Has anyone else stimmed for a REALLY long time?

[TheSnufflet]

...and if so, what was the outcome?

I'm feeling super uneasy about my first IVF cycle. I was suppressed by BCP for 5 weeks, downregulated with buserelin for 6 weeks, then put on 150IU Gonal F for ten days. On the monitoring scan on day 11, I had a few large-ish follicles on each side but more smaller ones - its as if the stims were hardly working at all! They then upped me to 225IU which showed better (but still slow) growth after two days, but it's now looking like I will have to stim for at LEAST SEVENTEEN DAYS. This seems like a crazy amount to me! I can't figure out whether I've been over suppressed, given too low a dose to begin with, or a combo of the two. Normal AMH, AFC fine, no PCOS or DOR as far as I know. What gives?

It's hard to say without knowing how many large follicles you have, their size and the size and quantity of the smaller ones?

Personally i wouldn't have been comfortable stimming that long. I just don't think it's "natural" which sounds stupid since nothing about IVF is natural 🤦‍♀️ but it's part of the reason I chose a clinic which only did short protocol or natural modified IVF

If your first scan after down reg showed no concerns then I don't think you were over suppressed but perhaps the 150 dose was too low - can't say for certain obviously but my clinic wouldn't have let me go 10 days stimming without making a change - more like 4-5 maximum

From memory I think the four large ones are in the 16mm zone and the rest are between 11-15mm (with a few that are 5-8mm). Most of the activity is on my left ovary (about 8-10 follicles), my right one has completely given up and hides on ultrasounds, although it did have two large follicles a few days ago that have now disappeared and left one medium-sized one.

As this is my first go I think they just put me on a standard long protocol and hoped for the best based on my AMH (20.8, I think). However, I'm not responding at all like someone with that AMH! They didn't seem too concerned at my first scan after downreg, they didn't tell me the follicle count but said everything looked quiet and my lining was thin enough. I can't help feeling like day 11 was too late to have a first monitoring scan...

I had a similar AMH and a rather rubbish response to stims but on a short protocol. The clinic ramped up my dose of stims but only had me taking them for 9 days total - I didn't get many eggs (6) and only 1 made it to transfer. There have also been some interesting side effects and a likely missed OHSS diagnosis, so I still feel absolutely rubbish several weeks later and have cysts all over my ovaries which are bloody sore when they're rupturing. I think the moral of my story is that if you think something isn't right, make a fuss until someone takes you seriously and takes the time to go through things with you!

Day 11 seems like a really long time to go without a scan - I was getting scanned every 2 days.