ERA EMMA ALICE testing thread 8

[Gardenlady543]

@2021ivfagain @kerrym87 @Janefx40 @seven201 @thislittlebird @Spin101 @Enfys23
@CailinInUK @BewilderedBee @Loz2467 @Lori2022 @VenusStarr @clhiu @Faithhopelove83 @APSR @ChickenT2b @Mina209 @IVF22 @Lizzybeth1988 @AM08 @Fluffykins33 @Sar1010

Continued in from thread 7 :)

@clhiu I think it’s to encourage your body to produce more progesterone but also sometimes after 40 women don’t always ovulate every month, so they might need help.

@Enfys23 Good luck. I know it’s not what you wanted to hear but amh is variable and can fluctuate. Fsh is also really important and also age. When I was 38, I was told 50% will be normal. You’re younger so age is on your side. Omega 3 is a good oestrogen boost. Try eating lots of oestrogen rich foods like hummus, lentils, garlic, eggs, omega 3 and taking wheatgrass.

I had some bad news today. Had baseline scan and lining was 6.4mm. It’s such a balancing act with extra norethisterone and zumenon. Had to take extra zumenon as I had extra norethisterone to delay period for vaginal clindamycin. I have an appointment booked for Sunday in the hope that my lining thins. If not, my cycle is cancelled. Each month is precious due to high fsh. I was in tears today. Then I started to bleed again but it needs to go down to 5 or less. I think they would consider 5. Just want to get to transfer. I’m emotionally drained due to having to sort out mum and dad’s care issues on top and worry about their money to pay for their Care.

Thank you 🧡

@clhiu I think it’s just to give more certainty and timing. No guessing game then.

@2021ivfagain I am sorry to hear this. I really hope the next scan, especially if you’ve had bleeding now, shows it’s thinned enough.
We've had trials with my DH’s parents, I think the only way to try and reduce stress is to accept the money they have does go on care and there will probably be nothing left but that’s just the way it has to be. Being clear about our boundaries and making those clear to social services too have helped. Otherwise your own life gets consumed at an early age, which I imagine if still able the parents would not want for their (now adult) child either. As I’m home and DH away with work quite a bit I’ve had to be extremely clear with my boundaries. Especially as crises always seem to occur around key moments in treatment.

@Mybabydream I don’t know much about it but she tried saying I likely don’t have raised NK cells because of this but after my 19 week loss in 2021 I developed adenomyosis. I see that most people with adeno or endo need pred and blood thinners and I was Hoping she would do it as a pre caution for me but then I’ve just read that even after the blood tests she may not. My partner is just starting to loose his patience which is hard :( my GP won’t support with the bloods.

its Thyroid - had this done loads before and been fine.
vitamin D - always been fine.
Then the different blood clotting.

my partner wanted to do another transfer and if that failed get the bloods but I’m on down Reg - well that’s ran out so I’m panicking over that because I don’t want a period and flare all my hard work back up as the down Reg has been really unpleasant. But I see it as in get the bloods and give the next transfer a better chance.

@Loz2467 if you need the bloods and your gp won't do them, you can arrange it yourself through medichecks, I use them a lot.

@2021ivfagain I'm sorry about the scan, how many days of bleeding had you had by then and how many do you normally have?

I unfortunately found out I'm hyperthyroid this week, the endocrinologist said it's very odd, I've either had another episode of autoimmune thyroiditis or it's gestational transient thyrotoxicosis, I'm hoping the latter, it's where hcg is very high and as it's similar to tsh it stimulates the thyroid gland, my tsh is 0.005 and was 0.5 4 weeks ago :( hyperthyroidism increases the risk of miscarriage, I've dropped my dosage of levothyroxine by half.

Urgh @2021ivfagain I’m really sorry to hear about your lining, just as you were finally about to start. I hope it decreases and the cycle does not have to be cancelled. I know it took you a long time to get to this point with the microbiome issues, it would be a real shame.

@Gardenlady543 you must be worried, sorry to hear of another curveball, I hope it can be managed promptly. Did they give any other advice other than drop the levothyroxine? Are you on that because of your previous diagnosis of hypothyroidism? I take it it’s not as simple as stopping that altogether if things have gone too much the other way?

@Gardenlady543 Sorry about tsh dropping. It’s good they are monitoring you.

I was in cycle day 3. I did continue to bleed until the evening and am spotting now but due to ph getting high I have had to use Vagibiom.

