Professor Brosens / sitagliptin

[BewilderedBee]

Is there anyone on here that's been treated with sitagliptin? Also anyone had the digital endometrium function test with professor brosens? I have an initial consultation Monday and then my biopsy next Friday

Thanks in advance

Thanks @JemInher40s !! A good sense of humour is probably all that's got me through this so far so that is helpful to know 🤣

Does anyone know which dates of your cycle the biopsy needs to be taken on?

My cycle is regular 28 days and ive worked out im seeing proff Brosson just before i ovulate. What are the chances of me being able to book in a biopsy for the cycle when i see him? Can i book the biopsy in advance if i know my dates?

TIA xxxx

I think you can schedule your preferred month for the biopsy procedure. Once you test positive for ovulation that month you call the clinic and see professor a few days afterwards.

@JemInher40s thanks so much, ill give them a call and see if I can put my name down for next month. I didn't want to risk not being able to get an appointment as I think it'll also land on half term week 😬

I have just had my follow up appointment and recommended sitagliptin. I don't really understand where the 3 months came from and why that is. Can anyone explain? I read the clinical trial paper and they seem to pluck 3 months out of thin air

Hi I’m not sure to be honest. All I know is there isn’t much help out there on a limited budget and I am willing to try anything at this point. The only other option for me is an immune protocol now (I think I have tried everything else) which I would have to go to London for as Coventry feel I don’t need it and I can’t really afford to go to people like Prof Shehata so I just have to be hopeful the sitagliptin will help. It is my first cycle post sitagliptin but my husband is having issues performing (sorry tmi) so I can’t report back on the effects of the sitagliptin just yet but if there’s even a small chance of it helping I’ll give it a shot

Hi, I think I read or the professor told me that there's no evidence that taking sitagliptin longer than 3 months impact outcomes, and so three months dose is the average.

Sorry I mean where the evidence that taking it for just 1 month is or isn't sufficient? The paper was looking at stem cell recruitment not pregnancy outcome as the primary endpoint and only measured deft after 3 months ago how do they know that the same effect wasn't there after just 1 month?

Hi how’s everyone getting on?

I’ve had 2 cycles since my sitagliptin treatment ended and not fallen pregnant yet. I know it’s no time at all but just struggling a lot mentally now that I’ve started to TTC again. The constant anxiety about trying to get pregnant and the disappointment when I’m not but I know if I ever do see those 2 lines again it will be pure panic thinking it will end in another loss.

It was the due date for my fourth loss a few days ago and I am really finding it hard to cope. Can’t believe how many babies I’ve lost and how long this journey has been and I’m still here still trying to fight but not sure I have it in me anymore. I’ve tried to stay positive for a long time and battle through but it’s just getting too much. I also find not many people understand the world of recurrent loss and I feel friends and family can’t really relate and it’s such a taboo subject everyone is terrified to speak to me about

@Ttcafterlosses Just wanted to stop by and send lots of love. It’s such a hard, hard journey. And a lonely one. Make sure you’re taking good care of yourself and being really looked after xxxx

It's sh*t and no one else really gets it.

I'm in cycle 2 of sitagliptin, not loving the constipation side effect! Also struggling with the lack of evidence in the scientific paper about this 3 months business.
Time/ age is not on our side and quite frankly mentally I'm coming to terms with only having 1 child. I refuse to put our family through IVF, I have low AMH and would be over 40 so chances are v v low, but at least I can say we tried.

Sorry to hear you are having a hard time too. It’s relentless - I feel grief constantly and my mental health is declining

I know the research is so limited I was a little sceptical and wanted to do down the prednisolone route but the only way to do that is via Prof Shehata in London and I don’t have the funds nor the ability to travel down to London regularly.

I have considered IVF but not sure how much it increases the chances of a successful pregnancy other than if you go down the route of testing the embryos? I too don’t think I could go through with IVF. Especially with the idea that my womb isn’t providing a great environment hence the sitagliptin.

I have a little girl and I am so so grateful for her especially as I know many ladies on here are experiencing this trying to have their first but our family feels so incomplete

@Cariadxx @Ttcafterlosses I get that IVF isn’t for everyone (and I’d have prob felt differently if I already had a child) but I’d have to say that it’s been the least stressful part of our fertility journey (I did six rounds over 40 with PGTA and finally got a positive). Has anyone else had problems with having biopsies taken during treatment at Coventry though? Mine had to be cancelled after numerous extremely painful attempts x

Hi. That’s interesting to hear because people always talk about how difficult IVF is but then recurrent loss is in a realm of its own.

Has Professor Brosens himself tried doing it if the other team members are struggling? I didn’t have any issues getting the biopsy done but within 48hours I was hospitalised with sepsis, which apparently has never happened to any woman they have taken it from before

Given that I have implantation failure, the chance of ivf success is not great as you still need the embryo to implant, ivf doesn't bypass the problem point. We also couldn't afford to fund 6 cycles and I know lots of people who have thrown thousands at ivf and have nothing to show for it, and they were younger than me. We have one child and I'm not willing to sacrifice enjoying his childhood in pointless pursuit of another child, we have had 5 losses in a row (possibly 6 but unproven) and mentally I am nearly at my peak of what I can cope with. We can't book holidays or plan anything in advance because we have no idea what is going to happen and this is not the life I want to live any more.
My biopsy was bloody painful but it was uncomplicated thankfully. I wouldn't want to go through it again so I really feel for you!

