IVF at Guy's & St. Thomas' & general process/timeline part 3

[HereToLearnAndShare]

This is a continuation from the thread "IVF at Guy's & St. Thomas' & general process/timeline discussion" /part 2

@thislittlebird @manhanK Hey Ladies, sorry for my quietness I have been working 6 days weeks and utterly shattered so have been taking some time out where and when I can.

@thislittlebird how are you getting on? Hope you are feeling a little better now. Wishing you all the best today xx

@manhanK I am due to start in February and feeling like you both excited but anxious but just trying to not think about about it until the day is actually here. Xx

@MahanK ok so you aren’t far behind me start wise! My AMH was 31 at last test, it’s been 36 in the past so also a little high. They don’t seem too concerned so far. I’m sure being on supplements and being healthier can only be a good thing. I wanted to lose a stone before starting but I didn’t manage it :/

@jusstjaee thanks! feeling a bit better but just nervous about it all really. And nervous about OHSS, hoping I can avoid that. Start the stims later on 🙃

@thislittlebird I hope that all goes well for you. OHSS is something I’m worried about too but let’s see. I’ve also tried everything but my weight didn’t move at all it’s too late now. Let us know how it goes. ❤️
@jusstjaee I feel exactly the same. When in Feb do you start? I had a bad experience elsewhere for my round one… hoping this round /Guys will be a different experience. Xx

@MahanK was that experience at Create? What happened?

Same here, too late, it is what it is, but I'm going to try to eat plenty of protein and drink my 2-3 litres of water per day now.

@thislittlebird yep first round was at Create in St Paul’s. They didn’t monitor me properly and took me for egg collection early, their customer services was just disgusting and got no embryos to freeze in the end.. round 2 i thought I try the NHS.. In the past year I’ve spoken to fertility nutritionists (Melanie Brown), taken supplements, read books, and my husband had to see Dr Ramsey (best male fertility specialist in London) and had treatments too- so I’m hoping this time will be different.
I’m sure you’ll do great - how long till egg collection?

@MahanK that sounds awful. How many eggs did they collect and what did they say is the reason for no embryos?

We saw Mr Ramsay in the summer. Really hoping we won’t have a fertilisation problem but it’s hard to say.

Not sure exactly, I guess 10-14 days from today.

I had 6-7 eggs, by day 3 I had 2 embryos and by day 5 they didn’t make it to blastocyst. At Create they aim for 10 mature eggs as opposed to 20 but they say “in the end you’ll have 6-7 embryos” - all BS.
Then again we thought “the male count” was the main issue - until we saw Ramsey and he suggested to check for quality - and ended up doing embolisation for my husband…
Is this your first round? Are you on supplements? I’m happy to send you some of the lists of dos and donts from Melanie brown?

@BegoniaGal7 that sounds like similar to where we are now! I sent in the referral on Friday; checked my junk mail on Saturday and I'd had a reply late on Friday afternoon so filled in what they needed and they got back to me today offering me an appointment next week.

From what I can see (and I think they should be more explicit about this on the website): if you go via 'self funded' which is the cheaper one, you go on the NHS waiting list but pay for it. So you just join wherever in the queue. If you do the personalised care option then you get a consultant all the way through but also it's much quicker. I think they should make that clearer though because they would likely get more people paying the bit extra!

I'd like to just get it over and done with tbh; start the process off, see if it works, if it doesn't then we will have our answer and I feel like I can move on. I won't forever be 'wondering'.

Sorry, delayed reply @MahanK. Tour first round sounds very stressful. I’m on lots of supplements yeah, and lots of protein right now! I may well have done many of the donts by now lol

Drinking 3 litres of water per day is annoying but it is what it is.

I’m on day 5 of stims now, had a blood test today and they called to say it looks like it’s going well and I’ll be going in on Friday for a scan with EC next week I guess.

@thislittlebird aww that's soo good to hear that everything is going well. I have my fingers crossed for you. How have you been finding the process so far and have you had any side effects from the injections?

@MahanK I start end of this month so think I am just behind you and @thislittlebird

@jusstjaee you must know your protocol by now, right? What’s the plan?

thanks!!! It’s been such a long wait for us. Over 18 months since our first GP appointment so it’s weird to finally be here doing it.

The process has been fine, DH has been doing the injections for me. We start fyremadel tomorrow and we’re going to be getting up early early to do it, before he goes to work. They said to keep the dosage the same at 150 gonal f. I think they would have told me to change it based on today’s bloods. I haven’t had much in the way of side effects except a nasty bout of thrush that started a couple of days ago that I’m now treating, I’m prone to it around AF etc anyway so the hormones are clearly playing havoc. Also had loads of CM today, good job the fyremadel starts tomorrow!