The thing is I did have a good period but as I was afraid to interrupt my antibiotic treatment, I had to prolong norethisterone further which meant extra zumenon hrt. I stupidly took it on cd1 as I was worried fsh would be too high and carries on taking vitamin e but dropped to 200iu daily. I have to be very careful next time and avoid vitamin e completely, shorten norethisterone slightly and take less zumenon, but I always worry fsh will be too high. This time I had lots of cervical mucus build up on cd1.

I have also continued with vaginal probiotics as I didn’t want to go backwards with infection.

My period usually lasts for 3.5 days so spotting today but not much. My main bleeding is first 3 days. I’m wondering whether I should just cancel my appointment. When I was 40 and late 30s and younger, my periods always lasted 4-5 days and they were heavy for 2 days. This time it was very heavy first day.

The nurse manager had a bad attitude as I was upset and asked me to go into another room as more patients were due in. I was so upset I just left. I was annoyed at myself as I should have temporarily stopped vitamin e completely instead of lessening it and not doing norethisterone an extra day, but so many variables to control with infection and fsh etc and my consultant is on holiday a lot. I was so looking forward to getting to transfer and going on holiday for my own mental health which suffering as is my marriage. IVF has put such a strain on everything and I feel annoyed I was denied the chance of a fresh transfer in November 2021 when my amh was 16 or thereabouts and no infection symptoms. I’m sorry for the moan but everything is against me now.

As batching was not a success, I should have just gone with Access Fertility and forced them to let me to a fresh transfer.

I’m losing hope and my husband is fed up. He even sleeps in a separate room as he’s worried about giving me covid or virus to wipe everything out.

I wish they could just let me start with a thicker lining and just lessen my medication initially, but I don’t think they will. I think it will be cancelled on Sunday. Problem is I have to beg them for extra norethisterone because if not my fsh will be a problem. I need more than 8 days of hrt now. I think I need a stronger dose of norethisterone as well to ensure a longer period.

The nurse was also going to take my fsh but I said no I’m refusing. I don’t need it and my consultant said it raises my blood pressure. Then she said oh sorry I read the notes wrong. It said no need to do it!

@Gardenlady543 Can beetroot continue to make period heavier? Will the Vaginal probiotics affect my period? I have had to use them as it was so hot in London I was sweating. It was much cooler in Plymouth!

I think as I’m not an average patient anymore they find it difficult to help me. It used to be so easy about a year ago.

I was in tears yesterday. Every month I get my period I cry happy tears as it’s another chance, but don’t know when things will stop. Also the nurse was clueless yesterday as I said I don’t really want to do medicated cycle. She said you are. I said no I am doing modified natural FET with stims and a trigger, but she classes that as medicated! So due to confusions in the past, my consultant has to write natural transfer.

Last thing you need @Gardenlady543 but glad you have someone looking after you and hopefully things will stabilise soon. How often are you checking TSH?

@2021ivfagain I'm sorry it’s such a rough time at the moment. I hope you take this in the supportive way it’s meant but are you having any/considered counselling? It just sounds like the IVF processes is taking a huge toll on other aspects of your life including marriage that having some external support might be helpful. My clinic offers some free sessions. I’m thinking of taking them up though I don’t want to too soon in case I really need them later and my acupuncture lady basically does some counselling with me once a week. Everyone is different but I know for me personally if the IVF started affecting my marriage I would be seriously thinking about stepping away from it. I’d rather be me and him for rest of our lives than me and him and a potential little person but our marriage on the rocks.

@Enfys23 Yes I started counselling with IVF clinic when both my mum and dad were going into hospital simultaneously. I couldn’t cope with it all. Plus my son was ill and husband was ill all in December and January. This kept going on repeat most months.

I have counselling once a week but need more. Problem is CRGH is rubbish. I am running out of time to do a natural transfer which I need to do.

The other issue has been the lack of support from my husband’s family and my mum’s heavy drinking which is stopped now. It got to a point where I would be afraid to go to bed as I used to frequently get woken up by a piper alarm calling for an ambulance. She has lessened it now but doesn’t realise the strain it has caused and how it affected my life whilst I was going through egg retrievals.

My mother in law does not get on with me. On day I came home after having a caesarean she wanted to come out straight away. I asked if she could wait a few days as I was in pain and couldn’t manage the stairs and hadn’t slept in hospital and she had a go at me. Then she turned up on our doorstep and made us miss our appointment with the midwife. Then after that things have been difficult. I said the other day I need help as I have to work extra hours and it would be good if your mum could look after our son. My husband said she doesn’t drive and you two don’t get on. I just burst into tears. Problem is I’ve always been told I’m too sensitive. I have no family to help me.

