Low amh / 3 lead follicles - need some hope!

[VenusStarr]

I'm doing my first round of IVF, this is my one and only nhs round. I have low amh (5) so was warned they weren't expecting much from me. I have had 4 naturally concieved miscarriages and am following an immune protocol but worried about my low numbers.

I've been on stims since Thursday and had my first scan today. I have 3 decent sized follicles: 2x12mm, 1x10mm plus 5 smaller ones all about 5mm. The nurse seemed happy but thinks that the smaller ones won't come to anything. Follow up is Wednesday and looking at egg collection sometime between Friday and Monday.

I'm on another thread and everyone has loads of follicles / eggs, so struggling not to compare. Due to my low numbers, we've already discussed a day 3 transfer, but I'm worried we won't even get that far.

Please share any positive stories. X

Yay for good news @Scirocco 🤞 for you!

👋 @strawberrysummer19 hopefully Mondays scan will bring you some good news too. It's definitely a roller-coaster of emotions.

Thank you @Shamoo 🥳 I'm nervous but feeling a bit excited. I'm not used to getting good news but I'm trying to enjoy it.

Hope you're doing OK @jolly86 I managed to have a lie in this morning, catching up on my lost sleep this week! Xx

@VenusStarr I am also very nervous. I just keep researching online about day 1 to 3 to 5 attrition rates and there is just no clear answer as it seems to vary a lot.
I just had the call for my transfer time on monday. Today is day 2 and no updates about embryos, and I dont expect an update tomorrow. Tbh I don't think what it could change.

We get an update before our transfer, that will be very very stressing!! Good luck for tomorrow X
@Scirocco that is great news and I hope you can go ahead with EC!

Glas you've got a transfer time for Monday @jolly86 my clinic will only call me tomorrow if its bad news, I'm going to be on tenterhooks all morning. But I'm trying to visualise getting to transfer - everything was OK yesterday and there's nothing to suggest tomorrow will be any different 🙏 hopefully that helps you too ❤️ x

@strawberrysummer19 - mine seem to have had a bit of a growth spurt so fingers crossed for you to have a spurt too!

Good luck everyone, I'm thinking of you all. ❤️

My husband has just called - he was supposed to be starting work at our transfer time, so I was going alone. But he's told them he's going to be late so he can be there 🥰🥳 so happy. I know they won't let him be in the room, but knowing he's close by will help me a lot. X

@Scirocco yay! That's amazing news
So happy for you. You must be relieved xx

@Scirocco so pleased your starting to respond, sounds a bit like my cycle. I ended up doing 13 days of stims. Such a rollercoaster!

@jolly86 I did exactly the same - googling drop off rates but we lost the least between day 3-5. Hoping you find the same. The waiting for calls is horrendous. I like it when they ask ‘is this a good time’ and you think 8am would have been better for my sanity!

Glad he can come with you @VenusStarr it’s nicer if someone else can drive you and give you a hug after. I was lucky as I was allowed to have my partner in for transfer as long as we did Covid tests, the whole Covid thing does add so much more stress and isolation doesn’t it?

Good luck to all of you, stay sane and look after yourselves.

@VenusStarr good luck for today X

Good luck @VenusStarr ❤️

@VenusStarr Lots of luck.

Thank you @jolly86 @Scirocco @39andabit I have a 5AA hatching blastocyst on board!! 🥰🥰 So happy.

They froze one of the others, it's a grade 3AB (I think) and they're watching my last one until tomorrow - at first the embryologist said it didn't look like it was doing much but he came back in at the end and said it might make it to freeze too 🤞

Hope you're all OK xx ❤️

Just had a call from the embryologist, both my other embabies made it to blastocyst!! They're frozen now and are both 3AA 🥰 🥰 ❄️❄️ I hope this gives others on this thread some hope 🙂

Yay! That's great news @VenusStarr - keeping my fingers crossed for you!

@VenusStarr that's unbelievable 3 out of 3!! Is 5AA the best quality?

I know @jolly86!! So shocked. They said this morning my 5AA is top quality 👌 the embryologist is very happy with the other 2 as well. He joked they were wondering what I'd been eating as my eggs were top quality. This was my biggest fear that it is my eggs that would let us down. I feel so relieved that all 3 made it. Never when I made this thread would I have believed it was possible.

Thank you @Scirocco ❤️

@VenusStarr that is very curious! Did you actually follow any diet/supplements/exercise regime? I am wondering if our lifestyle in the run up to IVF can affect our egg quality, as we are always told its age and genetics mainly.

In the case of my DH, we had borderline results in his sperm at the beginning of investigations, at some point they improved and we thought our changes (eating, supplements, exercise) had the effect. However by the time we started IVF they were much much worse than in the beginning and we needed ICSI so now we are joking that he must eat all the naughty things he wants and maybe it will even improve! Plus we agreed that we won't ever spend any money on him trying to improve his parameters.

