Abc IVF

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Has anyone recently had IVF with abc IVF? They have approved me for a frozen cycle only at the moment.
Do you know if they are only doing frozen cycles in light of the pandemic.
We have mainly chosen them due to low cost. I appreciate that the low cost means cut backs in certain areas, but I'm often waiting for 1-1.5 hours on the phone to speak to a central phone line for all branches.
It's tricky as I know that IVF is really down to the individuals body response, but I still feel that decisions made by doctors about medication doses etc are important.
Keen to hear about others experiences.

Hi @HV88 welcome!
I did my initial appt with Oxford, the nurse there is amazing! I love her. In the end I actually ended up doing everything at Wimbledon as they also do the retrieval and transfer and I thought it would be best to get everything done in one place.

It’s so exciting as once we start the injections everything goes so quickly.

I’m not sure how but I’m extremely calm with everything, I would even say numb as it’s so hard to find a balance to be positive and realistic at the same time but I’m trying my hardest.

@HV88 Hi! I would say avoid reading loads of stuff online if you can! I googled soooooo much the first couple of days after I started, and then found this group. It made me feel much better to talk to people that were going through the exact same thing as me at the same time! And also I would say ask as many questions on here as you need to, as I’m sure someone will have experienced the same things as you x

@MochaTea How are you getting on? x

@SoNewToThis@Maxs1988 How are you both getting on? x

@MochaTea thank you. I did not even know Wimbledon was an option, I thought it was central London. I was actually thinking of choosing Birmingham just for the convenience of driving and parking.

@poppies2020 thank you for your advice. I hope things are going well for you too.

I'm not usually a nervous person and tend to be quite relaxed about things. I think because my job is a health visitor and a children's nurse where all I do is talk babies all day so my mind doesn't even have a chance to escape at work.

Its the unknown of when egg retrieval will happen that I seem to be most hung up on. X

@HV88 They track your follicle growth on a chart so you can see how they are growing. They have to reach a certain level and then they will tell you your collection date. In my experience they keep you so well informed that, so don’t worry about any unknowns x

@poppies2020 thank you, that puts my mind at ease! X

Hello all! I recently started my IVF with abc at their Harley St clinic. Seems like I'm just ~a week or so behind three others here as I started on my injections in late Oct and just had my egg collection yesterday. Fingers crossed for a good outcome for the transfer that's ahead!

Question for those who've finished the egg collection (@Poppies2020 @SoNewToThis @MochaTea?)

• did anyone have issues applying the Utrogestan afterwards? The nurse said I could apply it with or without the applicator and just go as far as possible. I'd tried with the applicator last night and probably didn't make it beyond one centimetre or so; it just wasn't comfortable at all. Then again, I'm wondering if it was because it was because it was just hours after the egg collection, so I just need to let the body to heal and not worry as I apply in the coming days? Thanks in advance for any insights x

@HV88 yes for me Oxford and Wimbledon are the closest and they have Parking too so it was pretty great. Good lock with your scan and come back to tell us how it went ;)

@Poppies2020

im ok so far, I feel so many things in my belly, mainly some cramps in the beginning, some sharp pains sometimes and today it’s a bit achy but I’m still Calm and collected 😂 I will only start testing Tuesday. I’m going to get some tests tomorrow in preparation for my blood test on Friday.

@indigocloud I have no problems using the applicator all the way in, I guess if you really cannot use the applicator , would you be ok maybe pushing it in with your finger?
One time I felt it didn’t go all the way and it fell off, as it’s important to have it id try to go as up as you can.

