IVF/ICSI April 2024

[Vian67]

Hopefully find others in a similar boat 🙏

Just made my ‘Day One’ call to the clinic this week to set the ball rolling this will be my second cycle, first one failed on 12th Feb 2024.

Bit of background to how we got here, I have had 4 ectopics since Nov 2020 2 resulting in emergency surgery and losing both my tubes. No reason why our first cycle failed, we will be doing IVF/ICSI this time round.

Anyone joining me in the April emotional rollercoaster? X

Thats strange they are 3 days apart? Both 5day fresh transfer on the same day lol. Mine is 12 days i think 2 days short of the 2 weeks. Hoping I can hold out! Have you had any signs or symptoms?

Hi all, I've been reading all the messages but hard to keep up

@lemonyfoxhow are you doing now? I would definitely keep an eye out for OHSS, I have been really constipated with mine. Keep ringing them if you feel worse

I'm having a tough time playing this waiting game to find out what's going on. Conscious they still might not know on Weds and will be even more waiting. Been googling and googling ectopics and miscarriage management. I was meant to be working from home today but it's been so hard. Barely got anything done. I couldn't sleep for hours last night turning it all over in my head. My husband is trying to talk to me about normal things and I just can't focus like normal

@Lucylaughing i really don’t know much about it so can’t give any advice but sorry to hear you’re struggling. I really don’t envy you.
It must be soul destroying not knowing whether to be excited or not and not knowing what’s happening.
Well done for just keeping going, it would be on my mind 24/7

@Kp1210 thank you. Unfortunately there's no excitement as I think there's no chance of it turning out well from what I've seen online. I just don't know what the next stages are going to look like. If it wasn't an IVF pregnancy I wouldn't even know anything was wrong though, as wouldn't have had the HCG blood tests.

Hope everything is ok with you x

@Lucylaughing it must be so hard. I would say though if hcg is still rising, the hope will be that wherever the embryo is and whatever it is doing it should be big enough to locate by Wednesday and you'll get the answers that you need. It's such a mind fuck so don't beat yourself up for being distracted, you're in the worst kind of limbo imaginable and at this stage you don't have a plan of action. Things always feel better when you have a plan, so for now your plan is... to find out what the plan is. Hopefully by Wednesday you'll have that.

I've never made it to a positive pregnancy test, so I can't imagine the roller coaster of getting one and still not being able to celebrate. Try to do something every day that makes you feel happy

@Becky105 thank you.
Yes this has been my first positive as well. I haven't even done an at home test so still not seen a double line either!
We have low key plans both Sat and Sun so will hopefully be easier to keep my mind off it rather than being in front of a screen all day.
Also only four more jabs of the blood thinners and four more days of the compression socks thank god. They're driving me mad!

I just had my call from the Embryologist 24 eggs collected, 17 mature and 14 have fertilised. They said they will contact me on Thursday to tell me how many can be frozen. I hope so much that they make it to that point.

@Lucylaughing I'm sorry you're in limbo, the wait is so hard. Is it a repeat blood test on Weds?

I'm feeling generally the same today, sore and bloated and stomach ache. I have lost 3lbs overnight though so my body is doing some weird things. I kinda feel relieved we've done a freeze all tbh because I definitely wouldn't have felt well enough on Monday for a transfer.

@Becky105 great work!! You must be so relieved

@Becky105 thats great! Everything crossed for Thursday

@lemonyfox where do you think the 3lbs went? Have you been peeing more?

Just had our embryologist call and all 18 of our fertilised eggs have made it to day 3. Two are a little slower at developing but she said they're still looking viable at this stage and she'll likely give those ones til day 6. I feel sick with relief, I hate this whole ivf process. I feel like it's taking years off my life with stress 😭 Good luck for everyone else expecting calls soon x

@Kp1210 well according to my nurse at the clinic she said I'll have crapped it out 😂😂 I'm not convinced, hopefully it's just fluid absorbing because Ive been drinking water and sports drinks like nobody's business

thats great news from the embryologist @lemonyfox
its a promising sign that the weight is going back down to normal. Hope you start to feel better soon

Hi everyone,

Hope you are all well and hope you don’t mind me joining in. :)

I’m 39, only had one tube as had ectopic in the past. AFC 10. Husband 43, borderline morphology and sperm count. This will be our first ever cycle - NHS round.

Due to start my stims tonight with meriofert and day 10 scan booked in.

I am a bit anxious and excited now that this is happening and fingers crossed everything goes well.

Any advice on how to maximise chances please? Also, I am only booked in for 1 scan (day 10) is this normal nowadays?

