IVF - May

[TheSnufflet]

Couldn't see a thread for May so I thought I'd start one!

Anyone else doing their cycle in May? I just got my calendar through and all the injections look extremely Not Fun (this is my first time doing it) 😕

@TheSnufflet Personally I'd really take some time off after EC. I found EC to trasnfer really rough. Your clinic might be different but we had to be at the clinic for 7:30am on EC day and it took most the morning between being checked in to the clinic, meeting anesthesiologist, waiting for our turn (we were last on the list of 4 ECs they were doing that morning), then coming round, chatting to consultant afterwards, being given tea and biscuits, nurses waiting for you to urinate after the procedure to check everything is ok and being cleared to head home. I didn't sleep well the night before anyway, then had a really dissapointing number of eggs, so I felt physically and emotionally wrecked by the time it was done. Next day was physically ok, but still pretty sore. If you're taking cyclogest you have joys of the physical effects of that (most ladies seem to get constipation, I had very much the OPPOSITE issue ) and the gruelling waiting by the phone to find out how many eggs fertilised (and another gruelling wait for day 3 update, on day 4 to confirm instructions for transfer day, and then the morning of day 5 to know embryos had made it and transfer could go ahead). I took the week off around egg collection and transfer and was really glad I did, as honestly, I found it really, really emotionally draining between EC and transfer.

I love a 3 ginger, but I've not seen that 'womankind' flavour before, I love my 3 ginger really strong though, wouldn't see me reusing my tea bag! A single cup of something is really unlikley to actually make a difference I'm sure, but I'm just at point I'm willing to do anything really that might help just so I know I've always given it my best shot.

I wasn't on buserelin so can't help there I'm afraid (do you have to mix it like menapur? I know that had to be in the fridge until mixed, and then it was just to be kept at room temp?). I've no experience with hypothyroidism. Are they still happy for you to go this cycle?

Garden is good, its been nice here and courgettes are hardening off at long last! Heading down towards the border on trip which will be good

Hi @TheSnufflet I just kept my Buserilin in one of the many zip bags full of needles I usually get when meds are delivered or in a standard toiletries type bag.

I'm glad work are flexible for you @TheSnufflet, mine are too. I've got my nurses appointment tomorrow, so I'm hoping I'll be a bit clearer on timelines after that. I've decided to check for ovulation, which should be in the next day or so, so that I can predict when af will be here. We're not ttc this cycle but I need to book in for my intralipids when I start stims, so I think that will help me plan.
I think I'm going to book my nk cells biopsy for next week, that way I can get a scan to check that follicle and the biopsy is like an endometrial scratch, so might help too. (I was supposed to have this last March, had my first one and the results were normal but never got my second one and you can only do it if you've not ttc, so we've not had a window to do it).

I'm on levothyroxine @TheSnufflet - what was your tsh? My ivf consultant wants my level under 2.5 and said he'll increase my dose (I'm on 25mcg) if my GP won't do it. I'm having a blood test to check my levels on Wednesday.

I'm glad af arrived @2mumlife :)

I'm getting my vitamin D in the garden ☀ (should be working...!) hope everyone is well xx

@TheSnufflet I keep my buserelin in a med box I bought of Amazon but it doesn't need to be kept in the fridge (under 25 degrees in a cupboard is fine). Trust me the meds take up enough fridge room so the less in there the better! I've just had my weekly shop and my Gousto box delivered and I'm sat scratching my head how to get it in the fridge as my meds take up sooo much room 🤨

Had my repeat baseline scan today and start stims tomorrow (yay to the meds in my fridge finally starting to reduce)! I still have a cyst so there is a risk that it may grow being on stims but fingers crossed it behaves 🤞 Been having headaches on buserelin but looking forward to reducing the dose down tomorrow to half

@TheSnufflet I’m a fellow hypothyroidism lady 🙋🏻‍♀️ Mine is very borderline, they tested it three times last summer before I started on thyroxine and it was anywhere between 5.5 and 3.3. It’s good they’ve picked it up, and hope that getting it treated helps you, although I’m sorry it’s not been noticed until now. A little perk of being on levothyroxine is that it entitles you to free nhs prescriptions too.

@Crazydoglady123 good luck for your first day of stims!

That's true about the free prescriptions @TeaAndCrumpets1! Although I only recently got mine after bring on levo for a year... I kept putting off doing the form as I felt guilty.

