To start now or wait for IVF

[Bells3032]

My DH and i need to use IVF to concieve due to very very low sperm count due to childhood cancer. it's taken 18 months of treatment to get him to the point it's even possible.

We had initially thought that we were going to move in November and start IVF in January once we had settled in. unfortunately due to a very cruel person adding a house to the top of our chain last minute we are now moving the first week of January.

The clinic said we can start at my next cycle which will probably be the first week of December or I can do it in a late Jan/early Feb cycle (my Jan cycle the office will probably still be closed).

I know practically it makes more sense to wait to the later date for various reasons

• Doing it so close to christmas may mean less medical support if things go wrong
• I will be doing all the most painful injections plus morning sickness during the move if successful
• I will have to wait longer for confirmation if it was successful as the usual date means the clinics closed
• my new house is closer to the clinic so any trouble i can be there in 5 minutes as opposed to 20.
• a lot of the meds need refrigerating and our fridge here is tiny but we have a massive one in the new house.
• more time to lose some weight (I am seeing a dietician next week).
• Baby will be due first week of Sept so i risk my family (all teachers) being away when baby is born and also being the worst of my pregnancy in the height of summer.

Reasons not to wait

• I have low egg supply (not redic low but too low for my age).
• I am impatient and am obsessing about whether it'll work all the time
• I don't want to!
• I have little else to focus on due to lockdown.

I know it makes more sense to wait....how to tell my heart and hormones that?

I also wanted to get going asap, but likewise not keen on September (is that seriously ridiculous when we're all struggling already?!!) and balancing everything over Christmas (between different places potentially, and esp with covid too); so I am just trying to adjust my brain to Februaryish now. Trying to think of it as a journey for 2021. Does that help?

I've done a cycle at December time before and honestly I wish I'd waited until the January. Mainly because It wasn't successful so ruined Xmas a bit as I was on such a downer

Do what you prefer, as ivfbeenbusy says it can put a downer on Christmas if it doesn't work but you might be very restrictive in your Christmas celebrations re food and alcohol anyway if you're about to do IVF.
Some of your reasons for waiting are not very convincing such as small fridge (when you remove meds from packaging they'll probably all fit in one lunchbox) or being 20 minutes from clinic which is nothing, and waiting longer for confirmation (do you mean confirmation of pregnancy? Many clinics ask you to do a home pregnancy test and then if positive have hcg blood tests).
If the baby arrives after September surely the teachers will still be teaching and the height of the summer in the UK never lasts long.
All that said if you think it would stress you doing the IVF before moving then postpone the IVF. You need to do what you feel is right, not what others would or wouldn't do.

Christmas isn't really a relavent factor to me as I'm Jewish anyway and this year think Christmas is even less of a festival than usual.
Think the biggest factor is the move at the same time...

I know it sounds daft but didn't think to take them out the packaging. How daft is that???

Just on the medication front - clinics generally only say to keep them in the fridge so it prolongs their shelf life to the maximum possible - a lot of them have a "use by" date several months in the future even up to a year? So if you have spare medication left you can use it for the next cycle if you need to and aren't wasting money. My clinic said it's actually fine for most of them to be out of the fridge up to a month if you're pretty sure they are going to be used that cycle (I used to travel a lot for work and couldn't always guarantee a hotel room with A mini fridge)

Not daft @Bells3032 but really it sounds like you'd be happier not combining two stressful life events so simply don't put yourself through it.

But do take your meds out of the packaging if they arrive before your move!
I used to do this because I also travelled with work and used to put them in an insulated lunchbox and bring two ice packs, one to keep in the bag and one to ask the hotel to freeze if no fridge in the room.
Or on a night out meds in my make up bag beside my mascara and lippy. Though not many nights out lately!

@Bells3032 I've cycled over Christmas and honestly it's fine. Unfortunately for me it did go wrong (chemical pregnancy) but there is literally nothing that can be done at that early stage sadly so no medical assistance required.

5 and 20 mins are hugely different travel times - if it was hours ok but its inly an an extra 15 mins!

Even the most painful injections (intra muscular progesterone!) only take seconds to do and you might be lucky enough not to have morning sickness!

You won't have to wait longer to find out the result. Yes you will have to wait for a blood test but a regular pregnancy test will let you know!

The meds took up one shelf of my fridge and I didn't even take it out of the packaging. Taking it out of the box will greatly reduce the size.

And you can't really predict the baby's arrival - the cycle could end up being freeze all, the baby might arrive early.

Have you exchanged yet so you know for sure you are moving in January?

And most importantly you say you don't want to wait so go for it

so the clinic called and said that for a round prior to christmas i'd need to get my period prior to the 27th november so not convinced that that will happen anyway (my periods are a tad all over the place due to only coming off my coil in September) so the choice may be taken out my hands anyway.

We have exchanged on the house - We were supposed to be moving this week originally but our sellers seller slung a house onto the top of the chain the day we were meant to exchange and refused point blank to complete before January.

I may order the meds and store them in a tupperware box out of their boxes just in case and then i can make a decision last minute if my period comes earlier (worst case scenario my sister said she'd store some for me).

My clinic advises against pregnancy tests at home in case of clinical pregnancy although knowing me i wouldn't have patience to wait for the beta too.

I know some of the reasons are daft but some of them are very valid too.

As said though i reckon it'll be out of my hands

PS thanks for all the advice