Starting the IVF journey - anyone want to come along for the ride?

[jemimafuddleduck]

I'm so excited and have to speak to someone other than my poor husband! No one even knows we've been trying, let alone heading along the ivf route so I'm feeling quite alone in all of this. Hence my MANY posts on MN, if you've seen any of them.

We had our first clinic appointment today, which I've been nervously/excitedly waiting for.

I have high FSH (17.4), and the consultant, although absolutely LOVELY, initially made me feel like I was pretty much in menopause.

Then she scanned me and said although she couldn't see lots of follicles, it was nowhere near as bad as she had thought.

However our CCG won't do IVF unless your FSH is under 12, so I'm out... unless I have AMH over 5.5.

I had an AMH test today and will get the results in a week or two.

If the result is ok, we'll go straight to NHS IVF immediately- no waiting list!

If it's bad... there are other options and this is already a long post.

Anyone want to share and keep me company? X

Ah ok thanks all. I think that's a good compromise to tell some folk but not when you're doing it. I might wait and see how I feel closer to the time. @Guio it's difficult to explain your parent's reaction without knowing them. It could easily be because they don't know how to broach the subject, don't know much about it or just don't want to add to the stress by bringing it up.

@PostiveThinkingRainbow how are you doing? Thinking of you xx

Hi Ladies, sorry I've been quiet have just been on boring bed rest and going in for scans for the bloody OHSS.
Starting to feel a little more human today, the clinic want me on bed rest and have signed me off for next week. I'm going in for another scan tomoz, weds and Friday. I've told work I will be off on Monday but really hope I don't need any longer as it's hard to explain!

Had our finally results in for our embryos that are now frozen. We got 4 in total, 1x4aa 1x3bb and 2x"Early" not really sure what those gradings mean.
How's everyone else doing? Xxx

Hello how everyone is doing?I can't stop thinking about the IVF process and today I really feel very depressed when I haven't even started ..can I ask how was you sex life once you knew they you were going to start IVF?for some reason my partner and I have become more appart and I have very low libido.I just thinking that I should carry on trying but I don't feel like I want to...did you carry on trying when you started or stopped immediately??

Hi everyone, hope your weekends are going well? We had our ivf chat at the clinic this week. Advise was if we can self fund ivf now then do due to low amh. So we have our ivf cycle info meeting on Thursday to pay and get timetable etc. Then start in about 3 weeks, eeek. I'm feeling pretty daunted by it all. The egg collection bit especially freaks me out as medical settings and operations stress me out. At my hycosy they struggled to see one of my ovaries as apparently it was hidden by my bowel (retroverted uterus) so now I'm worried they won't be able to get eggs during EC or might pierce my bowel. Gah I'm basically a worrier so I need to find ways of chilling out about this stuff.

Hi all
I've been away for 2 weeks so been very quiet on here. How are you all getting on?
@Booksandbaths1 how did your appointment go?
@PostiveThinkingRainbow how are you doing? Any news on when ET might be?

We've come back from holiday to a letter saying that we have had funding approved for egg donation IVF. So I'll give the clinic a call tomorrow to get things moving. So excited!

Great news about the funding @jemimafuddleduck Do you have another appointment soon? I'm on holiday this week (non zika area) and we start our 1st self funded cycle the next week (10th). Feeling a bit daunted but trying to relax whilst on hol. It's long protocol which I'm surprised about considering my amh but oh well. Not looking forward to ~ 4 weeks of injections.

@Booksandbaths1 aaah I hope you have a lovely relaxing time away!! Are you doing anything special to prepare for ivf? I asked my dr this and she told me not to do anything different!
I am just waiting for a call back from the clinic for my appointment - hoping they will call today or tomorrow.

So we've got our next appointments now, the last one is on 23rd October and then we'll officially be on the egg donor waiting list. Which we were originally told was non existent and once on the list we would be given eggs immediately. But today I was told actually the waiting time is 3-12 months!!!
I'm absolutely devastated as thought that we'd be starting the process within a month and now it's looking like it could be up to a year.
Feeling super disheartened and down today 😢😢

Hope its ok to join :)
I am in different situation than most of ladies in here, our test are all good but still never been pregnant. Ttc more than 2 years. Today I had 3D scan, everything norm exept my endo is coming back and there is small cyst, btw had folicules: 3 in right side and 10 in left side.
We have nhs funding for 1 ivf and I hope that we can start asap after nurse appointment on 17th.

