ERA/ALICE/EMMA testing thread 2

[seven201]

Link to the old thread
https://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/infertility/4187520-era-testing-after-multiple-implantation-failures-anyone-had-it-done?msgid=110302437&utmsource=mentions&utmmmedium=email&utmcampaign=2020-10-19&utmmterm=You+have+been+mentioned+in+a+post&rei=438192#110302437

Welcome to the new thread. Anyone welcome.

@VenusStarr congrats on being pupo!

Thanks @seven201 I guess everything just feels hopeless, when I started the IVF process in September 2020 my specialist's opinion was keep trying naturally it will happen. I never thought I’d be a year into the process and still getting bad news, it's like needing to start at the beginning all over again :( it’s also just shit when control that I could have in this process is taken away, Eg results are back, I’m told they’re back, but I have to wait to find them out. Erg

Re: LH sticks, I usually pick up the surge for about an 18 hour window, but this month none of my cheap sticks matched the test like colour, but my CB monitor (which used the same urine samples) seemed to pick up the rise. I don’t know if it’s my body or some dodgy sticks. I know that the Lh surge can last just a few hours in some women, so some people have it and just never pick it up. Do you get symptoms with progesterone (post ovulation symptoms) I get a twinge when I ovulate and then my breasts change, I get a rash on my face and I get constipated.

Thank you @Gardenlady543 🙂

It's really hard when you feel completely stuck, despite doing your best to move forward. I hope that you get some answers from your GP today and that your results don't add an extra complication. Sending a hug x

I'm one who has short surges on opks, literally a few hours, so would typically only get one positive opk and when temping, I found I ovulate on the day of my positive opk too.

I'm back at acupuncture on Thursday (3dp5dt) and I'm already worrying that she'll want to use the heat lamp on my tummy and I don't want it - her lamp is really hot and my tummy was red on Saturday pre-transfer. Glad I'm at work today, my mind is very noisy.
I keep thinking about the transfer and have worries that I did something wrong, it was uncomfortable and I kept disassociating, they had to keep calling my name. I hate anxiety, there's literally nothing I can do about it now but my mind wants to relive it 😐

Bless you @VenusStarr you didn't do anything wrong, the embryos is in there so you did everything right!

You should tell the acupuncture person that you either don't want the heat on your abdomen or that it was too hot last time so you want it further away. It's your body so it's up to you!

Thank you @Gardenlady543 I needed to hear that 🙂

What time is your appointment?

@VenusStarr congrats on being PUPO! As @Gardenlady543 says you did nothing wrong during transfer and it won't affect the result. Women get pregnant under the hugest amounts of stress all the time...there is no need to be feeling serene and mentally present to conceive. No one does things more right than us IVF ladies!!

I'm sure you've heard it all before but my successful IVF was during my most stressful and traumatic cycle! So go figure!

Yes definitely tell the acupuncturist you don't want the lamp. They want you to be comfortable.

@seven201 do you temp? I never have as I felt I couldn't take the stress! But that should show up ovulation more clearly than OPKs if you are concerned. I also think ovulation can get delayed by stress (and by IVF drugs). Mine was late last month and this one too

Love to everyone xxx

Good luck today with your results @Gardenlady543 I totally understand how you are feeling. For us back in 2018 I was told low sperm count, easy enough fix, all my results perfect, I was only just turned 31. Here I am 4 years later , 35, still getting muddled results, odd reactions to things and no closer to two lines! It’s not fair and the stress is immense.

I hope you get some answers at the GP today.

Sending hugs @Dochas121

So it was a telephone appointment and the gp just rang and he said that they found candida (thrush) on the vaginal swab. I'm already taking clotrimazole 100mg every other day but it's likely I'll need more as the antibiotics would have made the situation worse, so he said he will prescribe something stronger. I know fluconazole is a no no around the time of transfers.

It doesn't look like they have done sensitivities, he said it said no clue cells seen, but possible bacterial vaginosis, although it's unclear why they'd say that when they haven't seen clue cells.

