IVF buddies April/May

[ChristmasJumpers]

Sorry if there's already an April/May thread, I can't find it!

All of our tests have been completed (last August) and we were advised to call the clinic on day one of my cycle in April. AF arrived early for the first time in forever so I chanced ringing yesterday and we're good to go!!

Just waiting on a call back from the clinic with official dates and protocol but I know I'll be taking Norethisterone pills first so won't be dealing with injections for a good few weeks yet.

Is anyone else about to get started? It would be great to have some buddies along the way

I'm 30, DH 27. TTC over 3 years and delayed getting tests due to Covid.
We're at Care Fertility Chester and this is out first ever round (we only get one NHS funded - thanks postcode lottery)

Thank you @Hayleylou128 I am sorry your last one didn't stick. I'm hopefully if our numbers stay low they might still be good quality. Fingers crossed anyway 🤞xx

Such a roller coaster journey we are all on.
I hope everyone has a good day today.

I am using up annual leave, it renews in may so its ended up I have close to three weeks off over April. I had to have my hep b vaccine yesterday - required for work. My god that bloody hurt. There was I feeling all brave after injecting myself in the stomach for a week...it did not compare. My Rubella came back with antibodies but my measles wasn't checked so gave another blood test, if I don't have antibodies they say they can't give that during ivf/pregnancy so they will wait until after.

I have a free day today possibly the last for a few days if by some miracle we proceed with egg collection on Monday so going to get the fyremadel injection out of the way then I think I'll go for a long walk with the dogs try to shake all the nerves off!

@LouiseD2018 that’s good that you have some leave from work, that will help take the pressure off a little especially after ET. I’m stressing a little over work as I work for my self and via appointment so have clients booked in. I worry about the side effects and having to work. Sounds silly I know. Hope you enjoy your walk. Do you have another scan tomorrow?

@Suki2020 it doesn't sound silly at all, I had the same concerns.

I didn't take much leave over the last year so the timing worked out well in that respect.

I hope you manage to schedule in time to rest when you need to.

Yes another scan tomorrow first thing there they will decide whether to continue with EC on Monday she said if no improvement it might change to a 3rd scan with delayed ec. Not sure how late in the cycle they can consider ET, I'm wondering if we will wind up having to freeze and transfer later. I need to get the questions down whilst they are in my head.

Hiya everyone, hope you are all doing ok? Just hoping for a bit of advise....

So after getting a wonderful consultation with Dr Thanos on Monday he has recommended a new direction. I am now starting a fresh cycle of IVF, but with the plan to do a natural frozen cycle after. He has recommended some tests before the natural cycle, but they are expensive and intrusive, and even he didn't sound particularly confident they would offer answers to my multiple miscarriages. But that they could..... so what experience do you ladies have of the following;

Endometrio – endometrial receptivity testing and culture Hysteroscopy
Endometrial scratching

Bacteriology/Virology/Immunology Covid-19
Lupus anticoagulant

Cytogenetic/Cytology
Karyotyping/cystic fibrosis/Y-deletion (together)

Any info, personal experience, thoughts are massively appreciated.... we are self funded and looking a a further £3.5k for these, which would me losing a round of IVF, worth it or not? Thanks everyone x

Well it looks like this may not work for us.

This mornings scan showed of the 4 follicles 2 had increased in size, the other two remained the same. Others all still too small to be counted. One nurse felt we should carry on higher dose for a rescan Monday another wasn't sure. Consultant reviewed and requested estrogen test, if that comes back where they would expect they will continue but issuing gradual meds eg just enough for the weekend to rescan on Monday and review.

If the level isn't what they expect there's concern they won't get to the ideal size in which case the clinic will cancel with immediate effect.

If thats the case we get a refund minus £750 for the ivf obviously medicine has been used so no refund there. We won't be trying again if this is the outcome emotionally & financially we just can't.

So it's a goodbye from me, I'm fully expecting this to be cancelled, now or at some point before EC. Trying not to fill my head with positive stories as I do tend to hope for the best and come crashing down.

Wish you all the best of luck on your journeys xxx

@LouiseD2018 I'm so sorry to hear that. This journey is so so tough! I really hope you get positive news on Monday but if not, I hope you give yourself plenty of time to come to terms with what's next for you

@LouiseD2018 I’m so sorry to hear that, I really hope Mondays scan is positive for you. Hopefully they will up your dose a little like they did with me. Mine is now working and they are growing so don’t loose all hope just yet.

@LouiseD2018 I'm so very sorry that things are not working out as well as they and you would of hoped. We are here for you if you want to soundboard etc. Xxx

Can I join? I just got the all clear to start IVF, apparently will be a priming cycle for me starting next week and then stims starting the next cycle. We are abroad and going to do a egg collection, then ICSI and chromosome testing and then hopefully a FET. It's already emotionally and financially draining. I try not to be bitter because my results for every test come back fine (DP's not so much) and yet I'm the one who has to go through all this. Just signed all the medical consent forms to begin today and dreading the possibility of OHSS as I have AMH levels in the higher range of healthy/normal. We've had three miscarriages in 16 months now.

It would be nice to not suffer in silence and actually "talk" with women going through the same struggle. Never thought I'd end up here!

@Rtmhwales welcome! It sounds like we might be on similar timescales and I also have higher than average AMH for my age. I start taking Norethisterone on Tuesday ready to start injections on 2nd May! Can I ask, what does the priming stage consist of? I know my protocol now but don't really know the terms now.

So sorry to hear about your miscarriages up until now we've not had a positive test apart from one possible chemical but it was so faint I could have imagined it.