@Enfys23 I have come too far now. As my fsh is really bad, I have to do my transfer. It will mean last two years have been for nothing.

@clhiu just that it's likely I'll need to go back up in dose in a few weeks. I think it will depend on what's happening, if it's the GTT then as hcg reduces it resolves itself around week 16. If it's autoimmune thyroiditis, this is what the specialist thinks I had in the first place, the thyroid gland releases all its hormones, so blood levels are very high and then after that as the hormones are gone the levels are low and thyroid replacement is needed which I've been on since I was diagnosed in early 2022. I checked my TFT 4 weeks ago and it was all fine, so this was quite a shocking result. I think the dosage adjustments is quite difficult, some people are saying I've dropped too much, others are staying I should have stopped altogether. The endocrinologist advised drop from 100 mcg to 50 mcg so I'm just following what they say. They said to repeat the TFT in 10 days but I'm going to do another test for autoantibodies early next week and I'll get the TFT at the same time, this stuff shifts so slowly usually though, but I just want to know if I have any autoantibodies.

@Enfys23 I feel annoyed with myself that I left it 4 weeks so I'm going to test myself every 2 weeks now using medichecks, it's just not worth the stress of doing it less often and realising something has drastically changed :(

I'm sorry @2021ivfagain sounds like you had a really touch time there, when are they bringing you back in for a scan? I don't think anything you've done has affected your period. Sounds like the nurses terminology about the modified natural, I consider medicated to be relying on exogenous estradiol rather than having a follicle and then corpus luteum.

@Gardenlady543 Thank you. I’m on cd4 today so tomorrow afternoon is rescan on cd5. I do bleed for 3.5 days but now it’s just spotting. It was heavier yesterday. I have to avoid vitamin e as that naturally thickens lining. I took more zumenon due to taking more norethisterone.

Is there anything I can do to continue bleeding? I thought about making beetroot soup!

@2021ivfagain I don't think beetroot will do anything, beetroot juice is supposed to help thicken lining but I really think those foods don't make much difference. I don't think there is anything you can do but go to the scan and hope for the best ❤️

@Gardenlady543 I read that dark chocolate helps and I eat that daily! I’m stopping vitamin e. I’m worried vaginal probiotics will affect it but need to take them as I sweated in London in heat.

I did bleed more yesterday afternoon and evening. It was slightly heavy then very light. This morning is nothing really. Is it worth going all that way to be told it will be cancelled? I did take too much hrt last time, so will be on norethisterone until cd28 this time instead of cd33. I’ll avoid vitamin e tablets completely. I’ll have to beg them for more zumenon which I need but a lesser amount. I hate this whole process.

I am so sorry @2021ivfagain we can really empathise with the alcohol issue in the family and the stress it causes. I’m glad you’re having some counselling but I’m so sorry you have so little support around you otherwise. Go for your scan as you never know, a few mm here or there can change in a matter of days and with different machine/sonographer. I really hope you can proceed this cycle.

@Gardenlady543 its not your fault. 4 weeks is pretty standard and you couldn’t have known. Checking in a bit more regularly every fortnight while things unstable sounds a good plan. I’m glad you’ve got an endocrinologist to advise you.
Thanks for the PGT-A comment by the way. I will definitely keep exploring esp once I get closer to 37. I have asked a few specialists in online webinars too and to be fair they’ve agreed wholeheartedly with my treating team so that gives me a bit more confidence in their opinion. I think it’s because I get so few eggs as well the idea we could ditch a mosaic that may work etc. My DH feels strongly against that when it was explained to him. If we miraculously get more then I might re-ask. Or if we move to banking. And to be fair they’ve been quite good about accepting there must be an implantation issue for me and obviously will be in decent pred and enoxaparin this time, as they’re working on assumption we would be getting a reasonably good euploid rate at my age.

I agree you should go to the scan @2021ivfagain it might be the result you want.

@Enfys23 if you don't have many embryos then it isn't really worth it as it's more of a selection tool. But if you bank then it's worth doing to know what you've got. I spoke to a really good genetic counselor DNAide who advised me as I had a couple of mosaics.

Thank you @Gardenlady543 and @Enfys23. I had my scan again today and I was still bleeding on day 5, so my lining went down to 4.7mm. So I can start my meriofert injections tonight for stimulated FET cycle!

