Trying IVF again for baby #2

[FingersXssd83]

Took 4 years to have my first baby, including 4 rounds of IVF. She arrived last summer and hoping to get two rounds in this year. I'm breastfeeding atm so will be stopping that next month, trying naturally for a few months to appease DH (it'll never work), and cracking on with a round in before my birthday as I'll be turning 38 this year.

I found IVF a very tortuous slog the first time around. Kind of feels different now that we are a family and trying for a sibling. Have suffered with a bit of PND over be last few months so hoping IVF doesn't set me back but I feel super excited to get going tbh!

Going to contact Access Fertility soon to find out what packages they can offer us.

Be great to hear from ladies in a similar position! x

Also for the Endo girls... I had a lap in 2018 a year before ivf. Only have one tube. I’ve obviously been pregnant and breastfeeding for much of the time since. So hopeful that I don’t need another lap but it does occur I maybe should as a precaution. Does anyone know if it’s the stim phase or the implantation it would be more important before? I had stage 4 endo and an endometrioma removed from one ovary. Said ovary subsequently completely failed to respond to ivf so I am nervous to say the least that the other one might be impacted meanwhile!

@FingersXssd83 yes I did! And decided to go for a fresh egg collection. I am actually headed now to the clinic for that.. after 4 failed transfers, I felt I shouldn’t put any blasts back in without having them PGT tested and couldn’t put my remaining 6 blasts (that are pretty poor quality anyway) thought that as they were already made with frozen eggs so that would be one thaw and freeze too many! Really hoping this will all have been with it as I found this current cycle really long and tough (I stimmed for 13 days...).

@Llamapolice never say never! I also said I would only do FET’s for no 2 (had 10 remaining blasts) but after several failed transfers, I decided to go for a last EC (and still not sure of that was the right choice). It’s very, very hard to stop and call it quits...

Must say I'm a little envious of everyone with lots of frosties. We've never managed to get any to freeze!

I'm having my AMH tested tomorrow. Feel nervous about it as it's been nearly 3 years since my last test and I've had endo excised since then including around the ovaries so hoping they are still capable of producing eggs. Think my level needs to be above 5 or 6 to be able to buy a multi cycle package. Hopefully we won't have a long wait for the results...

Welcome @Llamapolice sounds like you're in a great position to fry for no 2 with all those embryos. Best of luck for the countdown to your transfer.

Did they warn you that your ovary might be compromised with the endometrioma removal @whatcangowrong? Would imagine it's better to have the endo removed prior to transfer, to reduce inflammation but I'm not sure tbh. We have been putting our BFP down to that but who knows really 🤷🏻‍♀️

Got my AMH result back today... 14. So relieved! Means that we can buy a multi cycle package saving us £2k or so over two cycles :-)

It's my first Mother's Day tomorrow. Very much looking forward to it and have a glimmer of optimism following my test result that I may get to experience pregnancy and birth, and bring another tiny human into the world again.

Hope everyone is ok 🌻

Ahh congratulations 🎉 your AMH is holding strong! Have a fabulous day tomorrow xx

Great news @FingersXssd83! You must be relieved

Ah this thread makes me impatient to have my next FET. I absolutely hated pregnancy too (after years of being desperate to be pregnant... go figure!) but I'm impatient to complete my family given it's not a definite that we can have more.

My first Mother's day as a mum too. Was once such a crappy day, so regardless of what's to come, I'm certainly going to feel thankful. Happy Mother's day to everyone! Hope you all have a lovely day tomorrow

Thanks so much! It's such a relief. Whether it translates into good embryos is another matter but today has been positive so feeling thankful for that.

After years of hating the day, I think I'll be a bit emotional tomorrow, but very much looking forward to celebrating the day.

Wishing you all an amazing Mother's Day with your lovely longed for little babas 💐

Hi @FingersXssd83 sorry just seen your message re my endometrioma.

Um, when I had the surgery for the endo I wasn't actively trying to get pg, we were not engaged yet (not that it matters if you're not but for us this was pre baby thoughts). Anyway, I had it done more for the painful periods but obv the gynae did mention fertility. He was well regarded endo surgeon and said he had preserved the maximum amount of ovary he possibly could. So I guess I was quite surprised when it did literally nothing!! Certainly I hadn't realised it could be compromised to that extent but I don't think you have much option other than to remove a big endometrioma? It all feels a long time ago. I'll be interested to see what happens in the next round... I am hoping it might wake back up again / regenerate but no idea if that is even possible.