We had more consents to do tonight ahead of the nurses appointment tomorrow. Plus the videos of the injections 🥺🥺 feeling a bit nervous now, plus I am having clexane added in at some point. Feeling a bit nervous but excited.

Yay for starting stims tomorrow @Crazydoglady123 :)

Thanks @TeaAndCrumpets1 @VenusStarr

@VenusStarr the consent forms and videos are long!

Felt really emotional and fed up with feeling crappy on the buserelin last night. The constant headache and hot flushes at night just got to me and poor oh had to deal with me being a crying mess. At least starting stims there's a light at the end of the tunnel now for them ending

Hi @Crazydoglady123 joining you over here as been told we can start in May! Taking buserlin like you but she says we can try naturally too? I'll be on long protocol starting day 17 due to the short cycles. Scan mid May, potential transfer end of May! I'm so glad you can start stims now! I'm so scared of taking these drugs 😬
@VenusStarr I see you're here too hi 🙋🏾‍♀️

CD1 arrived so starting stims tomorrow, really looking forward to it as weird as that sounds.

Also started acupuncture and really enjoyed that, fell asleep during the session so that's a good sign

Does anyone have any tips on how to increase protein in the diet without having to overhaul everything? I have a list as long as my arm on things to incorporate this month, does anyone want to share what changes they are making to diet/exercise etc? Im checking out fertility yoga right now

@Crazydoglady123 are you starting stims tonight? I am starting tomorrow so we will be cycling together, anyone else?

@TheSnufflet I had elevated thyroids so my ivf doc from overseas put me on levothyroxine. You will probably be put on a low dose to start with and monitored every 6 weeks or so to test levels. I think they like to see your tsh under 2.5 so will work towards that as venusstar said above

👋 @notyetamumbuttrying good to see you here. How exciting that you can get started in May :)

Hope you're feeling OK today @Crazydoglady123

Had my nurses consultation today! Feel like it's getting real now. I felt a bit overwhelmed earlier, but having sat down with dh and run though it all I feel a bit better and quite excited. We're good to start on my next cycle, which I think is due around 5/6 May. I'll be on 225 of bemfola to start, then centrotide and ovitrelle trigger. First scan is day 5 or 6 depending when it falls. The Dr hadn't passed over the information about the steroids or clexane, so the nurse is going to sort that and let me know later this week and get my meds delivery sorted, eek! I've already warned dh that the top of the fridge needs to be cleared ☺️

Exciting @mowglika I'm going to acupuncture next week, not been since last September, so am looking forward to it.

Hope everyone is well xx

Good to see you on here now @notyetamumbuttrying

Thank you @VenusStarr

@mowglika aw wow you're really close to me then! Yep done the first one tonight! I've also been having acupuncture for a few months now. Food wise I've bought some "Blend My Day" smoothies for breakfast and adding pea protein powder and Total 0% fat Greek yoghurt in them. Lunches are eggs, meat and veg and I'm trying to have Mediterranean style dinners so like tonight I had grilled chicken with a Greek salad with chickpeas, avocado and tzatziki. I've got some recipes for stews with lots of beans and pulses in I'm going to have so I keep it varied.

Hope your first stim injection went well @Crazydoglady123 :) good tips about increasing protein.

Positive opk today! Woop! So af should be here by 4 May 😬

Meant to say, my clinic with do a blood hcg test, 2 days before official test day. We'll also only be able to have one embryo put back, which I think is to do with my history and I have fibroids - none in my uterus though. Getting my thyroid tested today. I feel like I'll be starting in no time!

@crazydoglady123 that sounds like a super healthy meal plan, I really struggle to eat meat so have been wondering about adding protein powder. I'm also going to be on ovaleap think I recogonise the pen!

Hope your first day of stims went well and yours too @mowglika?

I'm still awaiting AF, never wanted it to come more!!

Excellent news @VenusStarr! I bought a home HCG blood test a few months ago from Medichecks which I haven't used yet but I might use it on this ivf cycle just before my test date as I have to send it off and the results get emailed.

@DoctorBambino yeah I think the gym type protein powders aren't meant to be that good of a protein source for ivf. Natural sources are better. I bought the pea one from tescos. Beans, lentils, quinoa, chai seed, nuts and nut butters, broccoli, spinach, asparagus, nectarines are all really good protein sources for IVF

Yeah I've actually bruised off the stims injection, maybe because it's a bit longer than the down reg needles but it didn't hurt and I feel more confident to do it tonight which is good.

