Embryo Banking Support Thread / PGS wait

[ForeverAintEnough]

Hi all, I’ve just name changed but I’ve been on here loads and chatting to many of you under different user names ( irrational fear of being outed!). I wondered if there was interest in a ‘no transfer happening’ group? So those doing embryo banking or PGS or whatever.

I’ve just done one round of embryo banking and found the normal threads difficult with discussion of hoping for a Christmas pregnancies etc.

We are unfortunately taking the long way round with 3 rounds and no transfer. It looks like my first transfer might not be until June 2021.

If anyone wants to jump on feel free!

About us: Me 34, DH 36, TTC 3 years. Both male and female issues. x3 rounds of IVF all failed. Moved clinic to Lister for 3 rounds of embryo banking and PGS. One round of embryo banking just finished with x3 blasts sent off for PGS testing.

What a result @IslandStars ! It just shows how different things can be from one round to the next!

My chemical was from a 3BB so I was assured it was strong enough to implant. I've another frozen, day five, 3BB but I'll transfer that later on. At least after the embryo freezing cycles.

@ForeverAintEnough are you doing another cycle in January?

We're really hoping to start in a fortnight but I've just found out some of our blood tests might delay us. We need to get everything signed off by the 23rd so it could be a bit optimistic!

@MrsC2019 Yes I’m going again end Jan /start Feb. I’m with Lister too! Are you happy with them so far? We couldn’t fault them with our last round which was our 1st with them.

They are our 3rd clinic.

I’ve been a disaster healthy eating wise but will be back to it from 1st Jan and looks like egg collection will be mid Feb so hoping 6 weeks will help.

Thanks, that make sense, you do hear of these successes with grade 3s, so they must have been normal, it's just that most people here don't do PGS to ever find out or even realise that element to it.

Hopefully you'll get 3 blasts again, that's what i was praying for each round...well i started off just hoping for 2 per round, so you never know, you could get an extra surprise like me!

So far so good with the Lister @ForeverAintEnough ! But I'll be honest and say I'm a bit anxious/sceptical when it comes to fertility doctors. It's consequence of a pretty awful experience at my NHS clinic. It's sad because my partner is a medic and that's why we went to the NHS.. But that's a different conversation altogether..!

Our consultant is Dr Nicopoullus and we were happy with what he proposed for our treatment. No long protocol for me! Thank god! We'll both be going straight onto Menopur from around day 5 of our cycle.

Oh my diet has been rubbish! I am trying to eat healthy but it's hard at this time of year. We haven't really drank alcohol since September (less than 3 units a week, if any at all) so we are going to treat ourselves to a couple of glasses of fizz on Christmas day. There's so many opinions on alcohol and ivf it's hard to know what to do. What I am doing is keeping the ubiquinol topped up! Taking 400mg per day.

@ForeverAintEnough My protocol is Bemfola 150, think it’s also knows as Gonal F, which I take for 8 days and I have Cetrotide for 5 days. The Bemfola is the second lowest dose possible, so it’s a very mild stim.

@MrsC2019 Thanks for the info on the grade 3s, that’s good to know.

Hi all wondering how you’re all getting on . A bit of background, I had three mmc at 8-9 weeks over last nearly 18 months . I’ve done ivf with pgs to find normal embryos. I also have a low amh and af so getting embryos is challenging. I got 7 eggs and 2 five day blasts , one was pgs normal . I’m looking at doing more ivf as I’m 40 and can’t rely on the one pgs normal working . I have a consultation with crgh next week @Vegasdreaming27 how did you find crgh - you are doing exactly what I plan to do ? I’m with argc at the moment and I would happily stay with them but they don’t do banking so getting expensive to do more than one cycle x

Hi Ladies! Sorry I've been quiet. It's been an extremely busy month getting everything organised to start treatment. My partner had her baseline ultrasound on Monday and she starts injecting tonight.

Next week we're travelling to London to stay in the city until egg collection. We live too far away to get there for the 9am scans/bloods. The doctor did say we could pay privately for scans and bloods at our local NHS clinic. However I know they're running at about 50% capacity, in danger of stopping treatment (due to covid) and have a 4 month wait for private patients. So I wasn't hopeful this would be possible! The accommodation is also very reasonable in London due to lockdown.

