TTC for 18 months or more. Moving onto iui/ivf/icsi.

[lucieloos]

We have relocated from the conception board where we were previously chatting under the thread 'ttc for 10 months or more'. A lot of us are now long term ttc-ers and are going through infertility treatment or looking to take steps in this direction so we feel this might be a more suitable home for us!

Feel free to stop by and say hi and hopefully we can share the journey together and make it a little easier along the way!

Sorry, crossed posts banana... excellent news!! Good luck for ec this weekend and the all important fet. Quick question, if you're not making embryos why the need to do ec? Why not just let them pop naturally and do et?

Big hugs star - counselling and a holiday both sound like really really good ideas. It is a tough, long road, and the more coping mechanisms in our toolboxes the better. Really hope you find it helpful. I've definitely found counselling invaluable.

Good question about why we have to retrieve - it's because of the OHSS risk. There's at least 15 decent sized follicles and a handful of smaller ones, so we need to retrieve - as if we trigger, the fluid would just slosh around in my abdominal cavity

For the purposes of consents and invoicing, this is a FET cycle and the EC is being considered a 'cyst aspiration'

Banana!!! YES! That's such great news, keeping everything crossed for you lovely.
You're not making embryos with your eggs then? I guess you already have plenty in the bank?

Star - sorry you're feeling a bit sad about it all. It'll seem more positive once you get started rather than just waiting around. I found the counselling good as DH never really wanted to talk and I needed to let stuff out. Hope it works for you and mr star.

Great news banana. Now if it's all looking so good why do you have to wait so long between ec and transfer?

sammy no we're not making any embryos. If we can't turn 6 genetically perfect embryos into a person - whether that's inside me or someone else - then we won't have a biological child of our own. We're giving the eggs to research

bean our embryos were frozen as blastocysts, so we have to put a day 5 embryo back on day 5 in order to catch the implantation window. If they were frozen as day 3 embryos, we would put back at day 3.

Bean, you still have to wait the 5 days between EC and transfer like you would on a normal IVF cycle as the embryos are frozen as blasts so need to wait the 5 days so that the lining is at the right stage for implantation otherwise if the embryos are put in straight away they will continue to grow but won't be able to implant as will be out of sync with the lining.

Sammy thats brilliant news must have been lovely to see them!

Maple im really sorry to hear that your cycle got cancelled thats rubbish

Banana great news fingers crossed all goes well!

Star sorry to hear you are feeling down, a holiday sounds like a great idea tho and councelling will hopefully make you feel a bit better. I feel your pain got baby bombed at work last week and everyone is still going on about it!

AF arrived this morning and i was so pleased as means i can work out when i will be ringing up for my drugs (which will be whilst on my hols) then start down regging around 18th oct!
First time ive felt pleased that AF arrived and finally feel we might be getting somewhere then brought crashing down to earth with a text to say a friend had a baby girl today followed by a photo!
I'm really pleased for them but felt so sad at the same time, im sick of the relentless announcements whilst constantly 'waiting for our turn' like its fine, its not fine nothing about it is and im getting fed up of putting on a brave face!

Sorry to bring the mood down! Ignore me im just having a bad day!!!!

Xxxx

Banana that's great news about your lining! So pleased it's all happening for you now!

Good luck at the scan tomorrow Lucie! Hope you get to trigger!

Sammy I'm sorry I was being very self obsessed and failed to say how lovely it must have been to see your little babies! Was the scan £60 or the photos?!

Star so lovely to hear from you! I think the counselling sounds like a good idea - hope the IVF appointment goes well on Thursday. Where are you off to on holiday?

Hope good news that AF came but sorry for the baby announcement. It really is tough and I know what you mean about it being relentless.

Ah. That makes sense re d5. My brain hadn't worked that out!
Smear done. She said all looked healthy. Results hopefully in 2 weeks so can start dr on Friday as planned and then should have results before stims. Everything crossed. Feel slightly sick.

Bean, that's great that the smear is al done and dusted now and you can get started soon.

Hope, yay for af, October will be here in no time. Sorry for the baby bomb. It really is relentless at times.

Afm, All done now and scan went well. It was a different lady today and she had a look and said straight away oh there's a lot here! I think there might have been around 16 altogether now compared to 12 on Monday but she had a look on both sides and could see I was ready to trigger and so said she wouldn't struggle to measure them all. A lot of the newer ones would have been small I think but she measured at least 6 at 18mm+.. My largest one is 25mm now so there's a good chance that will be over mature but she said they will collect it and see. I don't think we will do as well as last time but I hope we can get a few good eggs. My lining has not grown much more but is over the magical 8mm and is now 8.1mm. I had cut back on a lot of the extra meds as I was worried it if continued growing at the rate it was there was a chance it would be too thick! She said it looked really nice though and was triple lined so I'm happy with that. So I'm all ready to go now. They are going to ring me this afternoon and tell me what time to trigger tonight and EC will be on Friday morning. Here we go again!

Glad the smear was alright bean!