Thanks @DoctorBambino I am starting today. I had a look at the sheet which tells you how to mix and I remember it was pretty straightforward..aah the memories came flooding back

@Crazydoglady123 I don’t remember much bruising last time but rubbing the area with an ice cube helped to numb the pinch as the needles goes in. I did overdo it once which resulted in frozen flesh which wasn’t fun to inject . 1 minute or so is fine. I think rubbing the site gently after injection does help with avoiding bruising, try that. I must say your syringe looks very fancy!

Re protein today I had a boiled egg with smashed avocado on toast. Having salmon for dinner and Greek yoghurt. I think I will struggle with upping protein to 60g a day though so a protein shake or powder sprinkled on Greek yoghurt will help with that, it’s about 15g.

I can see myself getting obsessive about it but it’s something fun(ish) to focus on in the next 2 weeks

Onwards and upwards @VenusStarr!

@VenusStarr and @notyetamumbuttrying You'll be absolutely fine with the injections :)

@VenusStarr My clinc also do blood hcg (little vampires) but it does shave a few days off the waiting time (not that I've EVER made it to getting bloods as my AF always comes beforehand....)

@Crazydoglady123 Hope you start feeling better with those stims! I've never bruised from the injections, and even have tricks now not to bruise when they take blood (its all about keeping your arm straight and not bending it after). I never did the ice cube thing with injections - my partner is chief injector, and we just fire it in and its done.

@mowglika Enjoy starting stims!

@DoctorBambino Takes forever for AF when you're waiting doesnt it!? Hope it comes soon for you.

Maybe a bit early to start this next discussion, but I've been off ordering urine pregnancy tests for next cycle. I've never bothered 'testing the trigger' and normally pretty restrained, but with FET having no trigger injection to worry about and bleeding so early on fresh cycle I'm thinking I'm going to start testing daily from around 3dp5dt this time around. What is everyone elses testing plans?

@2mumlife aw damn, that sounds pretty rough 😬 I was planning to take it easy that week anyway (my boss is on holiday the week between potential retrieval and transfer), but I'll now see if I can move some holiday around.
I love the 3 ginger strong as well, but I add the Womankind to it for round two as it's really quite a delicate flavour, and it ends up being a sort of mega-tea 😀 I get what you're saying - I think all of us will do everything in our power to make it work, even if it seems pretty arbitrary. I mean, the vast amount of eye-wateringly expensive supplements I take are already a testament to that..
RE 'testing the trigger' - I'm absolutely going to do this, if only to see how my body metabolises the HCG - plus it'll be cool to see two lines on a test for once! I think I'd prefer to know any potential bad news early, so if I start my period early or anything then it won't be a shock. I know it's a pretty personal decision for everyone, but my clinic don't do blood tests anyway, they just get you to do a urine test at home then ring them up on an allotted day.

@KayReeves in the end, the paper I got with my delivery just said keep at room temperature, so I've got them, the needles and the sharps bin arranged on the piano behind my work desk at the moment. Should probably move them in case I need to turn my camera on!

@VenusStarr @TeaAndCrumpets1 @mowglika it's great that I'm not alone! My TSH is 3.83, so pretty much borderline, but at the same time my level 18 months ago was 0.99 so that's quite a leap (and I was wayyyy unhealthier back then as well!). I was planning on seeing what the GP recommends; she already knows I'm heading into IVF so I'll push for treating it rather than letting it slide - I've heard the

Hi @TheSnufflet Good to hear you are sorted! My cycle was a bit messed up after last failed transfer but assuming things are back on track I reckon my day 1 will be around May 8th with egg collection around 21st / 22nd. What about you?

I had a lot of anxiety the last 2WW and want to find some way of doing it differently this time but its hard when there’s so much riding on it x

@mowglika I literally have no room in my freezer for ice 😭 it's weird as it didn't sting injecting, just bruised.
I've My Fitness Pal my food today and somehow I've managed to get 100g of protein in 💪

@2mumlife my OH is scared of needles so no help to me whatsoever 😂 My clinic asks you to do a HPT 13p5dt

@TheSnufflet it's rubbish how much room they take up! I'm glad I'm finally on my stims so I'm a box down now at least! My provisional dates are EC 3rd May, ET 8th May

Thanks for all the warm welcomes 🙂

@TheSnufflet my dates so far are to start injections on 5th May to down reg and baseline scan 17th May. Now I can't remember if she said EC or transfer would be end of May, I'll find out more timelines at the scan I guess. They've been pretty chilled with me, but it is the nhs so not too surprised by the laidback ness of it all! So I'm just waiting on the drug company to contact me next week. From reading msgs it seems I need to make room in my fridge and freezer then! 🙈

@2mumlife for both my fresh and fet I tested at 5dpt and 6dpt (blasts). Both times I felt a pain in my lower pelvis/back two days after transfer which became pretty constant, so I felt emboldened to take a test. If I had no symptoms I probably would have waited til the equivalent of 12-14dpo.

