IVF at Guy's & St. Thomas' & general process/timeline part 2

[HereToLearnAndShare]

This is a continuation from IVF at Guy's & St. Thomas' & general process/timeline discussion

@Sarah2328 ah I see. This long waiting is nerve-wracking as it feels like everything is on pause. The meds can arrive fairly quick, the problem is whether or not they will have a time slot available. In my case they called me 3-4 days before due date and were not able to book me in that short notice. So during the call they booked for the month after. I hope they call you in time for your Sept period!

Just got out now, I haven’t really got my head round it all yet. Mixed feelings about the appointment and the suggested protocol which I’m not comfortable with necessarily. Would be interested to hear what the other high AMH people here were put on because she wanted to stick me on a high dose but I had 38 follicles today, which is more than I normally have (most I had previously was 28). No other doctor has said that to me, they’ve said they want to strike a balance between quality and quantity and have suggested low to medium doses, the last private doc I spoke to wanted to give me alternating days of 150/225 of Meriofert. A little confused by it all tbh.

@HereToLearnAndShare after reading all the conversations on here, im not very hopeful and I have no doubt it will be my October cycle.

But it feels like waiting forever to start treatment 😩

But my time will come

@Rj1988 good luck for tomorrow, how long will the results take?

@Etonmess20 yep exactly. Who knows, could get super lucky and two of them could be good. Yeah it would be probably private although our friends have offered for us to move into their spare room in Camden for a few months as Camden offers 3 cycles, so we may consider it to save the cost of a cycle. We will see. Wow Sunday!! I really hope the symptoms are a good sign. Will be thinking of you all week. Either way you will need that trip! X

Thank you @Rj1988 . Who knows, 1 of the 3 could be a great one. Trying not to have too much hope but we will see. Good luck for your bloods tomorrow!

@HereToLearnAndShare that is so strange. I had EC Friday and started bleeding Wednesday and they said start straight away. The doctor said to go down and get the meds right after EC. I forgot, do you have your meds? Also I cancelled my spot in this cycle so there should be one for you. But yes one month is not a big deal, especially when you have a great bunch there x

@Sarah2328 that is soo frustrating - I had my appt 4 May and got the call mid Julyish so seems strange for sure. I would email them again early next week so you can try and start for the September cycle.

@thislittlebird what is the protocol she was suggesting?

@thislittlebird my AMH was 54.2 when I started the treatment and had 39 folicules counted on the initial scan. I have been told that with this parameters a min to mid stims are better in order to avoid OHSS. So my protocol was short with Gonal F 225 for 4 days, then resuced to 150 and trigger with buserelin

@Vparisi this is the thing, you don't actually know they're bad do you? It could well be that they're good & that it gives you really good chances for your FET!
That could be a good idea, got to do what you've got to do sometimes haven't you?
I really hope they are too but just no way of knowing, it's definitely been the hardest part of the whole process because you just feel like you're second guessing everything & there's nothing you can do but wait!
Thank you, really means a lot ❤️

Thanks @HereToLearnAndShare. That was my understanding too and it took me aback. She looked at a chart with egg numbers and said she’d use high doses because of my age! I don’t see how my age is super relevant when I’m already producing lots of eggs. I need quality, not quality. Every doctor I’ve seen (three private consultants in total) have said we don’t want to overstimulate you so we need to strike a balance, she’s the only one to want to whack me on high doses (I think she said 300 of something for 9 days, which is a lot when you have 38 follicles on that day’s scan 😐) . She was nice, but it made me come away feeling very conflicted, and I want to feel confident.

So I raised my concerns about this high dose plan and OHSS and she said ok we’ll change it, so now I’m worried I’ll get a letter confirming protocol with minimum dosage possible. It didn’t feel tailored to me, and I don’t know how to flag this and who I could flag this with if I’m not comfortable with the suggestions made?

@Vparisi sorry, I’ll read up and see what happens with your appointment!

not *quantity

@thislittlebird ah thats def confusing. May be they assume only a few of these 38 will contain eggs, because of the age factor?

@Vparisi yes, I have all the meds to get started and I have been told to start with first bleeding, but as it happened 10 days before the normal due date I hesitated and decided to ask.. As you said the most important thing is that there is agood amount of embryos waiting for me, so I am greatful for that! 🙏
In this situation, are you starting the oestradiol with your next period too?
You are right - they might end up as a very good quality embryos, so I am having everything crossed for you!
I didt realize is possible to re-apply from a different clinic/post code after having one cycle.

