@HJen22 good luck with the ec! Honestly, it was not a big deal for me. I had morphine and local anaesthesia, and it was totally fine. The only uncomfortable thing was having the drop needle in my arm (my body does NOT like this, and I get very nauseous and dizzy, but as far as I know that's a very rare reaction). And it's cool to see them suck the follicles out on the monitor. :) I also had 6 retrieved.
@AliceAbsolum that is so useful with the website with the different addon 'ratings'. I for sure thought assisted hatching and the ERA test were considered legitimately helpful tools. I have wondered whether the ERA test would be helpful since your window might change cycle to cycle, so it's interesting that they point this out as a potential flaw in the test.
@LT103 you are definitely not alone in being stressed and having nightmares! Every step of this journey just introduces a new fear of having your body / the clinic mess something up. Will you not produce eggs? Will they trigger you too late/too soon? Will your body ovulate on its own, or not at all? Will the follicles be empty? Will the eggs not fertilise? Etc etc etc...... and even if all those steps go right, a good embryo still has to stick and implant and grow and thrive for it all to matter... honestly sometimes I wonder how any human manages to be born ever! So even for all that science, nature is still in charge. It seems impossible! But it DOES work, very often, for many many people. That's what I try to keep telling myself.
An update for me: my period is finally over after my failed cycle, which means I can stop wearing pads for the first time in three weeks (since the progesterone pessaries were so messy). It's the small pleasures you know? :) I had to go for two blood tests before they would declare me officially not pregnant, because the first HCG value was 4, and they wanted it to be max 3. I thought that was pretty silly, in what world does an HCG value of 4 mean anything? But the second time it was 3, so they finally let me end this cycle. Now I just have to wait it out, because they won't do my FET until next cycle. Is it just me, or are we always just waiting, waiting...?
I also had a follow-up TSH blood test done, just because I've been having some hypothyroidism symptoms, but it came back as totally normal. I know it's possible to have the disease even with a normal TSH level, but honestly I think I'm just symptom spotting at this point, because I want there to be a fixable reason for why I'm not pregnant yet, you know? Other than having my bacterial levels tested next week, I think I'll just trust the process, at least for the two FET cycles I have lined up. And I NEED to stop eating sugar. It's my only vice, but I know it's a bad one!