IVF August/September cycle buddies

[foodiefil]

Starting this thread early!

We've just booked for our second round to start August 2nd with egg collection September 8th.

I was on the Jan/Feb thread earlier this year.

Come join me :)

Yay thank you @99pctpractice I like to hear these stories!

@Novavee welcome! Hope your stims are going ok. I haven’t ever had medication changed - always been on menopur. 10-14mm sounds alright though - my clinic look for them to be over 13 I think at the scan a week prior and so many of mine were they moved me forward. It might be different protocol at yours though. Good luck on your journey x

Thanks @ngy21 🥰

Hi @Novavee welcome to the thread I am on gonal I started stims on 3rd September i went for my last scan on the Friday just gone the nurse says I have enough follicles growing ranging above 14 for us to book in my egg collection for Wednesday and I stop stims on Monday and trigger.

What dose of gonal are you on? I wonder why they didn’t just increase your dose unless you are on the highest amount you can have? Xxx

@Bluebonnet3 thank you I’m definitely trying to do absolutely nothing this week and not stress I have hubby running around instead 😂 how did your bloods go? How are you doing? Xx

@beachbum85 thank you ❤️ it’s great to hear it’s not just me with the lazy lefty 😂 hope your having a lovely weekend when can you test? Xx

@ngy21 aww that is exciting are you having a scan on Monday to check progress? Please let us know how it goes it would be great to have a buddy for Wednesday for the ec I’m so nervous! xx

@2mumsandason thank you good Luck with your ec on Friday so exciting definitely a lot of us with Ecs next week Xx

Good luck to everyone ecing eting and everything else we have to go through this week baby dust ladies xxx

Great to read about the foods that help any excuse to eat fries for me or potato related 😂xx

@ngy21 definitely same timelines! On my day 6 scan all were measuring below 10mm so my dose was increased from 200 gonal f to 300. Slow progress but it was moving in the right direction on day 8 so they kept me with 300 gonal f and on day 10 they changed me to menopur but kept 300iu. There is always progress and my lining is now at 9mm so they are happy with that. I think it's probably just growing all the follicles at the same rate, as they are all moving as a cluster, which is good in a way. I was told not to stress about the number of days stimming, that some ladies stim for 10 days, others for 18, but it's easier said then done. They want them all to be above 14 to trigger with the leading follicles around 20mm and the rest not far behind, so let's see what tomorrow's scan shows.

@foodiefil thanks and congrats on being pupo! It's difficult not to compare and overanalise but they keep telling me every person reacts differently and albeit slowly, it is working, so i just need to be patient. Ivf is definitely an exercise in patience!

Good morning ladies 🌻

Thank you for all your messages of congratulations 😘 still can't believe it!

@99pctpractice we have been trying for quite a few years we decided to go with an egg donor for a few reasons...my age as mid 40's, my AML was low, as we are paying privately the additional cost for doner eggs wasn't much more with a higher success rate seemed to make sence as the success rate of the egg implanting goes by the doner egg age rather than mine, also as this was our last attempt like I am sure everyone does the sane i researched big time all the medication we could potentially have that what i didn't have previously, our clinic wasn't going to prescribe me prednisone however through me saying i wanted this prescribed due to what I had read and so much positive information about it the clinic agreed, the changes to my medication this time was Lubion Injection on top of Cyclogest, Clexane injection and Prednisone

My daily medication is below and I had Buserlin injections at the start for about 3 weeks

7.30am
1x prognova
1x Asprin
2 prednisolone
1x Cyclogest pessary

1.30pm
Lubion Injection
1x prognova

730pm
clexane injection
1x prognova
Cyclogest pessary

Hope this helps xxx

thanks, @lifa that's super helpful! I hadn't even heard of prednisone before, so will definitely do some more digging into different medications. we had said that we would give ivf 3 goes (we've signed up for a multicycle package)

i'm doing a bit of digging into ways to improve egg quality. has anyone else looked at any of the zita west books or does everyone just go with it starts with the egg?

@beachbum85 i read on another thread that you had taken impryl. do you still take it / think that it helps? Thanks!! hope you're managing to distract yourself during the 2ww :)

@hansoo i hope you manage to get out of nights, esp if it's going to stress you out. fingers crossed you have a nice sticky bean in there that will be able to withstand it in any case!!

v exciting about all the egg collections next week!! good luck, everyone!!

@Novavee welcome! I haven't had a change in medication, only dosage, but I hope it works for you and you see progress tomorrow... It's definitely good that they're all growing together! Good luck with your scan :)
And you too @2mumsandason and @ngy21! Let us know xx

@ngy21 I also thought that about sleeping in my right side haha but then I figured it might have more to do with my blocked left tube than anything else!

