December/January 17 cycle buddies

[HelloMist]

Is anybody else about to start a cycle?

I start down regging on boxing day! I could use some company.

hey everyone :) can I join in?

I am starting my first ever ivf on short protocol. Just waiting for AF which I am expecting in around 10 days and then away we go!

Hello wish, welcome on board.
I'm also having vivid dreams hello, very odd! I am feeling pretty crappy now, very tired and emotional but it's hard to know if that's down to the drugs or just the stress of cycling. Visiting a friend with 2 small kids today and whilst it's lovely to see them it's very hard as it seems to highlight what we don't have. I'm also worrying about dates iwillbe, I have booked time off work and if anything doesn't go to plan it will be a real pain. Eek! Will try and go for a nice walk with dh today too for a bit of distraction. Hope everyone is doing well

I was thinking of booking time off for when I start the injections to cover all the time off for the scans that you need. And then I was going to go back to work once the egg has been put back in....

Are you all doing it the other way round?

Hi everyone, wishing you all best of luck on your journeys.
We're on our second round of IVF after a successful fresh transfer. We had 2 embies left which have been in the freezer for a year now.
I had my down reg (Decapeptyl) injection day 20 of my cycle, so I'm now 12 days post injection and still no AF? I remember last time AF returned about 5 days later.
Anyone else had a delay like this?
Thanks x

Welcome, Maurice and Wish!

iwill in my most recent cycle (no pill) it took about 2 weeks for my period to turn up, but I think my cycles weren't back to normal after breastfeeding. Yours probably won't be so slow! The medical staff know what they're doing. :) Maurice had your cycle settled after birth (and BF if you did)? I don't imagine it'll be much longer. I don't know the single injection but it must work similarly to the multidose ones.

Thanks Mist, I think you're right, I've only had 2 AF since stopping breastfeeding.
Heard from the Clinic today, they advised me to wait until the 9th.

Hi everyone....and happy new year!

I'm a big fan of MN but have rarely posted. I'm putting my toe in the water today...looking for some support and partnership as we set out on an IVF journey.

My DH and I are very lucky as we already have one DS (3.5 year old - naturally conceived) and are just about to do our first IVF.... I am now waiting for my AF to naturally arrive (due on about Monday of next week... 9 January) and then we will start the injections etc. I have a meeting at the clinic this Thursday to go through everything again and hand over the dough! I live in Ireland so this will set us back approx €6500 but due to all the appointments and prescriptions in the past 24 months, I'd estimate it'll be €9000 overall.

Anyway, it's a small price to pay for what could be a great result. I'm not taking time off (aside from appointments and egg transfer day) and am not sharing this at work or with too many friends. Yes, a lot to carry but IVF may not work. I don't want to be the subject of other people's conversations!!

I'm excited to hear all your updates and wishing you so much luck and good health in the coming weeks...!

Hi everyone

Please may I join? First time on Mumsnet and also first time IVF. I've been trawling loads of forums for a while and kept thinking when my turn comes to start IVF, I really should join so I can have some cycle buddies. Not telling work, friends or family other than DH, so chatting to those going through it too is super appealing!

I'm 42 and doing a cycle of mild IVF. Already blessed with a DD who is 3. Naturally conceived. Since then I've been TTC for number 2... have had one chemical pregnancy and one missed MC at 8 weeks. Figured we'd try IVF as a last shot.

AF arrived just before Xmas and I've been injecting since. Gonal F and then Cetrotide too. Scan tomorrow morning to see if follies have grown enough and then I think EC will be on Fri. Finding this whole experience pretty surreal TBH.

Loads of positive vibes to everyone! Looking forward to going on this journey with you all...

Hi strandy i am also due on Monday the 9th to start! :) is anyone else on short protocol?

Also anyone else really nervous about getting the injections right???

Hi Everyone

SpreadtheLove - we sound (a bit) like IVF twins. Although it took us 19 months to conceive DS1 and I was on a prescription to balance hormones at the time (Dostinex), he was a natural fluke. I'm sorry you've had difficulty and loss. I'm crossing my fingers and toes for you wtih this IVF journey.