So next scan will be the 27th! I really hope it's good news and things progress well. I've never been told my antral follicle count at my previous nhs ivf cycles but my partner was told hers this week. I thought that interesting.

Hope you're all okay x

@MrsC2019 Good luck with the cycle, Hope injections go ok tonight! I’m on day 7 of my cycle, got another scan tomorrow and hopefully egg collection next week. That will be my final banking cycle if all goes well, then I can move onto PGS and transfer with any luck.

Staying in London will probably be quite nice and relaxing, it’s very calm in the city at the moment without many people about and if you’ve got a good hotel price, that’s a rare bonus! Keep us updated next week x

Hi everyone I hope I can join this thread. We are just starting our second round of embryo banking out of three. I do have a question for you and possible @IslandStars I’m on day 2 with my Bemfola 150IU pens and last night and tonight when I primed the pen a lot of the medicine projectile squirted out. Tonight it nearly hit the ceiling. This didn’t happen with any of my previous Bemfola pens last cycle and I stimmed for nearly two weeks. Can I ask, is this normal? Has it ever happened to you? Wishing everyone the best of luck wherever you are in your cycles xxx

@Sara279 Welcome, good luck with your round 2! I wouldn’t worry too much about the pen squirting out, ive had that a few times too and it’s never affected my stims. It is strange how it only happens sometimes! Let us know how you get on with your cycle x

Hi ladies, can I join? I'm happy to see a thread that matches my situation, and to hear all your stories.

I'm 41, partner 52, been ttc for three year, including treatment for MFI. My amh and follicle count was high for my age when we started ivf last jan,... but has dropped quite a bit since :( Our first round was cancelled due to covid, and I had two nhs rounds last year (one fresh, one FET). I got 11 eggs and 3 5BBs. Didn't even get to implantation.

I found the last year pretty hard, so taking a kitchen sink approach now. Have started with CRGH who have recommended banking and testing.

My lifestyle didn't do so well during the first lockdown (too much wine), and I hadn't read about all the supplements. So I've took a couple of months off after the FET whilst I dope up on all the fancy coQ10, DHEA, and a fistful of other bits.

They are recommending a long protocol - interesting that most of you are getting mild. Any idea why that would be?

@Lepatz Welcome, it’s nice there’s a few of us here doing banking / testing to share stories along the way.

5bbs have been my best grades so far during this, although I know they don’t have much bearing on PGS, sometimes the lower grade embryos are the normal ones. Do you still have one 5BB in freezer as you mentioned 2 rounds didn’t work?

I had another scan today, everything looking fine, I’m expecting egg collection on Wednesday. A lot us do seem to be doing mild, but think it depends on what the clinic specialises in. CRGH are supposed to be quite intensive in their approach and seem to favour more techniques, but they’re very well rated so it obviously works for many patients there. Hope it all goes well.

Thanks @IslandStars I used the 3rd Bemfola pen tonight and it was ok. I spoke with the nurses today and they think the other two pens were ok but said they will give me some new pens on Mon on my day 6 scan. Glad the scan went ok. Good luck for egg collection next week. I’m only on day 3 of injections.

@Lepatz I’m doing a short protocol using 150IU Bemfola which is a much lower dose of drugs than my NHS round which was a disaster on 450IU Menopur. I got better results with my first round of embryo banking with the lower dose, so I’m glad I took a chance and swapped my approach. Good luck for this time 🍀 xxx

Hi all,

I am having my first egg retrieval tomorrow. It looks like 8 are within the correct size range..

I received however distressing information. Whereas I was supposed to do 3 cycles back to back, someone told me I couldnt do the 2nd cycle before May, and the 3rd before septembre. Which would mean a potential first implantation end of the year???

I am at UCLH with CRGH. I am trying to get a meeting next week with my UCLH consultant....

I hope that is just a mistake, cause i wont be able to wait that long, for sure, and neither will by eggs.

S.

I'm sure some people do them back to back. I'm hoping to do my third round straight after this one. I will ask on Mon when I have my scan and report back. I also wondered, do you have to skip a month after the rounds in order to do the FET? What is everyone else doing? And are you all doing medicated FET? I don't know much about the process as I've never done it before...

