IVF Scotland - thread 5

[itsmschanandlerbong]

Hello, made a new thread for us Scots going through IVF, thread 5. Hoping this is the best thread yet for dreams coming true ❤️

@Ellenn @IVFlife i read that the majority of blasts that are chosen in IVF are male because male blasts develop faster. So in my case,we had a 5DT and only one blast made it to that stage so if the little males develop quicker and we only had one to choose from does that make our little one male?! Who knows. I’d be happy with either…

Need to sort my diet out too…I eat mountains of veg but I’m rubbish with fruit. I like the idea of smoothies so will put some real effort into that this week. X

@Eiremogra I think that's probably the best balance - more veg than fruit. I'm the opposite. Recently I've made a conscious effort and am having lots more veg but if I don't think about it then I'll fall into a pattern of more fruit.

I'm prioritising a lot of berries which gets bloody expensive especially in winter. But I've had previous autoimmune thyroid issues and I read that berries were good for lowering inflammation then and have stuck to that.

@Ellenn Yeah it’s a little girl we had. She’s 17 months now, so if things go well with this embryo they’d be 25 months apart. The only thing about having a boy is it’s worse if they take a wee when changing them when they’re small 😂

@IVFlife I’ve read that there are slightly more boys born through ivf than natural pregnancies too. Not at all sure if it’s true / scientific but heard it might be something to do with differences in male and female sperm and how they swim and make sperm being over-selected in ICSI or something like that. Well done on all the healthy lifestyle choices :)

@Eiremogra Interesting you heard it’s about male blasts being ahead! DD was the “best” looking embryo from my 2nd egg collection. Smoothies are a good idea for nausea as well.

Early pregnancy hormones are screwing with my diet at the moment now as the nausea is really settling in - all I want is carbs, and finding like I did with DD I need to constantly eat small
amounts to keep the nausea at bay. Definitely cranked up the nausea and tiredness over the weekend, and indigestion and keeping having to remind myself this is good to be feeing crappy 😂

@2mumlife oh hadn’t taken that into consideration 🤣🤣 when we were just starting TTC years ago we realised we are really good at finding nice girl names but impossible finding a boy name!!

im the same as you with the nausea I think carbs definitely helps and I’m really not feeling like eating ‘healthy’ foods 🙄

super excited I just did another test and got 3+ so my levels must have been increasing since my last beta, hopefully a good sign!

Wondering how everyone felt/is feeling about contacting your Gp about your pregnancy? I rang my practice today and said I wanted to ‘register a pregnancy’…absolutely didn’t feel comfortable saying that I was pregnant so spoke in the bloody 3rd person!!! It’s too soon to be excited and when the receptionist started talking me through the process and mentioned the ‘midwife’ I thought surely she’s not talking about me? I’m loosing my marbles!!

@Eiremogra ah exciting! I’m definitely going to wait until after my viability scan I think!

@Ellenn my clinic contacted me today. Advised about continuing with the meds until at least week 10/11. They want me to get a scan week of 20th February and then they will decide my next steps. I think,like you,I’ll feel some reassurance once I get the scan. When is your scan?x

@Eiremogra did your clinic get you to increase progynova after positive result? I was told to increase from 8mg to 10mg! The 20th isn’t far away!!! Only 1 week tomorrow 😁 my first scan is 22nd!

@Ellenn no they never mentioned about increasing any of the doses. I’m on Progynova 8mg daily and Cyclogest pessasary twice daily. Oh the 22nd?! Exciting. Are you getting it done privately? I’m going to try and organise mine tomorrow x

@Eiremogra my scan is just at my clinic 😊 does your clinic not offer a first early scan? Or do you need to book privately?

@Ellenn ill have to book mine privately…I had my treatment in Spain so bit of a hike for the scan 😂

@Eiremogra ah yes 😂 that a bit of a trip! Do you still have much symptoms?

