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.

@Ivfhoper

Hi. I’m sorry to hear your IVF cycle is not going so well. You have done quite a lot of egg collections already. Have they said how many need to be done before they can be fertilised to make embryos? Your age is in your favour so that is a good thing. Egg quality should be good.

Have you thought about taking a month or two off to lower fsh using wheatgrass? I know time is precious but if fsh is lowered this might help. Also, have you asked about estrogen priming? This can trick your body into producing more eggs.

Also, I know I had issues with dhea but it can work for some people. Has your consultant advised you of it? If you do decide to take dhea, I recommend you have dhea, estrogen and testosterone tested before and have repeat blood tests after 6 weeks. Have you read the book ‘It Starts With the Egg?’ It talks about dhea but to take less than what most clinics prescribe. Rebecca Fett recommends 25mg a day for 2-3 months before the cycle.

I hope you manage to get some good eggs to freeze this cycle.

@2021ivfagain sorry you have had to wait, I find the whole Northisterone thing frustrating and was always trying to get ahead of it but my consultant is hard to get appointments with. fingers crossed for you for a good collection cycle 😊 I am waiting for my lining check and intralipids on the 17th. Have a covid test on Monday ahead of the intralipids and then should have another covid test on Saturday/Sunday ahead of a transfer, if everything is ok to proceed. Am counting down to the transfer which should be the 25th as want to quickly get it out of the way. I am really hoping I don’t need to go back for another round after this, as I don’t think my resilience can manage a 9th IVF related round over 14 months.

@Sarahk20000

Hi. I’m miles away from transfer stage. I’m embryo batching and preparing for second retrieval. On norethisterone at present so egg retrieval is likely to be beginning of Feb and third will be beginning of March.

Hiya both

My transfer is set for Monday although no one mentioned doing another PCR so am hoping this isn't an issue when I get there!!!

Hope things go well for you on Monday @Sarahk20000

@2021ivfagain sorry you've had to wait so long. Batching seems to take forever doesn't it?!

X

@Janefx40 thank you, Monday is the covid test to allow the intralipids to go ahead in the theatre on Wednesday. The second covid test on Saturday will be because my transfer is under sedation in the theatre too. I think it’s different for transfers not under sedation as they ask for a covid test earlier in the cycle, so yours must still be valid. Best of luck for Monday. I will keep my fingers crossed for you. Wishing you all the success with the transfer and the pregnancy test 😊

@2021ivfagain glad your cycles are back to back. Hope you get to the end quickly with success 😊 they take some patience.

Hi haven’t posted for a while but wondered if I could get your thoughts on the following:

I had a natural transfer on Friday snd had my progesterone and estrogen bloods taken but the nurse didn’t ring me until the following day at 11am. My progesterone was ok 47 but she said my estrogen was 300 which she also said was ok. But it was 800 when I last did a medicated cycle (which failed) and it was 1100 around the time of ovulation on sat 8th Jan this cycle. I rang my consultant and he’s asked me to start taking 2mg estrogen per day even tho it’s a natural cycle. I burst into tears I just feel like none of my transfers have been right. Why take bloods and then not even report them the same day when I know they were back early evening. I’ve tried searching online but I can really find an ideal estrogen level for implantation. Does anyone know or gave any similar experiences? I’m already starting to think there’s no hope X

@SarahK20000 and @Janefx40
Hi. Good luck to both of you tomorrow. I’m sure everything will be fine.

I’m just over halfway through the norethisterone now so time is going quickly now.

Keep us posted.

@Everhopeful41
Hi. I’m sorry you’re going through this. It seems every bit of IVF is stressful. I know that the progesterone needs to be much higher to maintain a pregnancy in the first 12 weeks.

If your consultant has suggested 2mg of estrogen a day, then I would do that. I’ve not had similar experiences, but I would put all your questions down and perhaps put them in an email to your IVF clinic for reassurance.

Good luck

@Everhopeful41 I'm sorry you're feeling stressed. I don't know what a healthy level is but I wouldn't compare your natural and medicated cycle levels. They are likely to be different and that's fine. There are things they have to supplement on a medicated cycle that isn't necessary on a natural. Also in my experience if I ask my consultant for something they will often give it (provided it does no harm) so just because s/he had agreed for you to take it doesn't necessarily mean it was essential. I doubt very much this has ruined your chances of implantation. In everything I've read over the years (which is a lot) I've never once come across articles on estrogen supplementation being needed post transfer (unless you triggered with Burserelin which is a whole different kettle of fish).

Really hope everything works out ok x

Thank you both. I’m just really struggling. This is my second double transfer. I also had to do Prostrap for three bloody months for a née diagnosis of mild endo and adenomyosis and even had a painful collection of blood after my last egg collection. I’m 42 and just on my knees with it all. I’ve decided to do another three cycles if I need to but it’s just so disruptive to my job which is very demanding. I wish you all luck for your transfers and sorry for dropping off the thread ages ago, I was just really struggling. I also had a natural miscarriage at 6 weeks, two cycles ago. Why is it all so bloody unfair 😢 feeling very emotional. Possibly it’s the hormones and the fact that I’m probably due on in 5 days. I have a complicated medical history, I didn’t test the embryos… if I do this again I will definitely test. I wish I’d done it from the start. Good luck ladies xx

@Everhopeful41 this is a struggle - all of this. We're so used to ploughing on through it that sometimes we don't recognise how bloody traumatic this all is. What you are going through is hard and it's no surprise you are finding it hard. No one would be able to cope with this level of stress. So all you can do is make yourself as comfy as you can and ride it out.

