TTC 18 months or more -moving on to IUI/IVF/ICSI part 3

[bluebird3]

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!

Congrats angel. I'm so happy your wee embryo made it to transfer. All the advice I've ever had was to try to carry on as normal. But listen to your body and if you need more rest then do it! I reduced hours at work when going through my 3rd cycle and really felt it helped with my stress levels.

thund4 11 eggs is fab! Have you had any updates how they are doing? I don't have any advice for bm other than eating lots of fibre and water. I was always so bloated after ec that it hurt to 'bear down' so it took a few days to get back to being regular. Not a very pleasant side effect!

As for me... I've been having some light bleeding overnight so going in got a scan today to see if everything is ok.

@bluebird absolutely everything crossed for good news at your scan.

@thund4rcat I'm not sure if it's an old wives tale, but I've heard prunes can help make things more regular.

Spoke to line manager, & I'm going to take Friday off work. Already had next Friday booked of, so hopefully a couple off 4 days weeks will help.

Good luck with your scan @bluebird3.

Thanks for the advice. Am now stocked up on prune juice and fruit and veg and brown bread! Also read that lactilose is safe to take right now, so got some of that.

So out of the retrieved 11, they said 9 were suitable to inject with sperm and of those 9, 8 fertilised successfully. So am waiting till Saturday for transfer unless there is only one left by tomorrow, in which case they'll do it tomorrow... Don't find that out until 9am tomorrow!

Thanks everyone. Scan was fine so that's a relief.

Those are great numbers thund4r. It's so awful waiting for that call but it sounds like you've got a great chance or several good ones. Fx for you!!!

Sounds a good plan angel. Take the time you need to relax.

@bluebird so glad it was good news from the scan.

@thund4rcat how are you getting on?

@angelazul all 8 still going strong so ET will be Saturday. Happy about that and also feeling physically a lot better. How are you feeling? When is your test day?

You may also want to join the August IVF thread which has lots of people doing daily updates at the moment.

Good luck Angel. I hope it works for you.

I'm glad scan went well Blue.

Good luck Thund with transfer tomorrow. I am normally not very regular with BM so doctors prescribed me laxido and said it's ok to take during treatment. A black coffee normally helped me too and if really struggling diet sweets like weight watchers sugar free bears always made me go.

Everything fine with me just now. I'm 5 weeks 5 days now. Had some sickness, sore boobs and heartburn. I've also had stomach cramps which feel like period cramps. I've had no spotting though so I'm staying positive. I have a scan on 22nd so hopefully this will give me some reassurance.

Good luck for transfer @thund4rcat. I was on 1 of the ivf treads during our last cycle but I found it a bit too full on, so I've been avoiding them this time round - bit superstitious about it too

@chochaw scan will come around quickly, although I'm sure things will prob be fine.

Angel i have my FX for you! when is test day?

Blue So glad that everything was ok Hopefully your more relaxed now. Knicker watch is horrible

Thund How did your transfer go ? (P.S I drink diluting orange juice ... without actualy diluting it very well. When im desperate to go it works every time for me)

Choc Hope your scan goes well

Everythings going well for me atm progy for FET so FX everything goes well this time.

Hello, I’ve just come over from a Clomid support board. We had our last cycle of it and AF arrived today. 😢 we have been TTC for over 3 years now, unexplained secondary infertility. I’m just starting to look into IVF so it would be nice to chat with people in the same boat. Going to have a read through the past posts.

Welcome @rmw, sorry af got you Lots of the ladies on here have been through various treatment scenarios, so there's loads of support & hand-holding.

@scottish otd is Sunday. Freaking out a little bit already When are you due to have fet?

@ScottishJaggyNettle transfer went fine thanks, and had 3 spares to freeze.

@angelazul good luck for your test! Amazing you are managing to wait until OTD, I know lots of people test early. I am going to try and hold out too.

@rmw12 so sorry that Clomid didn't work for you. After 3 years you must feel very tired of TTC. Have you got an appointment with a clinic to discuss IVF yet?

