Ivf help????

[Stacey2007]

Hi everyone just a little advice needed. We've been trying to get pregnant for ages with no success... been on clomid 3 months and nothing, we are classed as unexplained infertility, we are going to go for the ivf option next, just wondered if anyone who has been through it can explain a little on what happens ? Thanks

Will you be nhs funded or privately funded, as that can mean differences, mostly in the speed things progress.

I assume if you’ve had clomid you’ve had tests done?

Happy To share my experience if you can answer the above. But overall it’s a marathon not a sprint as you’ll know if you’ve been TTC a while. I miscarried our first 2 blastocysts despite them being good grades and nothing being ‘wrong’ with me (male factor). Finally got our rainbow on our third embryo transfer, so took 9 months from starting the ivf drugs to positive pregnancy test (2 years trying prior to that and waited 8 months from going to GP to start IVF)

Hi, we are going private as my partner already has a child so we can not have nhs, yes had all the tests done and nothing can back un normal, apart from my partners can back a little low but nothing extreme, did you go private? I’m not even 100% sure on price, we need to book a appointment to speak about everything, but I just thought I would ask on here get a little bit more info, a strange question, does the woman need to be put to sleep at any point of it ? X

Most clinics have an info evening, which you should definitely go to. They outline the basic process and you can ask questions. Most evenings are 2-3 hours and there is far too much to go into in a brief post here...

During egg collection, you are sedated and will probably sleep through it, but you aren't 'put to sleep' as in intubated.

I would attend some open evenings at clinics local to you - most hold something at least once a month and you usually get a free consultation with the doctor at them.

They all pretty much say the same thing so go with your gut feel - you'll be seeing a lot of them and giving them a lot of money so it needs to feel right

I opted for mild short protocol ivf - much much quicker - only on injections for 10 days before egg collection compared to long protocol ivf which is 6 weeks. Don't just let them push you into full ivf - make sure they explain the different options available

Have a look on the HFEA website for each clinics success rates and also about whether "add ons" are worth paying for

Cost wise my mild ivf with ICSI cost £6.5k with a further £1k to freeze any spare blastocysts

Most places offer some kind of payment plan and clinics like Care partner with Access Fertility which offers a 100% refund if IVF isn't successful (if you meet the criteria) which can take away a bit of the pressure for it to work first time

Go into this with your eyes open and be realistic. Success rates over 42 years are like 2% - below 35 years it's usually around 25-30% - have enough money ready to do more than one cycle - I've known loads of people get lots of eggs collected but none have fertilised or none have made it to blastocyst stage x

Agree with others about the open evenings. We were lucky enough to be nhs funded. As others have said there’s are lots of variances so this can only be a brief generally overview:

I got my period called them and 21 days later I had to take northisrrone for 12 days to put my body into menopause NB the number of days can vary and not even sure everyone does this step, it was fit the clinic’s timetable, could depend if you are NHS or private
I then had a withdrawal bleed and a ‘baseline’follicle scan. I got given all my injections to take home. I took one injection for a week then back to make sure follicles are growing, then started second injection to make sure I didn’t ovulate. Back every other day to precisely measure follicles. When enough and big enough, given time for trigger shot.

After trigger shot, 12 hours later egg collection. Was sedated with fentanyl and temazepan - completely blissful. But was very sore and in pain three days later. Had to take progesterone pessary from egg collection.

Our embryos were grown to Day 5 and of an initial 10 that fertilised (13 recovered) 4 survived to day 5.

Back to have blastocyst our back, no sedation or anesthesia. Like a smear. Then wait two weeks. Unfortunately I miscarried our fresh, and the second, frozen transfer.

Frozen transfer, take tablets after your period to thicken lining, two scans to make sure lining is thick, progesterone pessary from 5 days before replacement.

The only difference with my successful cycle is that I did an endometrial scratch. Not sure if it was that or just that I felt I was trying something different and more positive.