One annoying thing was they did the wrong bloods this morning. They did hep/hiv instead of hormones lol. Called me and told me to come back when they realised so I spent all morning travelling to Guys and back 🙃

@thislittlebird yes I believe long protocol, have my scan booked for the 23rd providing AF plays ball!

Glad that so far so good for you and symptoms. I will be the same and getting the OH to do my injections I think.

It's been about 18months for me also so don't think it's still sunk in yet that I will be starting this month but guess that will change when I do actually start.

Did your appointment have to change at the beginning as I'm sure I read your period started late?

@jusstjaee the time will fly by! It didn’t really sink in for me until it properly started. After the first injection probably.

Dh doing the injections just takes the pressure off me a bit and I’m fine with that.

Yeah it did start late, it stressed me out because I was worried they’d cancel or something but it was fine. They just pushed the baseline back a few days.

@thislittlebird @jusstjaee good luck with your rounds. Do you ladies drink full fat milk? I’ve been advised to drink full fat - and I don’t mind it as I love milk, but I have pcos and I also understand that milk is not very good for pcos - so confused.

@MahanK this was funny timing, I was ordering full fat milk from the milkman as I read this! I drink both full fat and semi skimmed but mostly semi normally. At the moment I’m buying extra full fat because I’m on stims and hoping to grow the eggs!

@thislittlebird how are the injections? Also is there any advice you can give as you have now started treatment so I know what yo maybe expect or that's helped you etc? X

@MahanK I always have full fat anyway xx

Hello everyone,

It's been a good couple of months since i have been on here.

I can see a few of you are starting and I wish you all the best of luck 😘

Just been reading the last couple of pages and when I was doing stims, had the embryo transfer I drunk a class of semi skimmed milk every night before I went to bed.

I was told by two friends who done it and have had babies and I am currently 20 weeks pregnant. Who knows if it's a myth but I would say go for it and drink it.

Xxxx

Thanks ladies I will stick with drinking milk then - thank you both. @Sarah2328 many many congratulations!!! ❤️

@MahanK thank you soo much 😘 I wish you all the best of luck 🤞🏻. It's not an easy journey and I'm more than happy to answer questions for you all xx

Great news @Sarah2328!

@MahanK I think protein generally is advised. Was discussing this on an Ivf thread earlier. It’s hard because I’m mostly veggie but I’m eating lots of protein each day right now.

@jusstjaee the only practical advise is get an ice pack if you don’t have one. We already had lots of them and they’ve been really useful. Chilling the injection site makes it much easier and no bruising. I have very sensitive skin and my skin hasn’t been bothered by the injections so far at all.

Off the top of my head, @GJW2018 and @HereToLearnAndShare I think you guys had high AMH and high AFC? Do you know what trigger Guys gave you and did you have a freeze all? I’d be interested to know if any of you had OHSS and if you were given ovitrelle. TIA.

Hey @thislittlebird how is it all going? I think my trigger was busereline. We had planned a freeze all from the start and I’m glad we did as the success rates are meant to be better and I wanted my body to calm down and be ready for the embryo. I didn’t end up having OHSS luckily although I did have terrible vomiting a few days after EC. How’s it all going so far? Sending you all of the the positive vibes ✨✨✨😍

@GJW2018 it’s ok, I’m just upset about being on the borderline of being allowed a freeze all. I’m so anxious, I’ve been awake half the night. I wanted that too, my body is stressed, but they won’t let me do it because I have 19 (some of which are too small) instead of 20 follicles :/

They gave me buserelin and ovitrelle in case the doctor decided I needed buserelin and then called to say take the ovitrelle which will immediately put me at more risk of ohss. I feel really neglected tbh and have done since our first appointment. Like I just do not feel listened to, except by a nurse yesterday. I’m going to try to speak to her again today.

I feel stupid feeling sorry for myself but I’ve never got to speak to a consultant throughout any of this, it doesn’t feel nice.

@thislittlebird I agree it’s hard not having a consultant there after that first appointment especially if you’re not happy about your treatment plan. I would see if you can push back about the freeze all, say mentally you’re not ready for transfer and say about how much it’s stressing you out. It’s no difference to them whether it’s freeze all or fresh. Could you call and insist on speaking to a consultant? I did that when they were messing us around with dates. When is you EC? Xx