IVF/FET May/June 2022

[Coops0406]

Hi,

I'm just starting this thread as i've kept joining previous ones in hope that I would be at the same time but got left behind with the ups and downs of ivf.
After 3 cycles, 2 failed fresh transfers, PGT-A testing to give us 3 euploid embryos and just now getting our results from the ALICE/EMMA/ERA tests, I am now finally in a position to hopefully start FET on my next cycle with a transfer likely to be end of May or early June!! 😍. Would love to have people to chat to who are following a similar timeline.

@Coops0406 wow 4 days of fun! Hope you didn't miss too much from the start :)

@Herewegoagain881 I was trying to type up my update since Tuesday, but got interrupted a few times 🤭

So we had the follow up dr appointment, where she was given 2 options for us:

1. start long protocol FET, transfer early aug
2. do some blood testing. Blood can taken anytime (of course after my next af) but results could come back over 10-12!!!weeks. Which if its negative could do FET around end Oct/early Nov. I really don't know what we should do? One of my part want to do the tests, but on the other hand I want to go with the FET as soon as possible. DH wants to test first. If we go with the testing and its all good, we would end up to do the FET the same time as our moving date, and I'm already stressing out of the packing. Logically could do after the move but that will be Xmas time which would make more difficult so realistically beginning of next year. But if smthg not balanced I want to know and get some treatment to improve our chances...decision, decision... My af arriving in the next 2-3days (maybe today) all of my symptoms are in here.

Also I had the blood draw by GP on Thursday all results expected by Wednesday, but the FBC already online and everything within normal levels.
I'm working all weekend, so hopefully it will distract me as I'm going mental (very unlikely from me)

@LT103 I was thinking of you, hope you had some rest yesterday and will over the weekend. If you need a handhold 💐

@PMAmostofthetime oh those lovely brainfogs, I still have them..really funny sometimes what I'm doing. Can you remind me when is your next scan?

@Hopefortansy85 congratulations for being PUPO! How are you feeling? When is your OTD?

@Herewegoagain881 how are you? Did the dr call you back with the next step?

Hi Everyone,

Hope everyone is getting on ok. Congrats to everyone who is PUPO.

I had EC on Weds, 10 were collected and 10 were mature, got my day 1 call on Thurs and 7 fertilised. Won’t find out until tomorrow how the 7 are doing, hoping to have a fresh transfer on Monday assuming some of them make it until then. The wait is killing me not knowing, my next phone won’t be until tomorrow at 12!

I think I have a touch of OHSS so just trying to eat lots of protein and rest with the hope it eases!

@Dobcaty Thankyou, I’m a bit apprehensive now, my husband made me promise not to take a test early. 😬stoopid promise and I’m rubbish at lying 🤥 so will have to wait.
It’s the 8th … 6 L..o…n…g days, we go on holiday on the 6th so hopefully that will distract us. I read somewhere with a AA embryo the chance is 65% it will work 🤞🏻.I also read HGC won’t start until 6 days after embryo transfer day I'm on day5 so probably won’t feel anything yet, Had a few little ripple light cramps day 2 -3 (no bleed) and feeling tired thats probably just the progesterone. I’m not totally cracking up… Yet!

@Dobcaty it's so tricky knowing what to do! What test are they doing that takes 10-12 weeks to come back?

My doctors plan is I have the Alice/Emma test and then if nothing is found from that we'll be starting the process of an FET after my next period. The problem is my hormones are all over the place since my miscarriage, as I had a period then pretty much another period about 2 weeks later. The Alice/Emma test is booked for next Friday but I don't know if my body will play ball or if I'll end up bleeding again before then, in which case I'll have to postpone the test. Also I was on so much estrogen and progesterone in my last FET, which I abruptly stopped at 8ish weeks due to the miscarriage and it's caused massive hair loss 🙈 thankfully my hair was super thick before but gosh IVF sucks...

For me, I was wondering whether to bother doing the Alice/Emma test as it's delaying things but we only have one embryo left so if we don't do it and the transfer doesn't work I'll always be wondering "what if"!

Looking for some experiences if anyone is willing to share similar!

Had EC on Weds we got 10 eggs, call on day 1 said 7 fertilised and I wouldn’t get an update until day 4 which is today in preparation for a day 5 transfer tomorrow (monday.

Got the call early this morning to say i’m booked in for a transfer tomorrow but it may need to be cancelled becuase of they are developing slow and we might loose them.

