IVF coming up - success stories would be appreciated

[thislittlebird]

Hi, so we’re due to start ivf in late January, ICSI specifically, and I’ve found myself freaking out a bit tonight/this morning. I’d be really pleased to hear your success stories, and if you felt like it wouldn’t work before you started? Did you have any medical issues that made you think ivf/ICSI wouldn’t work and it did nonetheless?

I feel like I’ve spent so long thinking about all this that I’ve overthought every aspect, and I’m catastrophising and I don’t know how to stop that right now. I keep thinking the protocol won’t yield any mature eggs (I’m 38.5 with fairly high AMH/follicle count) and then we won’t make embryos (low motility for DH) but I know there’s no way of knowing until we try. I’m also panicking about egg collection a little. That’ll be my anxiety kicking in. It all feels so daunting and I want to be realistic but I’m struggling to see anything but the worst case scenario.

Hi I'm a sucess story here, worked first time for us. Worrying about it is natural, I was a nervous wreck thinking of all the what ifs. We decided to freeze some just incase it didn't work so that put my mind at ease that if it didn't work we would have another chance. Your clinic should explain to you what the chances are etc and what may give you a better chance. I was nervous about the egg retrieval but it was honestly fine. I barley remember it to be honest because I was slightly sedated so don't remember much. I had a few cramps after but nothing painful. It's such an emotional roller coaster but when it does work and you have your little miracle in ypur arms its all worth it. I found it more emotionally draining than physically but I just kept on about my day I did nothing different and took my mind of it. After embryo transfer I did rest up that day and took it easy. It didn't help that at the time I hated needles and cried the first injection because I was that nervous but I soon got used to it. Remember the clinic are there no answer any questions you have so write a few down that's what I did and if I had any questions in the meantime if ring them. Good luck sending baby dust your way and a big virtual hug.

I had my first ICSI treatment with care fertility in November unfortunately the first fresh cycle failed. Everything went smoothly we had no issues with the stims, egg collection or the embryo transfer the embryo just decided not to stick. I was devastated however we do have a few good quality embryos frozen so I’m excited for my FET in February. It’s normal to be nervous but use the doctors and nurses in the clinic and ask all the questions you have. I was also very nervous that my body would not react to the drugs but surprisingly it reacted very well and we got some good embryo’s.

I just want to ask if anyone has had a NHS funded cycle and if your protocol was any different to a NHS funded one. I feel like they give a standard protocol to everyone but this may not always work, I have tried to give my input to the doctor and he advised that I just follow the protocol given. My clinic does not monitor bloods either during the cycle so how are they supposed to know where your hormone levels are?

@Miracle29 thanks for replying. So you decided to freeze the embryos rather than transfer two? I know our chances are decent on paper, because I have a decent egg reserve for me age, but you know what I mean when I say I’ve seen too many stories where things don’t go to plan so that’s been stressing me out. The egg collection and potential transfer are worrying me but I’m quite medically anxious so I think I’m probably overly anxious and it’ll be ok. My husband has done some injections for me already for ovulation induction, so on that front I’m happy this won’t be the first, not happy doing them myself yet though. Thanks for the good wishes!

@Amyhope123 do you have male factor? It all feels such an unknown but I’m glad to know you got some embryos. Sorry your embryo didn’t stick but having extra embryos is a positive place to be and February is very close.

I was pursuing private before NHS funding was approved. My private protocol was going to be 150 and 225 Meriofert on alternating days. My NHS protocol was a little odd because I’m with a big teaching hospital so my doctor wasn’t a consultant and it freaked me out a little because she referred to a spreadsheet and wanted to put me on maximum doses because of my age (38). But my AMH and follicle count is high for my age, and because I’d spoken to two consultants previously who all said the key was getting a balance and not risking overstimulation. I pushed back on her suggestion and I’m now on 150 gonal f and I’m just hoping that if I don’t respond they’ll adjust it. However I was on letrozole for three months and if that’s anything to go by I will respond fast, at least in one ovary, not sure how reliable the other is yet 🤨. I think this experience with the trainee has made me anxious too but I’m sure their work is overseen by consultants and they see people every day, it’s just hard to not panic when things don’t feel “right” in this process. Are you with Care through the nhs?

