Anyone post-transfer/in 2WW?

[Janefx40]

Hello!

I'm currently 4dp5dt with our last ever embryo. Already have a 3 year old DD from our second round of ICSI and it's been a long road since.

Just wondered if anyone else was out there in the 2WW and fancied keeping each other company?!!

Xxx

@Staceyttc thanks so much, still can’t believe it and praying it sticks.

I had a frozen transfer and it was my first one(I didn’t have a fresh). They tested my blood on the day, I had the transfer then they took my blood straight afterwards. They said they’d done a clinic wide trial and it was their opinion that it was literally 50/50 on women needing extra progesterone and the only way to know was test everyone so they do that as standard now. I didn’t need any extra, so I’m on 400mg cyclogest 3 times a day.

@Janefx40 thank you😊. I’ll be thinking of you , please update tomorrow.

@Imisscoffee2021 yes we only did the 1 round because we were not advised there was a multi package option. Only told about access fertility and at that stage we did not want to take a gamble on paying £10k as I guess we were hopeful it would work the first time around. This is something I need to raise with the clinic though as we were verbally told our fees only to find a break down of the fees in the portal and could then see they do offer their own multi package options. There was a massive different between what we’ve already paid and will have to pay for another frozen cycle so would have opted for that had we known. I can however see the embryoscope is an additional charge for all their packages.

Do you mind me asking where you’re based? I’m in the South West of England x

@Staceyttc ah that's rubbish they didn't explain everything, there is a minefield of costing isn't there? Even my clinic didn't make it super clear at first that you pay for frozen transfers, £2200 each! Which is what prompted me to choose multicycle, luckily we had savings from lockdown (supposed to be start of a deposit but oh well). I'm on the Surrey outskirt of London x

@Staceyttc forgot to say, hadn’t heard of an embyroscope so I’m assuming we didn’t have it. Pretty sure the clinic never mentioned that to us.

@MariaMc1 thanks for sharing that. Do you mind me asking how they decided to do a fresh as I’m sure you said this was your first cycle too? Was it on clinic recommendation? Or your choice? Our gut told us to do a frozen. Again, no guarantee but I’d read a lot and just felt that was the better option. Will never know now though unfortunately.

Your clinic sounds great. I was told by mine when I questioned it that everything they do is evidenced based and with fresh transfers women ‘should’ create enough progesterone. However, I made a point that this is not guaranteed and should not be assumed.

I was also taking cyclogest 400mg, but was only twice daily, morning and evening not 3 times. Considering fertility treatment is regulated, I’m amazed there is still so much discrepancy between clinics.

Did you follow any weird and wonderful diet or any tips before, during or after @MariaMc1? Did you do acupuncture?
Stay positive now. It will stick! This is your time! How exciting!! Sending you lots of love.

@Imisscoffee2021 our cycles are a bit cheaper but it’s still a lot. There is so much they don’t tell you, and it almost seems the norm that you figure it out by your second attempt, which is not how it should be. It’s incredibly frustrating and disappointing xx

I don’t think we’d opt for it again @MariaMc1 They sell it on the basis the blastocysts go in to an incubator where they are recorded through the whole process of development. They say it prevents disturbing the blastocyst and enables them to monitor the development more closely and potentially pick up anything unusual. You then have it on a USB, which is wonderful I guess if it works, but if it doesn’t in my case, you have a USB of a blastocyst that didn’t implant. So it’s actually quite insensitive to make people chose for this or not. It should be included in all packages which some clinics must offer like @Imisscoffee2021 but unfortunately not mine. If the blastocyst implants and you get a BFP then it’s a lovely take home from the clinic. Otherwise it’s not really something you want, just speaking for myself anyway, as they gave it to us during the 2WW. Everyone’s different though I guess xx

@Staceyttc I totally get how gutting and confusing it all is. I've done 9 treatment cycles (3 fresh cycles, 3 egg collections, 3 frozen transfers). I have one amazing DD show for it which makes me the luckiest person I know but I have also seen a lot of failure and been around on these boards and forums for many years.

I remember one of the consultants pointing out that the chance of a healthy couple conceiving naturally in any given cycle is 25-30%. With IVF your chances may be slightly higher or lower than that depending on your situation. But sadly it is really normal both in IVF and natural conception for cycles to just not work out.

IVF isn't a precise science and very few people ever get a clear diagnosis of why they need it. You just do everything you can to see if it works and then hope for the best.

