Infertility investigations/IVF in Scotland - thread 3

[itsmschanandlerbong]

A thread for those of us undergoing infertility investigations or treatment in Scotland.

Thread 1 - www.mumsnet.com/Talk/infertility/3742246-infertility-investigations-ivf-in-scotland

Thread 2 - www.mumsnet.com/Talk/infertility/4138992-Infertility-investigations-IVF-in-Scotland-thread-2

Hi @connal

That's good news about your appointment. If your husband's still been smoking, though, you'll need to tell them that and it may mean waiting a bit longer for treatment to actually start. I think the eligibility criteria for IVF in Scotland require both partners to have been non-smoking for at least 3 months before treatment.

It might be that they use the next couple of months to do any investigations that you need and then if he's still non-smoking in 3 months you'd be good to go.

Hi all. Sorry I know everyone on here is on ivf. I'm on clomid 4th failed cycle. I was given and injection and provera last week to induce a period. I done a test last night and it was positive. Although no one at the fertility clinic told me the injection would give a false positive so today has been a strange day I don't even know how I feel. I feel very numb and tired. I also work as a secretary for High risk pregancies. I feel exhausted and I feel like it'a affecting me. I want to take some time off but I am going on holiday in 3 weeks so don't feel I could be off then go away. Should I stick it out or contact the gp? . Any advice on what to do? I feel pretty low today. Xx

@J90A, sorry to hear you're feeling so low. I don't know enough about the provera injection to say either way whether it would be a false positive, or if this would make you feel numb and tired, but feeling so low isn't great. Maybe speaking with your GP would be a good idea just to keep them in the loop about how you're feeling? Take care x

Hi @2mumlife, sorry to hear about your troubles with GCRM. Just wanted to let you know I was in a similar position with my FET in September in that my planning call was the Thursday but my period started the Monday before. I messaged them on the Monday before the call to say period has come, call not till Thursday but really keen to go this month if possible and they said yes. To be honest I was surprised but relieved so hopefully you find yourself in a similar position. I too felt like it would have been ridiculous for the planning call to be a prerequisite to starting seeing as it's 10 minutes of stuff I already knew!!

Only thing that might change things is I was a natural cycle so no idea if needing to start meds on day 1 would change things, hopefully not! Good luck!

@Scirocco

Hi *@connal*

That's good news about your appointment. If your husband's still been smoking, though, you'll need to tell them that and it may mean waiting a bit longer for treatment to actually start. I think the eligibility criteria for IVF in Scotland require both partners to have been non-smoking for at least 3 months before treatment.

Hi @Scirocco thank you, we were supposed to be starting in January and then do the treatment in March but it's been moved to next week so very last minute. Will it show up on any tests if he stops immediately? My concern is about the breathalyser test that he will need to do. I've gave him a bollocking about it so he finished yesterday when we got the go ahead for the appointment. Now I'm sat stressing about it. I did Google and it said that nicotine wouldn't show in the system about 3-4 days by doing a blood test and I know the breathalyser doesn't show after a couple of days too because it checks for carbon monoxide but im not sure about the continine (I think that's what it is)

@LouScot the provera is tablets it was a trigger shot injection to try stop a cyst producing hormones but they never said don't do a test. Yeah I think I will. Thankyou. X

@J90A I don't think I've encountered provera causing a false positive before... Provera isn't hCG so it shouldn't show up on pregnancy tests (unless there's some cross-reactivity I don't know about...).

Maybe take another test and contact your clinic for advice? Could it be a true positive, perhaps?

@connal if he's stopped smoking for a week before the appointment then he may not get a high reading on the tests, but it's still important to tell them because of the effects of smoking on fertility. For example, if there have been sperm issues, those may improve over the next couple of months if he stays abstinent from smoking, and that could impact upon treatment planning.

Thank you @Scirocco, he used to smoke and then quit and then we started getting fertility tests and his sperm was low and then last year he stated smoking again so it's been a process.

@Scirocco it's not the provera causing it. It's the injection. (Trigger shot) I assume. But no one told me that. You would think that would be the one thing you must tell patients when administering it 🤦‍♀️ xx

@J90A oh, I'm sorry, I misunderstood. If it was an hCG-based trigger injection then yes, they cause positive tests for a few days afterwards - some people use tests to check it's out their system after taking it. Sorry, I hope I didn't upset you.

@Scirocco I did know about that I didn't think that that's what it was because i didn't ovulate so they gave me that to try get the cyst to stop producing hormones. Not for me to ovulate. Complete lack of communication. I had a feeling something wasn't right with the result but you still have that hope this journey is a complete nightmare. It gets worse every month. Xx

It's so difficult at times, @J90A. It might be worth speaking with your GP to see if they can give any help/support, and if you feel you need time off work, take it! Even a couple of days can make a big difference as everything seems to feel so much harder when we're tired and stressed.

