Hi @Littledream welcome! I'm sure you have been completely consumed by all this as I have. I'm a doctor but nothing to do with fertility medicine, although I feel I'm pretty well equipped for a change in specialty with the amount of reading I've done! It sounds like you have a really good plan in place: you've done imaging, you've done the ERA/EMMA/ALICE, sounds like you've had all the blood tests, and have a lap being set up. Do you have the report from the EMMA ALICE? All the UK reports I've seen provide a pie chart. However the in the USA they get a list of all the various types of bacteria with four different types of lactobacillus listed and they provide the amount of each found. I don't feel this is not particularly helpful though because the research on the microbiome usually classifies a participant as normal if they have more than 80% or 90% lactobacillus so the overall percentage is quite useful to know. It sounds like you don't have any dsybiotic bacteria but you need more lactobacillus, @seven201 was in this position I believe. You might want to try and get hold of florafemme, It's expensive and comes from the USA but it has more beneficial bacteria then all other products on the market, it also has strains of bifidobacterium as well as lactobacillus, some studies have found that bifidobacterium which is also a acid producing bacteria may be just as good as lactobacillus. I did wonder if perhaps I had an issue with getting colonization with lactobacillus. There were some research articles that found people can have lactobacillus pages which basically kill off all lactobacillus and prevent a good microbiome forming.
@Janefx40 These test look fine to me, I find it really difficult to interpret the exact pH, really you're looking at does this look Green [good] or does it look blue [bad]. When my microbiome was abnormal it was very very blue! Not at all green. Also you really have to read these as soon as you've taken them, they turn blue after drying, I did an experiment where I put the acid tablet on one of them and by the next day it was blue. There will be normal fluctuations in the vaginal pH throughout the menstrual cycle, I believe that it goes up slightly around the time of ovulation and also in the few days after your period. What are you really looking for is whether your pH is consistently above 6, as this will be the ideal conditions for dysbiotic bacteria to flourish. I think the body can cope with a brief time with a high pH as we know that it it will be raised during menstruation.
@Violette22 I don't feel that there should be an issue with using the acid tablet and the probiotic at the same time, I've done it. I found that it's best to get these inserted high up into the vagina right before you go to sleep, that will mean you have the longest period of time possible for it to do its job. I have tried spacing it out as well, so putting one in first thing in the morning but even if I'm just sitting down the contents come out fairly soon after.
@SUMMERTIME02 You definitely want to complete the antibiotic course before starting on the 10 days of vagina probiotics. The fetilysis treatment plan involves alternating between a daily vagina probiotic and clotrimazole pessary while on the antibiotic course. This is fine as well and in fact this is what I did in my recent course of treatment. You will however still need to complete at least 10 days of vagina probiotics after finishing the antibiotics.
So I finally received my immune kit, and unfortunately now I have another issue to deal with, I have taught my husband to take blood, he can manage a vile or two. My test requires nine vials though. In addition one of my samples and one of his samples need to be centrifuged, I don't happen to have a centrifuge lying around!! I managed to find one place fairly nearby that can take blood and centrifuge it but guess what, it's broken. They pointed me in the direction of a guy who I've spoken to who has a list of phlebotomist that he can send me, hopefully he sends it as my only alternative is find a way to get 9 vials of my blood and purchase my own centrifuge!