IVF / FET March/April 2022

[AliceAbsolum]

Thought I'd start a thread for those starting rounds in the next few months.

I'm 36. TTC for 6 years. This will be my 4th transfer. It's a double embryo FET in Cyprus.

Welcome welcome 😁

@wholemeal121 yeah same, I think up to this point it's just been all about scans and stims and things, and EC seemed so far away! I think tomorrow bedtime I'll be a little nervous but I'm really trying to channel positive thoughts and think if I go in nice and calm it will all go smoothly and I won't feel a thing. I've heard mixed reviews about quite how much sedation they use at my clinic, it def doesn't sound like you're out for the count anyway. But I know I'll be ok and it will be over before I know it! Have you taken a few days off work? Xx

@HJen22 @wholemeal121 good luck with trigger shots/ hope they went well, how exciting for you both.

Hoping I can start my stims Monday- nervous and excited 1st round lets do this!!!.

Question for everyone:- did you al set a limit on how many cycles you would do? My clinic's asked us to think about it?

Atm my mind frame is I'm in this for the long run!

We set a limit of 4. But it depends what the outcomes of the transfers are really. If we get 2xbfn we will go again.

AF turned up this morning. Relief. Best start to take folic acid. Estrofem starts tomorrow.

@hjen22 I've got Monday and Tuesday off. Hopefully that will be sufficient. It's awkward booking leave off at such short notice. The last nurse I spoke to said I'd have a nice sleep so I'm channeling that one. How'd your trigger go? I found the process of mixing etc ok in the end . I followed along with the video. A blob of fluid came out the skin and the end so kicking myself I didn't keep the needle in longer, but I injected really slowly and counted to 10 after. Hopefully there's enough in me!

@PMAmostofthetime thanks. Can't believe we got this far tbh. Fingers crossed you can start stims tomorrow and you don't get many side effects.
We've got one cycle funded on NHS. We haven't properly discussed if we'd do any more. One step at a time but I can see how it's sensible to set a limit otherwise it'll always be "just one more"

@aliceabsolum that's good news you can get started now!

@wholemeal121 I wouldn’t worry about the trigger, it’s quite normal to have a drop or so still on the edge of the needle when you draw it out. You could always ask your clinic though!

As for the question about limit; I’m on a three cycle package (a cycle is considered used when it results in a fresh transfer, so all FETs are “free” - if there are any embryos to freeze, of course! Which is why I was so happy to have two frozen this round. I already know I won’t stop at three cycles if I’m still not pregnant, so the more information I can learn about my body/infertility issues on this package, the better. And if I only had three fresh transfers, that’s not even enough for them to see you as a RIF patient. But I’ve gone for IVF exactly because I’ve never experienced implantation, so I’m pretty sure that is where my issue lies (happy to be proven wrong- but it hasn’t happened yet).
They say three cycles = success for most women, so if you don’t experience success in that frame, at least then you and your clinic should start very actively looking for issues to fix, right? That is my hope/expectation, anyway.

Good luck with the egg collections!!!!!

Period came yesterday so starting stims in the morning 😬😬😬

Hi everyone, I hope no one minds me joining this thread. Looking for some like-minded people also going through cycles. I’m on my 2nd attempt, I got to say 9 stims in January but they abandoned my cycle. I have low amh and low follicle count. On my last attempt I had only 3 follicles but 1 had got far too big and greedy with the drugs apparently. So they abandoned it.
I’m now on day 10 stims this time, different protocol and 5 follicles so far tracking fairly steady sizes. Another scan tomorrow and hoping for egg collection attempt either Wednesday or Friday.
Feeling pretty Eugh this weekend from stims, tired, nauseous.
Hope everyone else is doing okay on this Sunday evening.

@LT103 hopefully the clinic will tell me to stay stims tomorrow too. Good luck :)

@Ems123456789 welcome,

Sorry posted to early

@LT103 hopefully the clinic will tell me to stay stims tomorrow too. Good luck :)

@Ems123456789 welcome, hope your taking some time to relax today.

Good luck with EC @wholemeal121 @ @HJen22.

Welcome @Ems123456789 you are very welcome ! How wonderful that the different protocol is working better. Isn’t it amazing how much things can change from cycle to cycle? Have they told you when approximately they expect the eggs to be mature for collection? I only had 8 days of stims before they triggered me, but I think that’s on the low side.

Seems like a lot of you have ‘synced’ your cycle on this thread haha, either doing EC together or getting your periods. Good luck with it all 😊

Thank you for the warm welcome @PMAmostofthetime I have been relaxing yes and watching Stanley Tucci Search for Italy on BBC iplayer! Highly recommend to anyone trying to rest but needing some escapism.

Thanks @SamTTC not yet. Tomorrow will be day 11 stims and scan so I’m hoping I will get a decision on egg collection. Fingers crossed it’s Wednesday.

Good luck today @HJen22and @wholemeal121 ! You're going to be great. Lie back, relax and let the staff do the rest.

Let us know how many you get when you can!

Welcome @Ems123456789 Glad its going better for you this time. Not long til EC now.

Time is moving quick1 We have been in Cyprus a week today. Just started Estrofem this morning. Scan on Saturday. Transfer should be in 15 days time.

@AliceAbsolum great news AF showed up and you have gotten started. Hopefully the next 15 days fly by!