@Sophfr17 You should definitely be able to do your cycles back to back (with a post egg collection bleed in between)... are you paying private? Wondering if it’s to do with UCL staff being redeployed due to Covid?

@Sara279 I’d like to know about the FET timeline too, I will ask my clinic once the egg collection is done next week. I’m hoping to have a bleed around a week after EC, then start FET on my next period. Really hope I don’t have to wait longer. I know PGS results take around 3 weeks, so there should be time to get all this done. Don’t know what type of FET I will have yet. Natural seems quite unpredictable in terms of monitoring ovulation, so I think I’ll have a mildly medicated FET (no down reg).

Hi everyone so I spoke with the consultant this morning about doing cycles back to back and he said that he would recommend a break, so bleed after EC and then starting my third round on my next period. He said that it is possible to do the next round on the bleed straight after EC however in his experience most women’s ovaries are fatigued from the EC procedure/May still be inflamed and not recruit as many follicles. At the clinic where I am they offer you the chance to do the cycle straight after and scan you on Day 2, however if things don’t look good AFC wise then they cancel the cycle you pay £200 for the scan and and then do your cycle the on your following period. I hope that makes sense. So I’m not sure what we’ll do. I just want this IVF process to be over really, but obviously want to maximize my chances. In terms of FET he said you would have a bleed after the final EC and then on your next period start the meds for FET and that the embryo would be transferred approx 14 days into that cycle. Hope this info helps x

@Sara279 Thanks for the info. I asked my clinic about FET yesterday too and they said the same thing...have a bleed post EC then i can start on my next period. We didn't discuss protocol, but am glad we've both been told we can start FET asap.

My clinic are not keen on starting another round of stims straight after EC for back to back cycles, they said the same, to allow a bleed in between, unless you were to get very few eggs, then they might consider it, but their best advice is to allow a break for body to recover. I have my (hopefully last!) egg collection tomorrow. Will report back later this week with some updates.

Hi all,
I had my EC collection yesterday, everything went well, i fell asleep and i woke up like nothing happened. Barely any pain, like normal ovulation pain. They got 9 follicles. One was emtpy, and out of the 8 matures, they managed to fertilize 6 (ICSI), which look good today. But the road is long, I know.
I have an appointment with my consultant on Thursday, once he has the 3 day-stage results, and we will come up with a plan about how/when to cycle again.
I feel like in this area of medicine, everything is possible, and it is all a case-by-case!
Take care xx
S.

@Sophfr17 That's great news, well done! 6 out of 8 fertilized is a very good. Fingers crossed for the rest of the week x

Morning ladies!..We are really not too sure what to make of the result from today's scan (day 6). We were told my partner would produce 12-15 eggs based on her AMH (16.6) but she has 8 follicles 9-12mm and there are another few smaller ones, which may or may not catch up. Based on this we're thinking 8 eggs? She's only on 225iu menopur and took birth control 2 weeks before stimulation.

I think I'm feeling a bit unsure because it's very similar to my nhs treatment and we're paying a lot this time round!..

Brilliant news @Sophfr17 Six in the run is great!

Thank you @IslandStars and @MrsC2019!
The Drs are very surprised, considering my 6 pregnancy losses (between 6 and 14 weeks = bad eggs and blood clotting disease), but I dont want to get overexcited; maybe there will be none left tomorrow.
It's a bit of a lottery though, and i had strong stimulation. I am pretty sure my Doc will suggest at least one more cycle, in order to have enough to be PGS tested.
I don't feel so good today, ovary pain and super bloated, but i read it is normal.
Take care all xx
S.

Had EC yesterday, process itself was fine although had stomach pain in the evening which felt like severe trapped wind. Got 7 eggs, 6 have fertilized, so that's a relief. Just have to hope i get a couple of blasts out of this.

@MrsC2019 day scan will probably give you a better idea of what to expect. I was told on day 10 that 8 follicles looked very good and 3 a possibility. As it turned out, i 'only' got 7. On other occasions i got higher but not all were mature, so having lots of eggs doesn't always mean a lot will fertilise anyway. It's all such a lottery, that's the big frustration of it all.

@Sophfr17 Hope you're feeling better and day 3 went well.

@IslandStars fingers crossed for your fertilised eggs! Let us know how you get on xx