Jan/Feb IVF/ICSI/FET here we go...

[sometimesalways]

Hello, starting a new thread for those of us starting a new cycle after the holidays.

My background: one successful round of ivf a few years back resulted in my lovely DS and now trying for a second. We are about to go for round 3, following 1 bfn and 1 mc.

At the moment I am waiting for af to appear. Seem to be about to ovulate according to opk. So guessing should expect af in about 2 weeks time.

Going for natural FET with progesterone support. The question for me is whether to add steroids too. A little scared of long terms risks so we will see...

@Russkispy @itwasalovelydreamwhileitlasted @Christabelle89
I remember from previous threads you were doing, or thinking of doing another round in Jan?

Everybody welcome to join, wherever you are on your journey. It's a tough business, keeping company helps. Good luck!

Do you know what acupuncture helps with exactly? Does it claim to aid implantation? My mc's tend to be because my pregnancies are all slow starters (like this one), just wondering if thats something I could try.

At mine which is an "award winning" fertility one they concentrate on points which increase progesterone and keep the cervix closed
It also as a holistic element and they also look for "deficiencies" and things like muscle memory (previous miscarriages and c section)

At the first appointment I did think what a load of bollocks but then I've read several studies where it was shown to have some benefits but I ONLY do it after transfer as that's what I need more help with otherwise it just gets too expensive

I have to say though I've still gone on to have miscarriages

So sorry @Ging78 and @BettySwoll0cks :( I only tried reflexology and only do 1-2 sessions before the transfer. I really do believe it’s down to the embryo so I’m not prepared to spend a fortune x

@itwasalovelydreamwhileitlasted that's interesting thanks. I think like so many things acupuncture is probably in the 'worth a shot' category 🤔

@Hatawa83 thanks. I think it's probably down to the embryo but I wonder if a uterus can be more or less 'hospitable' too? Since it's influenced by maternal hormones, stresses, toxins etc there could be something in that?

I spoke to my ivf clinic this morning to report a faint positive hpt. It's not got any darker in 3 days so I suspect it's probably similar to my previous mc's; late implantation, slow hcg rise. Then (previously) measuring small and delayed development throughout first trimester then finally miscarriage at 10-12 weeks. I don't want to go through that again - so much limbo and false hope - so I asked my GP surgery for beta hcg and they have said yes. Just so I have a clearer picture.

The ivf clinic don't do beta hcg or anything support-wise after OTD. "Too much work" for them apparently - so the message was good luck, call your GP for ante natal care! Annoying when you've already spent over £10k for a service.

@BettySwoll0cks
That's rubbish customer service from your clinic! - who are you with??

My clinic couldn't do enough for you - they were the ones who called the ambulance for my second ectopic and put an IV line in as my hospital wouldn't take it seriously and said you'll have to go wait in a&e to be seen and then a couple of days for a referral! My friends with Create have also been given loads of support post BFP with extra scans etc to check everything was ok

It's crap that there is such a variation in customer care when it's so blood expensive!

@BettySwoll0cks
Not sure if this link will work but here is one study about fertility acupuncture

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6182526/

@BettySwoll0cks what a rollercoaster - and what a crappy response from your clinic, I am sorry, why won't they do hCG? Surely as a paying customer you can ask for one? Goodness. Could you get an hCG elsewhere? Just to get a sense of which direction it's going, I would def be doing that. A faint positive is still a positive so keeping fingers crossed for you.

I do acupuncture too, I don't know how much it helps but as @itwasalovelydreamwhileitlasted says it also goes towards a more holistic approach to looking after yourself. So for example, I have an underactive thyroid so it helps 'balance' things for me. Now I take all this with a pinch of salt, but it also helps me relax a lot so it must be doing something. Research shows it helps, although no one knows why (as with many ivf things). I do one session around ovulation to 'to help with blood flow and thicken the lining' and then on day or transfer.

Afm I just had my first scan to track ovulation and lining is at 15 already! Things look good, having another scan tomorrow.

I'm with Cambridge IVF. They are an nhs clinic but you can pay for the service if you don't qualify for nhs funding (like me). On that basis though, they don't provide any after care they just suggest you access other services within the nhs. We all know how long that can take though. I love the nhs but I have to admit, it is amazing and pretty shit in equal measure.

Should've gone to Bourn Hall or somewhere instead maybe 🤷‍♀️ but statistically Cambs IVF are strong and I liked the idea that they benefit from the research side at CUH ....

