Create Fertility - Experiences (Part 3)

[Sunflower360]

Hi 👋

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

I'm 38, have had 3 egg collections with Create (2x natural modified and 1 x mild) and am about to go through my first FET following embryo banking and after having a Hysteroscopy and discovering I have thyroid antibodies...joys of fertility challenges.

Tagging as follows from previous chat, please tag any others I may have forgot.

New joiners to the thread welcome to share your experiences - it's a never ending learning curve for all!

@Maddie23
@gemso2020
@Doxy21
@Plantymcplant
@Jennaqua
@Hopesandsunshine
@jolly86
@VenusStarr
@muddlingthrou
@junieS
@littlebitsocial

@muddlingthrou definitely is very worrying when it happens, just good to have some explanation for it, but of course still got to be cautious as it is early days, so I am cautiously happy for now.

They haven't mentioned about charges, think it was explained as being a reassurance scan following my request with regards to the clot so they can monitor it in a weeks time and to also assess progression of the baby one more time before discharging me-by that point I'll hopefully be 7.5 weeks. I thought that was very good of the clinic, in all honesty my personal experience with them has been really good, I've been there now for almost a year and have pretty much been in almost every month for either monitoring scans, egg collections, transfers or pregnancy scans so staff know me quite well now! Plus I think we've spent enough money up to this point to warrant an additional scan 😅

@Sunflower360 - gosh, I'm sure you have spent more than enough! I'm glad you've had positive experiences - I'd say I have too on the whole on the clinical side (the admin side is a different matter). But I will be forever grateful for them getting me pregnant twice and hope for good outcomes for all the ladies on this thread.

@Sunflower360 that is amazing news! I can imagine what a relief after so much fear. Interesting that bleeding is so common (seen from this thread) and many times it doesn't mean a miscarriage.

@muddlingthrou ah that's good and yes wishing everyone the best in this thread! Also agree on the admin side, it is quite hit and miss!

@jolly86 thank you! Yes would appear bleeding happens more than we realise. Of course I'm still on alert and if it happens again will make a decision whether a EPU visit would be of benefit, especially if there were cramps too, but it is good to have some explanation in the meantime.

So happy for you @Sunflower360! What a relief that must have been. Good that you have an explanation & another scan too x

@HopefulElle thanks!

Hello! I hope it’s ok to join in this chat. I just had my first cycle with Create. I hope two grade 1 embryos with 8 cells by day 3, but by day 5, they haven’t developed into blastocysts :( The first doctor I spoke to suggested that due to my age (44) that it would be best to freeze them on day 3. I’m really regretting that I decided to wait until day 5 so they could be pgt tested. I’m wondering if any of you have had any luck and your embryos responded on day 6? Also, did any of you have luck with freezing day 3 embryos or did you wait until they were blastocyst and then freeze? Perhaps these embryos wouldn’t have worked anyway but I’m really feeling the pressure due to my age and wondering if it’s worth trying again or not :( thanks for any advice.

@Summer0101 hi and welcome to the group!

Sorry to read about your result so far. Create's approach generally is to freeze a day 3 just in case you don't get blastocysts and in that event they would transfer a day 3.

There has been success in this group of day 3's being transferred and leading to positives and strong pregnancies, so it is definitely possible. I think thoughts are that if you're low on numbers it is better to put the embryo back in its natural setting a day 3 so it can do what it can in that setting than in a lab setting. When you have more eggs/embryos then it is worth seeing if they get to blastocyst as you have more knowledge of what stage it's at before transferring and can select better embryos for transfer. As with most things with IVF, or so I have discovered, is that it is not an exact science and varies so much person to person.

I would say transfer at day 3 if you are comfortable and if you're ok dealing with the tww. Having gone through 3 tww's after 3 FETs I have to say that has been the most challenging bit of the whole IVF process for me. I came to the conclusion I would rather know what I was transferring than have false hope so I was looking at PGTA as next steps, which I was quite anti prior to the IVF tww's.

