WANTED- cycle buddies who are ttc#1 and planning a FET in April/May

[RoseBud2016]

I'm in need of some buddies!

A long story short is that I have been ttc#1 for 19 months now. I have severe PCOS and don't ov or cycle naturally.
Last year I was told that DH and I would only have a chance of conceiving through IVF, after numerous other fertility treatments failed.

In February this year we had our first ISCI IVF cycle at Reprofit in the Czech Republic (DH has 2 DDs so we are not eligible for treatment on the NHS) We got 12 eggs, 8 fertilised and 6 made it to blasts! We had one transferred and fell pregnant! But at 4+4 blood tests confirmed that the pregnancy wasn't viable and at 5 weeks we had a very early mc (I hate the phrase CP as I think it trivialises it)

The last few weeks have been such a struggle physically and mentally but we are keen to try again so are planning another trip to Reprofit to be reunited with one of our Frosties!

Scared and excited in equal measures and would love some buddies to share in this new and unknown part of the 'journey' with. X

Mine is the opposite to how you're doing yours.

I've been prescribed injections for at least 3 weeks. If that shown it's working then prescribed progynova and cyclo gest. One of them is pessaries. One is to thicken womb lining and once that looks good they will plan transfer.

Are you looking ahead to what date your transfer will be? I'm guessing beginning of may for me.

Vixx Cylogest is your progesterone pessary (and same as I had for my fresh cycle- I've just swapped it for Agolutin injections this time) And Progynova is your oral oestrogen tablet (and same as estrofem tablets for me)

The main difference with your protocol is your are having 3 weeks of injections to down regulate you and 'quieten' your ovaries. Whereas my ovaries don't EVER do anything so I don't need that bit.

Timescale all depends on AF but it's looking like end of April I'd say.

Grumpel Hello! I'm a little nervous about the bum injections as I think they are a little stingy. But I'm ok with it. I didn't get on well with the pessary and felt worried that I wasn't absorbing enough of the hormones- it seemed to (sorry tmi!) seep out of me very quickly after inserting! Maybe I was doing it wrong?! I'm not sure!
Im really really hoping AF will wait long enough for me not to have to do the injections on my hols! Fingers crossed!
How are you doing lovely? X

It will be good that we will be doing it (it seems like ) at the same time.

Where did you put the pessary? Lol.

How comes you are doing it in your bum?

I will be watching all of you (non-creepily) with interest. Lots of different protocols to learn about. No idea what I'll be doing. Will book a consultation once back I think to at least get an idea and do some research.

Hol is lovely ta, nice and warm and relaxing. At least it was till I was rudely baby bombed earlier by a 'friend' via whatsapp
Still, we have an all-you-can eat buffet dinner here so I had a token main for appearances sake and then four plates of delicious puddings. Totally ate my feelings. Delicious.

Aww sounds fab Grumpel Glad you're feeling nice and relaxed! Have you made a trip to Wild Wadi yet? I'm a big kid at heart x

Sounds lovely grumpel - except for the baby bomb, those miserable holiday-wrecking bastards can fuck off! Hope you weren't too discombobulated and are having a great time.

Managed to get a doctor's appointment for tonight, so I guess all will be revealed then. AF has come with a vengeance, I feel like it's my first proper AF for ages. Which is good. Am mentally trying to compress my ovaries down to a normal size - yes I think I have lost the plot!

Stealth How did your doctors appointment go? Any idea on time scales now? Great that AF arrived in full flow- sometimes it feels good to "start afresh".

Pretty well rose. He did a scan (a normal u/s, not a dildocam, it was so civilised!). My ovaries have apparently "bounced back very well", they are still swollen but not too badly. Lining is also shedding nicely, obv I'm still bleeding.

So I have a prescription for progynova & cyclogest. The plan is to have another scan early next week to check the lining has properly thinned out post AF, then we are go! Eek! Doctor was a bit when I told him I get natural periods, but I reassured him that I never ovulate so no need to worry about me actually ovulating on my own

I have tablets rather than patches so it should be fairly straightforward. And obv we won't transfer until we have the PGS results back. Can't believe it's actually maybe happening!

In other news, just came from my blood tests. Did them at a drop in centre, the lady was v nice and asked "have you had a blood test before?" I was like, you have absolutely no idea how much poking and prodding I've endured!

Stealth Fab news! Sounds like you will be having transfer first out of us all.... very exciting! Fingers crossed for the PGS results- when are you likely to receive them?

Yes each time I get a blood test the nurse (always a different one!) says "Just a short sharp scratch, nothing to worry about" or something to that effect, and I'm like "I have one of these practicality every week, i know the drill- I'm fine" And that's not including IVF injections of up to 3 a day. We are seriously pros at this stuff by now.