I have been TT2 since DS was about 8 months. We have unexplained infertility which is a real bugger...but obv not as much as some people's issues. Just no info to tell us WHY we NEVER EVER conceive!

WishmeLuck - Yeah I am a bit at sea. I'm so busy with life/Christmas/work/toddler etc that I'm not paying attention to the whole thing. I am a bit nervous about the injections but a good friend of mine has done 3 cycles and she said it's not really THAT bad.... you just have to get on with it and be positive.

Good vibes to everyone today... I wish my AF would just come so I can start the whole thing... GRRR!

Hey Ladies

How are you all today?

Strandy, feels good to have an IVF twin! (Pardon the pun). Here's wishing your AF gets a wiggle on so you can start the injections ASAP.

Wishmeluck, I am the biggest chicken ever when it comes to needles. Honestly, these ones aren't bad at all. Far kinder than blood test needles!

In a weird kind of way, I feel all "doctor-like" when I'm preparing my injections. Like I actually know what I'm doing!! DH looks on in awe.

Anyway had 4th scan today. Doc basically said my blood lining is pretty thick so they need to check it's not too thick for any embies to stick. I wonder if that's to do with the acupuncture I've been having? Anyone else had similar issues?

The good news is 6 follies seem to be a good size and 2 are close behind. As I'm on short protocol and mild IVF, they say that it's a quality not quantity game so feeling positive that atleast there's something to pick from. Praying they're good quality!

Let me know how your first injections go. Strongly recommend watching YouTube for a refresher on administering.

Good luck ladies

Spread, hope we can offer you some support and company during the process! I'm glad to have all of you to share with. People close to me know cycling is on the horizon but I'm not sharing more details. I don't want to burden them or get constant pestering for updates. Sounds positive regarding follies. I hope the lining won't cause a problem. Nice and thick is good I think, I haven't heard of it being too thick. The "mild" IVF all happens so quickly! Do they still expect EC to be Friday?

Zippy interesting to hear you're having the vivid dreams too! I think I got these in early pregnancy as well. Maybe it's anxiety combined with hormones.

I've been comfort-eating more in the evenings. :( I do eat quite healthily at meals though so will try not to feel too bad about it.

Maurice that's good, so they're not concerned yet. Keep us updated.

Wish I looked back at my diary from the first cycle and it came back to me how nervous I was with injections! Especially the trigger one. It does feel a lot of pressure to be self-administering all the meds. Hopefully scans will reassure you that things are working as they should. You'll get more confident as you go along. I used to play inspiring/happy songs while I did each injection. Maybe you could try something like that. I'm getting used to the ones I've done the most but will still be nervous for the first few stims that I haven't done for a couple of years.

I've got my baseline tomorrow. If it looks as it should, they said I might start stims on Saturday.

Spin how was your first scan?

Good luck everyone with your next steps! Have a good evening, all. :)

Hey Mist - It sure does feel nice not being all alone in this journey. Apparently linings can be too thick! Who knew?! Anyway, clinic called and said progesterone levels fine and lining about 13mm so we're ok for EC on Fri. Have to take my trigger tonight at 11.30pm (Trying so hard to stay up and ended up watching Celebrity Big Brother - wow who are these people?!).

Looking forward to a day off all injections tomorrow but feeling pretty anxious about EC on Friday. Have read that progesterone pessaries are worse than the stimms in terms of side effects so dreading those too!
Not sure DH can cope with yet more erratic behaviour!

Have a good evening all - going to trawl Google for success stories at 42 to keep me up until my trigger!

How was your baseline scan hello? I had mine today also, all was ok so I've started stims. Very glad the down reg stage is over!

Good luck for EC tomorrow spread!

Waves to everybody else

Hey
Room for one more?

This is my first MN post (although I've been lurking for years) as I start my first IVF cycle.

I have a 6yr old daughter, who was conceived naturally, she took a while to come along but nowhere near as long as her long awaited sibling is taking!