It is utterly heartbreaking. All you can do is look again at this cycle and try to think about what you might change.

But also give yourself time to grieve!

Sorry I sent that prematurely. I was going to say you also need to be kind to yourself and let yourself recover from this. It's a lot to go through.

Sending love xxx

@Staceyttc mine was a frozen 5day transfer. I certainly felt different and like it was working for the first 5 days. I actually took my own progesterone test on the day of transfer (via medichecks) which came back high, but it must have tanked after 4/5 days which is when I felt like it all started going wrong and the spotting / eventual bleeding started.

@Janefx40 i can’t even begin to imagine going through all that. Despite having your daughter that is still a lot of failure as you say and each one heart breaking nonetheless, and as you say, so different.

I totally get what you’re saying but when you pay privately for a cycle you ‘should’ be informed enough to make decisions on what tests you want. I do not for a minute think this guarantees a successful cycle, but what it does do, or would have done speaking for myself, is make me feel like I tried everything. When you hear of people having the chromosome testing and then their progesterone levels checked etc. it makes it hard not to compare. I wasn’t even made aware this was an option, and whilst it may not have changed anything if we had chosen to opt for it and it was still a BFN then at least we could say we checked and everything was ok. On this occasion I don’t think my clinic did that. They did the basics. It shouldn’t come down to the second attempt to know what you need to ask for. That’s what your paying them to do for you.

I am feeling very frustrated and upset again today as you can probably tell. I’ve felt ok the last few days but it seems to have done a complete 360 today. I know this is likely normal but it’s not nice to be left thinking there was more they could have done/checked :( especially with so few frozen. It feels even worse they did the bare minimum knowing that.

@catchthedog how often were you advised to take Cyclogest? Would you say you’re having a proper bleed now? When are you due to take a PT? It’s so hard to stay positive when the bleeding starts. Thinking of you!

xx

@catchthedog I was exactly the same, I had a head ache and nausea day which I get usually a few days before period when hormones shift, progesterone drops and estrogen comes back for period, and I lost the sore boobs even when I increased pessaries, and lost my appetite. I literally felt the change around day 5 and 6 and day 7 started spotting :(

@catchthedog just to add I also told the clinic I had naturally low progesterone, as I spot sometimes in cycles and when I've had day 21 tests it's always been borderline though I do ovulate every month, but they were adamant they don't test for it and that the suppositories plus the corpus luteums from the follicles of the stim cycle will be providing more than enough, but do aspirated follicles become corpus luteum or do they need that rupture? Not 100% sure but it's something I'll be asking tomorrow. I never come on my period early and it was hard seeing that faint line on a frer briefly, looks like there was an attempt to implant. Fading now so this is a true period. Hope your clinic can give you some answers xx

@Staceyttc I take 1 x 400mg pessary three times a day. so they thought it was already on "more than enough" when I called the clinic to tell them I was starting to spot, as i asked if they thought I should add an extra one in.

I am now 11dpt and it's enough of a bleed for me to need to wear my usual sanitary protection. Blood test is tomorrow finally, so at least I can end the meds and focus on planning the next round.

@catchthedog I will be thinking of you tomorrow. Don’t give up hope until then, although I know it’s hard xx

Thank you. here's hoping everyone here gets their baby soon :)

@Staceyttc I totally get what you are saying. What clinic are you at?

With most clinics you have to do your own thinking and research and it's exhausting. If I do get a baby out of this it will be mostly down to my own endless research and fighting.

If you want a clinic that will throw the kitchen sink at it then you need to go to ARGC but they will drain your bank account and pump you full of drugs you may or may not need until you pop!!! They are clinic overkill. But they don't take a chance on basic things like having low progesterone levels.

They will blood test you once or twice a day, keep your progesterone levels above 200 and pump you full of immune drugs that you may not need.

I currently go to CRGH which is another excellent clinic but you still have to do the research and thinking and fight for what you want there. At ARGC they will do the thinking for you but it's extreme. The Lister and the Evewell will also offer all the extras and add ons. I don't know clinics outside London.

A lot of IVF clinics only offer the basics (most tbh). Probably in most cases that is all people need and it saves a lot of money and stress. But they often don't do those extra bits.

I also read the blog/questions on Dr Sher's website a lot. Sher fertility solutions. I have learnt a lot from him too and made decisions accordingly.

