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 :)

@Ttc8 I'm really sorry :( sending you lots of love and strength xx

@2mumlife ugh I'm sorry about the delay on top of everything... it's all unbelievably slow (our clinic as well) and adds so much stress and frustration to an already super difficult journey. When I politely complained to my doctor about our follow-up after the failed cycle being 4 months after the negative test, and not being able to get closure or an idea of next steps in the meantime, I was just told 'well there are so many other women who still waiting for their very first appointment so it's just the way it is'... implying that we should just shut up and be grateful to have started. Obviously that did not help...

Hope you don’t mind me joining, ladies.
Was just reading along and I can relate so much!

@Novavee, @2mumlife
When we were referred to the clinic, I thought we would probably be successful on our first round, as I am healthy and the male factor is “fixed” by using ICSI. Now, 1,5 years later we have 2 unsuccessful IUI, 2 unsuccessful ICSI cycles (2 fresh and 2 FET transfers) and not a light at the end of the tunnel. The treatment that is offered here is not personalised at all, they have 2 basic schemes already printed out on paper and they just put you in one of them. Male factor is not looked into and genetic testing is not performed.

With the delays and inability to influence the process i feel so powerless and so frustrated and so scared that the time is passing by. The plans and dreams to have a family by certain age have faded away, and a thought of what if it never happens for us comes to head more and more often.

Just had a BFN last week and back to square one….

@beachbum85 You were made to wait 4 months just for a follow up appointment!? Wow, that is ridiculous! My clinic aren't too bad in doing review appointments after cycles (a couple of weeks), but they are terribly slow at getting you onto the next cycle. It just feels stupid when we have done all the consent appointments etc for FET already. All I need is for them to say 'ok' and put in drug order and let us get on with it.

@TheDutchess3 Its so frustrating isn't it? Particularly when you feel things aren't being tailored. My clinic finally really tailored this round for me, which I guess is why I'm disssapointed the end results wasn't much better than last time, as I threw everything I could at this cycle and it doesn't seem to make much of a difference to number of embryos in the end. We first registered with the clinic in January last year, and were just about to get starte when clinic shut due to covid, so we've had that delay too. I went in thinking I'd definitely be pregnant within a year!

@2mumlife yep! Well, that's when it was scheduled for but in the end we didn't even have any follow-up appointment because we agreed to go ahead with our second round once 3 months were up, on the same protocol and without speaking with the consultant at all (to speed things up).

@TheDutchess3 I'm so sorry you find yourself here after such a difficult journey, and sorry about your recent BFP too. Our clinic is similar in that it's not personalised at all, and I was advised very early on to advocate for ourselves and look for info outside the clinic, ask questions, make proposals, etc. All I can say is thay my constant questions meant that we got a lot more info the second time round and felt more involved in some decisions and overall felt calmer. but, of course, that doesn't really fix the problem.

Lots of love and support to both that you'll get there soon xx

@beachbum85 thank you ❤️I did have my transfer on Monday now just the 2 week wait eekk! has your clinic arranged a scan for you? Xxxx

@ngy21 good luck for your transfer tomorrow I know someone else also has a transfer I am so sorry but I have forgotten who good luck to you too! Xxx

Ohhh great @Lotusflower1990000 ! Congrats on being PUPO and I hope that went smoothly and you're feeling well, and especially that the 2ww goes smoothly xx
I have a scan booked in for 14 Oct, which will be 8w and feels like ages away still. Keeping everything crossed that we get there with no issues :)

Good luck @ngy21 @2mumsandason and @Novavee - I'll be thinking of you tomorrow and hoping for good news. Enjoy those fries

@Ttc8 so sorry about the news, sending you lots of hugs

@TheDutchess3 welcome! and so sorry to hear that you are back to square one. I had that plan in mind to, to have kids by a certain age and have cut off points but nothing goes to plan and nothing really is ever fair.

@Lotusflower1990000 thanks! hope you are keeping yourself busy on your 2WW, and fingers crossed i will join you in the 2WW soon!

@beachbum85 thanks, and i definitely will enjoy those fries!!!

Good luck @2mumsandason for tomorrow, @Novavee will you be doing transfer or did you say you are doing FET?

@2mumlife completely! We went straight to ivf because we thought it would give us better odds per try and per vial of donor sperm. Never considered it could actually not work.
Do you mind if I ask if you have always used the same donor? We have been thinking if it would make sense changing donors if we were to have another fresh cycle, just in case it makes a positive difference.

@TheDutchess3 I am so sorry about your recent BFN. This process completely disregards all our plans and dreams. I also thought I'd have a family by now but first the clinic closed due to covid and then it took us months from a gp referral to investigate endometrial polyps to actually starting our ivf cycle. If I can do a FET on my November cycle it will have been exactly 12 months of exams and procedures and appointments for a single ttc attempt.

@Lotusflower1990000 congratulations on being pupo!

@ngy21 good luck for tomorrow. Yes, I'm a freeze all due to OHSS risk plus progesterone levels that rose too high too soon. We'll know tomorrow morning if we have any frosties.

Good luck for tomorrow also @2mumsandason.

Thanks @beachbum85 how are you feeling? I know it seems like a lifetime away but these three weeks will fly by, you'll see.

@beachbum85 I'm just so shocked and annoyed for you that you were left in the position of doing another round without any consultation. I think we all get better at extracting information from clinics the more we do this - I know I've certainly learnt what to ask and to push them when I'm not getting the full details. I've jsut seen above you've got a scan booked, I totally missed that you got a BFP!? Fingers crossed everything keeps developing the way it should for you

@Novavee We used the same donor throughout. Partly because we bought 6 vials to begin with, and also partly because we were a bit picky I guess about what we were looking for in a donor. I know others have changed donors and got thier BFP, but I think its more just about chance than the donor really. I think do whatever makes you feel you're making a positive change though

@Novavee good luck with your blast numbers today!