Maybe this transfer will work. Maybe you prefer not to get your hopes up which I totally get too.

We're here to chat any time xxx

Anyone else fed up with their clinics admin? Sorry but need a bit of a rant. After paying £10k for a 3 cycle package with ICSI & PGTA have now been told there has been a mistake and we owe another £4.5k! This is with £600 knocked off for their mistake. They seem to be implying that we should have known it would cost more by attaching an estimated quote that they gave us in November which was for £18k!!! Does anyone else think this is expensive i.e. £15k for 3 cycles?

On the plus side have 3 embryos that have made it to blastocyst so at least they picked a day when I’m in a good mood!

@InvisibleDreamer hooray for your blastocysts. That is great news.

Clinics are frustrating especially when they make errors. To be honest I've never had a cycle as cheap as £5K. Mine have been between £8-12k each (including for embryo banking cycles) and PGTA was over £2k on top. So all in all it doesn't sound as though your clinic is that expensive but doesn't stop it being annoying that they weren't clear

Xxx

@Everhopeful41 so sorry to hear of your stress. It’s so very difficult to do multiple cycles of ivf with a demanding job. I feel most people can’t understand the depth of emotional difficulty unless they have experienced it. I have found the only way to cope is to think of the next step or current week and not beyond. The other thing that helped me was an acceptance that I will feel absolute crap and there was reason to and it’s ok to. Much easier said than done!! and I have had to be off sick with stress from work in the first time in my career so maybe I am not the best person to dish out advice! But please do use us to share your emotions and not feel alone in it. With the age factor, hormones, worry for ivf success and work its all a recipe for extreme stress. We all need to actually pat ourselves on the back for pushing through as we do.

@InvisibleDreamer I can imagine how frustrating it is to be told you have underpaid due to the clinics own error. But like @Janefx40 my cycles also costed more than yours per cycle.

@InvisibleDreamer it being there fault I don't feel they should charge you more- saying that, £5k with PGTA sounds crazy cheap, our first cycle (one freeze-all EC and PGTA testing for four embryos was £7,500, with-meds £9,000). And that's with zero transfers, each transfer an additional £2000. So £9,500 just to do one EC w/testing and one transfer, not including meds. My clinic's pretty average priced for London!

Thanks @Janefx40 that is reassuring about the price, your right it is annoying though their admin/organisation is not the best!

@tulipsandsnow the PGTA is only included once i.e. at the end of the 3 cycles & no transfers although all meds and blood tests are included. I don’t live in London so it sounds like the price is probably about average/less than average for my area. Somehow we ended up paying £10k for our first round with two transfers (no PGTA) so this package is definitely much better.

My first round including meds/blood tests but not including PGTA was £9,000 and with two transfers would have been £13,000 (each transfer 2k), so does sound like you are in a cheaper area!

Packages always work out so much better, I should have done one in first place and desperately wish I had, but I naively thought at 35 and no history of fertility issues (doing IVF with no male partner) I might be fine with just one EC.

@tulipsandsnow I wish I’d done it in the first place too. I did ask about it but was basically brushed off. I feel we should have been talked through the options. We probably still would have gone for the one round as naively thought if we could get pregnant this meant all our troubles would be over. It’s probably better this way as now we are aware of additional issues and are doing the PGTA testing. I feel like they ought to give you a book to read before IVF to explain it all just so you can understand all the ins and outs before you start!

Hi All, Just a question - does anyone else’s clinic not allow back to back egg collections? I’ve been told to not go again this first period after egg collection as I had a large number of follicles (15 eggs collected) in order to give my ovaries time to recover. I had quite high estrogen at 10000 which meant I did a slightly early collection but have been told this is not the reason? I know this is only going to add 2 months to our 3 cycle package in terms of the egg collection phase but every delay is hard. If I remember from round 1 I think they also leave a break between transfers too which basically means if we get anything to transfer it’s not going to happen until at least the end of July and then any further transfers would end up being 3 months apart.

@InvisibleDreamer hi, I just finished a 3 cycle package, which took from August to December. They call the period after the egg collection the withdrawal bleed. So you start the next cycle after you have had the withdrawal bleed which is like a normal period. That is what I did, you can speak to your consultant about this.

@2021ivfagain

Hi there, my FSH is not bad - floats around 7 - 9. But I am going to add a fertility smoothie for breakfast.

I am going to Estrogen prime next cycle. The DHEA and Human growth hormone didn't actually work for me.

I have to do more ER's as my AMH is low. in the hope I will find one good egg. I will do one more ER then fertilise the eggs. Life is much much harder when the eggs reserves are this low.

@Everhopeful41

I am so sorry to hear about your horrible experience. I do not know what is the correct level for Estrogen.

Which clinic are you at? I know at ARGC they offer a free 10/15 minute call with a Fertility nurse to ask specific questions, maybe you can ring them?

The clinics in the UK are so busy, the customer care seems to have slipped away completely. It is very sad.

@Justhopeful yes my consultant said it was a withdrawal bleed so that makes sense thank you