I type a long message and my browser refreshed 😑

@Vparisi 5% isn’t bad, good odds for another round. But you might be fine with this one, I’ve seen lots of people get eggs of supposedly mixed quality turn out to be fine. Weird that they freeze and unfreeze and leave until day 5.

@Etonmess20 canaries is exciting! I’d love to go away but I can’t see us doing it. We’re considering getting a dog which may end up occupying our spare time and money for a while.

congrats to @Rj1988 on the bfp and to @HereToLearnAndShare on the extra embryo!

@HereToLearnAndShare yeah but she didn’t say that and I’ve never had that said before. I’m 38 not 43, seems weird to be so risky with high meds. She kept saying I had a beautiful womb (lucky me) and a good egg reserve. She showed us the spreadsheet which was based on age and there didn’t seem to be much consideration for the fact I have a lot of eggs. My last AMH test in Feb was 36 and I had 28 eggs that month, will see what this one comes back with that she did today.

@thislittlebird we've been waiting for so long to go away with all the IVF stuff hanging over us & not knowing when we'd start etc, we've decided to bite the bullet as we both need a break!
Awww nice, have you decided what type of dog you're going for?

@Etonmess20 yeah, I feel you. I want to go but not sure when the right time is. We’ve put everything on hold and have been talking about a dog for ages so thought we’d start doing some more research etc because it’s something we can do while we wait. Probably a miniature poodle or bichon because I’m familiar with both and I have allergies, need to limit the shedding.

@Rj1988 I call it the 3 week wait when waiting for the viability scan, defo worse thanks the tww, I agree!
Ooh good find with the clinic, best of luck for tomorrow.
@HereToLearnAndShare good to hear you have one more for the chiller! A month isn't that long at all, more time to prep your body but I totally understand the eagerness!
@thislittlebird I'm not sure I can suggest anything as my Amh was low (5.4) but best of luck with whatever you decide!

Hope everyone is well! 🤗

@thislittlebird - thank you! Good luck xx

@Etonmess20 - not sure how long they will take, nothing is mentioned on their website but when I went to give the blood the lady said it could take 5-10 days and I was like whatttt 😂 I hope it's not a scam company

@HereToLearnAndShare - yes that wait is so hard. :/

@thislittlebird aww that's nice, something to look forward to as well! Feel like you put your life on hold for all this IVF so it's nice to have a bit of joy!

@Rj1988 I'm sure it'll be fine! Happy OTD btw, are you still doing tests or are you just going to be going on the blood results now?

@Vparisi I will for sure be emailing them next week to try get the cycle in for September

@Etonmess20 - they called me this afternoon that they collected the blood in the wrong tube so I will have to go again tomorrow

Today or rather tomorrow would be my first blood test. I have done few tests at home and lines aren't getting any darker so slightly worried and hence doing the blood

@Rj1988 omg what a nightmare 🤦🏼‍♀️ completely understand why you'd want the reassurance of the the blood tests of the lines aren't getting darker & you're worried. The only way to get some scientific reassurance at this stage isn't it.

@Rj1988 any updates? Sounds like a nightmare!

@Etonmess20 eeeek 2 days!! Can't believe it.

@thislittlebird did they say when your treatment would be? 8 weeks?

@HereToLearnAndShare yes I should start around 22nd September I hope, how about you? Will be good to be doing it at similar times! Thank you x

Hi @Vparisi how are you?
I've convinced myself it hasn't worked, had "symptoms" but obviously could be the pessaries too/AF on her way. I'm going to wait until Sunday to test but don't hold out much hope tbh ☹️

@Vparisi 2-3 months. So I’m looking at November/December really 😐. I called my private clinic and started Letrozole yesterday and will take it for 5 days. Doing a medicated cycle or two while we wait, since we haven’t tried that yet. Going in for a scan today and next week, then a trigger shot sometime of their choosing. Followed by progesterone.

@thislittlebird hi sorry to jump in here but i was wondering if your cycle with letrozole is with an IUI or just natural?
I am have secondary unexplained infertility and conceived fine the first time and was on letrozole for my first one ... this time around they want me to do ivf with letrozole but they don't want to try me on letrozole alone. I am not sure why!!! Thanks

@PicoUK75 hi, it’s natural. Hmmm that’s odd, if you’ve conceived fine on it before I’m not sure why they’d say ivf with Letrozole this time? Can you ask to try it naturally? Or as a medicated cycle with a trigger? Not sure if you had a trigger for your first.