Care Fertility Chester - just been referred

[ChristmasJumpers]

Me and Dh have been referred to Care Fertility in Chester for IVF. I'm 30, DH 27 and we're diagnosed with unexplained infertility after completing all of our tests at RPH.

We don't have an appointment date yet but apparently should get an appointment within 6-8 weeks.

Has anyone else been referred for treatment recently or is at roughly the same stage of diagnosis/waiting to see a clinic? It would be really nice to start the journey with others who are in a similar situation.

I've been reading IVF boards but it is blowing my mind reading about down regs/stims/egg collection etc. while we're still waiting for our first appointment!

Oh they are very vague with the details at Care! I did the same as you, called on day 1, took Norethisterone for 15 days from day 16 then started injections 6 days after stopping the tablets.

I was on short protocol with Ovaleap and Fyremadel but I've no idea how they decide which drug to give you

@ChristmasJumpers i am keeping everything crossed for you. As you said it only takes one. Do you know when you will be able to transfer?
I received my protocol yesterday and waiting to hear from stork to deliver my meds. I’m starting to worry as it’s booked for Monday delivery but I’m a teacher so no one will be in the house and no one has phoned to arrange a delivery time.

@Spurds we are very close in timings. I’m a bit like you, this first cycle I’m just going to see how it goes and how my body responds then depending on the outcome be more vocal after. I’m on the short protocol, northiserone from the 11th for 12 days, then ovaleap and fyremedl (can’t spell that one), scan on 20th June and then egg collection is booked for 22nd. Just a standard cycle I think. Fingers crossed for us all. We can do this.

Thos is helpful thanks @ChristmasJumpers

I don't even really know what the norethisterone is for, I think it's literally just to control your period so you're on their timescales.

@Ind1e04 how many days are you stimming then?

I have super loose dates in my head of when stuff is going to happen but it's all guesses really. Norethisterone from 16th June for like 2 weeks, then wait for my next bleed (is that what has to happen?) Which is usually 2 to 4 days after stopping norethisterone? So like 2nd/3rd/4th July to start stims? I'm doing my own head in 😅😅

Scan on day 8 of stimms to check everything is responding?

Weve not been able to make any summer plans with friends and people have pressured us to book things or booked on our behalf when I've said I just don't know what our schedule is 🙃 that's the thing I actually find most triggering. People waiting on me to make plans for holidays, festivals, weekend trips etc. 😅

@ChristmasJumpers I’m on the exact same medication as you. So who knows how they decide what meds to put people on or whether it’s just a standard one.

@Spurds so I have started the northiserone now, and I will be stimming from the 12th June to I think the day before trigger shot. I can’t remember exactly, I wrote it down and I’m too lazy to get up and look what I wrote! I hope you get your protocol soon too. X

Forgot to say from the 11th June to the 20th ish. I’ll be on ovaleap and fyremadel x

Urgh I'm struggling 😫

I was meant to call with day one yesterday but didn't start spotting till the afternoon so they've made me call back today. Had to leave a voicemail and haven't heard back yet. I really just want my protocol details!!! It's driving me mad. I feel like I'm not going to hear from them today 🙄

Got the worst cramps too. Just generally feeling sorry for myself over here.

@Ind1e04 how are you finding the norethisterone?

@Spurds i feel your pain. That’s was like me, I phoned day 1 no one answered. Phoned later in the day, still no answer or engaged so left a message. Then didn’t et through until day 2 or 3. It took about a week from there to get my protocol and phone consultation with the nurses a few days after.

I’m ok on the northiserone. The only thing I noticed was I was a bit irritable…but seem ok again now. So maybe it was just me being tired.

I hope you hear back soon, it’s really frustrating when you are waiting to hear from them!

@ChristmasJumpers did you get more than one scan when stimming? They just said to me one scan 2 days before egg collection but I’ve heard of other having scans after like 5 days of stimming.

@Ind1e04 my clinic do one scan on day 10 but because I have a high egg reserve I got a scan on day 5. They then wanted to see me again on day 8 just in case, then finally day 10 which is when they said to trigger. I think they'll only scan on day 5 of they have concerns you'll overstimulate but I'll admit it was reassuring to know that the stims were working!

I was okay on Norethisterone too other than a few crazy dreams 😂

They called me back yesterday at 3.30pm and said they will be in touch next week 🙄 just more waiting all the time.

They did say my egg collection should be week commencing 11th July though which was good to know. It's weird to think that 6 weeks from now we might have some embryos!

It is weird that care don't do an updated baseline scan or more scans during stimming. It's literally just around day 8 I think.

I just wanted to update this thread and ask if any of you had issues with the nursing team at care? At least 3 of them have been incredibly condescending and 1 just down right rude.

The clinic over stimulated me, which I'm confident wouldn't of happened if they did monitoring scans before day 10. This meant I got ohss had to have a freeze all.