Change of plan for us, after an incident with trigger (of all the injections too!) we ended up having to call the emergency Dr on Saturday night and go into the clinic first thing yesterday! We got given another dose of the ovulation suppressant and then did trigger again last night. I cannot explain the stress and upset we had, but the Dr was lovely and they rescheduled EC to tomorrow morning. Hoping that it's not going to have an ill effect, but to be honest we'd never know, which is a good thing. Dr said if I'd have 20+ follicles we could have tried Monday but seeing as I've got limited the best option was to wait. It was a huge stress we didn't need!

@wholemeal121 good luck for your EC today, I'll be right behind you tomorrow x

@LT103 @PMAmostofthetime good luck starting stims today! Xx

@Ems123456789 welcome x I wish you all the very best for this cycle, I'm so sorry your first wasn't successful. You've got this! I also have low AMH and AFC, this is our first round x

*I mean we'd never know because there's always a chance I guess of no eggs. We could have went in today and have gotten none, even without the trigger stress. Nothing is a given as we all know. Just need to move on from it and focus on relaxing tomorrow. I've taken today off anyway seeing as we didn't have the relaxed day off we'd hoped yesterday x

Oh noo @HJen22 I’m so sorry to hear about the stress! But you are absolutely right, you’ll never know the difference and for all you know, your result will be the same/better. Can’t wait to hear how it goes with you and @wholemeal121!

By the way if it makes you feel better somehow, I dropped my trigger shot WHILE it was inside me and the needle bent, but didn’t break, so I just injected it again and was like 👀👀👀👀 I confessed it to my doctor like it was a big shame, but they just laughed at me.

Hope all goes well @HJen22 and @wholemeal121

Stressed out today called the clinic and they want us to go today or tomorrow in middle of the day for Covid swabs- my self and my OH have jobs, where we both need to rearrange our diaries and sometimes we just can't finally managed to do it but I just wish the clinic had given us these specific i time slots weeks ago so we could have avoided booking things over these times. We also live over an hour always from our clinic NHS so no choice in clinic.

I just feel like Covid swabs could easily be the very beginning or very end of the day- I'd happily set out at 6 am to avoid the stress.

Been in tears most of the morning thinking it wasn't going to happen :(

@SamTTC thank you so much! It was just so awful, the one they don't give you any others of and of course it was 9.30pm on Saturday night! We couldn't know for sure how much had went in seeing as it's the bloody pen thing that you press. All our others were syringes.

Oh no that's not good it bent! That must have been scary! I'm sure these things have happened before as the Dr wasn't overly phased but very nice and comforting. He told me to stop apologising and stop thanking him.

Funny story about being in the day ward, when we arrived the nurse asked if I had a full bladder. I am like hmm, not really but I'm not sure what's away to happen (the Dr had mentioned a scan but we didn't actually have one) and she thought I was the woman in for transfer! Imagine I'd put the gown and everything on not knowing ha! Someone else was in having IUI. I hope they both lead to pregnancies! So an eventful Sunday!

How are you? Xx

@PMAmostofthetime oh no I'm so sorry you've been so stressed and upset! It would have been a lot better if your clinic could have given you some notice so that you could have planned around work. Don't need any added stress! I hope you've managed to get it all sorted? Xx

@HJen22 Oh no I'm sorry. Totally relate, I did mine by myself when DH was away and it was THE MOST nerve wracking one. I lost a load of the water and couldnt mix it. Urgh awful. So feel for you :( /hugs/ Very glad you got it sorted.

@AliceAbsolum thank you so much x I was far too scared to google (and still haven't) so trusting the Dr made the best call. I just hope that the cetrorelix cancelled out any that did go in and trigger last night will mean they are at the right stage for it tomorrow. I had just began to feel more relaxed about EC too! X

@HJen22 oh I’m so sorry you’ve had all this added stress!!! Good luck for tomorrow!!

First injection this morning went better than I thought so just crossing fingers this next 10 days or so passes super quick

@HJen22 oh no!!! That must have been so stressful. Ah extra day shouldn't be a problem though. There's so much pressure on the trigger injection and it seems to be so much different to all the others so we don't get to practice.

@PMAmostofthetime wow do they forget people have lives outside of the clinic! Hope you managed to get it sorted. Do they swab you then, ie you can't just to it yourself and drop it in. Seems a bit OTT.

@Ems123456789 welcome!

So EC all went ok. 21 harvested! Haven't heard from lab yet so we don't know initial success rate but at least that's one hurdle out the way. After feeling like a beached whale al week I was panicking that I felt 'well' again yesterday as I thought all my follicles might have disappeared.

Thanks for all the good wishes everyone and getting me though these last couple of weeks

@LT103 well done with your first injection! How are you feeling? Hopefully the next 10 days pass quick! When are you in for a monitoring scan?

@wholemeal121 amazing numbers well done! I hope you have had a restful afternoon. How did you find the procedure? Did your clinic basically knock you out with sedation? Mine doesn't! But I am trying to think positive thoughts and remain calm. Have everything crossed for some great fertilisation numbers tomorrow!

Oh I know, the whole pen thing totally threw us! And then we just panicked! It was the worst! Xx

Having a horrendous period so crampy plus bit stingy where inj was so feeling sorry for myself. Actually glad I’m working to distract me!

I finish on Friday if I make it that far as my job is quite physical at times. Then I’m off til after collection.

First scan is a week today