IVF April 2023

[charja100]

Hi all,

I'm about to start my first IVF ICSI cycle. I expect to start my stims next week and all being well will have a fresh transfer in April.

Looking for buddies to come on this journey with me.

Thank you for your kind words 🥰 good luck with your transfer 🥚👶🏼🤞🏼❤️ xxxx

Sorry ladies just catching up ❤️

@Carly05 I'm so very sorry 😢 I am sending so much love and hope you have lots of support around you. Take all the time you need to process and look after yourself xxx

@charja100 how are you getting on with your tww? It gets harder as the days go on doesn't it. Hope you're doing good and managing to distract yourself xx

@Ksangha welcome! I hope stims are going well 💕

@magh333 welcome! Not long to wait now! Sending you all the luck for OTD!!

@MRSLMF I'm sorry to hear you have tested negative, when is your OTD? Perhaps keep testing until then? Sometimes it can be too early!

@Flower356 good luck with your first cycle! Any questions just ask! It is so daunting, take each day as it comes xx

@ho8ll8y congrats on a great number from your retrieval! I hope you get a really good update today 🤞🏻 everything crossed!

Our OTD (bloods) was Thursday. Got the results late Friday afternoon and our first ever BFP 🥹 cautiously thrilled. I say this update with love and sensitivity as I know how hard it can be when you're going through it / having a really shitty time. It's taken us a long time to get here, 4 collections later and our first transfer. My advice is to avoid google if you can during the tww as I knew it would just stress me out and cause me to overthink. I had a sore lower back and some twinges but I had no idea if it was period symptoms or not. And I've been bloated ever since I started progesterone. Xxx

@Jx3303 congratulations thats fantastic news. We know what everyone has had to go through, so its so good to hear some positive outcomes. Fingers crossed for healthy and smooth pregnancy

Morning all. I start my injections today. But nervous about doing the prostap myself. All videos show it going full way in but note from clinic says half way. And not sure if I have to pinch the skin/fat 1st. Or what angle to put the needle in. Have emailed the clinic!

How are you all today?

@Jx3303 congratulations lovely! You must be so thrilled. I don't know how you managed to avoid google in the TWW I'm an actual google addict at this point.

So I'm 5dp5dt and I'm going slightly insane. I'm actually glad it's Monday because this week will go by more quickly now I'm working. This weekend has been hard I think I had too much time on my hands to think.

So I've had no real symptoms other than twinges, u til last night when I had pink spotting when I wiped which was brown spotting this morning. Google says (😂) it could be implantation bleeding, or could be aggravation from the progesterone. I guess only time will tell.

Definitely not going to be able to hold out until OTD.

@Jx3303 huge congratulations on that amazing news!! I was keeping my fingers crossed for you last Fri.. so glad after 4 attempts you have this outcome❤️ it also gives me some hope to try again xxx

@Flowerlover010 thank you so much ❤️ I hope you are feeling ok on the lead up to your cycle?

@charja100 thank you lovely ☺️ haha I know, normally I google absolutely everything but I just knew it would panic me, I tried to stay as relaxed as possible but at the point you're at now I was also struggling!! Hopefully work will make it pass quick!! And honestly I didn't really have any stand out symptoms! My periods can be weird, and I don't always have the same period symptoms so I tried not to compare. It did get hard to ignore twinges though! Gentle yoga really helped me and plenty of walks x

@Carly05 thank you so much 💕 please do keep the hope. It's a really hard journey and bad news is always hard to take, I have had lots of it throughout our ivf time. Do what makes you happy right now, don't force yourself to do anything, listen to your body and heart and time really is a healer, although in the moment of pain I know it doesn't feel like that. I hope you had a nice weekend and have lots of caring people around you, as well as us all here xxx

Congratulations @Jx3303 ! It is lovely to hear some positive news and hope all goes well for you from here ☺️

@charja100 hope the spotting is a good sign! Google is my worst habit, I wear a Fitbit and at the moment am fixating on my resting heart rate going down which is just not helpful.