I've now called them with day 1 right on schedule and they can't fit me for a transfer in despite them knowing since my freeze all that I'd need a transfer around now. They messed me around too, one day told me if I ovulated on fine it would be ok and the next day called and just said a downright no and to call next month. Next month I'm on holiday though so it's 2 cycles I'm missing out on.

My ivf should have been straight forward. It's now 9 months since my first contact with them and I still haven't had a chance at pregnancy. They've delayed and gone over their dates by weeks and months at each step.

When I ask questions they're extremely dismissive or defensive. I told the nurse I was feeling "pissed off" and instead of listening to me and empathising because of their constant let downs she scolded me for my "language" and tried to shut down the conversation, said she wouldn't tolerate my language.

I've been devastated ever since that conversation to be honest. To have her prioritise her sensibilities over my heartache and disappointment in the first instance was so disarming. I had to tell her I couldn't continue the conversation and ended the call in tears. When my husband called back she was like I spoke to your wife and told her she needs to call next month so what can I help you with? So they weren't even planning on getting back in touch to see if i was ok after being so upset on the phone. They just really don't care at all it's awful.

I'm wanting to explore moving my embryos to another clinic because of the level of anxiety I'm now feeling when thinking about interacting with them. This seems like a long and complicated process though. I really don't trust care at all anymore, I have zero faith that my 4 embryos are in safe hands with them.

Just feeling a bit broken to be honest. There's not much point to this post though is there 🥲

@Spurds I saw this thread in my watching list. I just wanted to reassure you that you are not alone. We had major issues with some nurses at Chester being very rude and dismissive. I also felt extremely anxious and tearful about any contact with nurses. I even told Dr Sephton during our January review. I'm pregnant now after FET in early Feb but if we had to start again I would have looked into making a complaint.

I'm so sorry you're going through this 💐
Could you email admin and request a conversation with the clinic manager to discuss everything?

@CurbsideProphet I'm so sorry that you've had to go through this too but it is reassuring to know I'm not over reacting or caused it myself. My husband just wants me to stop focusing on their attitude but the way it makes me feel is awful.

The clinic are the only source of my stress and upset during this infertility journey and I just don't see how that should be the case. It's devastating.

I have a call with a "quality manager" next week after I reached out to carepals but if their response is inappropriate I'm really thinking to go to down the complaints process.

It happened on Friday and I'm still so tearful today. Its meant to be exciting getting through egg collection and the first transfer and its just been nothing but let downs and sadness. Haven't even had a chance yet.

Thank you for responding today. I really do feel better that it isn't just me ❤️

@Spurds I'm so sorry, I had loads of issues with them, I was lucky enough to have an extra scan on day 5 because they counted over 70 follicles. I have found them to be rude at times and they are very dismissive whenever you ring up to ask questions or ask anything at appointments (things that other clinics do tell people as standard). At my egg collection I got 25 eggs from 72 follicles, only 7 fertilised and the nurse told me over the phone "it doesn't look good for them, I dont expect we will get any blastocysts but we'llsee in 5 days". I was in so much pain from EC that I couldn't even cry without it being agony and felt it had all been for nothing, it was the worst week of my life. I have been so lucky that I did get one blast and am now pregnant but I had a chat with Dr Wood and he told me he's not happy because I should never have started IVF without having metformin first and it would have dramatically increased my results! All round I am not happy with how they handled anything but I don't have to deal with them again thankfully. It has put me off ever having IVF again so this will be my only child

@Spurds I don't want to say too much, but I know for a fact that the clinic are well aware that women / couples are very unhappy with the attitude of some of the nurses. They have been told this by people who are not patients.

Please don't feel like it's anything you have done. I had my FET cancelled just before Christmas due to how I responded to the drugs and the nurse who told me over the phone clearly couldn't give a shit that I was absolutely devastated.

I'm really glad you are speaking to the "quality manager". Perhaps write everything down so you know what you want to say in advance.

Like @ChristmasJumpers I could never go through this again. This baby is our one frozen embryo after 2 fresh transfers. Even seeing Chester on the motorway signs when we went to Wales made me feel physically sick.

@Spurds I will genuinely be thinking of you and your 4 precious embryos ❤️

@Spurds I also encountered the brusque nurses. I must say that some were absolutely lovely too, but it is the ones that make you feel like shit that leave the lasting impression.

I got OHSS too. I was given extra drugs on my last scan during stims to bring some smaller follicles on a bit. I ended up with 27 eggs. (I got a decent number of quality blasts though so I didn't care to consider whether mistakes were made.)

I was very lucky that I've had 2 successful FETs and none failed, so apart from the delay from OHSS, my experience was straightforward. But even with my relatively easy and positive experience, I can remember going for my second FET last October and being made to feel very uncomfortable (at a very vulnerable time) by an impatient and quite rude nurse. She seemed genuinely pissed off with me for just being there. I think I mentioned it here at the time.