It really is a personal choice, but if the embryo is better in its natural setting, then as long as you're comfortable with that tww, it's definitely worth doing I think

@Summer0101 on my first cycle I only got one egg, it made it to day 3 and advice was to freeze that one then, and to push any subsequent ones ( I did a 3 cycle package), to day 5. Unfortunately I got no more embryos from cycle 2 and 3 (one cycle nothing collected, one they collected 2 eggs but neither made it to day 5), but I’m currently 13 weeks pregnant with that one and only day 3 embryo.
It’s such a difficult decision. I was never going to PGT test personally, but I had little to no hope since it was my only embryo and not even a blastocyst.

Thank you so much @Sunflower360 and @HopefulElle for your responses. And congratulations!
I must say I’m kicking myself. I was not expecting my day 3 embryos to be doing as well as they were so I wish I’d push to freeze that day. I did ask the embryologist if I could freeze and she encouraged me to stick to the plan :( I wish I’d trusted my instincts. I had or think I had OHSS in this cycle (doctors didn’t diagnose after egg collection), so not sure I can go through another two rounds. It’s such a tough journey isn’t it. Thank you for your support!

Try not to kick yourself @Summer0101, easier said than done I know, but what worked for me might not have worked for you, and you can only make decisions based on what you know at the time - I completely trusted the embryologist’s recommendation too, just happened to be different. Wishing you all the best with whatever comes next for you x

Hi everyone.

Last time I posted here, I was doing my 2nd round with Create which unfortunately failed with 2 eggs that failed to fertilise.

We decided to take a 1 month break before getting back on the wagon for round 3, and to hopefully add a couple more embryos to the 3 we have frozen from the 1st round.

So...I should have been starting my 3rd round around about now, but on Sunday I decided to do a pregnancy test and I was shocked!! It was positive!!! I had a chemical in December so I've been testing everyday and fingers crossed, the lines are gradually getting darker so far.

I'm continuing to pray for you all but I just wanted to share this as inspiration 😊

@Mistful congratulations 🎊 That is good news! And you have 3 frozen embryos too which is an added bonus

@Sunflower360 Thank you very much!!

Very much trying not to get ahead of myself and very conscious it's early days, so I'm still mentally prepared for the possibility of going back for my 3rd IVF round at any moment...

I was in absolute disbelief when our 2nd round failed, and I was so upset I insisted on picking up my failed eggs in a box rather than letting the lab discard them...I still have the box here in my living room.

My husband and I both agreed we had better take a break for a bit for our mental health...not just doing nothing, because we knew we'd end up just re-hashing what went wrong over and over and that's just as mentally exhausting as the IVF rollercoaster. We decided to book a last-minute trip to copenhagen so we'd have something else to occupy us (lol, my husband also surprised me with Eurovision tickets!).

So....maybe that's what did it for us? I think honestly after that trip we had something else to talk about and we finally relaxed properly.

Amazing, congratulations @Mistful! Wishing you a happy & healthy pregnancy 🤞🏼

@jolly86 how are you? Did you get a early scan?

Hi @Sunflower360 sorry for my late reply no i didn't get a scan yet. My NHS scan is in around 2.5 weeks now. How are you doing?

@jolly86 that's good, not long to go, how are you feeling? I'm ok, reassurance scan went well so got discharged from Create last week and had my midwife appt. Got to wait until 12 week scan now which is 4 weeks away as I'm 8+2 at the moment, will have to keep myself busy! Bar from tiredness not got a lot of symptoms at all

@Sunflower360 I had the midwife appointment too which is strange before having any scan. I do get sick in mornings and also funny stomach in evenings I wake up close to morning have to nibble on something and fall asleep again. I am very tired yes and want to sleep more.

@Sunflower360 I'm crossing fingers for you. I can also share what little experience I had being pregnant. I had a massive bleed at 9wks after spotting on and off from start really. Went to clinic to ask about next steps after miscarriage. Turns out baby was fine and the bleed was from somewhere else, unexplained and benign. So sending good vibes over to you!

I've been quiet because I'm almost scared to go over everyhing in my head, but this thread is always full of kindness and knowledge so here I am in case anyone has had a similar journey.

Natural modified, this is day 11 and follicles looked ok this morning (not many though) but slooooooow progress (extra meds starting to be a financial issue!). My main big goodlooking one is at 16mm I think?

