Create Fertility - Experiences (Part 2)

[Sunflower360]

Hi 👋

A thread for anyone who wants to discuss their Create Fertility experiences.

I'm 38, currently in a 3 cycle Natural Modfied ICSI package and nearing transfer stage.

Tagging as follows from previous chat, please tag any others I may have forgot. New joiners to the thread welcome to share your stories/journey!

@gemso2020
@Doxy21
@VSRCM
@GirlAgirlBboyC
@HopefulElle
@Maddie23
@Jennaqua

I have @Sunflower360 I did 1 lubion and 2 cyclogest. I had done my fresh with utrogesten but don't think I absorbed it well as I bled. So they said to go on lubion as well as pessaries, but I chose cyclogest instead of utrogesten as don't trust them

@VenusStarr thanks, what were your concerns with Utrogestan? I've got those too 😬

@Sunflower360 i haven’t yet discussed my frozen transfer options with create so I’m unsure

Just because I'd bled on them, I didn't feel confident to use them. Plus they're vaginally only, so when I was bleeding, I was still using them but not sure I was absorbing them properly. With cyclogest, I can do back door if needed@Sunflower360
If you're doing a fet, they can test your levels on transfer day

@Hopesandsunshine when I had my positive transfer in 2022 I had just utrogestan but bled on those and then it led to ectopic. I was then prescribed to have lubion for the next one but so far not reached that point. Hope that helps, I don’t know anything about FET but if you can get tested for progesterone on the day, not sure if it’s possible but that would be good 😊 hope that helps sorry it’s not that helpful but thought I’d share my experience

@Hopesandsunshine thanks for sharing. I understand they do test Progesterone on transfer day, not had Utrogestan before, so hopefully it'll be ok

Morning all. Hope everyone is ok. Had my scan this morning, day 6. Turned out, although they'd booked my scan, they hadn't assigned me to the doctor 🫠 so was waiting over an hour. Was so anxious and nearly cried.

Not sure how I feel really. Lining is looking good at 5.8mm early triple layer, so that's good and looking promising for a fresh transfer (if we get there).
8 follicles seen ranging from 5mm to 13mm. My right ovary is doing all the heavy lifting though. Bit worried about the top 2 being in a race to the finish...back on Thursday. Have just spoken to my manager and am allowed to work from home this week.

Going to acupuncture now and hoping that she can get the others to catch up 🙏

Hi everyone! My baseline scan in November had 14 follicles but we just went for my scan at day 5 of mild IVF using gonal- F and they only found 6 follicles. 3 “good” ones and 3 small ones.

She said this wasn’t good but said to carry on as normal. The doctor also said maybe my AMH has dropped since the last measurement and then sent me out for the oestrogen and LH blood test. I was a bit flustered to ask more questions. I feel really disappointed as she said not good. Will I even be able to get eggs from 3/6 follicles? Will more turn up in the next few days? Thank you in advance!

@VenusStarr that was not a great start...was the Dr doing the scan, could it not be done by the nursing team? I have had a mix of Dr and Nurses scan, but mostly nurses. Sounds like you're getting a good result, so fingers crossed, when will EC likely be?

@Plantymcplant I'm surprised they've said 3 or 6 follicles is not great, I think if there is an egg there is a chance. I had only two eggs collected from one of my Create cycles and got a day 5 to freeze so it is worth doing. Your Estradiol levels should give a clearer picture on how many eggs may be there, but it is very early days, day 5 is just at the start of the process

@Plantymcplant also follicle numbers vary on each cycle, dropping of AMH is not massively relevant as long as there are follicles.

@VenusStarr I think the scan sounds very promising 😘

@Sunflower360 good luck today, hope all goes well (and I've got the right day!)

Thank you all for your reassurance about the scan. Saw my acupuncturist straight after and she thinks we'll get 4 eggs 🤞 just about to go in for my second scan. The last 2 days I've really felt the effects of the hormones. I'm not as fuzzy headed today.

Hi @Plantymcplant which clinic are you at? Our scans sound similar but the doctor wouldn't be drawn on good or bad, more let's wait and see. Hope you're feeling OK. When are you back?

@VenusStarr good luck for your scan x @Sunflower360 good luck for today, was it your hysterescopy day?

Thank you @jolly86 they seemed happy enough. But one follicle is exactly the same size. My top one is 15mm now. I also seem to have extra follicles pop up but small. So ranging from 15mm to 7mm, 11 in total but she said the smaller ones won't respond to the stims. Hoping for 3 or 4 I think. My left ovary has fallen to sleep I think.

How are you doing? X

@VenusStarr I had my day 7 scan today. They found 11 follicles today but 6 are still super small (under 7mm). There is one racing ahead at 15mm and then 4 at 10/11 mm. They are hoping those 4 catch up but said to realistically expect 2 eggs on collection. I'm at Raynes Park. How about you? Did you have another scan?

@VenusStarr that sounds great. You know my left ovary didn't respond at all and I had no eggs collected from that one. I wonder why this happens? Also my right one was initially inaccessible but became accessible later on.

@Plantymcplant I think you can get a few more from the 4 smaller ones, you would wait a bit for triggering but not too long that the lead follicle is too large I hope x

@Sunflower360 what made you choose hysteroscopy?

I’ve been given possible options including saline solution to check womb cavity (which I think is about £400) or hysteroscopy (which I think is about £2.5k - I’m looking at an old price list, waiting for confirmation).