@Cariadxx agreed … IVF has ruined us financially. PGTA has been unbelievably expensive. I wouldn’t have continued if we already had a child - feel like we’ve lost four years of our life whilst watching the world go on around us. We had to give up on the biopsies in Coventry. There were various complications and I ended up having a general anaesthetic just to be able to have an embryo transfer.

Im sorry to hear about your losses. It’s such a horrible time. Sending all the best x

@Ttcafterlosses Professor Brosens hasn’t tried himself but I was advised not to try again after a few disastrous attempts.

Yeah, IVF wasn’t great but nothing compares to the heartbreak of recurrent loss.

Wishing you all the best x

Gosh that sounds awful.
I really don't know what we'd have done if we didn't have a child already. I friend of a friend is currently in that situation and just stuffed full of meds, poor quality embryos and transferred less than 6 weeks after an ectopic and it is completely taking over her life. It has done the same for us for over 2 years and I feel we need to start focusing on what we have. It doesn't help that I work with children and babies. Some people seem to try for nearly a decade and I have no idea how they manage both mentally and financially. I am in awe. Equally my consultant says that to set a deadline to stop trying is a sign of mental strength too.

Hello everyone.

I recently had a consultation with Prof Brosens following my biopsy and I have an abnormal result for the dEFT and have been prescribed Sitagliptin. This is after four failed IVF transfer and two transfers resulting in miscarriages.

Just wondered how those of you who had a similar result and were prescribed the Sitagliptin are getting on? Does it tend to work? It just seems so new and unproven.

Hi all I'm here to share some good news....I'm one month on from finishing sitagliptin and this morning got 2 faint positives (couldn't quite believe the first one), this is a natural conception but we were planning to transfer our 3rd embryo this month if I hadn't conceived. Obviously I know its such early days and I've been here before and then been bitterly disappointed (this will be my 6th pregnancy and I have one child) but reading some of your comments I totally get where you are coming from and it is so destroying and so unfair but it will hopefully end with a baby or be reassured that we tried everything. Thinking of you all and that we all get the outcomes we are hoping for x

How are you getting on?
Do you mind me asking how old you are? Currently having a real down day about it all so need some positivity!

@Cariadxx I'm very anxious its not going to work out but still hoping for the best. Its too early to have a scan but got one booked end of the month. Been doing lots of tests studying the line...its going to be a long month.
I'll be 37 in a few weeks. I'm sorry you're having a tough day, it's horrible to feel so helpless but keep having some positivity xx

I finished sitagliptin last Aug, and did an IVF cycle in Oct. Im currently 27wk
First time pregnant, own egg and 44yrs old.

Thanks it just seems that everyone with naturally conceived success on it seems to be mid 30s

Hi how is everyone getting on?

I just wanted to share that I had my biopsy today and some info for anyone waiting to have it done. I got bloods done first for thyroid, oestrogen and progesterone hormones. Then the biopsy itself was an internal scan for some measurments of womb lining followed by the biopsy itself. For me this took a matter of a couple of minutes with less than 10 seconds of taking the sample which was nothing more than a harsh period cramp. Had some spotting since but so far so good.

They said I should get an email in the next 6 weeks to book an appointment to review results.
Xxx

Hello,

I just wanted to join this thread and this mini community - especially after hearing the promising results from @JemInher40s and @Haz1990 . How are you both getting on?

I had my first biopsy in November after having one child in 2018 with a very traumatic csection birth, and 5 miscarriages over 3 years since including a partial molar pregnancy. All (aside from the partial molar) perfectly healthy with no genetic issues. Heartbeats seen, and then faded away at 7/8 weeks. Doctors couldn't find anything wrong.

After my first biopsy the results came back as 17th percentile for Deft and 10th percentile for UNK cells. I was given 3 months of sitagliptin and then returned to the clinic for a second biopsy to see how I was doing in March. Whilst I was waiting for the results I asked for a fourth months of sitagliptin, which I was given.

When my second biopsy results came back they had slightly improved, but not as much as Prof Brosens had hoped for. I was on the 22nd percentile for Deft and the 12th percentile for UNK cells. He underlined to me that the more important test by far was the Deft - and that the UNK cells would follow the deft improvement and my immune system would fill any gap cause by the low cells. I've now been given another 3 month course of sitagliptin and been told to start trying from next month (would be my fifth month on sitagliptin) and to stop taking if I had a positive pregnancy test. I also have progesterone to support my leutal phase from 3DPO to 13DPO. If my results have followed the increased curve I should be at around the 25th percentile now for my Deft, with anything from the 25th to the 75th percentile being within the 'normal' range (albeit the very low range of normal... I was hoping to be in the 30s!)

Having so many miscarriages has been so hard for both me and my husband over the past four years. We've had to stop trying since my last pregnancy in June last year due to lots of reasons outlined above, and its been good for our mental health to have some time out from the grief of every cycle either being negative or anxiety inducing positive followed by loss. It's scary going back into a time of trying again, but I'm aware that sitagliptin resets your body after miscarriage and increases the likelihood of getting pregnant. And also the effect of having a biopsy can increase the likelihood of a positive implantation site also (for 3 month post scratch). I will be 35 in July too.

I asked so many questions of Professor Brosens after receiving my latest results that I have another appointment schedules with him soon to discuss. If theres anything I've learnt over the past 5 years its to advocate for myself and not be scared to ask! Anyway. There's my essay for you 😂I'm hoping to one day be one of those people that pop back on this thread to say that it worked out for me, but only time will tell. I must say that Professor Brosens has been the first person to really give me hope in the past four years.

E x