Starting IVF/ICSI March 2024

[AnnieStar12]

I'm planning to start my first round of ICSI with my next cycle - anyone else in the same boat and want some online company? Or anyone already been through this and got useful tips/advice?

Hi @Lavendermarshmallows I’m so sorry to hear that your tests were negative. It can be such a cruel process. Hope you’re able to take some time to look after yourself.

I don’t have any experience of a frozen transfer so can’t offer any advice but that is good news that you have a frozen one to transfer. Hopefully it will be the one for you x

@Lavendermarshmallows sorry to hear that this wasn't your one. But good you got another try with a frozen one. Hope you take some time to look after yourself before starting again!
If it helps, I know of 6 IVF babies among our friends and family. Of those, only one of them was a 1st transfer from a 1st round. The others all took multiple transfers, or even multiple rounds.

@Lavendermarshmallows oh no! I’m so sorry it didn’t work this time. Sending you lots of love and strength
i am doing an FET at the moment so I will keep you posted with what the process is like. How many frosties do you have? X

@Lavendermarshmallows really sorry to hear this hun. Will you have to do the injections over again? Sending love and strength xx

So sorry @Lavendermarshmallows hope youre doing ok! Sending you hugs xx

Thank you for everyones kind words and support, I know it's meant to be a process and its considered unusual and very lucky for success the first time, but I really am rooting for everyone to have their first time success x

@Steph2345 I only have 2 left as we only got 3 embryos from my cycle. Sorry if this has already been asked/answered, but are you planning on doing a single or double transfer for yours? My doctor is really against doing a double transfer and while I know i should trust her professional opinion, part of me is now wanting to do a double transfer to hit the "3 is the magic number". Really hope your FET goes well!

@IrisViolet Some injections, I'll be on estrogen patches for about 10 days on my next cycle, then start the progesterone butt injections every other day until suitable for transfer and continue till 10 weeks if theres a positive pregnancy. Think I will ask to switch to Lubion if possible as thats in the stomach, I only had 6 doses of Prontogest before we had to stop, 5 of them were fine, but one dose must have hit a nerve as it took a week to recover from that one...

@Lavendermarshmallows i have 1 frostie so we are just doing that one. When we did the collection we have 2 blasts, we did a fresh transfer and froze the other; we were fortunate that the fresh transfer was successful so we are a few years on and would like to use our frozen embryo now.
i have an implant at the moment instead of daily down reg injections and then tablets to thicken the lining which I will start once my period arrives.
I hope you’re ok. There is nothing like the fertility journey and the heap of emotions that come with it x

Morning everyone!
How you all doing today?
We had our nurse consultation and unhelpfully they had me down for short protocol but I’m SURE the consultant said long protocol - I remember because I was panicking about my ovaries not wanting to wake up again.
Anyway - if it’s long protocol I do down regulation from Thursday next week, and if not then we’ll start next month instead.
Im also down for duo-stim - does anyone know what that’s for? I stupidly didn’t ask!

@HopefulllHolly when will you get clarity on which protocol you are doing? Im pretty sure duo stims means you do back-to-back stimulation so no transfers after first retrieval but straight in to another round of stims before you bleed.

I had my scan this morning. Was not good news at all :(
I now only have 2 follicles getting to a decent size. The others are all too small. Being seen again on Monday morning and will see what the situation is then but chance they might just cancel the round.

The doc did say next time we’d try a long protocol as that can help all follicles grow at similar rate. Which I thought was a bit annoying they didn’t just start me on that this time if that’s better for people with low egg count.

hope everyone else is doing okay, and having better luck than me.

Hey @AnnieStar12 oh that’s so annoying! Bless you. What’s your heart saying? Do you want to cancel? My nurse today did say that sometimes women with lower egg counts have better quality eggs - so let’s take that silver lining 🙂
The nurse is just waiting for the consultant to let her know which I should be on, I want to be on long protocol (like you I want the eggs to grow at the same speed and give me more chances and also I could start quicker) but equally if you can only do duostims on short protocol I wouldn’t mind doing that either. But if it’s short protocol I wouldn’t start drugs until 21st April which feels so far away 🙃 I want to feel like I’m doing something rather than just being in the hands of doctors!
I know it must be hard when other people get so many eggs, when I start I’m sure it’ll make you feel better having a fellow low number maker here 😊