@Novavee I hope you had good news about your frosties xx
I'm feeling well thanks - getting easily tired but I'm definitely not complaining! Hopefully the next 3 weeks will be similar and nothing to worry about 🤞🏼

@ngy21 and @2mumsandason I hope you also had good news and your transfers went well!

@2mumlife thanks so much! Yes, we had our first ever BFP on Sunday :) Thanks for your well wishes xx
They were really difficult months where I had no info and got obsessed with Googling to try and figure out why we had such poor results... definitely this time I learnt my lesson and asked so many questions as I didn't want to have any doubts afterwards. It's kinds crazy that we have to push so much for info about our own treatment though...

@beachbum85 thanks!

Had my ET this afternoon! Went quite well, saw the embryo shoot up inside the uterus, even the nurse was like "ooo!".

I was told this morning i had 4 that could be frozen, but when i went to my transfer they managed to freeze 1 more, so have a total of 5 frosties! Happy with that. OTD is 5th Oct, no bloods though just a pregnancy test.

@Novavee hope you got the news you wanted and @2mumsandason hope your ET went well!

wow @ngy21 that's impressive - huge congrats on being PUPO and on your frosties!! best of luck for a smooth 2ww xx
I wish I had asked for an explanation of the screen at my transfer - I was looking but totally missed the moment because I only realised where my uterus was once the doctor gave me a photo haha

@2mumlife thanks, it's helpful to have another perspective. Hopefully this will not even be something we'll have to consider.

@ngy21 @beachbum85

They froze 3 blasts and the embryologist said they were all very pleased with how it turned out from the 5 we had on day 3. We are over the moon.

We also have a compacting morula and they decided to give it a chance and culture it to day 6. I'll get a call tomorrow to confirm if it reached blastocyst.

This is such a roller coaster. Definitely not for the faint of heart!

@ngy21 i am so happy for you that your transfer went well and that's amazing, you've got 4 frosties!

@2mumsandason i hope all went well today.

Thanks @Novavee @beachbum85 @ngy21. ET went well today thank you 😊 we put back a hatching blastocyst this morning and had two more to freeze. We are really pleased and now to just have to cross our fingers!

Really pleased that your ET went well @ngy21 -

5 frosties!! That's amazing 😊 congrats!

I'm so pleased that you got really good news and have 3 frosties @Novavee! Great news 😊

Yeahhh great news all around!
@Novavee I'm really happy that it went so much better than you expected :)
@2mumsandason congrats on being PUPO and on your frosties - hope it's an easy 2ww! Best of luck xx

@beachbum85 thanks! your comment made me lol haha!! how's the pregnancy going? are you still doing daily POAS?

@Novavee great results!! Did you ever find out if the morula caught up?

@2mumsandason glad you're ET went well too. When is your OTD? i felt like mind was quite far away. Are you with Care also?

@beachbum85 Best of luck for everything progressing well for you.

@ngy21 my OTD is 4th October. When is yours? Yeah I'm with Care too. How have you been feeling after the ET?

@2mumsandason my OTD is 5th Oct! I've been feeling normal you know... my bloat and pain from EC has gone now. I don't feel anything except slight soreness on the bottom part of my boobs but i think thats normal, maybe from progesterone?

How about you? Do you think you will be tempted to test early?!

@ngy21 my bloating has gone now too
😊 This afternoon I have started to get some really mild cramping which I think is just from all the prodding around over the last week. My boobs are slightly tender too, but you're right I think it's from the progesterone.

I have my sister's hen do next weekend (1st-3rd) so I'm thinking that I should be able to hold out for the next week and then I'll be away so won't be able to test! My wife would kill me if I did it without her and she's not going, so I'll have to wait until the Monday! At least it's a good distraction!! Do you think you'll be able to wait?

Thanks @2mumlife! Any news from your clinic?

@ngy21 so far so good, thanks - nothing different to the last couple of weeks tbh! I'm testing every 2 days and can see the progression, so I've decided to test with a digital on Sat and continue with those until I get a '3+ weeks' and then stop there.

Keeping everything crossed for you and @2mumsandason! It's so hard when potential symptoms start, but stay strong :)
@2mumsandason the hen do sounds like the perfect distraction at the right time! @ngy21 do you have any plans for the next couple of weeks? xx

@2mumsandason great news on your transfer and 2 frosties! I hope these next 2 weeks fly by.

@beachbum85 I tell myself I should prepare for the worst and hope for the best but end up stuck thinking of worst-case scenarios 🙄

@ngy21 I got a call this morning. It was expanding but ever so slowly and not good enough to freeze.

So, I have my review on Monday and one of the things I'll ask the consultant is if we will monitor closely my progesterone levels to avoid what happened this time, when my eggs were not ready yet but my lining was. My withdrawal bleed started exactly when I would have had a transfer, so it would have definitely been a waste of an embryo.

I can't find much on late follicular progesterone elevation during a FET cycle though, so maybe not applicable?

Anyone has any experience with this by any chance?

@2mumsandason that's nice! got some celebrations to look forward to :) I have a feeling once it hits october, i'm going to really struggle and cave... will try my best not too! The wait from EC to ET went pretty quick (even tho i felt this stage was the scariest!!!) because we had a lot of celebrations in between then, so having something to do definitely helps!

@beachbum85 thanks! and no plans... i am thinking to make some family visits and shopping trips lol!

@Novavee still good you have your 3 frosties!

Anyone resume normal exercises few days after ET? I really want to go back to swimming but have been advised not to until pregnancy test. So thinking to do light weights and light jog/walk on treadmills