Thanking you.. x

Big congrats @lemonyfox and @Becky105 bet you’re relieved!

Welcome @FunFish 😊 I can’t help on things for success but with jabs use an ice pack and leave the needle in for a few seconds after it’s all in -makes it hurt less. I am on Meriofert too and also only had a day 10 scan. It varies from clinic to clinic. Are you with Care Fertility?

Hey @FunFish congratulations on getting started. I also only had a day 10 scan but that varies between clinics. As for tips, I kept my steps up each day to keep a good blood flow, ate healthy for nutrients (some people recommend protein), took my daily fertility supplement and added omega 3, drank coconut water for electrolytes and avoided really hot baths as some clinics say that excess heat is not good for the process. Main one was drinking loads of water so that my hydration was good.

Ate some pomegranate seeds. Other people swear by pineapple and a Brazil nut each day. 🤣🤣🤣

There's so much advice that it gets a bit much, so try not to over think it. Stress will not be good for you.

I am very sad today. Was supposed to do a dual trigger tonight of triptorelin and ovitrelle aiming for a fresh transfer. I went to do trigger bloods this morning and they just called to say my e2 is 3941 pmol/l and progesterone is 7nmol/1 so because of that the fresh is cancelled as both are too high. I'm absolutely gutted as we only get a fresh and frozen on nhs, so now the fresh is forfeit. I was dreaming of a Jan 2025 due date but with friends weddings abroad in June and July probably looks like a frozen fet end of July assuming we get anything to freeze from collection on Monday. This journey is mentally, physically and emotionally draining 😪.

@Mrsbutterfly24 aww I'm so sorry to hear that. I got all excited when I thought the clinic had switched me from a frozen to a fresh but then they quickly switched back. When I was talking to the nurse I was sort of setting out the reasons why I really want to get started ASAP (things like we're away at a wedding in July this year getting married ourselves next July etc) but the nurse was really good and basically said, look your body isn't ready to be a good home to an embryo and you don't want to waste your best embryo if the chance of success is not good. Then she said with regards to the wedding this year, if you get OHSS or really poorly, you won't be going on any holidays because you won't be well. It was frank but it did help me to change how I was thinking about things. I had just a timeline and a calendar of things I needed to work around but it health is most important and optimising chances of success.

Plus if you do have some to freeze, frozen embryo transfers are much cheaper to self fund than full ivf.

Sending hugs x

@Becky105, thanks for your message. I guess if the best embryo was never going to take with current hormones then its best to wait. I suppose having waited years to get here, a few more months is negligible. Its just hard when you have built up expectations to let go of the dream 😅.

I will hope and pray that we at least get good eggs monday and something to freeze at the end of the week. Then we will take it from there with the frozen transfer. Getting the embies is the hardest and most expensive part. I best start saving up the pennies and searching out affordable FET clinics just incase!😄 Xx

@Becky105 @lemonyfox great updates so far! Hope you're both feeling ok.

@lemonyfox - Weds is a scan to see if they can see where the pregnancy is. I'm guessing if it's ectopic there will be more chance of surgery or at least medical management. If it's in the right place they might just rebook me for another scan, and wait and see. I don't know if they will do another HCG test, maybe it depends what they see.

@Mrsbutterfly24 same thing happened to me this week but I’ve been so unwell with what I assume is OHSS I couldn’t imagine having a fresh transfer feeling like this.

i was also disappointed due to my nhs funding for fresh + frozen but I re-read the funding info yesterday and it says if fresh is not possible for medical reasons they will fund two frozen attempts. Really helped me feel better about it! I wonder if it would be the same thing for you?

@Sierra26 that's good news. Honestly though the postcode lottery for IVF makes me so angry. Surely the eligibility should be the same across the whole UK

Hello @Sierra26 ,

Glad you are feeling better. Apparently I have 26 follicles but of these only 14 or so were between 15mm to 20mm at my last scan, so who knows... If the smaller ones catch up, I may be in for ohss so maybe this is a blessing in disguise.

I really hope the no forfeit if medical is true in my case! Where can I find the details on my CCG funding? I am in West London. Thank you.

I found a funding info sheet I was sent last year and defo a forfeit if fresh can't happen for medical reasons. Ah well, I'll shift focus to something positive and hope for loads of embies next week! Thanks everyone Xx

@Mrsbutterfly24 i couldn't find just a West London CCG info sheet but found North West London's. I've attached it to see if you're in one of these boroughs as this also says if fresh can't happen 2 frozen.

Sorry added right pic