Thank you @angelazul and @thund4rcat. I am very tired of it, every TWW is torture, I only wish I’d gone to the dr sooner. I’ve had consultant appointments via the NHS but I’m not entitled to IVF as I have a child already. The consultant works for a clinic though and we go ahead there if we want to without more appointments but I’d like to look into all options. There are so many though, it’s confusing. Hoping I might gain some insight here.

So I caved in & tested this morning. BFN. Not even a whisper of a line. I know theoretically we're not out until Sunday, but I'm really not holding out much hope at all.

@rmw12 what options are to considering? Assume you've done all the tests and your partner has too already, and they found nothing? Is it IUI vs IVF Vs ICSI you're undecided about? If you go ahead with a private clinic they'll probably recommend a programme of treatment for you so you don't have to make too many decisions. I am assuming that a private clinic would guide you, we went NHS with MFI so didn't have any choices to make.

Have you looked into the "insurance" options where you pay a set fee for 'unlimited' rounds of IVF until you get a baby? I have only glanced at those and am sure they come with restrictions but that's what I will look at first if my free NHS rounds all fail.

Sorry to hear that at @angelazul, there’s still time.

Thanks for asking @thund4rcat, yes we’ve had all the test and they couldn’t find anything. I didn’t ovulate even on clomid until the last two cycles but no success.

We’re thinking either IVF OR ICSI, we’ve looked at going to the clinic we saw through the NHS direct, going to them via Access Fertility, they offer a refund programme but because I just turned 38 (today!), it’s more expensive and we only get 50% refund if no success after 3 tries. We’d looking at around £16,000 upfront! 😭 I need to look at other clinics nearby to see what they offer and I’ve looked a little into going abroad. I can’t think about it logically yet as I really didn’t think we’d get to this stage.

@rmw12 I understand it feels devastating to realise you need to try IVF. Once I started treatment though I felt so much better than when I was trying naturally and failing every month. That just felt increasingly pointless (and it turned out that it was, due to our MFI). So hopefully you will feel better once you start treatment. Good luck finding a clinic.

Thanks @thund4rcat, that’s good to know. After over 3 years trying and clomid it does seem pointless so I’m sure IVF will seem like a positive step once I get my head round it.

OTD brought another BFN for us. Totally gutted, up until Friday I was convinced it had worked

@angelazul so sorry to hear this :(

I'm so sorry angel. Hope you're taking care of yourself.

So despite yesterday's OTD bringing a very very faint positive, today I did a first response early result test and got a BFN. Gutted. Guess it must have been the tail end of a chemical pregnancy showing up yesterday.

Phoning clinic later but expect next step is surgery to remove cervical polyp and a laparoscopy to see if I have endo.

I am feeling more resilient than I expected. Will probably hit me when AF arrives.

Sorry to hear this @thund4rcat

So confused by my AF now. Last progesterone was on Saturday night, light spotting on Monday evening, heavier spotting throughout Tuesday, quiet heavy AF Wed, & very light spotting yesterday & today. Is this normal after a failed cycle?

Hello all, sorry for my long pause from the thread - last I was around I was going to update after our meeting to see if we wanted to pursue IVF. In the end we cancelled that appointment - we had a serious chat and decided before we went down that road I should make a determined effort to get as fit as possible and lose some serious weight. So I’ve been dieting and exercising and have lost about 4kg this month. It’s a start.
I’ve been checking back at intervals to see how you’re all doing. @angel and @thund I’m sorry to hear that this month isn’t bringing what you wished for. It’s so difficult isn’t it, I’ve been quite positive recently because I sort of feel like I have to or I’ll seesaw the other way and would feel so hopeless - I guess ultimately it’s hard when to a relative extent things are out of our hands. Boy when everyone here gets their sticky BFP I’ll be so happy.

Hi everyone.
I have been TTC for a year and just received a BFN even though I have had really bad nausea and other symptoms. I'm absolutely heartbroken and spent the last hour crying and eating chocolate!!
I just want some advice of timing as to when to get the fertility of us checked out and if it's best to go to the doctors or to a fertility clinic?