CRGW

[Jacky83]

Is anyone else on here having treatment with CRGW in South Wales? Just wondering what other people's experiences with them have been.

@Becbelly good luck at the hospital tomorrow.
@Cat028 wishing you all the best for the consultation. It will be interesting to read your feedback.

I had my scan there on Monday, my consultation is in two weeks. I saw Amanda, she's so lovely and positive.

Seems like we ( @Becbelly @Blueron123 @Cat028) are all having our scans/ consultations in March.

@JemInher40s
Yes! It'll be good if we're all cycling together. Amanda told me egg collection would be May/June.

@Blueron123 Will you be at the Cardiff branch for treatment? Did u have your scan there? When I called that branch they also told me may/June for treatment. However, I had my scan in Bristol.

From yday, I've started Proxceed. I've been taking ubiquinol, vit D, folic and iron for a few months.

@JemInher40s yes I'll be cycling at Cardiff.
She said I should hear from the nurses about two weeks after my consultation with her and I'll be starting treatment pretty quickly after that because she wants me to take Metformin for six weeks and that egg collection would be May/June.

I'm taking so many supplements!
Ubiquinol twice a day
Vitamin D, E, C
Folate
DHA twice a day
Prenatal twice a day

Amanda also said I should take a probiotic supplement as well.

Oooh, on Sunday I ordered some DHA but read mixed reviews about it. E.g acne, facial hair, hair loss!!! Ive recently stopped using tretinoin (retinol A cream -harmful in pregnancy) and my skin is reverting back to being congested and just not the best. But I'm sucking it up!!

Thanks for prebiotic nudge, I have some Kefir
brewing so might start taking (chugging) that again.

Is Amanda the one who did your scan? Is she a nurse? I haven't been recommended anything to take. Metformin is used for type 2 diabetes, did she say why you need this?

I have fibroids (confirmed by hysteroscopy and recent scan) none are in lining so I hope the clinic are able to treat me. NHS offered me private IVF treatment so for me that's a good sign. As per my previous post I was declined NHS funding.

@Blueron123 forgot to at you in my previous post!

@JemInher40s
I've been taking DHA for a few months and haven't noticed any changes.
Amanda is a consultant, she's really nice and highly recommended.
I asked her which supplements I should take.

I can't quite remember why she said I'll be taking metformin. I think it was to calm my follicles or maybe for egg quality?? I have polycystic ovaries (not syndrome) so I always overstimulate, and my NHS consultant told me that what they find with polycystic ovaries is that the environment around the follicles isn't great so can impact egg quality. I'll be doing a mild cycle with CRGW and this means I should have less follicles and hopefully better eggs! First round I had 31 follicles (freeze all) and second round I had 22 (fresh transfer but had very mild OHSS after egg collection). So I think too many follicles (in my case) is bad and could be affecting my eggs. I had really bad results second round but NHS consultant thinks it was just one of those things and not egg quality. He said if I was to cycle again next month I'd end up with a different result 🤷🏽‍♀️.

I've just looked online, this is what it says about metformin:-
I think some women with pcos have insulin resistance and this can affect egg quality, so the metformin can help with this. It can also prevent OHSS.

@Blueron123 Thank you for sharing and explaining.

@JemInher40s thank you! All went well thanks. You are right it's lovely to have you girls around the same time. It'll be nice to chat to you all through our journeys!

The consultation was pretty much confirming our details from forma. Then Dr Atluri talked us through options. We decided on IVF with the possibility for the embryologist to have the option of ICSI on the day due to low morphology. She said we would be sent consent forms to be filled in tomorrow but they have come through already! They take a long time to do and contain so much information but it was great to read through it all and I have a much clearer idea of the process through doing it.

She also recommended DH to take wellman tablets (which he was already taking), for me to take folic acid, omega 3 (I was already take these) and coq10 (ordered some to arrive tomorrow.) She also talked about diet. Only having red meat once a week, oily fish 3x weekly, the benefits of a Mediterranean diet - lots of olive oil, nuts, veggies etc.

I asked about time scales and she said that the sooner the consents are in the sooner a planning appointment could be made. But that it would depend on where I am in my cycle but she would expect us to begin in April/May for egg collection May/June.

I think that about covers it!

@Blueron123 the supplements are no joke! I feel like I rattle taking so many!! 🙈

@Cat028 I was wondering how you got on today and Im really pleased it went well. Wow, more forms to do! The initial forms were lengthy enough!! Haha
The time scales seem reasonable too.
Apologies, but can't remember if you're privately funding, if so did they suggest multi cycle option?

