IVF October 2024

[spamOFtheDAY]

Hi 👋
I'm due to commence IVF next month (injections to start 2nd October).
Thought I'd start a group for anyone going through the same thing at the same time to support each other ☺️
🌈

@wateringcanface Things can change between day 3 and day 5! I had 4 embryos and on day 3, 1 of them was average, the other 3 couldn't even be graded because they were so small. By day 5 the average one turned into good quality, and another one somehow caught up and turned into a good one as well. I mean it's not an amazing result but at my age, 2 out of 4 sounds ok. 😅 It's best to wait for your day 5 update, a lot can happen in 2 days. I know this stage is so stressful, hope things turn out well for you.

Done 😊Look forward to reading the article!

Does your clinics offer you progesterone tests before transfer? I am currently on 7dp5dt and started spotting brown, itching all over with a banging headache. I get this every month a week before AF would show - during FET and on a normal cycle. I asked my clinic for a progesterone test before transfer and they said there is no point as I am on the higher dose of progesterone they would allow (3cyclogest 1 lubion).

Im convinced I never have enough progesterone, from the symptoms I am getting. The fact every month is the same and from online research, these are all signs of it being low.

BFN on FRER at 6dp5dt
I've literally cried all morning 😢

Time to focus on the next round I think.

Though I'd have to start from scratch as didn't get any to freeze

Does anyone have any experience of whether they tweak things much the 2nd time around
I.e. I didn't get many eggs, so might they increase stims the second time to try to get more....?

@wateringcanface I hope your day 5 update goes as well as possible. At least you have a decent number of average embryos? I’ve heard of even low quality embryos becoming healthy babies. I hope that happens for you.

@AnonS I had a progesterone blood test as they thought I’d have too much progesterone. Otherwise they would not have bothered. I can see what the clinic means about there being no point in a blood test if you’re already on the highest dose possible. If you’re concerned then could you get it done at Superdrug or something?

I had my retrieval today and it was fine. I acted like a weirdo under the sedative though and said that it was loads of fun. They got six eggs and all are mature. A complete bombshell is that I had endometriosis around my left ovary (which is my good one). So the eggs won’t have been getting to my fallopian tubes; no wonder I’ve had 25 months of no conception at all!

@spamOFtheDAY Im so sorry to hear this news. I don’t have experience of second cycles but I’ve heard that they review every step of the process to see what tweaks they could make. I know day 3 transfers can be used if it’s thought the embryos will fare better that way for example.

@wateringcanface we had fragmentation alot but quality doesn't always have as much weight as you'd think. You can still get success from an ok ish embryo and not with good looking one. Appearances don't always translate to actual ability of an embryo I've been told. For us a day3 at times has been useful as lots of ours would arrest at d3-4 and sometimes if appropriate they do day 3 transfers. All my blasts took until day 6 to get to right stage for genetic testing and freezing and there's a similar success rate with d5 and 6.
@Scorbunny2 we're trying for our first - it's been 5 years now, 4 ivf cycles and midway through our 5th transfer tww. We were mismanaged but now private seem to be doing better but have issues on both sides.

Desperately trying not to symptom spot but this time I have more awareness of uterus area not quite sore but achy, full feeling, more fatigue which isn't worse just after my progesterone injections like last 2 and increased sense of smell. Usual symptoms for my luteal phase and progesterone but it's still messing with me 😔

@wateringcanface please don't feel deflated! My wife had over 30 large follicles, from which they only managed to collect 8 mature eggs, only 5 of those fertilised and then only 1 was 'good' (transferred on day 3). Of the remaining 4, one is average/poor quality and is in the freezer, the other 3 were discarded. Considering she is 29, super healthy and all the scans etc suggested we would get a decent yield of embryos, we got the opposite. But as they say, it ONLY TAKES ONE and here we are, now 5 weeks pregnant! Try not to think too far ahead and just take each milestone as it comes, celebrate the successes and don't dwell on the not so good outcomes.

@spamOFtheDAY it's still very early to be testing, I think you need to stop until at least day 10 (ideally day 14) incase you're putting yourself through hell unnecessarily.

We've just been through a week of misery because my wife was bleeding quite abit since the day of our BFP (Sunday just gone). They increased her pessaries but the bleeding continued from Monday to yesterday, we were almost certain she had had a chemical pregnancy. The clinic did a blood test on Tuesday showing HcG levels at 250 and then another blood test yesterday showing HcG at 458 thank god! It looks like the progesterone from the extra pessary per day has now kicked in and the bleeding has pretty much stopped. This whole process is such a roller coaster! We're officially 5 weeks pregnant today and already been through so much. It takes a strong mindset to survive IVF ladies so be kind to yourselves xx

Thank you @BelleCrescent @Feliciacat @kerrym87 that is very reassuring, they did mention that the poor ones may not be poor by day 5, and so on, I get the impression they were trying to be cautious to manage expectations by saying it is more than likely the average continue to be average and reduce to poor, as oppose to the other way round. I think in hindsight I interpreted a pessimistic tone when there wasn't. I have since looked at some charts, and I realise that 'average' isn't that bad, but I am expecting a drop off as we used surgically retrieved sperm, which I understand has a higher drop off rate.

Our clinic only does day five transfers. As much as I would love all 8 to make it to good or excellent (dream on), and have lots to freeze, I am hoping to have enough to at least get one frozen round out of it if the fresh does not work.