Thing is, it would be my natural ovulation day and I'm def feeling the pangs and from the ovary with the biggie. Also some fluid which I wasn't even aware of it being a thing? Anyway, extra scan tomorrow and all I can think is I'm going to ovulate way before they collect..

What happens in that case? Could more cetrotide have prevented it? Can it turn into a IUI if they miss it?

Agggghh. I don't want to worry but between the hormones and the googling and the natural anxiety I feel I just want to sleep until it's been done.

Apologies for the rant! it's my first time and honestly, deep inside I'm convinced I'm m too old for this. Sigh 😕

Hope everyone is doing well!

@JunieS thank you, will see what happens, got just over 3 weeks until the 12 week scan.

Twinges and cervical mucus is normal with stims and sounds like you may trigger tomorrow as your lead follicle is not far off-they normally advise it when it's at 17mm. Good luck!

@Sunflower360 still thinking of you, 3 weeks might as well be 3 years when one is waiting!

My biggest one decided to grow over Sunday and is at 20mm now so trigger tonight and ec on Weds morning. I can't stop having anxiety about ovulating before that, I feel really full.

Any advice for trigger and preparing for collection? I have no idea what to expect and hoping I don't get the trigger wrong or something!😬

Hope you're all doing well❤️

@JunieS - I think that fit to burst feeling is totally normal, I certainly had it with all three egg collections!

My advice re trigger shot is give yourself plenty of time and don't be too rough with the syringe. I somehow managed to bend the needle the first time 🤦🏽‍♀️ it still worked, thankfully, but i was definitely panicking at midnight on a week night... good luck, exciting times!!!

@JunieS that's good news you're at trigger. I had follicles at 22mm if I recall correctly when I had mild IVF and it was a food collection.

Regarding tips enjoy having a break from injecting after the trigger! And try and stay calm if possible, egg collection and sedation is really not that bad and will be the best sleep you'll have or so I found!

Thanks so much for your good wishes! I took your advice @muddlingthrou and left plenty of time to do it without the panicking... I'm clumsy as what so I was expecting to beat your needle bending by totally breaking it. Luckily it didn't happen, phew...

@Sunflower360 my dear how is it going? It occurred to me that if the anxiety gets too much, you can always visit the walk in pregnancy clinic in hospital? By week 12 I had had like 4 scans, not anxiety related but pain and blood. Perhaps it will reassure you. :)

My EC #1 was this morning and honestly, I'm not sure if I'm the 1% but I had to stay in the recovery area for like 2 hours or more? First I wasn't waking up quickly enough, then I was feeling super sick and cold sweats, then I fully threw up and felt great xD. Then I was bleeding so I couldn't leave for a while... Is it always like this?? I'm still bleeding, less so I think but definitely not just 'spotting'. Now worried about clots...anyway.

We got 6 eggs, about 5 more than I was hoping for (I'm doing Natural Modified and also I am O L D...). However there was a couple next door and they were saying how they had 7 last round, and no blastos...so almost expecting to hear the same tomorrow. Sigh.

Also, can I ask something about PGT and D3 D5? The embryologists who talked to us said that if PGT, they have to take the embryos to D5 or something like it. I was still not quite with it I think, but husband heard the same. The general vibe is that let's focus on D5s as if D3 aren't good almost. Now I'm not sure whether I shouldn't test them all and leave some D3 possibility open.... honestly what a headache.

@Summer0101 I just read where you're now at and I wanted to thank you for sharing, as it's what I was wondering about just now and we're similar in age and cycles and even the chemical in December! When it comes to instincts vs medical advice it feels like a massive gamble. But it gives me some hope, as I'm quite low on that at the moment! ❤

@Mistful that was such a positive story to read! Hope you're doing well? (apologies if I've missed something!)

@HopefulElle Your day 3 lil one story is the other side of what can be possible, so thanks for sharing. I'm worried that because we chose PGT in the end (not originally but because of age I might as well) our little Day 3s are not going to be even a consideration. So confused..

Thanks so much for your advice and general wisdom and good wishes you lovely ladies. As much as real life friends (like, the one or two who know) want to help, this is one of those journeys that need to be experienced to be fully understood.
x