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

All scrapped 😅😅maybe be back again in May

Wowsers I will catch up with all this, just so frustrating from my phone.

hello and welcome to all the ladies that have joined, you all seem well ahead of me I’ve just arranged delivery of my meds with a £70 delivery charge 🤯 crazy!

Hope all your journeys are going well so far!

@Vian67 wow, £70 seems like a hell of a lot! Is that because it's refrigerated?

@Natty2 hope you've just been putting your feet up today and relaxing if you're feeling rubbish. Good luck for tomorrow, sending you lots of good thoughts for excellent eggs

@Rebekah77 really sorry to hear that, just trying to read back through the thread to see your updates. Is it a BMI reason or a lack of bleed? How frustrating for you x

@Rebekah77 omg, I missed your message as well. How come you're pushed back to May now?

Pain levels are the main thing arggg so frustrating yet again lol 😂 I shouldn’t be surprised been trying to get booked for over a year now

carry on dieting and hopefully can figure out how to keep pain levels under control and actually be able to start stims ?!

thanks guys and good luck with cycles xx

@Rebekah77 oh no, is that because you have a health condition that you have pain from? Sorry to hear that.
Thanks for the luck!

Yes endometriosis, would think they would be used to dealing with it
super frustrating but we move ! Try again next month

@Rebekah77 yeah I agree, I would expect them to have endo all sussed out as surely that's a common reason people need IVF?
Hope you get sorted soon, good luck 💛

@Rebekah77 oh bless you, endo is really hard. I hope you are resting up and taking care of yourself. I feel you re dieting; I’ve lost 3 stone since starting this journey in 2021, although I’m still technically overweight on BMI 🙄😂 always here if you want a chat.

Spoke to the nurse today, starting norethisterone on the 11th to start a bleed on the 20th then injections begin hopefully on the 25th. Just in time for my birthday, deep joy! Looks like I’ll be hopping between this thread and the May thread.

@Rebekah77 sorry to hear it's postponed again! Keeping fingers crossed for next month 🤞🤞

@Natty2 thanks for your feedback…just did my first shots today, had a bit of a struggle getting all of the Meriofert liquid mix back on the syringe 😰husband had to rescue, so hopefully we got it right and will do better in the next few days! Wishing you the best of luck on retrieval tomorrow, 44 follicles sounds INSANE, you must be FEELING IT these last few days. Keeping everything crossed for good quality eggs, embryos for you…let us know how it goes.

@Vian67 I get mine from Stork and it is £60 for delivery 😫 they really milk in our money anywhere they can, don’t they?!? Do any of you go over the prescribed amount of meds the clinic suggests? I always review my order and always make them amend to less as they tend to go a bit overboard making you order medication that then goes unused/expires if not doing another cycle immediately. If you know your cycle/body well, then maybe ordering the correct amount of meds is possible. Not wasting any money on my watch😅

Hope everyone is doing well. Feeling slightly light headed right now after shots, lots of bleeding on CD 2, time to up my water intake from 2.2L to 3L 😮‍💨 Have a good evening ladies!

@ViVRe hi, thanks for the tips on the medication. We're NHS funded for our current round but we'll be on our own after that so it's good to know.

I think I need to drink more water as well. I usually have a fair bit on a normal day (prob about 2l) but I've been feeling thirsty still / bit of a dry mouth. Has someone advised you 3l is what you should be aiming for?

@ViVRe good call on the medication, I didn't think about that this time, as they basically ended up over prescribing me. I was with Stork too.
I've got about 9 Meriofert and 1 Ovitrelle trigger leftovers now, so hundreds of pounds of medication! 🙄
I found if you tilt the vial when doing the meds it helps to bring out all of the liquid in one! You'll get the hang of it!

Just back from EC... 24 eggs but will have to see what happens in the next 5 days, I know from last time (only ending with 1) that anything can happen so managing my expectations! Keeping my fingers crossed for our update tomorrow though.

Now on extra meds for the risk of OHSS and won't be able to transfer until third bleed, which I think is longer than most clinics!

@Natty2 wow I bet you're glad to be done with EC! Hope you don't get OHSS and you feel ok.
24 sounds promising but like you say so much can happen. At least you can recover and look forward to transfer. 3 months is quite a while but at least once you know how many are in the freezer you can hopefully relax for a while x

Hello ladies, how’s everyone doing?

day 3 of stims here and I am definitely feeling differences compared to my 1st cycle. I honestly barely felt anything just on Ovaleap last time, I felt heavy/sore in my ovaries on the last 4days of stims then, but that was about it…this time (on Ovaleap and Meriofert) I’m feeling a bit of headache and nausea, and a bit of discomfort in the lower abdomen already…any of you had this sort of reaction to stims so early/immediately? I wasn’t on any protocol/meds before starting stims (I’ve been taking pre-natal and DHEA per consultant’s recommendation, but that’s it). So I feel this reaction is definitely due to stims.

@Lucylaughing Clinic said to drink minimum of 2.3L of water per day…I make a goal of 3L for myself bc I have a very active job and also go to the gym daily, so I feel it’s sensible to keep hydrated as I’m burning a lot of energy throughout the day 😄 I also feel water helps “dissolve” a bit of the side effects of the meds 😆 what meds are you on atm?

@Natty2 how are you getting on/recovering from procedure? Any updates from the clinic?

@ViVRe hey, yeah I'm on day 5 of stims and I've had side effects from day 1. Mainly bloating and cramping, a little bit of a funny tummy. Today it's a bit worse, feel really heavy, stomach is really bloated and tender. I'm on Rekovelle and Cetrotide.

Thanks for the tips on the water. I definitely haven't had enough today - belly feels so full, it's like there's no room!