I'm going to get a copy of the report to see if it says anything else. This is all a bit confusing to me, my pH is high and I know I have gardnerella which points to bacterial vaginosis, I don't have any symptoms of thrush!

Ok I now have the report...

With the culture and sensitivity they only isolated candida (thrush).

They also did a gram stain for bacterial vaginosis and graded it as Hay's grade 2.

Grade 1: lactobacillus predominates
Grade 2: mixed flora with some lactobacillus present, but gardnerella or mobiluncus also present.
Grade 3: predominantly gardnerella or morbiluncus, few or absent lactobacillus.

To be honest I would have expected grade 2, since I'd been taking daily vaginal probiotics up until 2 days before the swab, so they likely just picked up the ones I was putting up there in and I already knew there would be gardnerella. It's annoying that they could culture the gardnerella ans test sensitivity though.

My gp has prescribed me some clotrimazope cream and 1 x 500mg pessary, I will probably use the high dose pessary as soon as I stop the antibiotics.

I recently got told my BV was actually thrush too @Gardenlady543 Think it's one of the perks of doing a these procedures

That’s very weird about saying it’s thrush @Gardenlady543 I had thrush once years ago and it sticks in my mind as it was so horrendously itchy/burning so it seems like an odd thing to have without knowing. Are they treating you for it anyway?

Hopefully the swab is picking up an increased lactobacillus rather than just the probiotic itself. Are you taking the probiotics simultaneously to the antibiotics? Will that not wipe out any benefit?

@whatcangowrong yeah I think all the ivf procedures mean we're prone to this stuff.

@Dochas121 I think it's normal for candida to be present and I guess thrush is more of a clinical diagnosis, I don't have any itching or anything. But still best that I treat it while I'm doing all this other treatment, to give the lactobacillus the best chance possible.

So while taking the metronidazole and clindamycin I've been alternating between daily vaginal probiotic and clotrimazole pessary. I have completed 8 days of metronidazole and 7 days of clindamycin. I think I'm going to stop the clindamycin now and carry on with another week of metronidazole. Clindamycin wipes out all bacteria including lactobacillus whereas metronidazole seems to have less effect on lactobacillus.

@Gardenlady543 oh how confusing! I don't really know what to say. I've always been prone to thrush and it not always known I have it eg being told to re-do smear test as there was too much thrush (that I was oblivious to). I'm glad you at least have a plan. I think I will do another pessary soon as I have a bit of an itch at the moment. How do you feel about it all now?

Re the opks. I don't think it's a window thing for me as they used to always gradually get darker, but nowadays just stays stark white except for the control line. It is possible it's a tiny window thing. I usually get a spot or two on my face in the middle of my cycle but absolutely no other ovulation clues. I've tried temping yes but that didn't work for me either. I'm not using the ovusense (internal temp monitor) this time as I don't want to risk adding in bad bacteria again. I'm meant to be re trying my Ava bracelet (yes I have bought everything over the past 4 years!) but have forgotten to put it on for the past 4 nights!

I've just done an opk and there is now a feint line! So at least it's not staying pure white any longer.

Thank you @Janefx40 🙂 you've reassured me. I feel like time is going fast already, I like being in this bubble and don't want test day to come.
How are you getting on?

I'm glad you got your report @Gardenlady543 I have heard of people having thrush but not knowing until they had a swab or smear for other reasons. Sorry you have to take more pessaries and meds, you must be sick of it by now.

Good news about your faint line @seven201, keep testing today, fingers crossed you'll catch it. What opks do you use? I used to just get the one step from amazon (green ones) but they suddenly went crap, so I switched to the easy at home ones and they were really good and not too expensive. I've never forked out for clearblue.