@Ellenn That's great you got 3+ on your CB! Everything looking really positive. Honestly, the only way to survive the first trimester in my opinion is to eat whatever you can stomach at the time. I've never been asked to increase my meds after a BFP.

@Eiremogra I think it depends on area a bit but in my area you don't bother contacting GP, you just self-refer to a central midwifery team. I did the self referral already as last time I wanted until after the early pregnancy scan and first few appointments were a bit late. I'm on 8mg estradiol and 2 cylogests a day as well.

I've had some fresh bleeding last night which isn't great, but seems to stopped now. Clinic have moved forward my early pregnancy scan by a week, so now getting scanned on 19th. They said they'll still give me a scan on 26th if they can't confirm viability on the 19th. Also had a chat with the early pregnancy unit and they like clinic have said as its so early they don't want to scan me as they can't guarantee they'd be able to see a heartbeat this early even if everything ok. They're optimistic though that as I still have bad nausea and no pain and bleeding has stopped that this isn't sinister bleeding. Got to call them back though if I do experience any more episodes of bleeding as they'd try giving me a scan if I bleed again. I had a much bigger bleed with DD at about this time due to a SCH and everything was ok, so Im just trying to stay optimitic. I've taken the day off work so curl up in bed and watch rubbish tv and take it easy.

@2mumlife too right..get yourself all cosy on the sofa and watch some rubbish on TV (I’ve heard One Day on Netflix is good). It’s reassuring to know the EPU are being positive about everything - also offering to scan twice must be helpful. It must be difficult not to overthink things…I’m the worst! I think we all overthink things at this stage given what we’ve been through to get here.
I didn’t have a clue what I was at ringing the Gp yesturday - it’s all new to me but everyone I spoke to was kind (I felt like a complete moron!). Wishing you the very best of luck for your scan on the 19th. In the meantime,stay cosy and look after yourself xxxx

@Eiremogra Thank you. We don't have Netflix at the moment but if you have any Disney+ recommendations let me know. Just got to keep in mind bleeding is super common in early pregnancy and just wait and see.

I had no idea what I was doing with DD either but GP will get your on the right track :)

@2mumlife so sorry to hear you had a bleed how horrible but I’m very glad it’s calmed down. They always seem to be happy if you don’t get much cramping/pain with it. That’s great you are getting a scan earlier hopefully will give you peace of mind all good. The whole process is so triggering is it. How many weeks are you now? Would you hopefully see a heartbeat on the 19th? Hope you manage to distract yourself and find something good to watch I’m watching one day atm on Netflix which is quite good!

thanks for the suggestions for nausea I think I definitely need to just roll with it, I feel it does help to eat small amounts rather than have empty stomach? Open to any other suggestions to help the nausea! xx

@Ellenn Thanks. No morE bleeding so hopefully everything ok. I’ll be 6+5 on the 19th so not guaranteed to see a heartbeat but a pretty good chance. If they can’t see a heartbeat they’ll scan me again on the 26th at
7+5 when I was originally scheduled for (gcrm nurse said they like to do the early pregnancy scans after 7 weeks as at that point they would be expecting to be able to see a heart beat, when between 6-7 weeks they might not).

Nairns cheese oatcakes were my go-to with DD but not feeling it this time. Watermelon is good as it’s got no smell. My sister swore by soreen loaf and kept it by her bed 😂

Hi everyone, hoping to join. I’ve been reading this thread (and others) for a while but haven’t had the courage to post until now. We’ve had 2 transfers so far (one fresh and one frozen) at Aberdeen. Neither were successful unfortunately. Hoping to go again next month.
Congratulations to everyone who has had a positive result. X

@2mumlife so glad to hear the bleeding has calmed down. Bleeding has got to me my worst nightmare and would be so triggering. That’s good your clinic will scan you earlier. I didn’t realise you were only 4 days ahead of me! Thought you were much further along. Hopefully you get to see a heartbeat at the first scan 🤞🤞🤞my clinic usually do scans at 7 wks too but I begged for an early one!

good idea with the soreen! I might give them a go. My nausea definitely seems to be getting more now. Did you find with your last pregnancy it got worse? When was it at the peak?