• 3 stopped developing so are gone
• 1 has 6 cells (3 cells yesterday)
• 1 has 8 cells (6 cells yesterday)
• 2 started to compact just this morning and have 11 cells (6 cells yesterday)

The clinic said they may need until day 6 to keep developing and then we will switch to a freeze all cycle. They seem to be developing very slow and she said at this stage if graded they would be average and that we should prepare ourselves that we might end up with none. We have unexplained infertility and this is our first cycle after some failed IUIs.

Anyone had similar slow developing embryos that you got a viable one to transfer? I of course looked on Dr Google and if I was to go by what i’m reading I would be assuming none of them are going to survive (obvisouly hope I’m wrong!).

@Twittwoo2020 so on my first cycle I ended up with a day 3 transfer & it was 6 cells & on my 4th cycle I ended up with a day 3 transfer again & it was 5 cells unfortunately both failed but I think as you have some that are 8 & 11 cells for day 4 that they are doing ok. Best of luck!

Ivf / ICSI warriors…
I was due my transfer today and got the call that they didn’t make it 😞.
There is 1 they’ll grow til tomorrow but it looks unlikely I’ll be transferring this time.
I’m 44, 45 sept, I had 15 follicles, 12 grew and 10 mature were retrieved, 7 fertilised.
I’m in shock and need hopeful stories …
Has anyone had great results, lots of eggs, good fertilisation, growing day 3 and then failed to get to blastocyst?🙏❤️

@Dobcaty 8th July.
Hoping I'll be ready for EC on the 11th.

I would have been stimming in 225 Meriofert and Burserelin for 8days on scan day.

Did you decide whether to test or do FET?

@Twittwoo2020 how are you doing? Mine started developing slowly I had 2 transferred on day 5 they wasn't blasts. Unfortunately unsuccessful but many have implanted and had successful pregnancies I researched loads when mine happened.

@Icamehere4love this was what happened to me read above- I'm on long protocol this time to hopefully change this.

@Reefy @PMAmostofthetime thanks for your responses! I called the clinic this morning as soon as they opened and they confirmed transfer was going ahead. When I arrived the embryologist told me they had 1
blast graded 3bc to transfer and 6 more still developing although he confirmed 2 were more a less gone, completely different information i got over the phone yesterday. I’m thrilled now at least we transferred and we will find out tomorrow how many we have to freeze so now the long TWW begins!

@Twittwoo2020 so pleased you had one to transfer. Congratulations on being PUPO! Sometimes they don't make it easy for you as it's such a hard time waiting. Hopefully you get a few for the freezer!

@Twittwoo2020 congratulations on being PUPO.

My advice for 2WW don't test early if it's pot or you will still worry until OTD that it's a Chem and if it's negative you'll still have hope until OTD. So just wait.

Make some plans to keep you occupied and take up reading, a craft or binge watch a series to take your mind off it x

@Icamehere4love sorry for your experience, I don't have any good result yet, but didn't wanted to read and run. What did your clinic say? Do you have a follow up appointment scheduled?

@PMAmostofthetime wow you're now in the final run :) hope everything goes as planned. Do you have any discomfort?

@Hopefortansy85 how are you doing? Did you break your promise? I always promise him, then I test, but never telling him until he asks 😉 (except on that one time)

@Herewegoagain881 interesting about the hair loss, I've lost a lot since the first injections, didn't link any connection init. I never had lot, but I think I need to look something to help with it. IVF sadly not easy and then we add other stressfactor to it. Try to trust in your body!

First day of my cycle, (exactly 4 weeks since mc) and we made the decision...going for the testing first. Emotionally really hard to accept the waiting time, but we want to be sure that nothing obstruct us. As we are going to pay the test, the clinic said they will try to push to shorter the waiting, so we will see how long will be actually. Secretly hoping before my next period 😇😅

@Dobcaty I know the wait is hard but I think you will always wonder what if, if you didn't do the tests first, may be nice to have some med free weeks too. It made me feel a whole lot better.

I'm having a few stomach cramps and headaches were unreal after the first day of stims but they have thankfully calmed down.

So feeling goodtoday- brain fog is back though and making it difficult to be motivated.

X

@Dobcaty no I haven’t broken my promise and haven’t felt as anxious since we went away on holiday! The distraction is brilliant. Test tomorrow. I’m not amazing hopeful as I’ve felt absolutely nothing, but of indigestion but I think thats most likely the progesterone. But I won a 4 night holiday to Devon yesterday (I have never won anything before) so I’m feeling pretty good about that and maybe if we have to do a FET because this didn’t work we make sure we use the holiday in out 2ww again it’s giving me good chilled vibes!

