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) 😕

Hi all sorry I've been quiet on here been a busy few weeks 😊 it was nice to see everyone's EC/ET dates in one place!
I am finishing my norethisterone tablets this weekend then 5 day break before starting stims this time next week 😬.
Quick question to anyone who is also doing acupuncture. I have been told by my clinic that I won't be able to attend acupuncture during the 2 weeks I need to self isolate (1 week before EC until ET date) I am worried that this is the time I would benefit the most and will be missing out. Has anyone else been advised the same??

@Crazydoglady123 we are IVF twins . I have two monitoring scans next week. Really hoping egg collection will be the following Monday. I’ve been told to drink plenty of water as I had a lot of follicles.

@JesHope345 what days are your scans and what meds are you on for stims? Mine are Mon, Weds and Fri. I over stimulated on Clomid twice now and I think I'm on quite a high dose of Ovaleap (262.5?) so I wouldn't be surprised if I end up having EC before Monday.

@Crazydoglady123 every other day, wow! Are they usually that often?
@RazzleDazz1e ooh that's exciting. How comes you get the spray then? Is it just a clinic by clinic thing? How'd the sniffs go this morning then?
@Tarsette I've told my parents. My sisters and friends know we're starting ivf soon but not which month. Still deciding whether to say or not. Think I'll be outed in May anyway if I don't get to do this trip or I have to excuse myself from drinking. Dead give away for me!

@notyetamumbuttrying yep you have this all to come 🤣

@Crazydoglady123 oh jeez! Good to know. I'm glad I told my boss now, I'd have to have booked the week off otherwise. Now what to put as my OOO as I have some nosey colleagues! I might just leave it off or take my work phone with me. Actually getting quite nervous about it now 😬 praying that natural works this month and these injections don't hamper anything!

@Crazydoglady123 I’ve also got my scans on Monday and Wednesday!!! I’m on Gonal F 125.

@Crazydoglady123 great bit of detective work there, I’ve used your schedule to put the ET in my diary fingers crossed let’s see what they say, @JesHope345 I have my first scan on Monday too, I’m so curious to know how many follicles I have

I haven’t had many symptoms/side effects at all from the menopur yet, just a bit of tiredness and my head has swam a couple of times

I remember feeling super bloated and uncomfortable towards the end so I guess next week we will really start to feel it. The ice cube thing works a treat btw, (really it’s a bag of peas) I don’t feel a thing as DH puts the needle in.

Hope all is progressing well with everyone else x

@JesHope345 @mowglika are you all counting down till Monday like I am? I'm hoping time will really fly from Monday!

Omg this thread has moved so quickly!

@notyetamumbuttrying Could you go on the weekend away but come up with an excuse for not drinking? Or would it be safer to just not go?

@Crazydoglady123 She's a multi generation lurcher - mum is a saluki/bull terrier/greyhound mix and dad is a whippet/bedlington/greyhound mix. She looks like a large working line whippet.

@Tarsette @RazzleDazz1e I can see the pluses in telling people what's going on but I don't like to be asked how things are as the whole process is such a rollercoaster. I've told a couple of managers at work in case I need time off for scans etc and my parents as they will kindly help looking after my son during egg collection.

@FingersXssd83 Congrats on first injection of this cycle. Are you short or long protocol?

@JesHope345 THat's exciting! Is this your first IVF cycle? (Apologies if you've already said, I jumped on this thread when it was already a few pages along.

@Georgie87B I am not self isolating prior to egg collection, obviously the risk then is that if I get exposed to covid or get symptoms I might miss scans and/or egg collection due to having to self isolate which could lead to cycle cancellation. Keeping everything crossed that that doesn't happen, infection rates have come right down so my odds are looking decent.

@Georgie87B I'm isolating as much as I can but I'm still attending my acupuncture session every week. The place I go for it they call with the Covid triage questions the day before and temperature check you before you're allowed in so in my eyes it's very low risk compared to say going to the supermarket.

@TinyPaws aw lovely! I love Salukis

@notyetamumbuttrying I guess it varies from clinic to clinic. They told me that I had the choice, so I very quickly plumped for the nasal spray to reduce the number of injections!

Jumping on the doggie chat we have a beautiful Standard Poodle who is an absolute delight.

@TinyPaws I totally understand- it is a very daunting and personal journey.

@mowglika best of luck with your scan, and sorry to hear that you have been bloated. I will definitely be doing the ice cube trick when I start stims!