Hi @ivf24 im sorry to hear about your previous transfers. This entire process is relentless! Has your clinic in Aberdeen made any alterations to medications etc for your next round? Wishing you the best for next month!

@Ellenn Ive booked my scan for 24th Feb. I’ll be 6+4. Finally got the sample kit from Medichecks yesturday so I’ll be repeating my HCG this morning (then will spend the next week refreshing my emails for the results!) 😂

@ivf24 Welcome to the board. Sorry to hear your previous transfers haven’t worked out. Hopefully next cycle with be the one for you 🤞

@Ellenn I was actually really calm about the bleeding this time. I think because I have bled before and it’s been ok, and also I think just an acceptance that if it doesn’t stick there was probably something not right with that embryo if that makes sense? And oh yes, in my experience the first trimester gets a lot lot worse 😂😂 at the worst bit with DD I’d have nausea most the day and my evenings were spent lying down on the sofa, my partner making dinner because my stomach turned with the smell of food cooking, sitting down to dinner trying to stomach something and deciding I was better off lying down on the sofa, being disgusted at the risidual smell of coffee on my partners breath that she’d drunk in the kitchen away from me and falling asleep at 7pm. I didn’t actually vomit much at all but I’d often felt good afterwards. I don’t really remember when it peaked, maybe week 10 or 11? I was definitely feeling better by about week 16. Pregnancy got much more enjoyable after that, and only issues I had after that point really were issues getting comfortable at night once bump was bigger, heartburn (which I eventually found something that worked to help) and haemorrhoids in the last few weeks.

@Eiremogra I hope your medichecks comes back quicker this time around!

@Ellenn Mentally as well I also felt more like I could trust the pregnancy was going to be ok after that 16 week point (that was the point we started telling people with DD as well). It particularly got mentally more relaxed after 20 week scan

@Eiremogra not long at all to wait! I hope the medichecks result comes in faster this time 🙄 are you feeling much nausea?

@IVFlife hey! Sorry to hear about your previous transfers. Will you be doing a natural or medicated cycle?

@2mumlife that makes sense! For me any blood would freak me out as it would signal it’s going the same way as the last three transfers 😢 although of course I know lots of people bleed and it’s absolutely fine but i would be very paranoid I think. Gosh got quite a way to go with the nausea then 🙈 feeling pretty ropey this morning and yesterday struggled to eat lots as everything just seemed not what I wanted? I like the idea of waiting later to tell everyone, I think I might do that but may say to my mum as have a trip to London with her (actually ended up on Mother’s Day without realising it 🤣) when are you going to tell family this time?

@Ellenn Timing sounds totally similar to me when I moved from a bit nauseous to really very ropey. Its definitely worse than it was with DD as I was feeling nauseous in the middle of the night when I was awake with her last night too. Partner reminded me I got acupressure wrist bands last time to try to help so I've got them on this morning. Not sure how much they helped really but worth a go (like these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sea-Band-Wristband-Anti-Nausea-Acupressure-Sickness/dp/B001F731N0)

I found the not fancying anything is the beginning of the food and smell aversion. With DD it got to the point if I had a whim at all that I might like something we bought it even if the whim had passed, on the off chance I fancied it again the next day. I remember eating hash browns for dinner one night (literally just hash browns) as was the only thing I could stomach.

Everything you're experiencing sounds really super reassuring :) I'll tell my folks after 12 week scan if everything is ok as they've just gone and booked flights to their holiday home last week, which coincide with the due date, and last time they wanted to be in the country when I was due.

With any luck you might be starting to come out of the worst bit by the time you're going away. I guess just see how you're feeling. I also think its quite nice to wait until you're coming out the other end of the morning sickness before telling people, as the excitement etc I found was more after the 12 week scan for reassurance and the worst of the nausea had passed.