IVF Scotland - thread 4

[2mumlife]

Hi everyone,

Started a new thread for the Scotish ladies

@LouScot
@Scirocco
@MrsTMcB
@florafoxtro
@Hopewishprayer
@ScottishRach
@Kamiros
@LT103
@itsmschanandlerbong
@connal

Please @ anyone I missed!

@2mumlife huge congratulations! I knew my positive was a true positive (rather than a chemical) because the line was strong and stayed strong, whereas with the chemical it was faint and gradually got even fainter over 4 days until it totally disappeared. So it sounds like this is a sticky one! Keeping everything crossed for you, I remember the anxiety of that positive following a loss so well.

Congratulations @2mumlife! Fingers crossed this is the lucky one for you.

I've been quiet as I really needed a break after 3 egg collection cycles and then a failed transfer in October. We have a day 6 3CB in the freezer which we are hoping to transfer in February. After that I'm not sure what we'll try next, another attempt at egg retrieval or move straight to donor egg.

Happy new year everyone, hoping 2022 will bring us all some good luck xx

@itsmschanandlerbong I've actually not tested again. Mostly because I know its a slippery slope! I have a FRER and a CB left over from last time, but only 1 of each, so no real way of checking progression without buying more! Still feeling distinctly different. I had some really sharp stabbing pains low down kind of middle of uterus area last night though - was the weirdest thing ever, 3 very sharp, but short lived stabbing sensations that just lasted a couple of second each then completely stopped... Hoping everything is ok. Was more reassured this morning when I got up and there is no bleeding or anything so hoping it was nothing worrying.

@Kitekat81 Keeping everything crossed for Feb for you!

Just seen that they are halting fertility treatment for unvaccinated women in Scotland. Hope no one is being affected by this!

@2mumlife I saw that on twitter the other day, it seems to have gone under the radar a bit.

It was with immediate effect, so apparently some women who were due egg collection had it cancelled. Not sure how accurate that is, but someone was attacking Gregor Smith about it when I saw it. Hopefully it won't affect too many x

@2mumlife I best get my booster booked in asap then as we are due to start soon. I don't mind getting it but find it ridiculous that woman are being forced to get vaccinated if they want fertility treatment. Totally taking away people's freedom of choice.

@LouScot Oh wow, didn't realise it was stopping people who were even mid-cycle. Surely they should still do the egg collections, even if they wont do transfers?

@Autumn245 From what I understand its because every pregnant women who has been in intensive care with covid in Scotland has not been fully vaccinated. I do get it in terms of avoiding unneccesary harm. I do worry about people who might not be able to be vaccinated for health reasons though (but I'm guessing its probably a very small number of people)

DP made an interesting point though that it is one of the very few times there hasn't been any 'warning' period of a new rule coming in to give people a chance to get vaccinated.

@2mumlife I only got that from someone ranting on twitter so thinking about it it's probably exaggerated! The lady whose post I saw was starting her cycle this month and had been phoned by her clinic to check she was vaccinated and when she'd said no they'd explained it'd have to be postponed.

I suppose it's more a clinical thing than the rest of the rules though, but I'm very surprised it's not been more widely covered, along the lines of if you're going to be starting fertility treatment in the next few months then it won't be able to go ahead unless you're vaccinated.

Oh meant to say @2mumlife hope the clinic call you today!

@LouScot Yeah I was surprised it wasn't being communicated more widely too! As I obviously assume the purpose is to encourage vaccination.

Thanks I've called clinic this morning but waiting for call back for further instructions on next steps

@LouScot So clinic called back, I'm popping in for blood test tomorrow morning, then all being well they'll sort me out with ordering any more meds I need and book me in for a viability scan

There have always been restrictions and requirements for fertility treatments, including vaccination requirements. It never feels fair that we have all these extra criteria to meet, but when we consider the resources being allocated for us and the potential risks of harm if people haven't met the requirements, then from a more academic perspective most of the requirements make sense.

In the case of Covid, successful fertility treatment automatically moves us into an at-risk group - pregnancy and Covid can lead to some very bad outcomes. Questions the healthcare services will need to have considered are: Is it ethical to place people at these increased risks? Is it an efficient use of NHS resources to provide these interventions to the same population as before or is it necessary to change the criteria for intervention, given the risks? How do the increased risks affect outcomes?

While we have data about the older variants of Covid, data about Omicron is still being gathered. What we do know, though, includes the fact that, if you consider Omicron as a separate virus, it's one of the fastest-spreading viruses ever encountered. We don't yet know how it's going to affect hospitalisation, pregnancy-related complications, at-risk groups... That data is still being gathered. I was a bit surprised that this new requirement wasn't implemented when Delta was the dominant strain, so I'm not surprised to see it being introduced now.

The main objection/issue I have with it is the lack of communication and notice. This is a change which is very significant for many people across the country, yet it's had virtually no discussion or publicity. There may still be people on waiting lists who aren't vaccinated and aren't aware that they now need to be. I'd also be interested to see what consultations took place to help inform the decision-making - too many decisions are made about us, without us - I hope this isn't the case, but I suspect there may well have been a distinct lack of representation of women and people undergoing fertility treatments within the group making the decision.

@Scirocco Interesting perspective about being surprised this wasn't implemented with Delta. Hadn't actually thought of that.

Being devils advocate, it reminds me of when GCRM wasn't allowed to operate during the early days of covid, because we would overburden the NHS with our IVF babies, but a friend of mine who is a type 1 diabetic which made her an at-risk could have her pregnancy. It's tough that we are the "reproductively controllable", where anyone else unvaccinated who doesn't need fertility treatment can still fire ahead with a pregnancy.

Just to say, doesn't personally affect me as I'm double vaccinated now, but I was slow in getting vaccinated as I never went for vaccine whilst I was undergoing treatment cycles

I'd be curious how many of the unvaccinated pregnant women in high intensity care had undergone fertility treatment for their pregnancy

@2mumlife tentative congrats on your positive, crossing everything for you that it's confirmed with your bloods! Just to let you know I had follow up bloods after my initial beta (I had to pay £75 for it), it was just to reassure me that the levels had doubled. Turns out they hadn't, werent far off right enough, so GCRM offered me a further 3rd bloods on them 2 days later to check progression and it had more than doubled so all good. I was then booked for viability scan at week 8.

All the best!

@ally99101 Oh wow you had to wait until 8 weeks for the viability scan? I was hoping it would be more like 6 or 7 weeks! I think I'm right in saying the increase in HCG slows the further along you are though as well. I'll keep in mind about just paying myself forms repeat to check it's increasing. I'll see what levels are today, but thank you for info :)

Blood hcg came back as 5947 and I'm 15dp5dt today, so things are definitely going in the right direction! Booked in for viability scan on the 24th which would be like 7.5 weeks along

@2mumlife that's a fantastic number, great news!

@2mumlife that's great, and so happy you've got a date in for your scan.

That's great news! So happy for you @2mumlife.

Thank you everyone. I'm sending buckets of baby dust to everyone for this year, hope its a lucky year for us all!

@2mumlife That's great - so happy for you.

Huge congratulations @2mumlife!

We are 20 weeks pregnant today (time flies!) and had our viability scan last week - all good so far and we're expecting a girl!

I hope everybody is keeping well!