@Lotusflower1990000 I'm having a nice weekend thanks, we're staying with my partner's family till next weekend for a change of scene and distraction, and took tomorrow off so it will be a long one :) and you? Glad to hear you're having a restful week, it's going to be a busy one for you! Good luck with the trigger tomorrow!
I test next Sunday eeek!

@Hansoo I hope you manage to come to an arrangement at work that helps put your mind at ease as much as possible! I have had colleagues taking a lot of long haul flights whilst newly pregnant and messing up their routines completely, and all was OK, but I think it's more about the way you feel and how much you'd be worrying throughout xx

@99pctpractice yep I still take Impryl... I have no idea if it contributed at all, but my AMH went up from 5.8 to 11.3 in the year I've been taking it. And my partner's SA improved a lot when he took it religiously too. We made other changes so it's hard to pinpoint what did it, but we've factored in the monthly cost, high as it is, and continue to take it. The only other book I know of is The Egg Quality Diet one, but it seems pretty intense...

I hope everyone else is doing well! Sending you all lots of love and good luck for this week and everything that's coming up xx

So today I started my period, we took a test to be sure and it was negative. My official test day was supposed to be on Tuesday. Pretty sure I'll have to do another test for the clinic. Not sure what the next steps are but we have 2 frosties in the freezer! I am obviously gutted but we knew the statistics on fresh round 1! X

@Nerdalert I’m so sorry to hear this. Are you on meds that you’ll keep taking until OTD?
Hope you can take some time for yourself and have some treats x

@Gensola yeah im on progesterone ill likely keep taking til I get told otherwise x

Ohhh @Nerdalert I'm so sorry!! It's always a huge disappointment, even knowing the chances :( take good care of yourself until it's time to get to your frosties xx

Sorry to read @Nerdalert even thought the odds are against us it's still disappointing, glad you have Frosties. Hope you're okay x

@Novavee I've just completed first round IVF with donor sperm as I'm also same sex. We didn't get pregnant unfortunately and we wish our stims were tweaked as we were convinced we needed 1-2 more days but the weekend got in the way. Can I ask how you're getting access to donor sperm we've found this really challenging? We are likely to forego our second free cycle on the NHS because of the donor sperm situation and go straight to private treatment, likely Bristol.

All the best x

@Nerdalert so sorry to hear that, it’s so difficult to deal with after all the hopeful expectation, sending lots of bit hugs and great that you have some frosties and all fingers crossed that you’re lucky next time.

@beachbum85 wow - I didn’t realise it was possible to increase your AMH. That’s really impressive, however you managed it! I think I will give Impryl a go then (anything with the potential to improve our changes….)

chances not changes!!

@Lotusflower1990000 @Novavee had my scan today! my left ovary is catching up and all my numbers are looking more even now. Some still on the smaller side tho! It's been 12 days of stims and my follicles are ranging from 8mm - 19mm (found an extra follicle so total 16 now). They are going to let me know this afternoon if to continue with stims and if so they may change the dosage (potentially lowering it?!). Or if i should stop stims and trigger tonight (think very unlikely as i only have a few mature). I reckon it will be Friday EC.

How did your scan get on @Novavee?

Good luck with your trigger tonight @Lotusflower1990000 !

@beachbum85 @lotusflower1990000 thanks for the warm welcome.

@lotusflower1990000 sorry, for some reason I completely missed your post yesterday. They could have increased the gonal f dose, I think, as I was on 300 but the consultant thought it would be best to try menopur instead as it also has LH and see how I responded to that.

Good luck with your trigger tonight and enjoy a stimms free day tomorrow!

@ngy21 fab news about your scan! Finding new follicles is always great!

I just had my scan and I'm not sure what to think. There is definitely some improvement and the lead follicle is now 18mm but the sonographer only counted about half of the follicules I used to have. It could be because it was a different person doing the scan and they didn't see or measured them all (I really hope this is it!) but I am now worried that the change of meds while good for growth made me lose some follicules along the way.
I know i only need one good egg but i started wirh 28 antral follicules and 21 responding to stims last Friday. To go down to 12 or 13 at this stage is not what I was expecting at all, so i am panicking a bit about attrition rate after EC.

New scan booked for Wednesday with EC provisionally booked for Friday.

@Nerdalert I am sorry to hear your news, but glad you have two frosties. Take care of yourself.

@MollyVanDer I'm sorry yout first cycle wasn't successful. I'm private at the moment. In my area we only get one nhs round after 3 to 6 iuis and up to 2 ivf. When we factored in the cost, with the sperm donor on top and the 10% probability of success per iui, we decided to go straight to self funded ivf.