I'm 10dp3dt with bloods on Wednesday, no symptoms really except cramping every couple of days. Part of me wants to know now and another part would rather not find out 😂

@Jx3303 im getting nervous as im FINALLY going to be starting something this week although still a long way off stims and egg collection i will be glad to finally start injecting my blood thinners so i will at least know what that feels like and whether i can cope with it!

@Jx3303 can u remind to of your journey so far.... What did u change this time round? Can u remind me ...are your circumstances similar to mine? I'm older with low AMH/ follicle count. I'm just thinking hard as to whether to continue with another few IVF/ ICSI rounds - seeing what they suggest doing differently or to consider an egg donor route now. I'm 41 so I know my chances are small. Going to change clinics to go with Wessex ( southampton) or complete (Wimbledon) due to poor experience with current clinic... Any feedback on these clinics pls ??
Any thoughts/ advice from anyone greatly appreciated.
Thinking of everyone coming towards the end of their 2ww 🙏🙏🤞🤞🤞🍀🍀

@Bims2019 thank you so much 💕 I was the exact same as you - I was happy not knowing for the first half of the tww! Not long for you to go, I have everything crossed for you🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻 stay strong you've got this x

@Flowerlover010 yeah it's good to get started after waiting! Feels like you're "doing". I found the injections not as bad as I had expected. Although I didn't enjoy doing them to myself when I had to, I had such fear of doing it wrong! But you get the hang of it!

@Carly05 of course! I have low amh/follicles. I did two rounds of conventional NHS ivf (on maximum dose stims 300 menopur). First cycle I got one egg that did fertilise but didn't make it to transfer. Second cycle same dose, it was a struggle to get the 3 follicles needed for collection, and when it came to collection I got no eggs, which was heartbreaking 💔 NHS wouldn't let me go ahead with another and recommended donor eggs. I got signed off work for a bit and just tried to rest and come to terms with things. We had a break, went on holiday and then started a 3 cycle package with Create in Wilmslow. Our first cycle we got 4 eggs, 3 fertilised, they froze one top quality day 3 and the other 2 made it to day 5 and were frozen. I then went again end of January for cycle 2 - which got cancelled after the Day5 scan due to tiny follicles and my hormones all out of whack. Some high prolactin bloods delayed the next cycle and I finally got down again end of March. That cycle we got 2 eggs, 2 fertilised and 2 made it to day 5 - a 5BB hatching (I think! I didn't ask too much) was transferred 10th April. The original plan was to bank embryos and do a transfer after cycle 3 but as we got 3 embryos first cycle (which we aimed for over the 3 cycles!) we wanted to try after cycle 2. So we have another 4 embryos in the freezer. After a year of ivf and no transfers we were desperate to try and have a full proper go. And we are very very lucky that this one has stuck, extremely grateful. It's taken a lot of blood sweat and tears but I'm so glad we went with Create, they have been amazing. It's been difficult given we live in Scotland but we knew that when we signed up I guess that logistically it wasn't going to be simple. Luckily we have very understanding bosses and we were able to "wfh" when away. Phew that's a long story. Any questions please do ask ❤️

@Jx3303 you've really been through it I'm so so pleased for you. 💕

@Jx3303 congratulations my dear!

Yes, 2 more days to go and I am super nervous and scare actually. I'm also having super sharp pain around my uterus area, watery discharge, lips super dry. Try not to over thinking.

@IVFlife I pinched my fats and I realised about 3cm to 4cm radius far from the belly button is not as pain as other area. Mine was Gonal F and Orgalutran (From 30 Mar to 8 Apr). Gonal F was fine, the needle was not as hard and not as big as Orgalutran. I don't like Orgalutran, I find it painful 😂 not sure which meds you're using.