Lots of love ❤️

@seven201 sounds good! Like a positive step. Let's see if the lines change. But as you've even in a natural FET they scan you so the clinic can pick up ovulation even if you can't at home

@Gardenlady543 I'm so sorry you have more meds to take and yet more layers of information to digest. I have to admit to being massively out of my depth as I know nothing about the bacteria and micro flora (I may need to learn when my biopsy results come back) so I don't have any useful words to share other than love and good wishes 💐💐

@VenusStarr glad you are feeling reassured. What are you doing during your 2Ww?

Love to everyone

Xxx

I'm working through this one @Janefx40, I'm still at home do making sure I get breaks. I went for 2 walks yesterday which was good, aiming to get out today, it's currently heavily raining! Plus trying to watch funny programmes, of you have any suggestions, let me know.
I'm feeling quite relaxed today, which is good. Trying not to over analyse and just go with that today 🙂

@VenusStarr that sounds good. I go back and forth with whether to work or not. Now I work from home I think it is better to keep busy although maybe those last couple of days, I might take off so I can do my endless googling for answers that no one can give!!!

Best advice is to be nice to yourself. What are you watching that's funny? We could all do with stuff like that x

@Janefx40 I've just started watching Nine Perfect Strangers which seems quite good so far, it's made me laugh a bit already. I also discovered a sweet programme called Love on the Spectrum, it's not funny, but it is heartwarming. I've got Joe Lycett and Sarah Millican shows to watch too and they always make me laugh. I read laughing in the tww helps...

I've literally got no symptoms . Hope that's not a bad sign.

@VenusStarr no symptoms really doesn't mean anything. When I had my dd I was so utterly convinced that I wasn't pregnant that I didn't test until my period was over a week late. Never had sore boobs, sickness etc.

My opk is lighter today. So maybe my slightly dark line yesterday is as dark as it's going to get. I use ovuview from Amazon. Just cheapie ones. Have tried other brands. I've got some left over clearblue advance one and they're showing that nothing is going on. I'm glad I've got my progesterone blood test to use. I think I'll do that in a week, unless my opks change.

I'm enjoying watching married at first sight Australia. It's not funny but it's very easy watching.

Ah, thank you @seven201 by this point last time I'd had lots of af type pains but that ended in a chemical. I just need to distract myself!

Maybe you missed your surge. Keep testing, just in case. What cd are you again? Hopefully your blood test will confirm 🤞

I've seen this series of Australian mafs, it's addictive! Much better than the UK version, I gave up on the most recent UK one, it was boring!

@seven201 my boss loves married at first sight! @VenusStarr I watched some of 9 perfect strangers but I didn't even realise it was meant to be a comedy until someone told me!

Don't worry about so-called symptoms. People feel different things or nothing and different pregnancies can feel different too. People talk about sore boobs - I used to get sore boobs before a period but didn't get them at all throughout my whole pregnancy! I didn't get nauseous until about week 8 or 9. I've been convinced it hasn't worked every time and I've had a chemical, a successful pregnancy, a miscarriage and a BFN so every result going. The 2WW is so tough so feel free to come back here and chat any time xxx

Married at first sight is such a guilty pleasure! The wife/husband swapping always shocks me!

I'm cd15 so it definitely could have been yesterday. I used to always have about a 33 day ish cycle and a positive on cd 19 ish but I've noticed when I'm not taking lots of ttc vitamins that my cycles are shorter and I've cut down on the vits.

🤞 It was yesterday @seven201

Thank you @Janefx40 it's good to have this space. Weirdly, dh and I have barely spoken about it. It's like transfer never happened.

Been awake since 5 👀 decided to get up and have breakfast, couldn't listen to dh breathing!! 😂 Off to acupuncture this morning.

I recommend ‘Great News’ and ‘Superstore’ on Netflix for some trash tv comedies. In particular I find great news hilarious - I don’t know why. I’m pretty sure it’s actually terrible!

Hope everyone is doing ok. @seven201 are you going for a natural FET or just tracking ovulation in general? I’ve always found the clear blue flashing smiley solid smiley tests good and reliable.

what is the difference between ALICE / EMMA test and biopsy with antibiogram?