I have a lot of faith in the doctors and embryologists though (with 2 successes I guess I would). I've yet to inform them of my latest pregnancy outcome, so I think I'll do that this week and I'll also let them know I wasn't happy with my FET experience because of the nurse's attitude.

I hope your call with the quality manager goes well 💐

I also found the service at Care a bit lacking. I complained about my post IVF consultation and was offered a free one with Simon Wood. Haven't taken it yet as I just wanted to forget it all. I felt kinda like they didn't even look at your file, just assigned a generic protocol? A couple of the nurses were lovely though.

Congratulations to those who it worked for! That's given me a bit more hope to keep trying. Either at Care or a different clinic

@ChristmasJumpers why the metformin if you don't mind me asking? are you diabetic?

@Bl0rnky it helps to suppress over stimulation in those with pcos apparently. My problem was that my pcos wasn't diagnosed, I was referred with unexplained. During our first consultation with Mr Haddad he very clearly stated that based on results from my hospital investigations I definitely do have pcos. For this reason he put me on a low dose of stims but no mention of metformin until after I'd already over stimulated and got such poor results

@ChristmasJumpers for Christ sake you'd think they'd all be on the same page! What hospital investigations did you have? They took one look at my husbands semen and said that's the issue, without really looking at me

Thanks for all the responses guys. It's made me feel more confident in bringing it up with them.

I've spoken to a few of my nhs worker clients and they've all found it really inappropriate when I've described a few of the encounters. They've all said it absolutely has to go to pals to get any resolve too. One of them mentioned that because of the hierarchy that is entrenched in nursing, there can be senior nurses that never get pulled up or fed back to unless pals gets involved.

I still haven't heard from the Quality Manager. I have no idea when they're planning on calling.

It just seems ridiculous that for people who are going through fertility issues, the ivf clinic is massively contributing to our level of stress and upset. That just shouldn't be the case at all. I understand they can't help delays and scheduling to some degree but the meds stuff, the poor communication and the lack of empathy are all 100% in their control.

I've heard many many success stories from care chester, including you lovely lot on here so there is that to hold out for.

@Bl0rnky that's terrible, just because there's an issue with your partner that doesn't mean they don't need to thoroughly check you over too!!

I had (I think) all of the usual tests. DH had sperm test that came back normal in all areas. I had CD2/3 blood test and CD 21 (actually CD42 for me) which showed I did ovulate on that occasion. I had a hycosy to check for blockages and general ultrasound to check for cysts (I had this twice - once before we started ttc because I have very irregular cycles and wanted to know if I had PCOS. Again 2 years later when we'd had no success). My hospital declared no issues at all but the clinic said my blood results clearly indicated PCOS. We were let down by both I feel

Hi I was just reading through this thread and I know it’s from quite some time ago but I am also
with care chester and this is the only thread I can find for them. I also experienced over
stimulation after having a large amount of eggs collected in November 22 , I was just wondering weather you had a medicated or natural frozen embryo transfers any advice would be appreciated as this is my first time doing ivf

Hey @Smiles8 ❤️

I've definitely had a bumpy road with care chester but after escalating things to some of the senior team I'm feeling more heard and validated in some of my earlier concerns.

I had a nother bump in the road with one of my transfers but I've had 2 frozen transfers that didn't implant up till now. They were natural with cyclogest progesterone support as my cycles are very regular and predictable, I ovulate naturally every month. We're not sure why they didn't take 💔

I'm just about to start another round of stims and I've been given a much more bespoke protocol to try to avoid how much I was over stimulated last time. I'll know by the beginning of march if this has made a difference or not.

Happy to answer any questions you have ❤️

Thanks so much for your reply! ❤️

I am so glad your feeling heard, it’s a hard enough time without any other added stress! I am so sorry to hear about your two frozen transfers not implanting. I had two ectopics in 2021 these were my only pregnancies and the reason we’re going through ivf. I had 4 embryos in the freezer untill I had a frozen transfer on the 19th January, so we now have three left, I tested from 5dp5dt and have got faint positives every day including today my official test day. So I’m in a bit of limo at the minute as I know my lines aren’t progressing the way other peoples have. I’m on a medicated cycle with oestrogen and progesterone even know I ovulate naturally and every cycle is 28 days but I needed a set time frame. So I didn’t do much research between natural and medicated. I wish you all the luck starting stims again ❤️

@Smiles8 tentative congratulations, I have everything crossed that your line will get darker.

I've never had a second line but I can totally imagine how seeing one doesn't give any relief sometimes 😅 the anxiety is never ending isn't it.

I'm not sure there's much between medicated or non medicated, it's just whatever suits the individual. I seem to be really sensitive to estrogen and have never been allowed it in my birth control due to stroke risks so I wanted to avoid it as much as possible hence the natural fet with only cyclogest support.

If my next natural fet doesn't work I'd have to try a medicated one though we've seen that my lining always looks OK 🤷‍♀️

Fingers crossed for you 🤞❤️