I got my paperwork through and I had a couple of questions!

How long would you recommend storing your embryos for? Does anyone know the cost of storing them annually? I would like to store them but I think it would depend on the cost and for what length of time. What's people's thoughts on eggs/embryos for training? I'll not lie I never gave it a thought so I don't know what's best to do!

Hi @connal, I think the limit for storage is 10 years, and off the top of my head GCRM is around £350 a year storage fees, might have made that up though :-) with them at least you renew each year but only up to the 10 year limit. If I have embryos to freeze I'll happily pay whatever it costs though

@connal I didn't have any embryos to freeze but if I did I would definitely do it. I also choose to donate to science any that were not viable. The way I saw it, it might help contribute towards training staff or research, which I was happy with but it is an individual choice.

@LouScot

Hi *@connal*, I think the limit for storage is 10 years, and off the top of my head GCRM is around £350 a year storage fees, might have made that up though :-) with them at least you renew each year but only up to the 10 year limit. If I have embryos to freeze I'll happily pay whatever it costs though

Thanks @LouScot I did think that to be honest, my limit is 55 years but thought I'd do 10 since that'll probably be the time frame for having children for me anyway. I wish they gave you a price indication of that though.

Can anyone think of any questions that I should be asking at the consultation?

Hey 👋 I was on this group earlier in the year when we just found out we needed to have ICSI. But further down the line now, DH had successful SSR and now booked in fo virology. Weirdly my amh went from 3.9 earlier this year to 9.7 now so I will be antagonist protocol, I know I will go on by day 3 of next cycle but no idea what happens after that- anyone else been on same protocol willing to share their timings?
Wishing you all the best with your journeys 💕💕💕

Wow @Hopewishprayer that's a fantastic increase in Amh! Mine went from 4.8 to 5.5 over a year (after dropping from 10) and I was told it didn't count as an increase, it was just variability, but yours definitely is :-)
Did you do anything differently?

I don't know about your protocol but good luck!

@LouScot thanks 😊 I know I can’t understand it 🤯 I haven’t done anything differently, only thing I can think of is that in march I had covid and then in April I had the low amh so maybe covid had played havoc with me! I’m the back of my mind I am slightly worried the latest result is wrong and I’m on wrong protocol! 🙈 I hate this ivf malarky makes you second guess everything! X

@Kamiros Thats really interesting about the 3 cycle Spanish clinic. Am I right in thinking though you have 1 more own-egg cycle with GCRM? I guess it might be worth seeing how that goes. @ally99101 I made progress with GCRM - so I have them agreed that as long as my next period starts before the 4th December (which it should) we can do do our embryo transfer before Christmas (I'm on a medicated cycle). So now hoping for a Christmas miracle!

@connal That's great you've been bumped up the list! If you have embryos to freeze, definitely pay - it is FAR LESS than paying for fresh treatment!!!!!! I said yes to training on non-viable eggs. I think we said no to training on the embyros themselves.

@J90A Ofppfff I don't think I could do your job when TTC. I find it bad enough working in education - you'd be surprised how many times people tell me they're pregnant or going through a misscarriage.

@Hopewishprayer What do you want to know about protocol? I've done both agonost and antagonist. On the antag I did a short stint (8 days I think?) on Norethisterone was is used to schedule your period. I was on Ovaleap Morning and evening Day 1 and 2 of cycle. From Day 3 of cycle, I was Ovaleap in the evening only. On day 4 they add in a morning Fyremadel. So from Day 4 onwards its Fyremadel in the morning, Ovaleap in the evening. Bloods and scan Day 8. I stopped Ovaleap the evening of day 9. Day 10 I did the morning Fyremadel, then Supercur trigger in the evening (last injection) then egg collection on day 12.

I fly through cycles though, most people seem to get more days of stims than I do. Also, they usually use Menapur, rather than Ovaleap for antag, but I didn't respond well on my first cycle with Menapur so we changed things up.

@Hopewishprayer The annoying bit is the wait after, as you'll be freeze-all for an antag procedure (because of the trigger, implantation rates are low after antag). My clinic makes you wait at least 1 natural cycle to do the FET.

@Hopewishprayer there have been a number of studies suggesting that COVID infection can be associated with a temporary drop in AMH, so the second (non-COVID-y) result is probably more accurate. Good luck!

@Kamiros @ally99101 Update that might interest you both - just got a call from GCRM's lab team, offering us an earlier planning call this Sunday. Considering they normally are closed on Sunday I'm gathering that they're ramping things up due to the massive backlog. Gives me a lot more confidence now that everything will be organised in time for us to get on with FET when next cycle starts. Now just need to will my body to bleed when I want it to!