@MochaTea I had all that too, so fingers crossed! Let us know how the testing goes! 🤞 x

@indigocloud I am able to use the applicator fine. It does say to insert the pessary as high as possible, I’m not sure this would be that easy using your finger? You may still be sore from the collection, if you are worried you could always call the clinic and they can tell you what to do/reassure you x

Thanks a lot, ladies! x

@MochaTea thank you for mentioning Wimbledon as hopefully that's where we can go now 🤞🏼 I do not like the idea of heading into central London at the moment.
Good luck for this week, not long to go now. Stay calm and collected 😌

I had my first scan this morning. I was told that everything looks good and I am responding really well to the Bemfola. I have 4 that are 12mm and 6 others not far behind so far. I am to start cetrotide tomorrow morning. Did the stims make anyone else super tired? X

@HV88 Oh wow, that is a really positive result for the first scan! It looks like you're on the right track. And no, I didn't personally find that the stims made me tired during the day, but I did seem to need a bit more sleep than usual. Every body is different though. Hang in there x

@indigocloud thank you. I honestly am clueless about what is good and what isn't. I try not to read too much but even when I do try I still don't understand. I hope you are feeling well and the 2ww isn't too hard for you X

@HV88 I was slightly behind you in terms of the size of my follicles for the first scan, so you're definitely doing pretty well so no need to stress :) I'm in that period between collection and embryo transfer so haven't hit the TWW yet but fingers crossed that's not too far away!

@indigocloud thanks for the positivity 😀
I know it is different for everyone but can I ask how many days of stims you did before egg collection?

Good luck for your transfer, do you know what day transfer will be yet? X

@HV88 first scan is usually ground zero so you'll see a big difference on your wed scan. You might have all 10 developing nicely.
If it helps I had around 13/14 growing to a good size, 8 were collected, 5 fertilized, 1 was implanted, 2 frozen, and 2 discarded.

I too don't read too much into it as it can make us go crazy, I just focus on my data as what's good/bad for me might not be for someone else.

@indigocloud
do you know if you are having a d+3 or d+5 transfer? You've got not long to go now!

@MochaTea I'm scheduled for d+5. By the way, when did they call you to share the embryo grade? Was it d+2?

@HV88 I had 10 days of stims before egg collection on day 13. Good luck x

@indigocloud
they called me with the grades on d+3 and they only grade 1,2,3

on d+5, on the spot, they gave me the grading for the d+5 ones which is different as they have numbers and letters, and told me which one they were implanting. The next day after transfer they send you a report with everything.

Very helpful. Thanks @MochaTea! X

Hi @MochaTea sorry one more question - the Utrogestan, did they have you apply it 3x a day or just once a day?

@indigocloud 3x a day ;)

@MochaTea thanks for clarifying! I'd somehow muddled this bit and thought it was a daily dose, until my acupuncturist picked up on the anomaly, saying all her patients on fertility treatment are on 3x a day. Couldn't get through to the nurses at abc today so thank goodness for fellow IVFers here on the forum confirming! Will email them just to be sure x

@RMC224
I've also been through IVF with Oxford. The nurse there is the absolute best, just so reassuring. I was at risk of hyper stimulation, due to high AMH, so we knew going in that we'd do a freeze all cycle. The wait for transfer wasn't that long after collection, just long enough for the next period to come, and for you to be healthy. Really if there's any concern about hyper stimulation you want the clinic to freeze all. The risks for OHHS are actually highest after collection, and the worst thing you want is to get pregnant and have OHSS. Once you're pregnant they can't do much to help, and you can get really ill really quickly. For our freeze all cycle we had a discount applied to the transfer, on account of us having a transfer included in our first cycle that we did not use.

@HV88
I was super tired in the run up to egg collection as well! And a bit of a zombie for a few days after too. Definitely give yourself a break and take some sofa time if you can get it.

We tried to go to Birmingham for our collection so that parking was easier, but we weren't able to, this was a bit of a shock when it all got booked in and I wasn't too happy going into Central London. We managed to have someone drop us off and take the car to park elsewhere for egg collection. When we went for the embryo transfer we drove ourselves and it was very pricey. I think we paid the congestion charge ~£18 (plus you have to pay another charge if your car isn't basically brand new which doubles the charge). Then it cost us about £30 to park. We did this rather than get on public transport, but the costs did smart a bit.

Another thing to consider is that your embryos, however many might get frozen, then live at that clinic. So you'll have to go there for every subsequent transfer.

@indigocloud
I know that there are multiple ways to take to progynova, I wonder if there are also other options for the utrogestan, maybe there's a tablet or patch that you could use instead?