Welcome @Beetroot01 when you do hear about next steps?
@Jemimafuddleduck great that you're approved for funding but I'm sorry about the wait. It may be less time so try not to be too disappointed and use the time to be healthy and enjoy yourself with your partner. I've not been told to do anything in particular pre ivf but I have been taking ubiquinol for egg quality and also a prenatal multi vit. And minimal booze. Will stop completely this month and during meds. Gentle exercise and trying to take it easy.

@Boodsandbaths1 I hope that on 17th we will find out more, because all our tests are good, dr said that next step is ivf

Thanks @Booksandbaths1. Trying not to be too negative but I am gutted. I had let myself imagine that I might be pregnant by Christmas but that's looking extremely unlikely 😢

@Jemimafuddleduck @Boodsandbaths1
Yes, research suggests CoQ10 or ubiquinol (a form that is water and fat-soluble absorbs better) may support fertility.
As mentioned, have you also considered various diet and lifestyle changes? This research article gives a nice overview:
fertilityresearchandpractice.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40738-015-0003-4
Of course, check with your doctor on any supplement changes.

Good luck for this week @Booksandbaths1 - how are you feeling?

Thanks @jemimafuddleduck v sweet of you. I'm flipping between feeling quite calm about it to freaking out and feeling anxious. But on the whole I'm ok. Trying not to think about it too much - taking it one day at a time. I'm also trying to see this cycle as an exploration to hopefully find out more about quality/quantity of eggs and sperm. How are you feeling about things? Hope you had a lovely hol last month.

Remind me sorry @Booksandbaths1 - are you private or NHS?
So what's than plan for you? How long will you be on meds etc?
I'm ok thanks. Had a lovely holiday but back to reality now!
We have our nurse appointment a week today, then our counselling the week after, and then in theory we're on the waiting list for our eggs!
I randomly saw my fertility doctor at the weekend and mentioned to her that I'd been told the wait was 3-12 months (she was the one who told me there was no waiting list!). She reassured me a bit, said that the coordinator would say that to manage expectations but in reality it wouldn't be anywhere near that long.
I still don't think it'll start this side of Christmas but you never I know I guess.
Just trying to take things one step at a time x

I was going to say similar @jemimafuddleduck - in that they probably say 3-12 months to manage expectations. It might even be nice to have a lovely relaxing Christmas knowing that the process will kick off early in the new year? But I understand we how frustrating the lack of info is and not being able to plan.

We are self funding this cycle as we don't qualify for our 1 nhs cycle til spring next year and with my low amh we felt we wanted to crack on. I'm 34. Plus I know the chances of it working are lower with my amh of 5 so felt if we end up doing egg donor then best to know sooner rather than later. It all takes so much waiting and I'd rather not be too old a mum. I wonder if this cycle fails badly of we could ask to be put forward for donor eggs on the nhs like you... I'm really interested to hear the process you're going through as we may find ourselves there soon enough. I start down regging today and then in 2 weeks start stimming. Will be on max dose of the stimulation meds in the hope of getting some eggs.

How are you feeling @Booksandbaths1 ? How has it been so far?

Hi guys! Commented at the beginning and just been reading along since!
How are you all doing? Where is everyone at?
I hope it doesn’t take so long for your jemima, it’s awful when good news comes with the bad news! Hopefully as others have said, it’s expectstion management... not that it helps!

Hi @ChrisPrattsFace - welcome back! How are you doing? What's happening with you?
We had our nurse appointment today which was all the forms and legal stuff. It went well but I came out of there feeling a bit upset... even though that's a bit ridiculous because things are moving in the right direction. Not really sure why I felt sad.
Counselling this time next week, then we are officially on the waiting list for eggs!

Hey guys! I'm still on the downreg meds (1 week done) and tbh they aren't that bad. My dh may disagree as I've been a bit naggy today but I'm generally feeling ok. Ive been getting him to prep and inject me to sprrad some of the responsibility around. I'm kind of trying to not think about it much as it's a long process so I am trying to keep my cool at this early stage. I'm quite sure I'll have meltdowns later 😂

Hi again @ChrisPrattsFace how's things with you?

@jemimafuddleduck I totally understand - I found our ivf form filling out appountment very stressful and felt quite anxious afterwards. I hope you soon feel a bit calmer. We've got a counselling sesh thru the clinic on Thursday.

They’re ok thanks! We have an appointment tomorrow where we hope to start clomid or similar. Last appointment I was told as I’m under 35 I’m not priority so would be difficult to move forward with me...
We’ve asked to see another dr for this next appointment after that!

We had a nurse app today. So we are starting at the end of october with buserelin, then on 21 november scan, if ok on 22 november starting stims with Meriofert. I am so excited, happy and a little scared :)