We've been trying for 5 years, and I was starting to lose the plot a bit - when my grandmother offered to pay for a round of IVF, which is pretty much the greatest present anyone has ever given me!

I phoned in my day 1 yesterday to the clinic and apparently the drug company will be in touch soon to organise delivery.
I feel completely unprepared for IVF - I honestly never thought it would come to this.

I'd welcome any advice - the whole process terrifies me

xx

There is a lot more action happening on here now!

I had my day 8 scan on Wednesday and had 4-5 follicles around 10mm on each side and my oestrogen was 2000. On my first cycle, I only had 1 or 2 and my oestrogen was 800, so I have responded much better to gonal f.

Day 10 scan today and we will see where we go next!

Good luck to everyone who is just starting out- it does fly by x

How was day 10 scan, Duffy? That sounds optimistic, good news that response is better this time round!

My baseline was also fine thanks Zippy. I've got a cyst on one ovary but the nurse was unconcerned, said it's small and they can come and go. Hope she wasn't downplaying it. Will start stims tonight - bit nervous!

Hi pinkmomma :) what an amazing gift indeed. It's also nice that you already have it in the open in your family (even if you choose not to discuss details). Will you talk to a close friend or two for support too? If things seem overwhelming now (I felt the same at the start of my first cycle), be reassured that the process does become clearer as you go along. Just ask your clinic or us/MN if something's bothering you. Best to clear it up rather than worry even if it seems a silly question.

Trying to think of other advice... your partner or DH will probably find it difficult but in a different way. He may not know how to support you or how to express what he's feeling. Mine gets a bit fed up of me talking a lot about possible situations or how it's going. It's stressful. I don't really have magic solutions but at least if you see it coming it might help! And try to take things step by step. I know you need to think of the bigger picture as well but it helps me to get through each bit and see that as progress. :) Thinking about outcomes or what can go wrong too much (and googling it) can be a bad idea for me.

I use apps and a paper chart to remind me about injections and tick them off. You'll find things that work for you! Good luck :)

Hi everyone! Sorry I've been so quiet.

Waves to newbies. There's quite a few of us on here now! :)

Mist it's me AgainPlease from other infertility threads We were abroad and I got locked out of that account so had to go back to old account and now I have one account on my phone and one on laptop. I get so confused.

Anyone else on Synarel? I am having THE WORST headaches. Don't remember it being this bad last time.

Had initial scan at clinic, all looks completely normal (our infertility is 'unexplained' so wasn't expecting any shocks). I have 8 follicles on one side and 9 on the other which sounds about right as they took 15 eggs last time.

I am really lucky that I don't work and thank god I don't as I didn't respond well to EC last time. I was kept in hospital overnight after EC (I am at the Lister which is handy that's it's part of a normal running private hospital so I had a bed, bathroom, food etc) and had two massive anti-sickness needles stabbed in to my legs after vomiting my guts up for hours. FYI neither anti-sickness needle helped with my vomiting.

Then my ovaries became swollen and bruised - the lady doing my ET told me this happens to about 2% of women - and it meant my ovaries were the sizes of oranges. Literally.
I was in so much pain I was crying in bed for days. There's no way I could have gone to work on top of that!

I start Gonal F injections on Thursday and as I suspected all being equal we will be doing EC around the 26th Jan and ET with (hopefully) a blast on the 31st!

Evening everyone,

How are you all?

Pinkmomma - my first cycle too and my best tip so far is to talk about your fears and worries as bottling them up can stress you out so much, and that defeats the purpose! Finding this group great but also told a few close friends and their positive vibes help a lot.

Think I've been pretty lucky so far. Didn't find stimming too bad but then I'm on mild IVF so only 10 days of it. Trigger also fine (especially as you know it's your last injection in the cycle!). Had my EC yesterday. Also totally fine. So sorry to hear your awful experience with it TinySalmon - sounds horrendous. Poor you. Thank goodness they collected 8 follies. Found out today that 4 fertilised and they're doing a day 3 transfer on Mon. They only want to put 1 back so really hoping the others make it to blasts and can become Frosties.