@Hopefortansy85 Good Luck for tomorrow
I have my first follicle scan tomorrow so will be online early checking for your news. X

So.. we are a bit in limbo until we ring the clinic, we did the test but my morning urine was really really weak you would think I’d been downing pints of water for 3 hours before( obviously hadn’t) we did the clear blue they gave us, and a first response (we bought) we were expecting bright lines and what we got is something you can hardly see and have to put a bright light on, so I’m not sure we are pregnant the lines showed up in the 3mins, but as I say we’re so hard to see I wasn’t sure if they were just indents. We said we Will teSt later in the day when my pee is hopefully dark. (Mine usually is darker during the day than the morning?!)
so I don’t know what happens next, if they leave me on the progesterone for two days then test again. I’d photograph it but I really don’t think it would show up. I think our AA didn’t latch on 😕any prior experience/ advice would be welcome.

@PMAmostofthetime, good luck with your follicle count, I found that a really nervous appointment as the Dr said my ovaries were small. My left ovary only produced 2 follicles, but as everyone says it’s quality not quantity. I hope it all goes well for you.

@Hopefortansy85 a line is a line- don't drink for a few hours and try again!

Scan went really well- 21 follicles measuring 11-18 only had 11 on short protocol at this point last time- so looks good x

@PMAmostofthetime that’s great news have they said when they are going to collect?
I just did another test ( first response this time) I thought I could see something but I’m line blind now and I don’t see anything. The clinic said test on Monday then stop meds if it’s not got darker. So I think it’s a failure to be honest I may have had an early miscarriage and it’s picked up on that. So I will test on Monday then I’m out I think and it’s back to the clinic for FET. We have 5 embryos and then we have another round paid for if we need it. After a second round we will assess what we want to do.
feeling

@Hopefortansy85 pregnancy tests can be so confusing, I have read before that the FRERs can give false positives.. how many days post transfer are you?

It's so hard not knowing why it doesn't work..for me, I have PCOS and my husband a very low sperm count. I need a lot of progesterone supplements to hold the pregnancy, so my first 2 NHS transfers didn't work as I wasn't on enough progesterone. I'm also on steroids as I did the natural killer cell test and I was boarderline high. I had the embryos tested and 3/5 were ok. My embryos were 34 years old. I think they said at the time it was 50% of the embryos would likely be abnormal at that age. I'm now getting my endometrium tested (Emma/Alice) as I have strange mid cycle spotting since having my ds, and just had a miscarriage with a euploid embryo. It's a minefield...

@Herewegoagain881 I’m 11dpt do you count the transfer day of not then 10days? I did a frer that is negative ( although looked like it had slight line) and the one the clinic gave me was a clear blue and I can see a very faint line. Even hubby said he could.
i guess not every embryo can make it, everything has gone really well so far so this could be our stumbling block. As far as we know so far the only issue was my husbands sperm but he has had a child before.
ive not had any spotting I had a tiny amount of brown mucus (sorry that’s gross) yesterday but it was half a pea amount.
other than that no problems, I would have thought of my progesterone was an issue I would have had my period or bled by now?
i’ve not had any stress apart from my tyre bursting but that lasted all of 5 mins and wasn’t too bad.
I’ve been getting feelings like I’m going to start my period last night and a few times today but usually when I feel like that I start within an hour.
I have been told to test again on Monday and then stop if it’s negative

@Hopefortansy85
Fingers crossed for Monday for you.

Great that you have 5 Frosties though, I didn't get any last cycle- I know it won't help with the heartache of this cycle doesn't work but i expect its reassuring to know you have some.

Another Scan Monday and hopefully EC Wednesday x

@Hopefortansy85 my clinic won't let me test until day 14dpt as they say you'll get a good line then-
So Monday could be nice and clear :) x

@Hopefortansy85 It's been a really long time since my Nhs transfers but I definitely started spotting or bleeding earlier than my OTD for at least one of the transfers.

It's so hard to know what's going on when different tests are saying different things, I personally didn't wait till OTD for the last two transfers and tested positive on the frer on day 5 or 6 post transfer (I also get confused with whether to include transfer day when working out dpt!). It is hard testing early though as then there's a long stress about whether it's chemical or not. In my last pregnancy (a miscarriage) I tested positive on the frer but also used the cheap Amazon one-step tests on the same day, these tests worked well for me (although get some bad reviews too)

@PMAmostofthetime ooh thats good to know, thank you that’s reassuring. I thought it was a bit odd testing on a 2ww before 2 weeks!
fingers crossed for your EC and that you get some Frosties yourself! You have lots of follicles double the amount I had, a fantastic number!
its all so unknown everyone is different every cycle is different and I’m told every pregnancy is different, it’s highly frustrating x