First cycle - IVF / ICSI - Day 4

[Koalie]

My hubby and I are on day 4 of stims - our first IVF cycle. Just wondering if there's anyone else in the same boat who might want to share the journey? :)

@Koalie @ScottishRach such good news re embies 🥰
I bet you are both so looking forward to transfer.

My EC is booked for Friday (assuming all good with final scan tomorrow). My ovaries feel SO full and I’m a hormonal mess. Did anyone else find the stims made them super mood swingy??

@Jupiteer welcome! I have all my fingers crossed for you it’s a successful cycle. I’m a little further on but not had EC yet. I’m on day 10 of my cycle with my EC booked for Friday. I found the first 6 days of stims easy, no different to a normal day. Then I started to feel a bit headachey, bloated and angry 🤣

@Strawberry08 I’m actually really anxious about tomorrow, as I’m still in a fair bit of pain and feel like a balloon. I’ve got the consultant checking me over when I go in tomorrow before they transfer so I have a feeling it might end up being a freeze all 🥺 I just don’t feel at all like my body is ready to grow a baby yet I’m so sore ☹️ re the stims, I didn’t notice any change in my emotions, only when it got to the progesterone pessaries but it’s totally understandable considering all the drugs were pumping into ourselves.

@Jupiteer of course you’re so welcome here! ☺️ keep us updated with how you get on 🤞🏼 x

@koalie did they check your oestrogen levels just before your trigger in case it could be OHSS? If you don’t feel ready you can definitely defer. They say in a lot of cases frozen cycles are better for the body!

@Strawberry08 nope, I haven’t had any blood tests at all. Will just have to see what they say tomorrow. 🥺 hope you’re feeling happier! 🥰 x

Morning everyone,

@Koalie wonderful news about your embabies!! Good luck for today; are you still feeling bloated and sore?

@Izzie94x how are you doing? Following your advice I've also started doing the pessaries rectally too, sick of the mess they make 🤣 the pessaries are making me get some really bad heads now, but think that's quite common when you've been on them for a while.

@ScottishRach fab news, good luck for today 🤞🏻

@Strawberry08 hopefully your scan goes well today and EC can go ahead!

I've been quiet on here for a few days, I couldn't focus properly with stressing myself about tests etc 🤣 and I can't actually believe I am posting this but I got a positive today 8dp5dt!! My first ever and I literally cannot believe my eyes 🥰🥰 just hope it stays and keeps getting darker! Wasn't even a hint of a line on yesterdays test. Can't wait until tomorrow now to do another 🤣🤣

@Koalie good luck today!!

@User491 oh my goodness, CONGRATULATIONS!! That is the best best news. So lovely to get some positives on the group!

@User491 OMG ! congratulationsssss ! You must be on ☁️9️⃣ I am SO happy for you 🥰

@ScottishRach good luck today!

I’m just on my way to the clinic now, as they had a last min morning appointment. We’ve got 9 blastocyst, 1 to transfer and 5 or 6 good enough to freeze! I said to my hubby ‘big family then? 😉’ haha. Will let you all know how it goes and if we transfer today.

xx

@User491 omg CONGRATULATIONS! ✨✨ that’s so so amazing!!!!!! I’m so happy for you. Isn’t it the best feeling? But also, an anxious bloody mess now.

I’m struggling to see any line progression on mine the last few days, so I really am an anxious mess 😅 but I got a pregnant on a digi yesterday afternoon. But the last 3 days of frers looked really similar!!! I was hoping todays would be really strong but we’ll see tomorrow. I’ve been google chemical pregnancies constantly the last few days LOL.

@Koalie eeeee good luck for your transfer lovely!!!!! Enjoy the painful 10 day wait 😭😂 the worst part!!

(Attached line from yesterday. 8dp5dt! And digi) xx

Attached now*🤣

Hi ladies

So I’ve got OHSS ☹️ it will put me at higher risk of blood clots so I now have to do blood thinning injections every day, stop the pessaries and wait for my period. Hopefully will only take a couple of weeks to go away and I can do FET next cycle 🤞🏼I feel oddly relieved and happy and even happier that we will have 6 or 7 in the freezer.

@Izzie94x all I’m gunna say is put your hands on your head and step away from the tests! 😆 lol. But seriously, line progression tells you absolutely nothing. A. Because you could have no line progression but still have a perfectly healthy pregnancy (Google the hook effect) and B. Because a good line progression doesn’t mean you won’t/haven’t miscarried. All you’re doing is making yourself stressed and anxious and stealing the joy of being pregnant from yourself. You’re best off waiting for your first scan and just enjoying the fact that you’re growing a little baby in your tum ☺️ it’s already written so you can’t change the outcome by stressing 😘 xx

@Koalie oh poor you, sorry you have that and are feeling ropey. But glad you feel relieved and lord of good Frosties!! If it helps, I have just had my final scan and triggering tonight for Friday collection but I am at very high risk of very severe OHSS as I have 28 follicles (15 of which are good big mature) but my oestrogen is through the roof too.
They are triggering me with buserelin, and I have the blood thinners and more cetrotide for after transfer to help prevent anything awful but I will be on FET too, when everything settles. I’m disappointed but 100% right decision and we will both be much more ready when we get there and physically in the right space.

The nurse has told me expect to feel horrendous with OHSS and get signed off from work for at least a week so I’m a bit scared!

