Hi ladies
maple good luck - I also had a weird ovulating twice with no period in between - although I was down regging and also now I'm PCOS again I don't ovulate!!
geeup definitely worth asking! Depends whether you want follicle scans or a full IUI. Do you have male factor? If not then success rates aren't much different to timed intercourse and you could get tracking scans at any ultrasound clinic. IUI requires all the virology bloods to be done as it's an HFEA licensed procedure so I assume you'd need proof of having these done to avoid having to redo them? Good luck!
paige how did your appointment go?
lozza great news that you've ov-ed - guess the question is whether you are in fact ovulating regularly or not?
bean thinking of you
trixie my Locus Medicus tests had my nk cells assay results as
50:1 E:T NK Cytotoxicity 16.13%
25:1 E:T NK Cytotoxicity 12.89%
12.5:1 E:T NK Cytotoxicity 9.87%
Prof Quenby and Brosens say the peripheral blood tests don't necessarily accurately reflect what's going on in the uterine environment and they only rate the uNK cells biopsy. They argue if uNK cells are low that pred and intralipids can be harmful. I don't know
A) if I believe the uNK biopsy is any use as the levels seem to vary month on month
B) whether it matters, as empirically I managed to propagate a pregnancy (albeit with sudden foetal demise) without pred / intralipids, and had poor implantation with the tx, so based on my personal history, I’m minded to leave out next time
Had our WTF appt with my Dr on Fri. He was really sad for us about the outcome of this cycle, but didn't think I was a total lost cause. He said I did propagate a pregnancy before (albeit one with sudden foetal demise) and we need to get me back to that place. If I hadn't been properly pregnant before, we might be in a different situation. But that gives him hope. He was really apologetic - we said well the facts are the facts, it's no one's fault and there's no sense in sugar coating it. And he said 'yes, but you're nice people and you've been through a hell of a lot, and I really want this to work for you!'. So we have someone batting for us really hard.
He said something definitely did implant and start to invade the endometrium, it wasn't failed implantation, it was a very early miscarriage - but as far as he's concerned the issue definitely lies with the endometrium and its ability to support a pregnancy (which I agree with). He said we've got the embryos and they're not going anywhere. So the plan is to work on my lining over the next few months.
Hysteroscopy is confirmed for Weds, but will thankfully be less of a D&C (and more of a light clean and polish) as amazingly, there's no crap left in my uterus, despite not having had a proper period (yes, apparently you can absorb uterine lining).
Copper IUD goes in on Weds when he's doing the hysto, and we do one month of cyclo-progynova and see if I get a bleed. Probably repeat again then take IUD out. The copper generates an inflammatory reaction which causes the endometrium to thicken - it's why women who get a copper coil tend to have very heavy periods. So the copper IUD is used in cases of Ashermans syndrome (even if that's not what I have, we're treating me as if I do) to kick the lining into gear and restore menstruation.
Then we will do a mock FET. We'll do endometrial biopsies to see what the lining is actually doing from a histology POV, not just what the scan says it's doing - one in the first half of the cycle in the proliferative phase, then after starting progesterone he's recommended we do the ERA biopsy (the one which looks at the lining during the implantation window to see how receptive it is).
Depending on how they go, whether we have to try different combinations of FET drugs if I still don't respond well to oestrogen (eg Tamoxifen), maybe a few months down the line we could be in a position to actually do a treatment cycle for real and put one of our PGS tested frozen embryos back. Until then it's back onto the bench of boredom I go...
The universe has a funny sense of humour that HRT and contraception are supposed to help me to get and stay pregnant 🤔