IVF long protocol-any experience? I’m dreading it!

[Kitkat369]

So I had my ivf chat with nurse for self funding at hospital, she mentioned given I’m 40 with 14amh that long protocols would be best, can be upton6wks before potential bop.

She mentioned down rigging then stims, the thought of all those meds is freaking me out, is it really tough on your body? We have to go fo endo scratch before starting in August.

We are trying one last time naturally using smep technique, hoping we still get lucky as I’m dreading the ivf. Not to mention parting with our savings!

I've just done long protocol and to be honest it was a walk in the park compared to what I was anticipating. I was dreading self injecting but after I'd done the first one I wondered what the fuss was about. The only real side effects I've experienced are bloating and now I'm on progesterone my boobs are tender. I didn't respond well to stims so had to go back a few times for scans and the only got 6 eggs of which 4 fertilised and 2 made it to blast. But because of this I didn't experience any particular discomfort prior to egg collection. EC and ET where fairly straight forward with the only real discomfort was after EC when for some odd reason my back passage ached a bit. I am aware I've been lucky with my experience but I was like you and dreaded IVF but now I've done it I'd even do it again if this round fails.

Good luck and if you do go for it I'd try and plan things like a massage or a nice meal out during the treatment to try and take your focus of it.

Hi, thanks for this. With the down regging bit, did u get many side effects. I think it’s the emotional side too as worries it’s going to consume me. I’ve been hearing horror stories of going to hospital due to ohss and I guess it’s the fear I’ll have that as not that lucky!

It’s exciting but also scary as not sure what to expect or how I’ll handle.

Will keep fx you get your bfp

I'm quite emotionally resilient as a person due to the job I do so I can't say I noticed a particularly heavy toll on my emotions. I did get worried about my response to stims and I'm worrying now that it won't work however ultimately and rationally this is me worrying about something I have no power to change. No real symptoms with down reg other than bloating but I get that anyway. After 5 years TTC it was IVF or accept I would never be a mum and I wasn't ready to accept that knowing I hadn't tried everything. For a 2 month period out of your life you could end up with the ultimate reward.

That’s a lovely way to look at it. Really hope you get baby dust you need

Physically it’s really not that bad. On the down regging I had no side effects at all and even on the stims I was only a bit bloated. Emotionally the process is much harder than it is physically and it’s emotionally far harder that I anticipated. Having said that, I did 5 long protocol cycles (all unsuccessfully) so it wasn’t so bad that I didn’t go through it again.

I did long protocol and had no side effects at all on the down regging. I was worried about it before I started, but it was no worse than just taking a nasal sniff when you have a cold. The stimming did make me bloated and tender, but I think that's inevitable whatever protocol you're on, and it was only for a few days really. The worst part was recovering after egg collection - not that it was hugely painful, but it just took longer than I was expecting not to feel quite tender and tired and to be able to move around normally again and that was quite frustrating.

Re OHSS your clinic ought to be monitoring you carefully for this and you'll be scanned several times and have blood taken while you're stimming so that they can change the dosage or stop the cycle if you're at risk.

I never did long protocol but did have OHSS after egg collection. Symptoms came on quite quickly and I rang them to say I wasn't feeling well. They had me in straight away for a scan and sadly in my case terminated the cycle and we had to freeze all embryos. They prescribed medication to help reduce the OHSS and I didn't have to go to hospital. I think as long as you keep an eye on your symptoms and let them know ASAP if you don't feel right then hospital admission is rare.

Good luck, and hope you're ok. It's a horrible journey that no one wants to take.

Hi all, I’m a complete novice so could somebody explain what long protocol means and what alternatives there are please? I assume from the comments that we are about to start long protocol, I start buserelin injections tomorrow (which I think is the down regging) and have a treatment plan for scans etc but the nurse who gave us all the drugs didn’t really explain anything very well apart from how to administer the injections.

I am dreading the injecting as I am a bit of a wimp when it comes to needles but we’ve been TTC for 2.5 years now so just glad we’ve finally got to this stage!

Thanks all, it’s good to get the experiences. Hubby and I finally had our ivf chat with fertility nurse, she was so lovely and informative. She mentioned that after endo scratch, once period starts I will need to start the down regging with buserlin twice a day.

Once scanned and regging complete I then will need to inject myself with buserlin in morning and have the stim injections in the evening, she mentioned this was to avoid OHSS.

During close monitoring of next two weeks once my follicles are just over 17mm I’ll take trigger injection then egg collection 36hrs later I think. Then the fun begins I guess. Just I know success rates for 40+ aren’t best but will try stay positive.