Hi ladies,
hope you’re all doing ok, had egg collection this morning and we got 19 which is great, but the flip side is they’re worried about me having OHSS. They’ve prescribed me another 4 weeks of injections (blood thinners) and I know this probably sounds ridiculous, given everything we’re all going through, but I’m devastated. I’ve got such a needle phobia that this is really clouding the happiness I should feel. I really thought I was done with needles after the trigger shot, has anyone been on inhixa before? If so, have you got any advice/tips?
@AnnieStar12 I’m rooting for you my love, it takes one ❤️. Even if it’s delayed, hopefully it’ll be better next time round. The ivf nurse today told me she had 3 rounds where they found no eggs at all and on her fourth round there was one egg - she now has a 4 year old.

sending positive vibes to everyone xxx

@AnnieStar12 sorry to hear you didn’t have good news at your scan this morning. I have heard stories of people having egg collections with 2 eggs, is it not an option to continue or would you want to try again for a higher number? Such a hard wait and decision I’m sure.

@HopefulllHolly did you get clarification on your protocol? I know what you mean about just wanting to get started, the wait just feels so long when you’re so close but so far. You’re almost there though exciting time!

@IrisViolet congrats on your egg collection! How are you feeling now? I’m sure that is really frustrating about the injections 🙁 hopefully they will stop you getting OHSS though. Are you doing a freeze all round now or are they waiting to see how you recover? I was told 19 is a boarderline number so they were happy for me to go ahead with fresh if I felt ok but everyone reacts differently.

Hi everyone, hope you all are doing OK ❤️

@Capybara95 How is the recovery going from your egg collection the other day?

@IrisViolet congratulations on your egg collection today, how are you feeling now?
So sorry about the extra injections 😞

I had another scan today, triggering tomorrow 10pm for egg collection Monday morning. Starting to get a bit nervous now! But happy that everything is moving forward.

@Beka245 I feel fine now thanks. Was able to get out and about a bit today without any pain or anything so hopefully over the worst of it!

Good luck for Monday!! Exciting to get things moving

@Capybara95 yeh, I’m really struggling mentally at the moment - not sure if anyone else is, but it’s really taking its toll!
have had to start the blood thinner injections this eve as well as the progesterone pessaries and I just feel ruined?! Hats off to all you ladies who seem so strong throughout this process ❤️. I’m not sure but I think it’ll be fresh, yes. Maybe next Wednesday? So a day five transfer. Monday has been mentioned but I don’t know whether that’s just a ‘see how things go’ comment.

@Beka245 thanks my lovely ❤️. Exciting that you’ve got the trigger tomorrow - best of luck for the next couple of days. Let us know how Monday goes xx

@Capybara95good to hear your recovery is going well. Hope you’re staying sane in this limbo period!

@HopefulllHolly hopefully you’ll get clarification soon. I’ll be following your updates closely. Am actually going to ask my doctor on Monday about the duo-stims option too as we have such similar AMH I wonder if that would make sense for me too.

I really don’t know what to do tbh. I have the weekend to talk it through with my OH, but where I’m at right now is if there is still two on Monday I might just go ahead with the icsi. But if it’s gone down to only 1 then I think abandoning the cycle probs seems sensible. We won’t be able to afford endless rounds and this way we won’t loose the money from the round as we’ll just pay a cancellation fee. Not looking forward to Monday, feels like I just get bad news each time I get seen.

@IrisViolet congrats on a great egg haul!! Keep us posted on how they develop. Sorry to hear you have to keep injecting. We can’t win with this ivf business, it’s relentless! But hopefully it’ll all be worth it. And great that you can still do a fresh transfer!

@Beka245 good luck for Monday, fingers crossed for you!

@AnnieStar12 oh no I’m sorry to hear you’ve not had the news you wanted today. When will a decision be made about this cycle? I hope you are able to tell them about your disappointment with not being on a long protocol to start with.

@HopefulllHolly that’s frustrating! Hopefully the clinic will clarify what protocol they want you on ASAP so you can know for sure when you will get started.

@IrisViolet that’s a great collection! Blood thinners were the only thing that worked when I had OHSS so hopefully doing it now will prevent it happening. I know it seems like lots more injections but it will keep you safe, and it’s honestly for such a short time it’ll be over before you know it.

@Beka245 ive got everything crossed for you over the next few days!

@Capybara95 any updates today?

@IrisViolet it is a really hard process and I definitely felt worst the night of my collection. Just try to take some time for self care and recovery. Hope you feel better soon ❤️ good luck for your update in the morning.

