IVF Anxiety

[Anonymous2311]

Hey everyone. I have really bad anxiety after receiving my consent forms for IVF. I start treatment this month and I’m paranoid about OHSS. I would love to hear your stories.

@GCS34 ohhh, how did you first injection go? I still look like a pin cushion 😅

I've had cramps on and off since the day after transfer, feel like period cramps but who knows! Also randomly been sneezing a lot, think that's more a coincidence 😂

@Ellenn I don't blame you for feeling impatient - it's hard enough having to sit through the TWW and the 2 week stim, neverminded then having to have a FET wait. They are expecting me to be on a freeze-all due to past results and my body being a mentalist 😂I don't have periods at all, so they said that if we do a FET it will be about 3 weeks after collection, so I guess that's not too long! 👀It's good they let you do back to back as they generally like to leave 2 months between. What protocol were you on to Over stim? Sorry your first round didn't go as expcted.

Haha I had a word with them last night and told them to behave.

Haha yeah fine - same old isn't it? I've done 3 rounds of OI before this with injections, so I'm used to having 14 days of jacking myself up on someone elses hormones 😂

Haha are you avoiding Dr. Google while you're waiting? Friday isn't long though. Sending positive vibes for Mr. Embryo and hope he's settling in to his new home

@GCS34 ooh that’s exciting you don’t need to wait long at all then! I wish I had that option. Did you overstimulate the last time? I think its coming up to 8 weeks since I did my stimulation so suppose it’s almost 2 months! I was on a short antagonist protocol, what about you?

Yeah hopefully we can do a fresh, but I think they might have issues with it. Also, I have severe thin-lining shit going on too - I have no lining. Think it got to 6.5mm on our 2nd round, but never +7 like it should be, so my protocol has a lot of estrogen thrown into it too. I'm on Antagonist too. Start the GnRH saturday I think they said. Was your first cycle also an Antagonist? And did they suspect OHSS before you started?
Well, I was doing OI initally and I went from having 1 x 14mm on the Friday, to 19 x ranging from 15mm to 19mm, so it was an abandon ship at that point! Which is frustrating as we essentially wasted so many! But yeah, second we switched drug, and dose, and had a trigger and chance but it didn't stick, 3rd time my body just ignored the stims and didn't respond. Which brings us to now, so no clue what i'll be this time as i'm on more drugs than the 2nd and 3rd round, but we'll see.

What drugs are you on, and what dose? Do you have estrogen tablets etc too?

@GCS34 I told myself I'll stay off google, absolute rubbish! I've googled everything!!! 😂 how silly of me. I've got a clear blue '6 day early' test which I'm soooo tempted to take but I'm too scared incase it's negative 😏

@GCS34 yes both my cycles were identical with same drugs etc! I developed OHSS symptoms around day 7 of stimulation. For some reason my ovaries when mad for the last cycle and so had to have freeze all. My first cycle it was only mild OHSS so managed a fresh transfer.

this transfer is natural so no drugs! Just waiting to ovulate and then I believe I do take ovitrelle before and after transfer (apparently improves outcomes of pregnancy on natural cycles). I do need to get one scan after I ovulate to check my lining is ok.

when is your first scan?

Crazy how different the results were, despite the drugs being identical. Bodies are mental aren't they? My body responded fine to my 2nd and we had a nice good lining and response. Second time same drug, same dose, absolutely nothing. In fact, my day 7 showed 2 x strong ones, that by day 10 had gone and disappeared! So yeah, my body better not muck it up this time haha.

That's mad that you had such a different response. And it's good that you managed a fresh. I hope we can too but I would also be happy to do a freeze-all if it meant we had a great stock of embryo's in the freezer! How many did you freeze in the end? And how many have made it beyond blastocyst? Wishing you lots of luck! Hopefuly not long before transfer. my first scan is Saturday

@GCS34 I know! I had asked the doctors before doing second cycle should I get similar results and they said it can vary quite a bit but as I’m young I’m quite likely to stimulate well again with same results. Turns out my ovaries just decided to go mad 🤣 from my last cycle (the freeze-all) we have 8 blastocysts. So I’m hoping one of them might stick around 🤞🤞we were super pleased with the result as was totally expecting maybe 2 like last time.

did you do ovulation induction as you don’t ovulate normally? Got my fingers crossed for your scan to go all well and get an idea of when your collection might be! I hope your lining is looking good too 🤞

That's great that they expect you to have a good turn out. And amazing that you have 8 blasts in the freezer! Do you have grades for them yet? Hopefully we have some As and Bs in there for you!
On your first round, did you do 1 transfer or 2? Were there only 2 frozen, or did you have 2 fresh? Are you 28 did you say? So pleased for you!

I did yes - we did 3 rounds but only got to trigger once as first was wayyyyyyyy over stimmed, second we triggered, 3rd my body was like 'nah not playing anymore'. And yes absolutely - I had undiagnosed PCOS that the pill was masking, so when I came off and wondered where my period was, I had a scan and they dropped that on me! Thanks for the luck - I shall report back Saturday. I don't imagine there will be much kicking around at that stage as it's still early, and my previous ones haven't had much go on for the first 7 days, then they blow up.