@ExhaustedPigeon1988
Hi!
Some of those tests you can get done via your GP or via the IVF clinic for for (even though you're self funding)
Speak to your GP and a Dr at the IVF clinic you'll be using (unless that was actually Dr Thanos?)
You could also seek advice from your local EPU as they usually have some sort of recurrent miscarriage service/clinic and some are linked with Tommy's the charity. You could seek advice from Tommy's anyway as they are research pioneers and amazing advocates for people who have gone through MC. I'm thinking some of them you can get on the NHS because of what you've gone through. Don't have any advice on whether you should get any of them because I've not looked in to the research/evidence behind each one but Tommy's certainly have and hopefully would be able to advise you xxx

Thank you @Hayleylou128 I think I just need an actual day off work to spend talking to people and seeing what I can get organised, as I am now going through a fresh round of IVF none of the testing can be done until after, but a friend of mine has recommended tommys too, so that's defo my next step :)

[quote ChristmasJumpers]@Rtmhwales welcome! It sounds like we might be on similar timescales and I also have higher than average AMH for my age. I start taking Norethisterone on Tuesday ready to start injections on 2nd May! Can I ask, what does the priming stage consist of? I know my protocol now but don't really know the terms now.

So sorry to hear about your miscarriages up until now we've not had a positive test apart from one possible chemical but it was so faint I could have imagined it.[/quote]

It's a priming cycle of estrogen for a month followed by progesterone for the last week. It's supposed to support increased egg quality for the cycle. In my case I think the egg cycle is fine but because I've elected to do ICSI for poor morphology for DP and genetic testing they've just done a standard protocol (for them anyway) of priming followed by IVF as it's often used with poor egg quality. While I'd rather start quicker I'm accepting of the plan (like I have a choice, ha) because clinical data shows it supports better quality embryos. Plus given I just got the go ahead yesterday and my period is due next week I'm not sure I would've had time to order in the stims and do the baseline testing and injection demo anyway so might as well take a month to prep my body.

@Rtmhwales your clinic sounds a lot better than mine! I'm on an NHS cycle with Care Chester and just realised that my protocol doesn't even include a baseline scan we also don't have an injection demo, just YouTube videos to watch.

Our meds arrived yesterday, its all systems go ready to start norethisterone on Tuesday. Can anyone put my mind at rest that it's normal not to have a baseline scan? My next appointment in the clinic isn't until day 5 of injections (and that is only because I have PCOS, otherwise we'd be waiting until day 10!)

@ChristmasJumpers my first fresh round was a base line scan, then monitor scans on day 5,7,9. I reacted too quickly to meds and collection was brought forward to day 11. High chance of ohss, but luckily avoided it.

This time, no base scan, monitor scans are day 6, 10,12, egg collection on day 14, but if anything like last time will end up on day 12, so probably missing 3rd scan.... they seem extra slack this time yet they know I'm high risk! The clinics don't care, you have to fight for what you're want x

[quote ExhaustedPigeon1988]@ChristmasJumpers my first fresh round was a base line scan, then monitor scans on day 5,7,9. I reacted too quickly to meds and collection was brought forward to day 11. High chance of ohss, but luckily avoided it.

This time, no base scan, monitor scans are day 6, 10,12, egg collection on day 14, but if anything like last time will end up on day 12, so probably missing 3rd scan.... they seem extra slack this time yet they know I'm high risk! The clinics don't care, you have to fight for what you're want x[/quote]
It's so stressful! Do I ring the clinic and ask for a baseline scan? I've been diagnosed with unexplained infertility by my hospital yet in my initial consultation with the IVF clinic the consultant said he's quite sure I have PCOS due to my blood results. I know they have added in a day 5 scan because of this but that's all. I'm putting all of my faith into them with our one and only NHS round.

@ChristmasJumpers if you are unsure push for what your heart tells you- if anything goes wrong you will forever regret you didn't. Due to everything going so well last time I'm fairly confident I will be ok this time, my issue is recurrent miscarriage more than the collection side. Hence why I'm happy- ish to let them get away with it. Trust me though, if something doesn't feel right, usually it isn't x

Hi ladies, may sound like a silly question but for my egg collection my letter from my clinic day nail varnish must be removed, does this just mean on my fingers or my toes as well?

*says not day

@ChristmasJumpers if you are unsure push for what your heart tells you- if anything goes wrong you will forever regret you didn't. Due to everything going so well last time I'm fairly confident I will be ok this time, my issue is recurrent miscarriage more than the collection side. Hence why I'm happy- ish to let them get away with it. Trust me though, if something doesn't feel right, usually it isn't x

@Suki2020 it's on finger nails only, and actually they only need one for the monitor x

Thanks @ExhaustedPigeon1988 feeling really nervous about egg collection on wed. It’s not know what to expect

@Suki2020 I was exactly the same, mine was delayed by nearly an hour and they didn't even tell me, was terrified the whole time. I was shaking so much walking down to theatre, I really didn't think I was going to make it. My sedation wasn't great so was painful, but nothing I couldn't bare, and anyone at all other clinics I have spoken to said they didn't feel a thing :) the recovery was so quick, in fact there really wasn't any at all, and I had 14 eggs collected from 25 follicles.... it's easy for me to say, but try not to worry, it's over with so quickly, and it's what we have to endure to get our bubbas :) it couldn't be that bad, as I have my next one booked for may :) best of luck, and TRY stay calm. It's a milestone to be proud of x

@ExhaustedPigeon1988 thank you. Wow 14 eggs is was great. I know I will be a mess on the day, but will just be glad once I’ve done it. So you have to start again in may or do you have eggs frozen?