Yes I was advised by my clinic to transfer one and if it failed I could then try 2 on my next round. I ended up freezing 7 in the end

@Miracle29 that’s a great number! A good tactic tbh, might consider that if we can make any embryos to freeze.

@thislittlebird we have unexplained infertility and we are with care fertility. The nurses are doctors all seem lovely just I just question their protocols I don’t think they are specific per person. IVF is a huge thing and it’s important that you feel comfortable with your doctor because your putting all your trust in them. Care do have high success rates so I’m sure they are good at what they do but I’m just so desperate where I want to try anything that will help. I really do hope yours works out well and it is good how you challenged them and brought the dose down.
It’s such a rollercoaster of a journey, but I’m sure it will be worth it in the end 😊

Hi I am a success story here is our story. So we did icsi as my partner has really low everything hospital advised him to use proxceed expensive but worked. We got 18 eggs the first go which I was over moon we lost 10 that didn't fertilise then gradually went to 1 good one they put back in . None to freeze . That didn't work . Second attempt I got exactly the same amount of eggs even the outcome was the same lost all bar one nothing to freeze. Here I am 22 weeks pregnant it only takes one. I found with my second go I just chilled out and sort of blanked it out and it worked. I just didn't stress xxxx

@Amyhope123 yeah I’m not sure many are specific. But if you’re happy with their care that’s something. I certainly didn’t want to start on high doses, that seemed a bit too gung ho to me. Hopefully it will be!

@Hoping1 honestly it’s reassuring to hear that it worked for you second time, it feels like there’s hope. Congrats on being 22 weeks! I strongly suspect I’ll be too stressed for the first attempt to be of much use and hope if that’s the case the next attempt will be successful. Fingers crossed!

Hospital told me when it didn't work that the first is a trial run . When the second went the same way I was gutted and give up plus my partner was away that help as he was stressing me out. Try and relax you mind as it an emotional rolla coster i did meditation not sure if it helped but got me out of ivf mode for a bit. I wish you lots of luck xxxxx

I have unexplained infertility. I've done two transfers which gave me my 18-month-old and I'm 13 weeks pregnant. I know I'm incredibly lucky and it takes others several attempts, but when you start you've no idea which you'll be.

For context I ttc over 10 years in total, across two different partners, so my case was pretty hopeless. I remember being so excited just to be in with a shot of getting pregnant after so many years! But I'd also have moments of panic thinking what if it doesn't work and my fertility problems can't be overcome. It's a rollercoaster and you just have to live it. I meditated and allowed myself to be excited. There are so many women here who've been through hell but many, many of them get their babies in the end, so I just tried to hold on to that. IVF turned out to be a really positive experience for me.

Best of luck to you 🤞

@Holskey that it’s amazing! I hope you have a healthy pregnancy! I love hearing positive stories like yours it just gives me so much hope. IVF is truly amazing and it is a blessing to be able to go through it as many other cannot for various reasons.
Can I ask if you conceived both through IVF and were they fresh or frozen transfers x

@thislittlebird hope you don’t mind me jumping on the thread too. Im also starting IVF in Jan, also ICSI. We have male factor and I have endometriosis too.
I’m also have all the same worries as you, im really starting to freak out so it’s good to read some positive stories.
My consultant has said I’ll be on Meriofert 225 , I’m a bit worried after what you’ve said about it,
I don’t know much about the different drugs they use, I’m only 30 and my AMH is good so it seems a lot now.

Another thing I want to add is that everyones journey is different so it’s best not to compare your journey to anyone else. Although it puts your mind at ease hearing other peoples stories it can sometimes make your more nervous and anxious. When I went through my first cycle I was clueless about the meds but I was in ovaleap 150iu daily with fermadyl during my monitoring scans everything looked good the follicles were growing but not to where they should be so my plan had changed and I was told to continue stims for another two days at the time I couldn’t understand i was really worried and thought something was wrong but it was just to make my follicles bigger in size which resulted in 9 good quality eggs, going on to 7 blasts.
The nurses and doctors know what they are doing it’s just about trusting the process and being easy on yourself to get through it, its honestly not as hard as it looks. For me the hardest part was the TWW and the negative pregnancy test.
I hope your journeys go well and you get the best end result🤞

@Norts10 hey, good to hear I’m not alone in my worries. When are you due to start? The worry suddenly kicked in more the last few days for me, we’re due to start meds the last week of January. I really wouldn’t worry about Meriofert 225. My junior doctor wanted to put me on much higher doses of another drug because of my age alone and didn’t consider my AMH, trust your doctor, I’m sure it’s the right call. Meriofert is also good for egg quality apparently, I learned that along the way. I would rather be on something a little more than I am on if I’m being completely honest, because my private consultant seemed more experienced and wanted me on something a little higher, but here we are. My hope is they’ll simply adjust it once the scans start if I’m not responding well.