@Jx3303 fantastic news! Congratulations! So deserved too.
We are still negative 7dpt..... I'm not holding much hope now really but we will do another egg collection hopefully in the summer

Hi All,

Just had my first embryo transfer today and feeling 😣 Wondering if anyone is at the same or similar stage?

I am just turned 40 (had my 40th in the middle of this IVF cycle 🙈), they retrieved 11 eggs , 7 of which fertilised and we only had 1x day-5 embryo! There’s one other that’s almost there so they are giving it an extra day to see if it can be frozen and will update me tomorrow.

So grateful to have got at least one but can’t help but feel a bit disappointed. It’s so much to go through! Hoping I will feel more positive about it all in a couple of days as embryo #1 is now on board 🤞🏼

Congratulations @Jx3303 it sounds like you deserve some luck finally!

Thanks @Jx3303 wow what a journey!! Remind me ... Did u change to mild IVF with create after max stims? Can I ask how old you are? Have u done any PGTA testing?
I'm just a bit concerned as at age 41 the quality of my eggs is going to be much less... 🙏 Thanks xxx

@Carly05 yeah so my first two rounds were NHS (Scotland) max stims then we chose to do Mild IVF (which was 150ui bemfola) with Create in Manchester. There isn't anywhere up here that offers anything like that, we could have went private a couple of hours away but it would have just been conventional again and we wanted to try something completely different. I just turned 35 and we didn't do any testing. It wasn't ever mentioned by the clinic. Xx

@April623 Thank you so much ☺️ welcome and congrats on being PUPO! I hope you get good news tomorrow about your other embryo 🤞🏻 it is so much to go through, it's totally normal to feel overwhelmed and exhausted. Take some time to rest and do things you enjoy. I hope the tww flies by for you! I found the first week did but the second week was harder! Wishing you all the very best of luck and love xx

Hi guys,

One thing I would love some advice on is how are you dealing with work? I've not long started a new job so really don't think it would be a good idea to say anything.

Wishing everybody luck in their cycles

@Jx3303 thank you so much. It is very overwhelming now that we've reached the end, hoping it will pass in a few days as I'm usually far more optimistic. Thanks for the kind words x

@Flower356 With regards to work, I have my own business which I appreciate makes it easier for me, but it has still been difficult trying to keep my calendar free whilst not disclosing to clients and my whole team why I'm not around when I'm usually very available to them. However had I realised at the start that my clinic does all scans during the week before 11am, it would have made it so much easier to plan around! So I'd advise asking about that if you don't already know. For EC I took annual leave for the day plus two days after. And ET I just said I had an appointment as it's so quick. If you can WFH that's obviously a lot easier too so I guess it depends on your job and your manager.

@April623 welcome! Congrats on being PUPO and welcome to the TWW club. I'm currently 5dp5dt and starting to go crazy 😜

@Flower356 I second @April623. Luckily the way my cycle fell I only used 1 day annual leave as my egg collection was on a Friday. I took the one day as annual leave and managed to get the rest of my appointments either really early circa 8am so I could go before work and work from the office on those days. I work hybrid and specifically picked a clinic really near my employment (literally 5-10 mins in the car) I popped out and worked flexible on the other days. I'm lucky as my employer is very flexible and as we have hybrid working.

Hi @Flower356 similar situation to me as I'd only recently started a new job when I started first round!. Tricky, but I did end up telling them what I was doing as I didn't want them to think I was flaky/ taking the mick needing last time off for scans / tests/ procedures ect. Felt much less stressed after I told them and they understand my need for last minute diary changes. As I work for NHS I can't make last min changes as I have full diary of patients, so mayb different if your more flexi working / WFH and can make up the hours. Xx

Thanks @Jx3303 I think I will contact create too regarding the mild IVF x
I will keep everything crossed for you over the next 6/52 😘 xx

@charja100 Nice to hear I'm not far behind you! Wishing you the very best of luck and hoping the time flies 🤞🏼🙏🏼 x