Hi @ViVRe I definitely felt my symptoms earlier than the last cycle too! I already felt abit "heavy" 3 days in, so maybe that's the Meriofert doing its job!

So a tentative update that of the 24 eggs, 16 were mature and 15 fertilised
Such a contrast to my previous 14 and only 5 mature, 3 fertilised.
It's still really early days of course and I'm prepared those numbers may significantly drop, but for now I think Meriofert did help the maturity. I also had a double trigger, 1/2 Ovitrelle and 2mg of Decapectyl which may have helped
I was less worried about the whole stims process too, did more acupuncture than last time, had been taking Ubiquinol vitamin tablets since end of Jan and took day off before EC so who knows what could have helped!

@Natty2 hi, how are you doing? When is your day 5? Hope your fertilised eggs are doing well?

Went for my scan this morning and I'm a bit disappointed / worried about the results. I only have 5 follicles on each side, which would be ok in itself but my left ovary is still in the wrong place and it sounds like they might not be able to access it for EC. I'm trying hard not to be upset but I feel like our chances have been cut in half and half again. I had a high AFC when I was last scanned (28) so I was worried about over stimulation not this.

I have to ring this afternoon to find out if we do one more day of stims or just trigger tonight.

Hi @Lucylaughing I'm sorry you're disappointed after today, don't loose faith just yet!
You have 10 follicles which is really good, I had 14 on my last cycle which increased slightly during the stims.
I really hope they are able to access your left ovary, I know they can move around quite a lot, was it the same on your original scans?
I know how you feel, I had 29 on my original AFC scan, and I think for that reason they start you on a low dose so you don't overstimulate. They may increase your meds after today
Keep us posted and hear if you want to talk. I completely understand the rollercoaster of this journey.

It's day 5 for me today. Of our 15 fertilised, 3 have been frozen today (quite a drop!) but better than last time.
they are still monitoring 8, and she thinks 4 more could make it over the line tomorrow but I also know that it's not guaranteed. As today stands we have 4 in the freezer now including our 1 from January so hopefully there's at least 1 successful pregnancy in there.
Im actually back in for scans shortly, I've had a really rough time on the medication they gave me to prevent OHSS, and stopped taking it on Saturday as I couldn't keep down food or water! Although it should have been transfer day today I'm less disappointed knowing my body is clearly not ready for it yet.

Sending you lots of luck 💛

@Natty2 thank you you're so kind. Maybe they will be able to get to it on the day. Yes she couldn't see my left ovary properly on baseline scan day so presumably it's been in the wrong place a while. I'm also worried now that EC is going to be an ordeal if they're pressing and manipulating trying to get to it. I really wish I was going to be asleep instead of awake. Maybe it will be ok.

3 frozen is still pretty good! And hopefully a couple more will get there as well, so you will have plenty waiting for you when you're ready for transfer. Sorry you've been so unwell though, really hope you feel better soon. At least you know going for a freeze all was the right decision.

@Lucylaughing I kid you not, it sounds as if you and I went for the exact same scan this morning 😫😭 today was my first scan since starting stims (day 7 of stims) and they saw about 5 follicles on right ovary (2 dominant ones over 10mm already which is not too brilliant if I’m stimming for another week as they will probably be over mature and not good to freeze🤔) and other 3 smaller. My left ovary was not playing ball, nurse struggled to find it and when she thought she found it she saw nothing but a small follicle in there.

this is the worse feeling, I am again on the highest dose of stims (so I know there won’t be any changes to my ongoing protocol) and yet here I am at 37 producing these little numbers. I really am such a positive person, and know “it only takes one”, but I must confess - the amount of money, time and pain (my belly is already feeling it) spent for no guarantees and to get such poor results (specially when you have no known issues but “age” against you) it is UTTERLY FRUSTRATING. I am not feeling too happy today, I know at the end of the day whatever I get is better than no eggs retrieved at all and a period wasted…but damn 😓

that being said I did ask the nurse in regards to EC if there’s a chance of them not finding/reaching “left ovary” and her response was “very unlikely”…if they are sedating you then they know to move and poke and search for it without worrying if you are in pain. Therefore, @Lucylaughing i think if you have anything worth collecting in there, and you have a good team of doctors, then they will make sure to get the goodies out of you 🤗 may I ask why they aren’t sedating you? Can you not ask at least for extra drugs so you don’t feel the pain during procedure?

@Natty2 3 frozen is great 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 if they are still keeping an eye on the other ones then there’s a chance for more. Are you doing PGT-A? Hope you start to feel better soon, I appreciate that the side effects are absolutely rubbish, but hopefully it will be all worth it in the end.

@Lucylaughing @ViVRe I'm sorry you've both had disappointing scans today
I know it's really hard to keep up the faith, but you're not out of it
Hopefully the ones you do have retrieved are great quality. Will your clinics do scans every other day now until retrieval?

@Lucylaughing will they not give you light sedation?! I've had that both times and not remembered a thing. I would ask them to review that, I thought most clinics did it under sedation

@ViVRe no testing, which I know is a gamble but it's so expensive to add that on to the thousands we've had to pay for this round 😢

@Natty2 @ViVRe hi both, sorry for my confusing message. Yes I will have sedation but it's conscious sedation and they have stressed every time they mention it that I will be awake but obviously the pain will be less. They do offer you gas and air though so presumably some people need more than just the IV painkillers.

Vi - thanks for your reassurance on the ovary. I asked the nurse about it and she just said they might be able to get to it because with pain relief they will be able to push you around harder which she didn't want to do today and make me uncomfortable. But she didn't give me any likelihood either way, just a maybe. Sorry yours is hiding too! Hopefully it will be ok on the day.

I'm ringing back at 3 after the consultant has reviewed my notes then will know what the plan is.

EC is Wednesday morning