And yeah, just what @Amyhope123 said, we’re all different so it’s impossible to compare. But I really would like another person’s doctor 😭😂. It’s reassuring to hear they adjusted yours as they went along Amyhope123, that’s all I want really. To know they’ll change it as we go if it’s not working.

@Holskey amazing that it worked out in the end. Ten years is a long time, must have Ben frustrating to have no reason for the problem.

It’s totally normal to be feeling the way you do. I found that only thinking about it one step at a time really helped. So during downreg I only thought of that part and not having to inject. During stims I didn’t think about EC (the part that scared me the most for some reason!). And so on. It was much more manageable for me that way. I was the same as pp though, I was actually relieved to be doing something that could end in pregnancy after ttc for 3yrs and trying to ignore that we might have a problem.

We were a success story. We conceived on our first transfer and now have an 18mo. We are also fortunate to have 3 frosties.

Best of luck with your treatment.

When I say I want to be on something higher I’m talking about striking that balance, but I don’t want to be on super high doses and get OHSS (my last follicle count was 38 so I’m definitely in with a chance of it). I sound like I’ve gone from saying my doses are too high to my doses are too low and I’m making no sense 🙈. I just felt like I wanted a doctor who listened and this doctor was sooooo very fast and rushed through everything compared to other consultants I’d seen and I had to make my own case about my high AMH, which surprised me. But as long as they adjust as we go it should be fine.

@Betsyboo87 great that it worked for you! I need to remember that it really can work and isn’t just the bad stuff necessarily, that’s good advice. The EC and transfer are worrying me the most, but I’m currently distracted by suddenly having high prolactin so I’m worrying about that and the two hour test for it coming up. Feels like it all never ends. But

Hit post accidentally. ...But I definitely need to try to do that, to focus on one step at a time. I’m going to try to eat well and drink lots of water etc, small things to make sure I feel like I’m doing something in the coming weeks.

Hi unexplained infertility here too. Was a few month off 38 with first and only egg collection. I think my AMH was about 24. We were super fortunate and have three children from that egg collection after x4 transfers. A 2.5 year old and 7 month old twins. Wishing you all the best for Jan. Xx

Just to add I was on a very standard dose of gonal F - I think it was 125 (sorry was a while ago so can’t 100% remember). My oestrogen levels shot up so they coasted me without meds for a few days - oestrogen levels stabilized and they restarted meds at lower dose and gradually increased again. I think they collected 22 eggs, 17 mature and 15 fertilized. We were very fortunate with a low drop off and 11 blasts. This was ICSI under a NHS clinic. X

@thislittlebird Apologies for multiple posts but I looked up my old notes and it was 150 gonal F, so same dose as your schedule. They dropped me to 125 at day 6 of stims. I’m was sure I remembered omitting a dose at one point but not really clear from my terrible handwriting on my old charts..

Hi @Lemongrass1. Thanks for your replies. That sounds like a very positive outcome. I was about to ask how have you fit in three but you had twins, amazing. Did you transfer two or one that time?

I'll be interested to see how my oestrogen levels are, I always have a good to thick lining and I suspect it's due to high oestrogen.

It's really nice to hear someone on similar protocol at a similar age having a good outcome. Very good drop off rate too, my husband has MFI so I'm going in with fairly low expectations. Fingers crossed we'll get a positive outcome though. Right now I have to deal with a silly high prolactin issue and go for some tests to verify if it's really high or just a one off, hoping that doesn't delay things.

@Amyhope123 they were both frozen transfers from the same egg collection. I didn't have a fresh transfer due to OHSS. The delay was frustrating at the time but looking back it was nothing 🙂

@Holskey can I ask how long you had to wait to do the frozen transfer? I’ve said to them I’m keen to do frozen, because I’m anxious about ohss. Not sure if next cycle is realistic, or the other after.