@TinyPaws this is the quandary. I'm now thinking I should go if EC is on the Monday rather than the Friday and just bring my own secret stash of sparkling water and always pour the drinks! 3 of them know about ivf just not when it's starting so perhaps I should tell a couple and they can help with the strategic drink pouring!

@RazzleDazz1e that's great you were given the choice! Think I'd choose that too. Bet it tastes funky tho 🤧

Can I ask what your ladies Amh and afc were? I'm still confused by mine as they didn't exactly correlate. So my amh was 5.4 a month before my 35th birthday and my afc was 12 (have had two n both times the same). So my amh is low for my age but the afc seems ok. Anyone else with such differing results? I'm on long protocol due to my low amh.

@TinyPaws @Crazydoglady123 thanks for letting me know, it's strange how clinics have different processes on this. my clinic has told me that I need to do 2 covid tests 1 on the 30th April and then a 2nd one on the 7th of May and after that one I need to self isolate. My acupunctureist is also covid secure but when I told my clinic this they still said I shouldn't be going during my isolation period. I am also being very careful as don't want to risk anything which will stop this cycle going ahead, only really going out to walk the dog and acupuncture at the moment. Just find it a shame that I will miss out on the sessions around the time they will probably be most benifical damn COVID..
@notyetamumbuttrying my AMH levels were 9.5 when taken early this year and AFC was 16 and I am 33. They told me my levels were just about within the normal range for my age just the lower side of normal. Our reason for IVF was mainly due to MF issues.

@Crazydoglady123 I am def counting down the days, I think I’m generally quite impatient anyway

@RazzleDazz1e thank you, I think it’s partly also the fertility friendly foods I’m eating, not used to drinking fruit juices either (I’ve been taking Pom juice and beetroot juice)

@2mumlife re the protein diet and other stuff, we’ve been ttc for a long time so I guess I just do some of this stuff on autopilot now, so drinking certain herbal teas and keeping feet warm etc.

The high protein diet has some basis in science and a lot of clinics do recommend extra protein by drinking a pint of milk during stims. But as with all things ivf it’s an inexact science so I’m not expecting miracles, it’s just good to feel I’m doing something proactive.

On that note would also recommend fertility meditations on YouTube by Jackie Brown, nice to lie down and listen to if you get a spare 20min in your day

@notyetamumbuttrying my AMH when I did my cycle a few years ago was 15.5 and my AFC was 28. Got 16 eggs though from 37 follicles during stims which was disappointing at the time. My AMH has gone up since then strangely to 17 but my afc was 13 this time.

Maybe the afc is predictive of how many follicles you have but the AMH dictates how many contain mature/viable eggs?

@RazzleDazz1e Yay for getting going! It feels quite strange as I'm FET so just watching everyone else getting going with drugs. I'm just looking forward to entering May and starting the count down properly. Also need to phone clinic and bug them to get my drugs ordered so I can have everything ready and just relax until its time for us to get going too.

@Georgie87B My clinic advise self isolating but they don't do covid tests of anything (we just let a covid symptom check day before and temperature check when ariving to clinic).

@notyetamumbuttrying My AMH was 18 point something but that was over a year ago now. I'll be 32 in June and was told that was normal for age. If this FET doesn't work we're out of embryos due to not responding as expected during EC (only got 2 mature eggs, both of which luckily become top quality day 5 embryos), so we'll be getting my AMH checked again before moving to Flare protocol for next stimulation cycle which I'm just hoping we wont need to do! (AMH is to check my risk of OHSS again as with Flare protocol risk for this goes up). We only started fertility treatment due to using donor sperm, but thats us 4 IUIs and 1 fresh transfer with nothing but BFNs so even when everything is meant to be normal its really difficult TTC. I become increasingly frustrated with friends around me who all seem to be concieving naturally after just a few attempts.

@mowglika I had a bit of a read about protein the other day, and on a general google of roughly how much protein is in different things I don't think I'm too bad, but probably could increase, so going to keep this in mind for the future.

@Georgie87B thanks for sharing, that does sound normal defo. We got our referral based on male factor but that miraculously improved with supplements and stopping smoking and other lifestyle changes. We then got my amh tested and I was investigated for endo and then the focus has been bk on me!
@mowglika thanks for the tips! Would you mind sharing how many embryos you got from the 16 eggs? No worries if not, I know it's very personal! Hmm it's all very interesting isn't it. I'm going to quiz mine some more once I get to speak to a consultant.
@2mumlife ah I see. Never heard of flare protocol before, what's that if you don't mind me asking? Sorry to hear of your bfns! Everything crossed that this one is the one that sticks!! ♥️
Yeah fertile ppl can be very frustrating and not very understanding!