@Strawberry08 oh noooo … that’s not great the nurse putting that fear into you. I think it only gets horrendous if you fall pregnant from what I heard and if you have the HCG trigger (which I did 🙄) I just feel bloated and tender still but so thankful that my body will have time to recover. I haven’t been signed off work (unfortunately lol) and if it helps allay your worries at all, I had 36 follicles and 19 drained. Also, I’ve read plenty of OHSS forums on here and there are people who had around the same follicles/eggs retrieved as us who didn’t even get OHSS. I’m sure you’ll be OK. How you feeling about egg collection Friday? How exciting! 🤍

@Koalie ah that actually has made me feel much better, thank you so much. I am going to have a read of some of those threads. I think she did give me the fear but actually you’re right I’m not having the hcg trigger and il be totally fine. Still definitely taking that week off work though!!
Gosh so excited to get these eggs out!! Looking forward to it and not having to do any more stims. I’m not too nervous, I’m going to tell them not to be shy with the sedative

@Strawberry08 Haha! I don’t blame you one bit 😆 & egg retrieval will be an absolute breeze! The most painful bit for me was when the nurse ripped a plaster off my arm at the end of it! Lol x

@User491 thats fantastic news ❤! I'll keep everything crossed for you that the line continues getting stronger 😊🤞, but as Koalie says try not to torture yourself with testing - I know it must be so difficult!

@Koalie ah that's disappointing but in the long run much better, you want to be in the best condition for transfer 😊. What a great number of frosties to have!

@Strawberry08 I went through collection with no sedation and barely felt a thing.... and I was terrified of the whole thing! As Koalie says getting the plaster/cannula ripped out is probably the worst part of it all!

Been a long day for us again, not helped by our train to clinic having a half hour delay because a passenger wouldn't get off the train, called the police himself, and then had to wait for them to arrive and take him off 😆. It's been very strange as 3 embryos made it to blasto and the other 3 didn't develop at all so one extreme to the other. I had a top quality AA transfered and another top quality AA frozen. The third one made it to blasto but the embryologist isn't sure of quality yet so will call tomorrow to let me know if it's viable for freezing too 🤞. So now I am in the two week waiting period armed with my vitamins, pessaries and pineapple.

@ScottishRach … Yay! That’s amazing that you’ve got 2 top blasts. The other one would just be a Brucey bonus if it’s looking good tomorrow ☺️ did you get your fries? 😆 I also read something about laughing being good for implantation (no idea how lol) so a bit of Ricky Gervais was my plan for after transfer! Good luck with the wait 🥰 x

@Koalie

Just reading about your IVF treatment and it seems to have gone really well. You mentioned you have low amh. Would you mind sharing how low? I am 34 and have a low amh but feeling encouraged about your experience.

Hi @Mac425 :)

@Mac425 oops … sent before finishing 🤦🏻‍♀️ was going to say of course. I’m 32 and my AMH was 10.7 a few months ago when it was last tested x

@ScottishRach ahhhh amazing news!! Are you going to fry wait the whole two weeks or test before?

@Mac425 welcome!

@Koalie thank you. Mine was 1.1 but it wasn't really explained how low or what it should be roughly for my age. I've just been told I would need the highest meds.

All the best with your treatment! 🤞

Hello, Im on day 4 of my first IVF ICSI cycle, which will be our one and only IVF funded cycle. Have learned allot from reading your posts so thank you all for sharing!

I have been told only a future frozen cycle is possible so I wont be implanting this month but hope to get some good quality embryos for the freezer.

I wondered if anyone had any advice on natural vs regulated from previous cycles or what everyone was planning to do for their current cycle? I haven't got to that stage of planning yet and I'm not sure what/if to ask for one or the other.

Best of luck to you all.

Hi @Bran90 :) welcome to the group! Have they told you why you won’t be able to have a fresh transfer? Are you at high risk of OHSS? My consultant touched on natural vs regulated FET with me yesterday and just said they would recommend regulated as it gives them much more control over making sure my body is ready for the embryo so I’m just going with their suggestion (although now you mention it, maybe I should look into it a little more 🤔) are they giving you the option? How you feeling about everything? ☺️ x

Welcome @Mac425 and @Bran90 😊.

@Strawberry08 I'm not sure I'll be able to wait the whole 2 weeks with testing, but I'm going to try make it a week at least. I haven't bought any tests so that I don't have the temptation sitting right there, I just have the one test the clinic gave me on leaving.

I had a phone call from the embryologist earlier to say that the third blast also made it to AA so was frozen. So one in the oven and 2 top quality frosties for this round 🤞. I recognise that, while I might not be getting as much as some private clinics seem to be offering, I'm very lucky to qualify for the NHS 3 rounds.... though I really hope we're lucky on this round and don't need anymore.

Out of interest how are you ladies handling time off work? I've read some posts where folk are saying they are taking sick days and things like that so they don't have to tell anyone what they are going through. I'm lucky that my job are so supportive with it all, it's taken that extra stress away.

@ScottishRach it takes so much will power doesn’t it!!

With work, up until today I hadn’t needed to tell anybody as my appointments were all booked early and I just flexed my hours (I’ve been at my company for 11 years and can be very flexible). I wouldn’t have minded telling people I just didnt feel I needed to. However today I don’t feel well at all post trigger and have a lot of pain and likely OHSS so have called my boss plus those who work close to me and let them know I may be a bit in and out next week. Everyone was super understanding