From what I read about nhs vs private, the nhs options tend to be more standardised and with fewer scans. Whereas some private clinics like ours, tailor the treatment to your response and we have as many as many scans and tweaks in medication as needed. I also have blood tests every other day.

Do you need to stick with your nhs clinic sperm bank or are you allowed to purchase outside but still get your funded cycle?

We went with the London Sperm Bank. They had a limited online catalogue so i email them directly and they sent me 3 profiles that match our requirements. I purchased it online and they advise you to allow 2 to 3 weeks for the paperwork to be processed and the sample delivered to your clinic. If this cycle is unsucessful, all i have to do is go to my online account and purchase some more. I check now and then and there's still stock.

Good luck with your next steps xx

Had my scan today and feeling a lot better about it all. I now have 15 follicles (up from 11 on Friday) ranging between 8-19mm, with 5 now above 17mm. They are going to keep me on the same dosage for another couple of days with a scan again on Wed morning. Looking very likely that EC will be Friday now!

@ngy21 really glad your scan went well 😊 looks like things are very similar for us and hopefully will both have EC on Friday!

@Novavee I'm sorry you feel a bit down about your scan, hopefully it's just that it was a different sonographer and they were only counting those of a certain size maybe? Maybe speak to your clinic and make them aware of your concerns. There might be a simple explanation and they can put your mind at rest 😊

Good luck for your trigger tonight @Lotusflower1990000!

The chance of getting to this stage is so small and I don't want anything to spoil it. I'm being so careful. I really don't want to have to go through the process again.

@2mumsandason pleased you had a good scan and 🤞for your Wednesday scan. Friday will be a busy day with all the EC!

I spoke with one of the nurses before I left and she said it could be because it was a different sonographer or even because the largest ones were hiding the others. I've been going through the scan in my head and now I'm thinking if she actually looked at both ovaries as the scan was faster than I am used to and I only remember feeling pressure in one direction. I might actually email my usual nurse and she want she thinks (I also had a new nurse today).

I might go slowly mad if i need to wait until Wednesday to get to the bottom of this!

Anyone has positive stories of follicles doing a disappearing act and then actually being there on EC?

Excellent news on your frosties @beachbum85. Brilliant news x

Sorry I've not logged on for a few days. Just to let you know Sunday my covid test came back negative, which was good. Went for my final scan today, and it's bad news. I only have 2 follicles, and they're too small. I have to take an extra 2 days worth of Buserelin and Gonal F and go back Wednesday for another scan. Realistically, even if they let me go ahead with egg collection, I can't see it working at all. So upset that I got pregnant on our first cycle but then miscarried, and so upset that my body now is responding even worse on this second cycle. I feel like it is letting us both down and I can't do anything about it. I just want to sit and cry, but am at my desk so can't. I don't think we will try again, there doesn't seem to be any point. I know I only got 4 follicles on the first cycle but it has halved for this one, and my first was only in March.
Going to stay off here for now I think because it is too upsetting. I am genuinely so happy for everyone that has had a good result, and for those that are heading that way, but I don't think that will be me and I don't think now that will ever be me. No 'Little Us' for me and my other half.
Best of luck ladies. I hope all your dreams come true x

@Goldilocks2528 I’m so sorry. Sending you lots of love and strength. It’s hard to mentally change the course of your life. It will be beautiful whatever happens ❤️

@goldilocks2528 I am so so sorry - sending love and strength. I hope you have plenty of support around you, and hoping against all hope that you get more eggs than predicted. xx

Thank you @Goldilocks2528! I'm so, so sorry about your scan results today - I can totally understand how upsetting that was and how disappointed you must be :( I'll keep hoping for a little miracle for your egg collection and beyond and, in the meantime, I'm sending you a huge hug and lots of love xx

I'm so sorry @Goldilocks2528. Sending you all the love, hope and strength in the world xxx

@ngy21 very glad to hear your scan went well! What did they tell you to do in the end? Either way, sounds like a good number of follicles there, and I'm sure more will mature before EC :)

@2mumsandason really happy to hear about your scan too and that you're feeling a lot better about it all! Roll on Wednesday's scan!

@Novavee I'm sorry about your scan - I've lost 1 or 2 follicles along the way but to only see half is seems very strange to me... I hope you get to the bottom of it and don't need to worry until Wed xx

@99pctpractice that was my thinking... anything is worth a try! My first reading was taken just a few months after I had COVID and then I fixed my subclinical hypothyroidism, started acupuncture, and many other little things before my last test, so it's likely to be a combination of many things, but I definitely didn't realise it could go up that much either!