@GCS34 yes actually x6 are 4Aa/5AA and x2 5ab so we are pleased. We had two transfers for our first cycle both were 5AA so we know that unfortunately good graded embryos still don’t equal a baby (both early miscarriages 😢) I’m 28, been trying to conceive since 25 but we have unexplained infertility so no idea what’s the problem!

you might be pleasantly surprised if you stimulated well last time by day 7 on scan! Sending positive thoughts to your ovaries 🤣

Oh wow they are some beautiful embryos on ice! Have they given you any indication while you miscarried two top quality blasts, thin lining, clots or anything like that? Did you have them both transferred at the same time?

@wtawtaw no we don’t have any idea, they told me it was unlucky and likely down to issue with embryos 🤷‍♀️ and % of good quality embryos will be abnormal. They were two separate transfers the first was biochemical at 5 weeks and the second one at 6.5 weeks after a scan as well which I saw the heartbeat 😢

here’s to the next one 🙈 just worried it might happen again as our embryos seem to implant ok but don’t go on to develop so far ….

have you managed to hold off testing still? The urge is hard to fight 🤣 cause I’m doing natural transfer I’m going to not test at all this time since I don’t need to get any more medication etc (I mean famous last words please hold me to it when it comes to my 2ww)

@Ellenn frustrating now knowing isn't it, I too have had a 5AA transferred and go through phases of being positive and negative. I still have managed to hold off testing though, may as well wait til Friday now 😅 did you get any symptoms in your tww?

Hopefully the next transfer for you will me third time lucky! Completely understand your anxiety around it. Are you getting any embryos pgs tested?

@wtawtaw i constantly thought my period was going to arrive for both of them, all the usual symptoms including sore boobs and cramping. Actually had quite a bit of cramping around time of OTD too. Well done for holding off!! I really hope it’s good news for you and the embryo sticks around for another 8 months 😁

none of our embryos are tested, I spoke with embryologists about it and they didnt recommend and said conflicting evidence for using pgts testing especially if really good quality and at my age. I think if I get more miscarriages I might ask again to see if their opinion changes or not (also not sure if it’s an option on NHS but we would pay for it if it reduces the chance of miscarriage) did yours get tested?

@Anonymous2311 NHS is the healthcare system in the UK 😊 I was more curious than anything. If you're outside of the UK obviously NHS won't apply.
I'm sure you'll be okay and the clinic will monitor you. Try not to worry too much. It's their job to look after you after all. They have to make you aware of the risk so they have to mention it but it doesn't mean you're more at risk of it than anyone might be. I hope it goes well for you when you start!

@Ellenn that's interesting that the embryologist ls said that. No, we didn't get ours tested, and not sure if we would on future ones if we had to go down that road 🤪

@wtawtaw you won’t as you have a beautiful 5Aa making himself at home in there 🥰I am with you on that and not knowing. Sometimes knowledge isn’t king and it can make you feel worse, you know?
when is your expected O day? And are they going to do the transfer this coming cycle? Did you get ohss did you say? Tbf when I had it I only remember feeling ‘sloshy’ in my belly and projectile vomiting 😂 classy.

@Ellenn thanks for the ovary fan-mail. They are currently being nurtured by a hot water bottle in a bid to keep warm and make a nice safe house. Honestly I believe far too much nonsense. What was the most random thing you guys did in a weird bid to hope it helps? What you on for your lining? Can’t believe how lucky you guys are with having so many lovely Frosties in the bank.

@GCS34 my transfer was done last Monday so my OTD is this Friday 😬 I nearly had OHSS but they reduced my stims which I think prevented it in the end. I did have a bit of fluid seen after egg collection so they thought transfer wasn't able to go ahead but 5 days later the fluid had gone 🙂

Sorry I meant when is @Ellenn test day. I know you have one cooking away - did you have funding or is this self funded now? . Bet you can’t wait to test in a nervous / excited kind of way. Do let us know if you’re happy to share the news. That’s good you still had a fresh. Was your lining okay or did you have any add ons to make it thicken? S

good that your ohss didn’t evolve. I think everyone has a tiny bit of it to a degree. It’s just managing it and drinking lots. I’m not expecting much from Saturdays. It’s too early o always think but we’ll see! By the second scan around day 9 we should get an idea on fresh/freeze-all protocol. Praying for a fresh!

@GCS34 i think I should ovulate next week and hopefully if my scan shows lining all good to go my transfer will be week after 😊 currently on no medication as completely natural cycle which is nice for a change! When I did medicated it took ages to thicken up (think was about 15 days) so I’m hopping by doing natural transfer it might sort itself out 🤞

@GCS34 this one is self funded, our NHS one failed. Lining was all good, got up to just over 15mm!

Blimey that’s a strong mattress for him to nestle in! Not long now. Just stay off Dr.G … 🙈

@wtawtaw yes you are so close!! That’s an amazing lining, think the best I got was 10mm before my fresh transfer. Intrigued to see what it will be on my natural transfer this time. Do you have any symptoms? I remember during my 2ww I was constantly googling 🙈 it’s so hard to resist

@Ellenn I've had cramping since one day after transfer, sometimes I think my periods going to come on 😏 I've also had short bun pains (sorry 😂) but I'm pretty sure that's the progesterone pessaries!!

No other symptoms!