Great news about the scan Lucie! Does the lining continue to thicken? Gosh yes - not long till EC now!

Thanks maple, yes it can still thicken between now and transfer but the important thing is to get it to a least 8mm before trigger day which is this evening for me so I've managed that. After trigger it can still thicken but it won't thicken the base layer which is the one the embryo needs to implant into. It's just puffs out a bit more after trigger from fluid released by the glands. Of course 9mm would have been nice but over 8 is still good and I'm happy to go ahead.

I've had the call trigger at 2145 tonight and in the hospital for 830am on Friday. EC should be around 945am eeekkk!

Exciting Lucie! Yeay for the nice juicy lining. I have everything crossed my dear :)

Banana, that makes sense re ohss and fluid. And good idea to donate to research. I wonder if you can do that with any left over embryos? Bit of a weird thought, but better than throwing them in the bin (imo).

Maple,I'm getting married abroad in December so it's a wedding planning trip with my parents too. So whilst it will certainly be a distraction, I can't bank on it being relaxing!

Sorry about the baby bomb Hope, they sre crushing sometimes aren't they. I just keep thinking, please xan no-one else announce before I've got a bfp. Wishful thinking.

Thanks star! I'm donating any of my left over embryos to research as well ie any frosties that we don't use in future. We have already filled in all the forms. A December wedding abroad sounds amazing!

Yes Lucie! Hooray! Good luck for trigger. Which one are you using?

Hope - as the others have said, baby bombs suck. Look after yourself

Bean - glad your smear is over and done with!

Oh and we will donate any left over embies to research too!

Thanks Sammy, I'm doing double Ovitrelle this time which is what I did last time x

Same as me. Far easier than pregnyl!

I didn't know that about the lining Lucie.
Eeep good luck tonight and will be thinking of you on Friday!

Star a wedding abroad sounds amazing! Hope the wedding planning is going ok - will you have a hen do?

Nips are super sore this evening - is that normal?! If I ever get sore nips it's usually a week or so before AF.. is it the injectibles??

Just had my appt and they've booked me in for icsi. Dr described a super lengthy treatment which I wasn't prepared for at all: 3 weeks on the pill, 3 weeks of down regulation, 2 weeks of stimulation and then egg collection etc. It won't be possible to fit it all in before the wedding so can't start til December. Gutted. I really thought I'd just be starting stimms at my next period - a year of mumsnetting didn't prepare me for this news! Oh well. He said it was unlikely that the sperm quality was our only issue and that my fibroids might be affecting implantation and I should consider surgery to remove them and see. That's another 4-6 months wait for the surgery then 2 months recovery. Think we're agreed that we go ahead w ivf as soon as we're able and if we transfer a good quality embryo and it fails then that would indicate an implantation issue and I'd probably book in for surgery before any FET. We get one fresh and two FETs funded which is good.

Feeling ok, but a bit flat given that it's more waiting for us.

Sorry for the me post, hope you're all doing well.

Maple, I've never had injections so not sure on that one. I'd guess it's likely the hormones. How are you feeling otherwise?

Mpp, I was just wondering, did you do ivf or icsi in the end? How was your husband's sample on the day? I'm keen to do 50:50 ivf/icsi and apparently I can discuss that with the embryologist when the time comes. Just feels a bit nicer not to remove all elements of chance from this crazy process.

Star, sorry to hear about the wait. Sounds like they have put you on the long protocol which unfortunately does take longer. We've had icsi on all of our treatments and I did feel a little bit like you in the beginning that it took away an element of chance but I don't feel like that matters at all now and just want whatever will give us the best chance of success. If they have recommended icsi and you have sperm issues I personally would go with that as you know sperm and egg will definitely get together and it will give you the best chance. I forget what your AMH etc is like now and I don't want to put a downer on things but if you only get one round of fresh IVF it may be worth trying to get the fibroids removed beforehand incase you don't get frosties. Chances are you will but if it's one thing I've learnt about IVF is that quite often things don't run to plan. Could you see about getting it done privately to speed things up?

Maple, I'm not sure either sorry. It's probably just a result of all the extra hormones in your body as star has said.

Thanks both! Feel fine otherwise - never had sore nips before O! Although I'm not temping or opk-ing this month so I'm just guessing I haven't o-ed yet! Oh well will put it down to the injectibles!

Star I'm sorry the meeting didn't go quite to plan with the long protocol. I know each month feels longer than the last but with the wedding planning and it being September already, you may find it goes a bit quicker than you expect? Or as Lucie said is going private out of the question for the fibroids?

Hey ladies,
Star, sorry to hear that getting started is going to take longer than we both expected. I've not had day 3 test done yet or the AMH test. I can't have any time off in December, so it seems like I will be looking at next year.

I can't shake the fear that there's a bigger picture for us too and not just mfi. I feel so anxious about my appointment.

Great news on the funding. I really hope you enjoy your holiday and wedding and then come back and kick infertility's arse!

Good luck Lucie and everybody else. This page moves so quick it's hard to keep track.