to be a sweaty emotional mess too. Im 39 and trying to have a child on my own with diminished ovarian reserves. It is great what you are doing to help others

Hello

I will be starting a 'freeze all' ICSI cycle towards the end of feb. I had an ICSI cycle in Nov 15 which resulted in my DD.

I feel so blessed to have her, and think we're happy to stick with just one DC, but there's this nagging doubt in my mind. I think I owe it to my future self to try another cycle to maybe give myself a chance of a further DC in the future.

I had an AMH test done as part of my dithering which showed a very dramatic drop from 12.8 a year ago to 3.5 now . Didn't have a spectacular cycle last time (no frosties) so not overly optimistic this time, but want to feel that I have given it my best shot.

I'm on short protocol so will start stims around 26th Feb - this site was a godsend to me last time so I hope you don't mind if I join you?

Had my first scan this morning and start injections tomorrow! I realise now that I was talking rubbish in my previous posts about short protocol - I'm on 'antagonist'. As this is my second round I thought I'd feel more confident about what I was doing but it seems almost as confusing.

Welcome, bespoke. Are you having the freeze all because of the drop in AMH?

muddyboots, thank you, it's ladies like you you that make the dreams come true for ladies like me, i decided at 35 if i hadn't found the man of my dreams i would go it alone, only to find out i had low AMH level and a poor ovarian reserve, so i had my first paid for by me IVF cycle with donated eggs and donated sperm during 2014, unfortunately it failed, i had 2 put back and a 50:50 chance, talking to people through this forum and other forums and also my gp, i discovered that i could challenge my local CCG, i did they turned me down, i appealed, they turned me down, i got a solicitor and i won my IVF through human rights, as if i had a partner of either sex i could get 3 cycles of IVF funded by the NHS as medically it's not my fault i don't produce enough viable eggs!! that all took a while forward to today and i'm looking forward to my baseline scan on thursday as i had the injection to start things off a couple of friday's ago!

Everhopeful76, i'm older too, coming up to 38 and using donated eggs as i don't have many!!

i'm also confused about what type of cycle i'm having this time round, as i was so shocked it was all actually happening when i went on christmas eve after waiting so, my consultant said it would be as natural as possible, as last time i had to do the injection to myself, this time only one injection so far which i had to go in to get from my nurse!

good luck everyone and keep us all posted!