Gonal f, what dose?

[nextweek]

Hi all, I've just started my second fresh round of IVF. For my first round I was given gonal f 225iu for stimming, but didn't have much response. I only had 4 follicles that were big enough, retrieved 2 eggs and only 1 fertilised. For this round they have given me gonal f 300iu but at my first monitoring scan it showed a similar poor response to last time, maybe even a bit worse!
Has anyone else had issues with poor response that has had their gonal f increased and to what dose? Did anyone have to have it increased quite a lot to get a better response?
All of my tests prior to starting came back as normal so not aware of any issues that could be causing a poor response, we were referred due to MFI.

Hey @nextweek sorry to hear that! Must be so frustrating.

Have they offered you an alternative to Gonal-F? I had a poor response on menopur 120iu for my first cycle, they increased it during my stims to 225 and monitored my bloods but we had to cancel in the end because we had minimal follicles.

We tried again starting with 225iu of Gonal-F. I was told that some people just respond differently to different drugs (obviously there's a complex reason why but they didn't explain) and that it was worth switching the medication. Changing the medication to something different did the trick for me.

@peachy1381 thanks for your feedback. They haven't mentioned trying an alternative to gonal f. We're getting treatment via the NHS so I'm not sure if that makes any difference to what they can/will offer us. They also don't do any blood tests during the stimming phase, it's all based off of the scans.

We're on NHS funding as well, so I don't see why it should make a difference what drugs you are offered. That said due to the NHS funding so far I've not idea about the price difference, and I suspect the rules are different for each CCG and also depend on the working practices of your clinic.

For my cancelled cycle they were doing blood tests with each scan to see what my oestrogen levels were like, but not with the second - probably because they could see what they needed to from the scan.

@Peachy1381

We're on NHS funding as well, so I don't see why it should make a difference what drugs you are offered. That said due to the NHS funding so far I've not idea about the price difference, and I suspect the rules are different for each CCG and also depend on the working practices of your clinic.

For my cancelled cycle they were doing blood tests with each scan to see what my oestrogen levels were like, but not with the second - probably because they could see what they needed to from the scan.

Thanks, it's definitely something to ask if we don't have any luck with this cycle. I hadn't thought about a change of medication, only increasing the dose, so that's really helpful.