As far as I can tell the hysteroscopy is under sedation and can remove polyps etc - did you have the saline thing first to discover if there were issues?

I’ve also been told about karotyping and pgt-a, neither of which we will do as these is our last go so we might as well push on.

And then some kind of biopsy to make sure we are transferring at the ideal time (that one I may consider but it’s amber on hfea.)

My husband essentially thinks none of these extra things are needed and we just go ahead with transfer but I just don’t know.

There was also some thalassemia test or something that determines if you take more inhixa but my husband thinks that more to do with preventing miscarriage rather than helping implantation so thinks not necessary.

I think we are aiming for culturing our frozen day 3 to day 5 and then transferring it at same time as our frozen day 6. Medicated cycle as I had estrogen issues on my last frozen transfer. Likely to be during my cycle which is due to start towards end of Feb.

I’m not sure if there is anything I should be doing between now and then that will help?!

@VenusStarr @jolly86 Thanks, Hysteroscopy was today, just recovering now, definitely more tender than an egg collection (period like cramps with bleeding). Ok now, however, my biopsy is not likely to return in time for a FET in January, and I'm likely going to have to wait until the period after this one in 2 weeks to start FET. I need my Hysteroscopy report, which I'll get in my follow-up in 2 weeks, to then have the FET Consultation at Create as the results will tie in with the next steps plan for that. In all honesty, the break may be good for my body (or so my OH believes, I'd just steam roll ahead tomorrow if I could). I'm considering whether it's worth doing another (and last) egg collection and doing a fresh transfer, if we got a fresh blastocyst, and trying to bank more if possible. I'm kind of nervous that there is another 1 month delay now, and I've not had any transfers to know what my odds are-by the time I've transferred what we have, and if it didn't work, an egg collection could be challenging as I'll be older. I was thinking asking them to take the FET costs (as its included in our 3 cycle package) off a fresh egg collection cycle if we were to explore, but not sure if they would do that or not. Just thinking at the moment!

@Plantymcplant, what is your Estradiol level? That is a good indicator for egg numbers. I was advised that smaller ones would not catch up in my last cycle around about the same time as your scan, but in the end, they let the lead follicle get to around 21mm before I triggered, and I ended up with 7 eggs as they caught up. I was projected to collect 2 eggs at the start of that cycle so things can progress.

@Doxy21 I needed the Hysteroscopy as I had suspected polyps (advised due to stimulation as my Estradiol levels being much higher than usual for me for the last consecutive 4 months, it appeared on my triple layer in the last cycle's scan before transfer). They put saline in to investigate and then treated the polyps and took a biopsy to examine lining. I think it is worth doing, if anything, to rule things out, but of course, all these added extras soon start adding up. I really did need the polyps removing as it can cause implantation issues, so I wanted it resolve before transferring any embryos. What is the biopsy you're having done to tell you about the window for transfer? The saline solution option could be good in the first instance rather than a Hysteroscopy perhaps? Also costs for a Hysteroscopy are around 2.5k-3k depending on where you go.

@Sunflower360 ah useful to know. I haven’t been told of suspected polyps so I might try the saline one first. The transfer window one is the ERA test.

@Doxy21 thanks, how much is ghe ERA and is that with Create?

@Plantymcplant that sounds positive for you. I'm with Birmingham. I've looked at my chart again and I think 4 seem like they could be ok. Then I've got 2 x7mms. My top one didn't look a good shape... overthinking everything 🙃 when are you back? I'm back on Saturday which will be day 10.

Thanks @jolly86 funny isn't it? There was 1 on my left but looked fuzzy (to my untrained eye!)

Sounds like a plan @Doxy21 I had the ERA which came back normal and was reassuring for medicated FET (and worked) but I'll be doing a natural modified FET I think. I have clexane in ivf cycles (which I think is supposed to help with implantation). I don't have clotting issues normally.

I'm sorry the timings are off for your FET @Sunflower360 hope Recovery goes well.
Did you do anything in particular to help your follicles grow? 🙏

I don't think my lining was much bigger today (but she didn't say the thickness) but having doubts about whether we can have a fresh transfer... not feeling very positive today.

@VenusStarr keep positive, hopefully they would say if there were issues. I forever asks questions in the scans, even the lining thickness by the ehs of it when they didn't mention it 😅 Moreso for my notes 😇

For follicles I tried to do as much protein and healthy foods as possible with the supplements. I'm not sure what, if any, made the difference but was worth a shot. I think diet can steer things quite a bit but that's just my belief after my first NHS cycle was such a disaster and these Create ones (so far, prior to any transfer, so yet to know the full results) have been better.

Thank you @Sunflower360 she was really happy today with everything. I think its just me. I don't feel that well this afternoon, just a bit headachey and bleugh.

I've been taking pics of my progress on the chart but the lining wasn't on it today for some reason.

I'm trying to have protein everyday, had 80g yesterday. Am only on about 30g today so far. I'm trying to be out walking everyday too.

I'm also a bit worried as my biggest follicle was 18mm x 12mm so wonky.

@VenusStarr that all sounds really good! Interesting about the wonky one...are you happy with your Estradiol levels?

They haven't told me what they are... she just said I'd get a call if its not good news / need to change my dose @Sunflower360 I'll ask on Saturday though.