Maybe rose! It'll depend on whether i manage to shed properly over the next week and how my lining responds. Can't believe it might actually be happening! Very exciting. Am mostly thinking of all the things that could go wrong and result in a failed cycle atm. Which is probably the wrong attitude. Ho hum.

PGS results - doctor said yesterday they should be back "very soon", but the embryologist said the lab was slow at the moment and it could take 3 weeks (that was 9 days ago). With Easter in the middle I think it could take a couple more weeks. So I think we'll probs get them back just before transfer. Which is fine!

And yes! I just looked at the nurse thinking, I've been mixing up and injecting mauled every day for weeks. A sharp scratch?! Amateurs

Myself rather than mauled. But mauled feels like a good description too!

Best one is when they say 'tiny prick' instead of 'sharp scratch'

So excited for you ladies getting going!

Counting down till my follow up appt so can work out when we can cycle again. Still bleeding and waiting for hCG levels to fall so my body can un-pregnant itself. The irony of sadness at seeing a BFP and looking forward to the day when levels are low enough to give a BFN is not lost on me...

Tiny prick always gives me a giggle too

Minds out of the gutter ladies!

Aw banana I'm the same. It's shit. Hating seeing those bfps at the moment- just another kick in the teeth. The waiting to get going again is crap. There's always so much bloody stressful waiting!

Being on hol is nice but having a lot of thinking time on the sun lounger is not. Should prob have an enforced MN break as well! Damn handy wifi. Hoping my hormones are finally dropping so a) body is starting to sort itself out and b) it explains the general weepiness.

Hope you ladies are having a good week.

Stealth Good luck with the rest of the shedding!

Hi guys, how is everyone doing?

Started my first injection of suprecat today. The ball is finally rolling for the egg transfer *hopefully

Hi vixx - very exciting you are getting started. Finally!

I had a great Easter break, eating and drinking all sorts of unhealthy things and generally just forgetting about TTC for a bit. Ready to hop back on the bandwagon now! Scan tomorrow so we shall see

What will the scan be looking for?

We are all doing such different protocols!

They're going to check that my lining has thinned properly after my AF next week. And also that my ovaries are continuing to return to normal size after the large number of eggs retrieved (I think the ovaries are recovering well, certainly I'm feeling a lot better). If the lining looks suitably thin and there's no sign of a dominant follicle (again, I very much doubt there will be as I don't think I've ever oved naturally) I'll start my progynova.

I know re protocols. The one advantage of not ovulating naturally is that the IVF protocols seem to be much quicker and simpler - no messing about with down regging etc. Sounds like we'll be on similar timescales though!

Good luck ladies!! I do seem to ovulate, but Dr said we didn't need to do a long protocol FET and wouldn't need to down regulate, as the progynova should suppress ovulation anyway. So when we do a FET (whether that's sooner with one of our frosties, or after another fresh cycle) I will be on a short protocol FET as well

I don't ovulate either! My pcos is quite severe. Not sure why they have chosen that way?

How many eggs did you both get?

I got 17 eggs - but I'm no longer PCOS.

We got 5 blasts out of this cycle, 1 was transferred however I miscarried 2 weeks ago at 10w. I had surgical management, and had the ERPC the same day. Still getting strong BFP lines so the hCG levels clearly have a way to go until my body realises it's not pregnant any more

We have 4 blasts on ice, and will agree next steps at my follow appt in 2 weeks. I'm not sure exactly how long we have to wait after a mc before we can cycle again. I'd like to try another fresh cycle so we can see if we can replicate the response last time, and try for PGS (like stealth). This would mean transferring in a FET the following month. Or we may try a FET with one of my frosties, although I'd prefer to leave them on the subs bench if possible.

I had loads of eggs vixx.

37 retrieved / 33 mature / 29 embies at day 3 / 24 blasts of which 20 were biopsied and frozen (the other 4 weren't good enough).

Have literally just got the PGS results back this second (the lab just called!) and 10 of the 20 are chromosomally normal, which is great as we have a good selection to work with for a FET plus we have avoided (if we had v bad luck) potentially having 10 transfers that were duff. 6 of the 10 blasts that failed were top quality blasts too so there was a high likelihood we would have selected one of them first.

Ps I wonder why they have you on long protocols all the time. I had thought that with PCOS generally a short protocol was better. Although I am by no means an expert!

Stealth that's fantastic news about having 10 'normal' frosties. Must be reassuring to know you have such a great range ready to go. Potentially 10 children!

Yes it is a big relief grumpel. I am obviously still completely terrified of all the other horrible things that can go wrong and appear to strike the lovely people on these boards regularly, but am pleased that at least we're ruling out some of the more controllable and obvious factors. It still seems completely unlikely that we'll ever end up with an actual baby, but one step closer I suppose!