Thanks for the link @itwasalovelydreamwhileitlasted - I'll have a read

@BettySwoll0cks ah if it's Nhs aftercare then yes, that makes sense. They don't offer hCG testing here either as far as I know (and with all their faults and slowness I love them - I wouldn't have DS without them). I thought it was an entirely private clinic. You can still do a blood test somewhere else privately, as a one off, if it would help?

Oh Betty that's rubbish. I know the private early scan places do hcg blood tests but glad your GP will, when do you get that done?

I like my NHS clinic but If I were paying there's no way I'd use them!

@sometimesalways I am very lucky because I'm in the military, so we have a dedicated medical centre and I can (seemingly) just ask them for whatever blood tests I want. So I walked in today and had a beta hcg and will do the same again in 48hrs.

But ... that's only because I have studied a lot about miscarriage and so I know what to ask for. I'll get the results and will have to interpret them myself, and then send copies myself to the IVF clinic. Because if I didn't do that, I would get shunted back into the recurrent miscarriage clinic system and last time it took 11 months to get an appointment there (I didn't wait - I went private). So although from an nhs perspective it all joins up, from a user point of view you have to do all the legwork yourself!!

Aw @BettySwoll0cks your clinic is ridiculous! Never heard of one that doesn’t follow through with 2 hcg tests and a 7 week scan!

I had bad news this afternoon. Scan showed half the eggs had just vanished. Apparently this sometimes happens after the cetrocide shots start. We now have only 6 left and are waiting for blood results tomorrow. If they are good we will have to decide whether to carry on with 6 or abandon the round. Feeling very fed up and angry this evening. So glad it’s our last attempt as I’m sick to death of it all!!!

@Hatawa83
Don't despair - my best results have come when I've had fewer eggs

My cycle in January I only had 2 eggs and was given option of cancelling but decided to continue and both ended up being grade 1 quality x

@itwasalovelydreamwhileitlasted That’s encouraging. Did they go on to become quality embryos? As this is our last round ever I am feeling the pressure.

Oh @hatawa that's frustrating, I hope your 6 hang in there x

@parkandride thank you. We will know more with blood results tomorrow. Such a bloody frustrating journey these ivf rounds are!

@Hatawa83
One is frozen at a top quality grade 1 day 3 and the other went to blastocyst and frozen as a day 5 - my clinic has a bizarre policy that at least 1 has to be frozen as a day 3 in case you don't end up getting any to a day 5 transfer - I agreed on cycle 1 that it would be 50/50 freeze the best quality one and let the other one go to blast as I was nervous as I generally lose about 50% between day 3 and 5.

Cycle 2 I had 7 eggs and have another 2 frozen - also some of the best quality I've ever had x

@itwasalovelydreamwhileitlasted Aww that’s great results! Definitely given me hope :) x

@Hatawa83 how are you feeling today? So sorry for your disappointment yesterday, it's like a never ending punch in the face, this ivf malarkey. It sounds though like you have enough to be in with a shout for this cycle though. I have everything crossed for you.

@itwasalovelydreamwhileitlasted can I ask, did you go ahead and have a second egg retrieval while you already had embryos in the freezer? I had always imagined that you'd transfer the ones you had before going into a complete new cycle 🤔

@BettySwoll0cks isn’t it just!!! Just got the call and bloods look good so going ahead for Friday but having a scan just before EC just in case things don’t look good... gives us a chance to abandon the cycle last minute. Urgh! What about you? Do you know when you’ll have your blood results? X

@BettySwoll0cks On one the fb groups I'm on some of the Americans have loads of rounds and really bank the embryos. I think that's because we're all doing pgd/pgs testing and their insurance pay one price to test say 10 embryos. But the idea of doing 4 rounds when 1 might have sufficed would be awful to me

@BettySwoll0cks
The three cycle package I'm on means I have to freeze the blastocysts from the first two cycles and only transfer on the third - the transfer can either be with frozen or fresh ones depending on quality of what I've got. I'm ok with that as I only got average quality blasts last year and I just wanted to bank as many as possible and choose the best from that. I'm tired of it all to be honest but With it being low dose means I can cycle back to back with no breaks and then do double transfers of what we have before stopping all together.

I'm not sure psychologically and emotionally I could do collection then transfer collection then transfer.

@Parkandride
Yeah in the PGS group I'm in the Americans do multiple rounds but the testing package out there I believe are for up to 8 or 10 embryos which is why they bank them. When I did PGS last year I just paid per blastocyst