@AnnieStar12 the waiting at this stage is hard but hanging in there! Hoping your two will still be there on Monday for you.

@Steph2345 i didn’t get any updates today but have my day 3 update tomorrow morning

Just had my day 3 update and we still have all 14. The embryologist said they are developing well. So happy with that this morning but back on the waiting game again until Monday!

Hi all, a bit late to the game, but I’d like to join in.

I’m in the same boat as @AnnieStar12; had my day 9 scan yesterday and not great news. One lead follicle, a few that may grow a bit more and the rest under 6mm. They’re doing another scan on Monday to see if I might have more than 1 that’s a good enough size to go ahead with the egg collection.

It’s our first (and only) round of NHS-funded ICSI and they put me on the short protocol despite my age (38). I have a decent (I think) AMH level of 27 and a good number of follicles seen on my day 0 scan, so maybe that’s why they thought short might work. It seems I just haven’t responded to the stimulation drugs. The communication with the clinic has been patchy. I see that others have had checks between day 0 and 9 scans, and I can’t help but think that maybe they could’ve increased my dose if they had checked to see if I was responding by the 5th day or so.

All in all slightly disappointing. I guess the timing isn’t great as on top of this, we’re about to move abroad in 2 weeks, so maybe it’s just been the stress of everything coming all at once. Sorry about the long post!

@Capybara95 wonderful news!!

@Cathycatcat welcome to the thread. Sorry you’re with me in the low response boat, it’s tough isn’t it.
Will your clinic go ahead even with just one egg, or will they only do it if there’s 2 or more?
If it makes you feel any better, I’ve been scanned regularly (day 2, day 5, day 8 so far) and they’ve not made any changes to my medication even on seeing follicles not growing fast enough. I asked my doctor about adjusting the stims and she didn’t seem to think there was any point and said something about having to work with what my body does naturally. I do know there are other clinics that monitor daily and adjust doses each day but I couldn’t afford that clinic as it was around £15k for one round!!
Hope we both have better news at our scans on Monday.

Good morning
I’ve had my last scan after my cancelled cycle lady month and told all looks ok this cycle and egg collection on Monday but then had a call to say my oestrogen levels are not high enough so now egg collection changed to Tuesday!! Not sure how one day would make a difference tbh… I’ve got 6 or 8 follicles. Does anyone know if embryo transfer only happens on day 3 or 5? No other days? Thanks xxx

@Drzoem I’ve not heard of transfers being on other days but maybe it could happen? Have your clinic suggested you would do a different day?

@Cathycatcat hi! Welcome to the chat. Wow you have a lot going on, are you finding it stressful? Could your clinic keep you doing the stims for longer? That’s what my clinic did when I had low numbers (but I was on long protocol so no risk of ovulating early or anything).

@AnnieStar12 how are you doing today?

@Capybara95 such good news!! What a relief. Bring on Monday!!

@Cathycatcat welcome to the thread. I’m sorry your scan didn’t go as you had hoped. Hopefully the few that are a bit behind could catch up by Monday or could they keep you on stims or an extra few days if they haven’t by then? Your AMH sounds really good for your age, mine is 28.3 and I’m 28 and was told that is normal so maybe they just need an extra push? I’m sure you’re finding it stressful with the move as well.

@Drzoem did you have a blood test to check your estrogen levels? I don’t think mine were ever checked. I didn’t do any bloods at least. I think it may be possible to do a day 6 transfer if an embryo is slow to develop but as far as I know day 5 is the preferred.

@Steph2345 yes definitely a relief, always feel a bit sick ringing! But so far as good so hopefully it will continue

@Capybara95 yes, I think last night was just a total mind mess - I’m hoping I can start to think a bit more clearly as the next few days pass! Thanks for being so lovely ❤️.

@AnnieStar12 we had our call this morning and 3 of the 19 were immature so unable to fertilise, but out of the 16 remaining 13 fertilised… I’m in shock! I know they still have a long way to go in terms of development, but I’m hoping this means we may have a couple that are viable ❤️. Hope things are ok with you?

@Steph2345 ahh, this is really good to hear, no one I know has experienced or had OHSS so it’s just making me panic that I’m going to be severely unwell. You’re right, I just need to try and breathe through it. How long did the OHSS symptoms last for you?

sending positive vibes to everyone in this thread - finding it hard to keep up with names, sorry if I’ve missed anyone ❤️