Congrats on AMH holding on, that's next step for me... getting all the tests done next week. This week frantically trying to conceive naturally and save myself £10k or so (lol).

@FingersXssd83 what package are you looking at and do you have costings? I've been chatting with my husband over the past few weeks and we've agreed that we're going to try for a sibling, and that includes IVF again if necessary. It's a big step for him as although we've done this together and he's extremely supportive, he's not fussed about having kids! It's strange, we just can't fathom each other's mindset - I'm obsessed and although he adores the baby he's happy as we are and as we were before her 🤷‍♀️

Think we'll book another consult with care. Although we never actually had a cycle there we had a consult with one of the consultants the month before my last cycle worked and really liked her. I think I trust them to give us the best chance. Just need to start this going. But I'm scared 🙈

Haha @whatcangowrong that's been us this last month, hoping each bonk saves us £10k 😂 Can't quite see that happening though after so many years of infertility.

People seem to get such varying results from cycle to cycle. Hopefully your troublesome ovary will play ball next time.

We are only eligible for multi cycle @MrsC2018 Cost is £6.8k for the two cycles plus about £2.5k meds for each cycle 😵

My other half is very similar. He says he wants another baby but I get the impression that he's saying it for me really. He'd be very happy with our baby and breezed through the years of disappointments.

I feel exactly the same - part excited, part terrified. I highly recommend Care though. They gave us our DD afterall.

I'm hoping we'll have our EC within a month. Although my periods haven't started yet, they can give you a drug to start them off... Just have a few more tests to do and then I'll be back on the injections 😬

Hi, can I join in?

About to embark on ivf/icsi mark II.

Very lucky that first attempt was successful about 3 years ago after the typical "unexplained" diagnosis (but of a morphology issue for DH but not major). I didn't produce many eggs though, and no frosties so somewhat apprehensive about the first time being a fluke.

We are with Care London this time round, and have just had our protocol and all going well will start meds at start of April ahead of EC end of April.

I found MN a great support first time around so it's weird being back!

Of course, welcome @Herewegoagain83!

Congratulations on your baby - where did you cycle last time and why have you changed clinics? Hope you're feeling ok about it all. I feel much more optimistic having had a successful cycle... I'm sure it won't last 😬

Sounds like we'll be stimming at a very similar time... be great to do it alongside someone in a similar position! x

@FingersXssd83 first round was nhs up in the Midlands, but we then moved further south with a 2 month old baby

We didn't do an awful lot of research on clinics but got drawn to Care as the Nottingham clinic was very highly rated and is where we would have gone had we needed to go private the first time.

Feeling very switched off from it this time round but I'm sure that will change once we're immersed in it. I haven't quite worked out whether I subconsciously think it's going to work as it did last time, or whether it's going to fail as we were a bit too odds defying last time.
My amh was 9 in sep17 and 6 now so my stims dosage is higher this time.
I was 34 last time, 37 now.

Also have some new meds I didn't have first time. Lubion being one of them, I've heard that one's a bitch

Yeah I believe the Nottingham clinic has their best results nationally. Sounds like you'll be in very good hands!

Ahh you're the same age as me. Feeling a bit nervous about being older although our consultant said the chance of success per embryo was roughly the same as when we got our BFP from my 35 YO eggs if not a little higher as we've been successful before. So, that's reassuring but I kind of don't believe it... just need to get a decent haul of embryos now as I don't produce many eggs so expecting to have to do a few ECs before we get anywhere.

Good luck to you and hope you can continue to stay relaxed for the rest of the countdown to your cycle (I'm feeling a bit of a wreck this morning 😬)

@FingersXssd83 it's back on that emotional rollercoaster isn't it!

Just paid our meds bill this morning. Oh my days

Also, saw a lot of earlier comments on breastfeeding. Increasingly some clinics are permitting treatment with continued breastfeeding. There is a really good Facebook group called "Breastfeeding mum's undergoing Fertility treatment"

Essentially, they advocate that no one should be forced to stop breastfeeding to be allowed to do IVF and it also provides facts on drugs that are safe vs not safe. I didn't spend long in it as ended up stopping a couple of months ago of my own doing when my little girl had just turned 2.

It sure is @Herewegoagain83 😬😭😆

What sort of cycle are you doing and how much is it all costing? I saw on another thread that ASDA have a policy to sell IVF meds at cost price so hoping to get a quote from them once we have our prescription.

