Duo-stim - how does it work?

[HopefulllHolly]

Hi everyone! Hope you’re ok today!
I had my first nurse consultation today to go over protocol and my medication etc, and I stupidly didn’t ask a question I should have.
My nurse had a different protocol for me written down (she says short but the consultant told me long), so she’s going to get an answer for me. But she did say I’m doing duo-stimulation, which is great, but I’m wondering if you can do that with both short and long protocol?
Does anyone know? Has anyone done duo-stim before that can explain to me how it works please? 🙏
Thank you in advance!

Hiya, I just finished a DuoStim cycle. Wish I had done it sooner!

Im not sure about long or short but I stimmed initially for 7 days and then 9 days (so maybe it’s more short than long).

It is essentially the same concept: stim, trigger, collect. There is a short rest period before you start again (during your luteal phase so you will get your period during the second stim). Nobody told me my period will come so I freaked out worrying the second collection might be cancelled.

The intention is to further stimulate the follicles that didn’t grow quick enough during the first stim, and also tap into the follicles of the next cycle (is how it was explained to me) so you get more eggs in the one period cycle.

Your consultant will monitor you to make sure you are not overly stimulated, so if you have a few fast growing ones (like I did) they may collect sooner.

Hope this helps!

Hey @blahblahetc thank you for replying!
How come you wish you did it sooner?

It sounds like it would be a short protocol because long protocol is to make your eggs grow at an even rate, where as it sounds like this it doesn’t matter. Plus long protocol you start in your luteal phase so it wouldn’t really work?

Hopefully I get an answer from the consultant later about what protocol I am actually meant to be on!

Do you mind me asking how many eggs you got from it in comparison to your previous normal cycles?

Hi OP, I average 7-9 eggs and we make 2 blasts each time. For DuoStim, we got 4 blasts so it’s double at half the time. Hence I wish I started sooner.. 🙂

I always thought the short or long meant duration of stims. My first cycle was long protocol on the nhs and I stimmed for 14days. I was subsequently with create and stimmed 9-11 days (I did 3 cycles). My DuoStim cycle was done abroad. 7 days for the first collection and 9 for the second.

Do you have your treatment plan yet?