It's bloody tough and I'm exhausted but I also feel strong and like a warrior. We are all warriors - fighting for what we need to have our babies. The strongest women I know

Xxx

@Staceyttc I was so desperate to do a fresh as I didn’t want to wait, but we were also considering PGT-A which doesn’t give you the option to do a fresh. DH and I were disagreeing a bit about what to do. Ultimately the consultant said he didn’t want me to do a fresh as all 17 eggs came from one ovary and he said I was high risk OHSS because of this and wouldn’t do the fresh. So that swayed us in the PGT-A too as we had to freeze all the embryos anyway. I can’t fault our clinic at all, they’ve been really good and I’ve trusted them in every step and recommendation.

Honestly I didn’t do much differently, I gave up coffee but only from the day of transfer, and I’d only had the odd glass of wine in the weeks beforehand. I eat healthy and exercise regularly anyway, but stopped doing any high intensity exercise and have just been going for walks. I’ve drank loads of water and upped my protein a bit. Didn’t do any acupuncture. I took it quite easy for the first few days, dh wouldn’t even let me carry hoover upstairs. Sorry that’s not very helpful I guess it was mostly luck.

Hi everyone,

I've gone quiet as processing my own news. But I did just want to say that whilst I agree that it's good to do your own research and make informed decisions, to all those also processing bad news please try to remember that if it doesn't work, this is not your 'fault'.

Achieving the dream of having a baby after fighting and researching every step is great - but equally if it doesn't work for you this doesn't mean that you wanted, or tried, or deserved it any less. All the effort in the world does not, sadly, guarantee you an outcome.

I'm speaking from experience that it's truly gutting to feel you've tried your best and that's still not been enough, the last thing you need (which I'm trying to remember myself) is to blame yourself on top of that grief.

@Janefx40 I hope your test remains positive.

@lucymills1234 thank you for saying that. It's so important.

I think that's what I was trying to say in my original post but then my subsequent one might have sounded the opposite. Sorry if so. What I meant was that IF you want to do all those extra things then sometimes you have to push for them.

I know I'm currently testing positive but it's early days. None of my rounds with all the extras have worked unless this last one does. The only round that worked was an NHS cycles with no frills that the clinic actually messed up too. There is sadly just so much luck involved.

And absolutely if it doesn't work for you, you won't have done anything wrong.

Sending love to everyone.

@lucymills1234 sending you extra love as you process this. Xxx

I just wanted to add that we're all posting from a place of love but equally we are all going through a lot of emotions. Sorry if anything I have said has seemed insensitive or hasn't hit the mark.

Take really good care of yourselves xxx

Hi @Janefx40 how are you doing? Just wanted to check in to see if all was ok xx

Hi @MariaMc1 I guess I'm ok. I've not had any more test results since Monday (I did do a home blood test on Thursday but not got results) and the symptoms that I had post test have all gone so am struggling to believe that it's still happening. I vere from being sure it's failed, to deciding it's ectopic. Then I remind myself that I had no symptoms before I tested at all and it was positive so hopefully it's all going on in there.

My clinic are doing bloods tomorrow but I'm in 2 minds. Part of me doesn't want to know. I'd almost rather keep believing in the possibility than find out it's all over.

How are you?

@Janefx40 how did your bloods go?

@lucymills1234 sorry I didn't respond before. My bloods have all been good. Did the last ones on Wednesday but didn't look at the results until today because I didn't want to know.

I also had a scan today at the EPU to confirm it's in the right place. We couldn't see too much detail as I'm only 5+6 but there was a flicker of a heart beat so it looked ok. I still can't quite believe we'll get all the way to a baby but we're still in the game which is amazing.

How are you ?

@Imisscoffee2021 reading what you wrote there is exactly what I have said. I’ve only ever had borderline progesterone and always spit etc. my clinic really didn’t read much into it. They will always use natural transfer unless you don’t ovulate regularly. So I’m 6dp5dt second FET and another natural so no drugs at all other than an injection of ovitrelle at transfer to help boost natural progesterone. I was extremely dubious at the no progesterone but our first transfer worked athough it was an empty sac and we have to have a surgical MVA in the end. I guess I just need to wait another 4 days to see how this one has gone 🙈

my clinic also has embryoscope as standard. No extra fee. Tho they don’t offer a video to take home. I never asked but they def didn’t offer me it. Can imagine that would be nice to have if it worked but yeah not if it didn’t