@Crazydoglady123 well done! I’ve been MFP as well today and got around 100g protein too but am also +452 calories . I am def doing to put on weight these next two weeks.

By the way, if anyone wants to use MFP to track their macros while stimming I found a 3 months free trial code for the app, SPRINGFORWARD. Just google the code input page, I couldn’t find a link to enter the code otherwise.

@TheSnufflet my clinic refuse to be pinned down on dates yet, they keep saying wait til first scan and then they will schedule further scans/EC ET. Makes it hard to plan childcare for dc. Going by my calculations EC will be 4th May (fingers crossed all being all)

Hope af arrives soon @DoctorBambino are you starting stims straight away, or are you down regging?

Sorry about the bruising @Crazydoglady123 I think I'm going to be black and blue! I bruise really easily... I fell over a couple of weeks ago and still have bruises on both knees! 😂 🤦🏻‍♀️

I'm not going to test early - when I did my letrozole cycle I did about 10 days after trigger and got a line and then I'd broken the seal do just carried on testing amf it made me feel crap. So I've promised myself not to. It's different with a FET though as you don't have the trigger do you? @2mumlife

My clinic doctor said he'd sort my levothyroxine if my GP wouldn't do it @TheSnufflet my last test it was 2.58 and he wants it under, so I might need to increase my dose to 50mcg, had the bloods today, so hopefully know next week.

I think egg collection will be around week commencing 17 May for me. Hopefully aft is here around 4 May :) (first time ever that I'm happy about my period arriving!!)

My dh admitted to me when I did the trigger shot with my letrozole cycle that he's scared of needles! @Crazydoglady123 and I was dithering over if I could do it and he was worried he'd have to step up. He said he would do it if I needed though and I always thought I'd want him to do it, but as its getting closer, I think I want to do it myself.

Exciting @mowglika I think you're the first one to get going :)

X

I forgot to say, I have booked in for a biopsy next week as we're not ttc this month. I had paid for 2 nk cells biopsies last year as part of my recurrent mc tears but covid happened and I never got my second. But I thought its a good time to do it, the biopsy might serve as a scratch, plus they can check if that follicle has gone (the nurse yesterday said it likely would have gone as I've had my period). But glad I'll get peace of mind before starting stims (I hope!) the nurse said if it's still there, it won't stop us getting started and they'll just monitor me.

I'm definitely ovulating today... Feels weird not trying.

@TheSnufflet I think I'd just be so disheartened seeing the trigger leave system and waiting for a BFP if it was negative which is why I've never done it - if I ever see those two lines I kind of just want it to be because of a pregnancy. You should try barley cup if you're finding cutting out caffeine hard - it's a bit of an acquired test and has chicory which is another one that's dodge during TWW but it might help to get you used to having less coffee? My day one should hopefully be 18th May now, but I'm a bit variable and reckon I'll be a bit later than that, and I'll have to check drug diary for roughly when transfer will happen!

@KayReeves I did counselling appointment other week to chat about anxiety going into the next 2WW and just got told to breathe If you find anything more helpful let me know!

@Crazydoglady123 Can't decide if scared of needles is better or worse than the look of joy I'm given when it's time for needles!

@mowglika Did you get any BFP when you tested then? I had some very focussed pain right of uterus during my fresh transfer which turned out to be nothing. I'm always just constantly trying to look for symptoms though that something's there.

@VenusStarr I always got to around 10 days post IUI before I would test and never got anything. Fresh transfer . My period started before I tested, but then I ended up testing loads as at first I hoped it was implantation bleed and then even when I knew it wasn't because clinic got me to keep taking cyclogest I kept this crazy hope going and was just a bit of an emotional mess. So this time there is no trigger to worry about I think I'd like to just plan to test and see how that goes (if it's horribly disappointing I'll just know not to do it that way again!). Hope everything with biopsy goes well for you

@TheSnufflet Just looking over my planned drug regime and looks like I'll definitely be transfer in June, probably sometime that first week of June if AF behaves and comes on time next month!