What happens next?

[BiscuitLover3678]

I’d love to know what the process is with secondary infertility in the uk.

It’s been about a year and I’ve had a progesterone test/day 21 test to check if I’m ovulating and DH has had semen analysis. We were referred by gp and are waiting for results. Another negative pregnancy test today so feeling rubbish :( I really hate not being able to take control of the situation.

What are the diffirent options depending on our results? How does it work and does anyone know how quickly things can happen and what the prices might be like? I’m assuming we’ll need to go private. Yes I know it might still happen Id just like to know a bit more and think about it guess.

thanks in advance

Like what is the option if bad sperm of it I’m not ovulating?

@BiscuitLover3678 hi lovely! Sorry to hear you’re struggling. It doesn’t get easier each month, but I did find I didn’t “care” so much after 2 years ttc.

In terms of what’s next, it really depends how long you’d like to try naturally for and on your results back from the GP. If you’re not ovulating, they may try you on metformin first, then if that doesn’t work- they may refer you to your fertility clinic (a friend of mine with secondary infertility got referred for free, and got letzerole! Free of charge which is amazing)

If your partners results come back as the issue- it depends which ones are low. If his morphology is low, this can be improved by vitamins, healthier diet etc etc.If it’s count and motility that’s low, it’s unlikely to change massively. The Drs can still refer you to a fertility clinic, however I found personally it was stupidly long waits for something I’d have to pay for anyway.

Background on my story- DH has a 12 yo son from a previous relationship. We tried naturally for 2 years and 10 months (not counting at all lol) - Drs finally done a semen analysis (I’d had testing and all came back ok!) and it came back that DHs morphology was pretty bad, but his total count was ridiculously high!! We could have waited longer and maybe tried naturally for longer but I don’t think I physically can.

We just took out a loan for IVF and are using a programme called Access Fertility (they’re great btw!) via Bourn Hall clinic. Luckily our families have contributed too, and we had our consultation on 24th October, and I’m due to start down regging on 11th December!! ✨✨✨ it’s been a fast amazing process, I’m so so excited. And if you choose that route, please know it’s not as scary as it seems.

How long did it take you to conceive your first? I know it’s how long is a piece of string!! But personally I’d wait at least 2 years before going down the IVF route, but again, that’s personal preference and sometimes now I wish I’d just done this sooner. But I know I gave it my best shot beforehand. X

@BiscuitLover3678 sorry I missed your prices bit! So ovulation induction for my friend was free of charge.

IVF for us via Acess Fertility is £11,200 (we do need ICSI though and not IVF) this includes 2 Cycles, 50% refund if not successful and unlimited frozen transfers- this might not mean too much atm as it’s a whirlwind of info, it took a lot of googling and talking with friends I knew had gone through the process. X

Thank you so much @Izzie94x i wish you the best of luck on your journey!

First child took one month. Absolutely nuts I know.

how come you recommend waiting two years?

Thanks so much lovely! @BiscuitLover3678 🥰

oh wow!!! Really is Sod’s Law isn’t it. No rhythm or reason to it.

Purely as our fertility doctor recommended trying at least 2 years prior, and also, I just really felt we gave it all we could naturally before spending so much money!!😂 but I appreciate the pain in waiting is horrible. How old are you? If you’re under 35, I’d say wait a little longer, if you’re not, then go for treatment. Whichever that may be! 🥰 just because us ladies have a ticking time bomb inside us hahaha. Xx

@BiscuitLover3678 I’m sorry you are going through this. I think this was the worst time for us - about 12 months/18 months into secondary infertility when it dawns on you something might be seriously wrong. It really knocks you for six, we were in the same boat as you - conceived our first child in the first month of trying, can only think now that was a complete fluke and DD was a miracle.

So ours was a slow path of trying things. And it definitely did help to be doing treatments rather than just trying endlessly…we never really got any answers. Things weren’t optimal here and there but there was nothing glaringly obvious. I think with secondary infertility particularly you need to be prepared for never knowing the reason why it worked so easily the first time and is so damn hard the second.

My progesterone level was borderline but I actually did the test too early which made the result lower than it should have been…reason being I was desperate to try a treatment and I wanted to try clomid. This wasn’t a wise decision but I was desperate. The doctor gave us the prescription and I tried clomid for 9 months. 3 months of those were with an HCG trigger shot before ovulation. That helped me get into the mindset of injections and mentally prepare for IVF. It didn’t work so we moved onto IVF. We didn’t want to try gonadotropins and IUI as we were nervous about the triplet risk. So IVF actually felt less risky…IUI on its own wouldn’t have had much effect according to our doctor.

We tried mild IVF first. To be honest I was a slow responder and my follicles just wouldn’t grow so in the end I spent several days on the shots anyway… it ended up being the same protocol as conventional IVF. That cycle ended with one embryo and a miscarriage.

So with our next cycle we PGTA tested. I wanted answers on why we had been trying naturally for 3 years and our IVF ended in miscarriage. We got one embryo and I was fully expecting it to come back as abnormal but thought it would save us the heartache of transferring. Much to my disbelief it was normal and I’m now almost 9 weeks pregnant. 🤞

Our first cycle cost about £5000 with ABC and for our second cycle we went with a similar package to @Izzie94x so £11,200 with Access Fertility. Ours includes 2 Cycles, 50% refund if not successful and unlimited frozen transfers. We opted for the freeze-all cycles as we wanted to PGTA test. I hope this all makes sense and doesn’t feel like a bombardment of info!

IVF gave us a way forward. We waited three years before trying our first cycle and looking back I wish we’d done it earlier. Maybe the 2 year mark. It wasn’t anywhere near as scary as I’d expected. And it felt so much better to finally be taking action.

I wish you every success in your journey.

@BiscuitLover3678 just thought I'd come on and say hi, after many months trying on the same thread..have you decided to do ivf ?

I wondered how you were doing! I don’t know. Gp referred us for tests so waiting to see results. We don’t know what they are yet but we might go private, I don’t know.
What are you doing? Have you had any tests?

@BiscuitLover3678 it's been a bit stop start for me since the May miscarriage. In the end my hcg levels took 11 weeks to clear. Then I had another blood test with doctor so had to take a break ttc for 6 weeks while I was put on meds (not related to ttc)

Anyway 4dpo at the mo first cycle since the break. I was thinking about you coz bubbles joined our miscarriage thread and was asking 💕 I think the ivf drugs would kill me, well the doctor says no to all hormones so I'm giving it to the end of the year naturally.

It's so hard knowing what is best xx even if drugs were safe I think I'd have a hard time talking DH into it xxx