I would have loved to continue breastfeeding but didn't realise there was another option. Weighed up that my DD would be better off having a sibling than continuing BF beyond 6 months so started weaning from 5months. Happy with my decision, and relived my other half can help a bit with feeds now.

My cycle hasn't started yet so going for a baseline scan next week and they will prescribe norethisterone to bring on a period if needed. Was really happy that they can manage it through meds as I assumed I'd have to wait for a few more months to start!

Hope you're having a positive day.

I wanted to investigate cheaper options of meds, but DH wasn't keen as was worried about how quickly any problems would get resolved if there were any. I've told him he's got to work extra overtime to make up the difference

I'm due to start norethisterone on day 19 of next cycle (which should start tomorrow).

Delayed med delivery until next week in my last ditch hope that they won't be needed (yeah right who am I kidding)

Last time I did long protocol and buserelin as down reg but Care don't seem to do that, so after the Norethisterone it's onto stims and Menopur same as I had before but much higher dose this time.
I should really read my protocol properly, there's some other stuff thrown in for good measure too.

We have to have Icsi which puts the cost up a bit , so all in all its going to be around 10k including meds

@herewegoagain83

I didn't realise there were clinics that permitted breastfeeding so thanks for that info. I really don't want to stop so I'll certainly look into that and check out that group!

I'd have to move my embryos to another clinic though because mine want me to stop. Anyone here moved embryos before? I'm sure it happens all the time but it would be another thing to be nervous about. I couldn't bear to lose them!

Update from me - I think we are going to go ahead and try a FET next month in the end. I'd initially been advised to wait a year post c section (July) but I saw my gynae who was satisfied that I have fully healed. So we will go for it April if all results from hormones/bloods come back normal, and try the 2 frosties we have one at a time first. I feel good about this decision - what swayed it for me was when I was told that even if we did an embryo banking round, she'd probably rather use the 'younger' embryos first anyway. And the fact that we are allowed to try sooner than August as I had initially thought. If it doesn't work, we will obviously then go back to a full cycle losing only a couple of months. It might mean we don't have that third (!!) child but let's be honest that was probably looking quite unlikely anyway!

That's exciting @whatcangowrong! Statistically, I guess you have more chance with your younger eggs, so that plan makes sense.

I have no choice but to do another collection, unfortunately. Had my baseline scan today. They could see 19 follicles so that alongside my repeat AMH has got me feeling a bit more positive. Just need bloods and my husbands SA back now and then we'll be good to go!

Also, just to share some optimistic news... my friends had three embryos which they transferred and they now have three children so you never know what may happen 😊

Glad you've been given the ok soon than you thought @whatcangowrong , sounds like you have a really good chance of success with your plan

Yeah. I had become slightly obsessed by the need to embryo bank just in case the worst case scenario happened with these frosties (which time-wise would be for the first to implant but then have a mc at 12ish weeks or something, and then the same thing to happen again... ). So in my mind waiting until July/August and then going straight to FET and not banking embryos first, could have meant ending up needing to do a cycle in late 2021 or practically 2022, nearly a year after starting to think about it again.... I think I just needed to feel we are still taking proactive steps and moving forwards, so now I am allowed to do a FET sooner I'm a bit more chilled again! I swore I was not going to be so cray cray this time around, but maybe it's just manifesting differently (i.e. in willingness to spend thousands of pounds when not strictly necessary (yet)!)

19 follicles and decent AMH is really good news at our ripe old age @FingersXssd83 ! Hope it all goes well for you. Do you know anything about protocols or anything else yet? Or when you might be able to start?

Yeah sounds good on paper @whatcangowrong but I'm usually an underperformer. First cycle got 10 eggs but only 5 mature, and other cycles 4-6 eggs but on the positive side we have high fertilisation and they generally all hold on to blast.

We'll be doing short protocol and I'm hoping we get it written up shortly after my husbands sperm analysis at the end of the month. So, all being well, I'll be starting early April. We're doing a freeze all though as that what gave us a BFP so we have a very long wait to see if it works. So long as I get a cycle in before I'm 38 I'll be happy.

Not sure I'll do another freeze all of this one doesn't work though. Don't want to lose any more time!

Argh haha I know the cray cray feeling very well. IVF is madness. Trying to take one day at a time and not let it spoil time with my precious bub but it's hard