I’m relieved but also a bit worried about the heat. I’m sweating a lot and my pants get wet. I change sanitary towels really frequently and have still been taking two vaginal probiotics a day plus canesbalance daily. However, does sweat increase risk of infection? It’s really hot in London today. Can I buy special wipes?

That’s amazing news @2021ivfagain 🥳

The moistness and heat can sometimes make you more prone to vaginal infection. I would avoid any wipes though, I’ve found even fragrance free cause issues for me with thrush. I think what you’re doing with super regular changes, and if you can wear the lightest/thinnest protection with a cotton surface you need to, try and otherwise keep everything light and airy down there. Is it still heavy or can you get away with black cotton underwear? I try to do this on my lighter bleeding days especially overnight on lighter days.

@Enfys23 Thanks. I’ve made lots of changes. I started wearing 100% cotton organic sanitary towels, organic Good Clean Love lube for scans. Don’t wear anything lol to bed when bleeding stops or becomes really light due to low oestrogen and irritation. I think I’ll take extra pants to scans! I have been using vagibiom at night and a probiotic with canesbalance in the morning.

I’m not prone to thrush anymore due to low oestrogen but worry about raised ph. I only use water to wash myself down there as worried about ph, but could this also cause infections. I used to use a mild soap when I was younger, but now just use that for everything else. It’s difficult to know what to do for best.

How’s your cycle going? When is your baseline scan predicted? Are you doing a fresh transfer?

Great news @2021ivfagain it sounds like you are doing everything right, I would have said to avoid pants at night when you can and you're already doing that.

@2021ivfagain sounds like you are doing everything you possibly can. 100% organic cotton pads have made such a difference to me too. And hypoallergenic lube. I upped my Optibac for women to 2 capsules during the worst of the hot weather here as I felt on verge of yeast infection but the weather isn’t nearly as bad up north now. I feel for you. I hope the weather cools a bit.
Extra pants post scan sound a good idea! When will they scan you next?

I am doing okay thanks. I get bad PMS so the norethisterone is making me feel so down, migrainey, bloated and yuck. It’s not really taking away the endo pains though (so bad yesterday, I was worried I was going to start period despite the norethisterone). I finish it on Friday and then baseline scan is planned for the next Wednesday. We are planning on fresh transfer 🤞🏼. I had a horrible nightmare last night though that there were no eggs at collection. Felt really panicky waking up and had to remember it wasn’t real. I hope it’s not a premonition.

@2021ivfagain I’m really please to hear you finally had some positive news with everything you’re going through. ❤️ I’m really sorry to hear about the issues with your family and your mother in law being unsupportive, I don’t want to go into details here, but I know way too well how infertility can take its toll on a relationship and how your partner is going to react to things in a completely different way from you, which will almost inevitably cause some level of friction at some stage. Thinking of you and hoping all you’ve out yourself through will finally pay off x

Good morning, how’s everyone doing?

Can I please get the opinion of those who are experienced with taking steroids? I’m about to start my first superovulation natural cycle under the care of Dr Shehata and he prescribed 25mg Prednisolone from the day of confirmed ovulation.
When did your consultants advise to start it from please?
I’m asking because I have some concerns, after reading articles and forum posts from other women in a similar boat to mine, that it can mess with your cycle and actually make it harder to conceive - two problems I do not have and wouldn’t want to start now, especially if taking it over multiple cycles. I asked the Dr during my consultation and he was very dismissive about that concern, saying it’s not a thing 😏
I know other consultants such as my NHS one recommend to only start it upon a positive pregnancy test, which is what I’m considering doing so wanted to know about anyone else’s protocol please, especially if successful with it in the past.

Thanks x

You’re an early bird too @clhiu
Good luck with starting this cycle, how are you feeling?
I can’t speak from an experience of success but first time I was prescribed pred it was from day of embryo transfer. This did feel too late as I couldn’t imagine it would have time to calm down my over active immune system and aid implantation. This time I’ve been prescribed 10mg from day 6 of stims, increasing to full dose from egg collection day (which I guess matches ovulation day). If they’re suggesting it from time of confirmed ovulation I can’t imagine it would be too disruptive to your cycle if you’re having luteal support with progesterone etc as by time you’re starting all the hormone changes to make you ovulate have already been and done.

@clhiu I started on 25mg from CD6 there are people in the immune group that say it takes 2 weeks to work. My clinic wanted me to start at 10mg and then post transfer increase the dose but I stuck with the original plan. I've seen other start around the time of transfer.