Wishing everyone loads of luck

hey everyone. so AF finally came today! woohoo!
however my mind is spinning with a million different worries.

I have booked this week off work, but now I am thinking it ought to be next week because my books says about scans and bloods every two days AFTER 6 days of stims.

how do you all cope with work??

then there is the fact that I got the flu and I haven't told anyone. had a temperature and aches and pains. but luckily my temperature broke last night and I am fine now. So I am thinking it shouldn't matter? :/

so I am ringing the clinic tomorrow as on a sunday they only accept treatment requests from 7am -11am and I woke up at 11.10am lol. I didn't realise you could even call on a sunday actually.

so yeah, I am stressed in case no one can tell haha and I am jabbering on here completely overwhelmed with thoughts and stress if it doesn't work!

Spreadthelove how did it go today? Do you have a little embie on board and are you PUPO (pregnant until proven otherwise) ?

Wishmeluck hooray for periods!! We spend all our time never wanting one when TTC but desperately want one when starting IVF. Ha!

AFM I'm still persevering with the Synerel and looking forward to stims- makes it all seems a bit more real when I start jabbing myself.

Hey ladies

I am indeed officially PUPO TinySalmon! What a bizarre feeling knowing I have a gorgeous little embie on board. All went well - was sooooo scared but it really is just like a smear although full bladder not the most comfortable! As I lay there, I kept wondering whether any ladies actually lose control and pee all over the consultant! 😂

They said one embie was top quality which I was so happy about considering my age. The other is a grade below - still good but not as good as the top quality one and the other two I had are slow movers and not great. To be honest, even if I can freeze one it makes me feel better as then all of our hopes aren't just on this one.

Anyway longest two weeks of my whole life awaits me!

How are you all getting on?

Hello ladies,

Sorry to randomly pop on to your thread!
I just wanted to say to tinysalmon that i was on synarel for my last round of ICSI and found i got bad headaches too, it helps if you drink lots of water and stay hydrated, by lots i mean like 3 to 4 litres a day!
I was weeing for england but it did help me feel better!
Once i started my Gonal F injections i did feel a bit better!
Not looking forward to having to do it all again in February but needs must!!

Wishing you all the best with you cycles and hope you all get your BFP's xxx

guys I started today. finally started. I was a little calmer this morning, until I messed up my first ever injection. The nurse on the phone said it should be fine, but I lost a little water when mixing my menopur.

and then there was the drama of opening my med drawer in the fridge and finding that I had TWO menopur boxes each of a different strength but both asking me to inject the same amount. anyways I got passed that and figured it out and then just went ahead and injected it.

but now I have a pit in my stomach and I swear I am "conscious" of the injection site. not the skin, but inside it feels weird.

desperate for some virtual cuddles from you all. I think I have basically over worked myself up and don't know how to think rationally again

Hi Everyone

Wishmeluck, spreadthelove, hope - hi you guys and everyone else! I'm happy to see all the nwes and updates on here though I have very little time to post or read it all... my computer faces the door at work so not the best positioning!

My AF arrived on Friday/Saturday so I started Gonal F injections yesterday. My DH helped me do the first one and it was fine. I'm on a short protocol and heading into the clinic on Friday morning to see how I'm responding.There is a slight concern that I'll over stimulate...

Now that I'm underway I feel a bit (naively) excited. This is my first IVF so I know it's a long shot but God, imagine if it worked. I feel so stupid even just uttering those words as I'm so used to failure.

In terms of side effects, I felt a few waves of weirdness/dizzy/nausea last night about an hour and a half after my injection. Anyone else?

In terms of work... this is so awkward. I haven't told anyone or my boss. I said that my little 3yo was a bit unwell yesterday morning so I was 45mins late for work (had an appointment at 8.30am and I start at 8.30am). My next apt is early morning on Friday so taht won't be noticed. I'm a bit anxious in the pit of my stomach about it all ....and wondering if I am doing the injections right. You're not alone wishmeluck!!!