@Cat028 sounds amazing!
The forms 🤦🏽‍♀️! It's like you're singing your whole life away!
@JemInher40s I spoke with Amanda yesterday about the Metformin, she said it's mainly to stop overstimulation and she said it can help with egg quality 🤞🏼

@Blueron123
That's very Interesting and good to know.

@JemInher40s thank you! Omg yes the forms are insane but also had information videos. Some things I knew already other things I didn't. But make sure you put aside enough time to do it it took us a good few hours to get through it all.

Yes, we are privately funded. I can't wait any longer for my own mental health so we've just decided to save and go for it. They didn't suggest a multi cycle option. They only really suggested the treatment they recommended. I had always said I wouldn't do IVF as I'm terrified of injections and I find going to the Doctors/hospital really hard but when we realised we might have to go down this route I've had to come to terms with it and don't know at this point if I want do more than 1 cycle. They are all on the forms for you to look at though.

@Blueron123 it feels so much more real now! Been talking to my boss to sort self isolating for treatment and where I stand with everything. It's been so overwhelming and I found myself getting a bit teary. It really is! Form overload!!!

@Cat028 aww bless you. It really is a very emotional time.
If it makes you feel any better, I was an absolute baby before I started IVF, petrified of needles etc but honestly they're not bad. I didn't think they hurt at all. I dreaded the whole process. The hardest thing about IVF is the waiting (how many eggs collected, fertilised, day 3, day 5 etc), it was definitely more emotionally painful than physically painful. I swore that I would never go through it again when I had my miscarriage; it took time but I was ready to start again a few months later. When I had my failed cycle in January, I really felt I could've started again straight away. I think with me though it's more of I'm not very patient and just want it now!! That's the one thing you learn with ivf, patience. If I knew when I was referred in 2017 that I'd still be going now I would never have believed it. I was naive to think it would work first time. Third time lucky hopefully.
Please don't worry about the injections, they really are ok. Do you know which ones you'll be using? x

@Cat028 Thank you for that. I've never had IVF and I know the odds of first time success is low, especially for a woman in my age group. According to their site I think multicycle has to be decided at payment stage not mid treatment.

@Blueron123I agree with you about patience. When I went to virtual open evenings many other clinics didnt have waiting lists, then when I found out I'd have to wait a few months for treatment at CRGW I was disappointed. However, its allowed more time for vitamins to kick in and save money. So maybe a blessing in disguise.

@Blueron123 That is really reassuring. I am trying to take one step at a time. Hopefully at the planning meeting when I know timescales I will feel a bit calmer about things. Hopefully it won't take long for us to get that appointment through. Do you remember how long you waited for your previous planning meetings? Keeping everything crossed that 3rd time is the charm for you. I totally get what you mean about the miscarriage. I took my miscarriage really badly. Do they ask you to wait before heading into a new cycle? Where did you have your previous cycles? The whole process has taken longer than I ever thought. I really didn't anticipate the amount of waiting we would be doing.

@JemInher40s we have never had it either so we have decided to see how we go and leave our options open. Yes, we had to decide when filling in the consent forms. I know that first time success isn't high but I'm hoping maybe we might have an embryo to freeze so we could have a FET instead of a second full cycle.

@Cat028 Good point about the FET in lieu of second cycle. I still have a few more weeks before my consultation and really looking forward to it!

@Cat028 I cycled with WFI (NHS) so everything took a while! We were referred in November 2017, had our first appointment with them September 2018 and started our first cycle June 2019. We should've been able to start January 2019 but the urologist was off sick so there was a delay with sperm retrieval, we decided to go private because we couldn't wait any longer.
I'm pretty sure they said I could start after one bleed when I had my miscarriage but the nurse more or less told me to wait an extra month (otherwise I'd be doing it over Christmas) because I'd had such a traumatic time with the staff in the early pregnancy unit and I think she could see I wasn't myself, even though I felt ok at the time. When I look back I now realise how low I was, it took me a while to feel myself.
Obviously the wait is a lot less with a private clinic (thank god); we had quite a long stressful journey with WFI but the nurses were amazing.

@JemInher40s I was quite disappointed that we had to wait with CRGW as well but like you, I'm glad now because it's giving me time to eat extra healthy and time for the vitamins to kick in.
When is your consultation?

@JemInher40s you have some time to have a think and decide. When is your consultation?

@Blueron123 Aw sounds like you have been through a lot so far! I think it's hard in the moment when you feel like you can muscle on through but looking back you can see you weren't right. I found that after going to my homeopathic therapist. It's done me the world of good and I feel much more prepared to start IVF now. I don't know if I would have been strong enough a 6 months ago. I'm glad the nurses were good and looked after you.

Mines the 19th

@JemInher40s not long to wait then! Exciting!!

I'm feeling a bit better today after my teary day. More positive. How are you all doing?