No @jolly86 I had good intentions to go out for a walk every day but didn't always manage it, or it would be a short one round the block. Food wise, during stims, I monitored my protein and mostly got 80g a day. Only 2 cups of tea a day, lots of water and no alcohol. But the months before, I'd not monitored my caffeine or protein and had a bottle of beer on the weekends ( not a massive drinker anyway). I upped ubiquinol to 400mg a day for this cycle until egg collection (usually take 200mg).

My dh didn't really change anything. He works shifts so doesn't eat regularly and not 3 meals a day when he's working. He took wellman conception, 50mg of ubiquinol and vitamin D - but unless I put them in his hand with a glass of water, he did miss days.

Our recurrent miscarriage clinic were trying to get us to do sperm dna fragmentation but we didn't feel it was necessary. If this round hadn't gone as well as it has, we might've considered it. X

@VenusStarr that is an absolutely amazing result. We’re all clearly the tortoises not the hares of IVF!

You must be thrilled with that. It’s a weird feeling to think you might actually be pregnant isn’t it? Rest up and treat yourself if you can. When are you testing!

I took ubiquinol, inositol and a pre conception vitamin for almost a year (the clomid/letrozole months). Not sure it made a difference but as I’m getting old maybe it did? We had a 4AB and a 4BC transferred and a 4AC frozen. I asked about the grading as I was worried about the C but the embryologist says they only freeze viable embryos. I think the grading predicts how likely it is to develop and implant but only some embryos are genetically normal and the only way to test that is PGT which is controversial I think. The most likely factor to effect success is age, sadly not on my side!!

Thank you @39andabit still feeling on cloud 9, just can't believe how lucky I feel. I've decided not to test early, I want to be in my pupo bubble for as long as I can. I keep looking at our picture (didn't get one of the embaby sadly) but got it going in :) I've got it by my bed.
Are you due to test soon? Definitely don't worry too much about grading, like you say, they wouldn't freeze them if they didn't believe they have a good chance.

How are you feeling today @jolly86? Hope you're managing to relax. I forgot to say, don't worry too much about the full bladder. I drank 2 pints through the morning until 10am and then had to go to the loo 3 times before we left 🤦🏻‍♀️ by the time we got there, I felt I needed to toilet again (transfer was due at 12 but ended up being about 30 minutes later). My uterus is retroverted so they got me to empty a bit (tricky!) and the doctor said it was perfect. So don't make yourself uncomfortable. I'm excited for you 🤞

@Luan82 how are you?

@Scirocco hope you're doing well xx

@VenusStarr thank you. I am very nervous as you can imagine, especially not having a day 3 update means anything can happen which is even more stressing! It is strange they booked a day 5 transfer without checking on the embryos on day 3. I am trying to trust the process and the embryologists which I am sure have loads of experience, but still. Thanks for the tips about the bladder, I have incontinence problems which have gone much worse since starting IVF and I know having a full bladder will be very tricky for me. How long does the transfer take in overall? What picture were you able to take?

I found day 4 hard @jolly86 and wasn't very productive. It is strange not to get an update for day 3 but I've got everything crossed that all is well ❤️ I don't know what's better for anxiety levels.
It was probably about 10 minutes in total, but I was gowned up for about 40 minutes before. I did some mindful breathing and that helped keep me calm. It was actually more comfortable than a smear (I struggle with them).

The doctor printed a picture of the moment the embryo shoots into the uterus - it's a white flash. It's really quite special to see. So my picture is mainly of my bladder 😂 but my little white flash too 😍 he did replay it for me too. Then the embryologist checks the catheter and calls in to say its clear and the doctor and nurse cheered. They'll look after you ❤️ xx

@VenusStarr glad you’re feeling positive and found the transfer easy too. I’m due to test Weds but as egg collection was last Monday I think I’d get a pretty reliable result from tomorrow. I have a First Response test so may cave! I think with only a couple of days to go I can cope with retesting. I know I’ll be gutted if it’s not positive even though it is the more likely outcome. I’m trying not to symptom spot but it’s impossible and I swing from being convinced it’ll work to sure it won’t on a 24hr basis! We’ve booked a nice pub Weds eve to commiserate or celebrate anyway.

@jolly86 that must be stressful not having a call! I agree with @VenusStarr don’t overdo the full bladder, just take water with you to down when you’re there. It really is easier than a smear and pretty quick, same as Venus for me too. All the luck in the world for tomorrow.

Took my trigger last night... Strange to think that this time tomorrow EC will have happened...

@Scirocco didn’t realise this was tomorrow. All the very best. It’s really good to get there as I know your stimming has been stressful. I didn’t find it too bad, are you having sedation? The drugs are great! I had a bit of pain late that night but didn’t have the suppository, I was happy to skip that and was ok the next day but just took it easy. Fingers crossed for another good result.

Thanks, I'm a bit nervous but trying not to get too up or down about it. The cycle hasn't gone well so far, so I'm trying to view anything positive as a win. The embryologist didn't sound too hopeful though, reminding me that even if we get one or two eggs, there's going to be drop-off during the next few days so we still might not have anything to transfer. It's hard to stay positive when everyone around has been so negative and yet unwilling or unable to make any changes to the protocol.