@notyetamumbuttrying For your weekend away, couldn’t you just say you’re on antibiotics? I’ve used that one a few times during IVF!

I don’t know my AMH as my issue has always been thin lining but I have polycystic ovaries so always got lots of eggs at EC (46 the first time when I was 34 and 25 in March when I was 41). But they are not the best quality, for ex the last egg collection produced 11 day 3 embryos that then ended up as 4 day 5 embryos and only one normal after PGS...

@notyetamumbuttrying I got 4 blasts from 16 eggs, only 12 of which were mature. The embryologist said she was hoping for better rates of fertilisation and blasts but I went on to do 2 double transfers, a fresh which resulted in 1 dc and a FET which they both seemed to implant but no heartbeat at 7 week scan. Am wary of what my numbers will be like this time!

@Crazydoglady123 @JesHope345 I just had a thought. What if our ideal egg collections days fall over the weekend or bank holiday Monday? They don’t do collections on Sundays or Mondays do they - does that mean they would have to prematurely or belatedly trigger? Bit worried about this now

@mowglika my clinic works 7 days a week

@notyetamumbuttrying My AMH level was 8.2 in 2018 and 17.9 last month. I couldn't believe it! I took loads of supplements and optimised my vitamin D level so maybe that's what did it. I haven't had my AFC done.

If your friends did suspect something was up on the weekend, would they say something or just politely say nothing? If the latter it would be worth going even with a very thin excuse.

@Georgie87B My clinic doesn't require any covid tests but I do need to fill out a declaration before each appointment.

@mowglika I did the high protein diet before my last cycle and wanted to do it again this time but have been rubbish sticking to it. It's much harder now I'm running around after a 1 year old and a dog (but I'm not complaining, I know I'm very lucky).

@2mumlife We are doing freeze all so basically the opposite to you. I remember feeling quite bitter when people got pregnant on the first cycle trying naturally and then carried to term without a care in the world. Really tried not to succumb to the green eyed monster but it's hard!

@Crazydoglady123 @mowglika. Time is not going fast enough 😂. Hoping we all get good news tomorrow and our follies are starting to grow nicely.

@TinyPaws yes this is my first IVF cycle. Excited and nervous at the same time.

@notyetamumbuttrying I've not got all the ins and outs of Flare understood completely yet, but it's a short protocol, and you don't down-regulate. When your take downregulation drugs in other protocols you have an initial flare of hormones, then your pituatary gland goes silent. In Flare protocol, you take different down regulation drugs in different way to essentially keep your pituatary flaring and producing its own FSH, which can help the stim drugs if you're not responding well to other protocols (which seems to be me). So your pituatary gland isn't "turned off" in a flare protocol Good bit it because you still create hormones there's no cyclogest in TWW. But it has higher risk of OHSS because your letting your body produce it's own FSH. They are also going to delay my EC next time, so leaving extra time between my trigger and egg retrieval because I had so many follicules that should have had mature eggs in that the eggs were still immature.

@mowglika My clinic doesn't do EC at weekend, but my clinic takes it into consideration for when you start stims so you're timed to try not to fall on weekend

@TinyPaws I find it increasingly difficult at the moment to be honest when someone else announces another pregnancy and you know it's from a month when you tried and it didn't work. I just try to make some quiet time to feel sad for myself when I get the chance, and then try to get back to feeling glad for them.

@Tarsette yeah I think that's what I'll use. They'll then ask what for. I think an ear infection usually shuts ppl up probing further doesn't it. Or I could use the op I had and say my cuts got infected. I'm not the best liar but needs must! Thanks for sharing your stats, best of luck for this cycle x
@mowglika thanks for sharing, wishing you so much luck for next month!! And good query, I'm nhs so I doubt they work weekends!
@TinyPaws that's an amazing improvement! I've been taking vit d and coq10 for months and months, prob 12 months now. I've taken folic acid consistently so that's 19 months now. Recently started alpha lipoic acid, about 6 months or so.
My friends are a nosy bunch lol so they'll defo ask why I'm not drinking. I'll prob have to say before we go as they'll wanna do a booze run!
@JesHope345 it's my first ivf too, best of luck for tomorrow!
@2mumlife thanks for explaining, so interesting! Hope all goes well x