@kerrym87 I really hope with the new clinic and better management you have better luck, I honestly can't imagine the resilience it must take to be on this journey 5 years, (Sorry I hate the word 'journey' I just can't think of another phrase)

Thank you ☺️

Thanks @Hummingbird36 so glad to hear things are going well, despite your rollercoaster start!!

@Hummingbird36 Thank you, I love these stories, I guess I'm similar in that I'm 'only' 31, and I have no known fertility issues (male factor) so I've been quite surprised that my eggs aren't doing better. My clinic only does day 5 and only freeze anything good and above, so if we have some poor or average ones, I am going to ask for them to do them as a fresh transfer and freeze the best one. Sorry you have had such a rough week; fingers crossed the remainder of your pregnancy is plan sailing.

Very sorry @spamOFtheDAY I have been told that some clinics see cycle 1 as a "trial", and success on cycle one is seen more as just good luck, whereas there is a more tailored approach on future cycles.

@wateringcanface it is a journey, just a turbulent one! I do feel that we may have been further long quicker if managed better but this doesn't change what happened, need to look forward instead. Clinics do learn to manage expectations to help us.
@Hummingbird36 that's reassuring, as a side note, if needed they could also add in injections of progesterone either subcutaneous or IM. I have pessaries and IM with FET as my progesterone is too low on pessaries alone

I’m currently 4dp5dt and I have the worst insomnia constant waking during the night since transfer then can’t go back to sleep post 4.30am. Has anyone had these side effects with progesterone pessaries?
I am normally a brilliant sleeper!

@Purpleflowers17 I’m only on my first day of the pessaries so it’s hard to say. The progesterone contraceptive pill makes me sleepy though. I slept well last night. I’ll let you know if insomnia becomes a thing.

The lab are letting me know how many eggs fertilise today. Out of seven follicles, there were six eggs and all six were mature. Sperm looked good too. We’re having ICSI so I hope this means the fertilisation rate will be good.

It’s looking like my whole problem has been undiagnosed endometriosis (literally discovered during the egg retrieval) so I hope this means my eggs are actually of decent quality and that maybe there’s a better chance of ivf working than I thought.

Hi everyone. Hoping I can jump on this thread. I'm 5dp5dt with my fourth embryo transfer of my third cycle.

I'm 39 and despite being our third round of egg collection this has been our best cycle yet. We had a break this year after a chemical / early loss at 6 weeks in Jan and did lots of testing. We retested my AMH, changed the medication I was on to different stims drugs, added melatonin (moved to Gonal F && meriodet mix from only Meriofert) in hope they gave a different result and we also found out I need an immune protocol with intralipids, steroids and blood thinners and I am currently on that now. We just had our third and final round of egg collection with my own eggs. It's been our most successful yet. We got 12 eggs, 12 mature, 11 fertilised, 5 made day 5 blast and we did a fresh transfer and then 2 caught up on day 6 so we were got 7 in total! We were able to send 6 blasts for PGTA and did one fresh transfer. I’m now in the TWW and 5dp5dt and slowly losing my mind.

That 7 we sent is more than I have had fertilise on my previous cycles with more eggs!

Happy to talk through my protocol and things we’ve changed lifestyle changes etc for anyone who might find useful.

Obviously at 39 weeks need normal embryos too which is harder. So far on my previous rounds I’ve had 2 chemicals and 1 BFN. Praying this one sticks. But if not that we get some euploid embryos come back from PGTA!

Thanks for reading. Wishing everyone big success. Will be reading and catching up with all your stories on this thread.

@Purpleflowers17 5dp5dt here and in the and boat. Sleeping all over the place 😔 I'm pretty sure it's the steroids that I'm on though that are affecting me on this cycle. Progesterone has played with my sleep on my previous cycles though so it very well could be that.

@spamOFtheDAY I'm so sorry you're in limbo with a BFN on 6dp5dt. You're definitely not out for a few more days though. I know it's so hard but try and stay positive lovely

Strange you said this i was literally just complaining to DH that I woke up for a wee at 4ish and took ages to get back to sleep, when normally I have no issues. I've had lots of symptoms with the pessaries I'm very sensitive to hormones, can't wait to stop them

@Purpleflowers17 I have the opposite effect with progesterone it makes me so tired but I do get vivid dreams. Steroids for some people can cause insomnia although I didn't

@charja100 hello 👋 . This round sounds really positive. I've heard of really good results when people address immune issues. Obviously the hope is for this round to work but its reassuring to have more in the freezer.

@Feliciacat have you had endo symptoms? I know a couple of people diagnosed in later life, and afterwards they realised what they thought were normal symptoms of just being a women were not normal.

Upon some reflection I realise i was pessimistic and also a bit insensitive to be so down about my numbers yesterday. I've done some reading, the grading really isn't the be all and end all. Having 9 still in the race by day 3 is pretty good, even if a few arent looking good.

They said they'll only ring me between now and transfer tomorrow if none make it, so my heart is just going to sink if I see "private number" ringing.

Hi @wateringcanface I just speed read your journey. It's so would setting to watch the numbers decline at every stage isn't it. Sending you hugs cause you're still in a good place and want you to feel the pma! They do tend to say to expect 50% of fertilised eggs to make it to day 5. It's seemed to be true for me for most of my rounds so far. Although this round we had 7 make it from 11 so was slightly higher. We were ICSI and used Zymot chip on this round. You are younger than me though and you already know you still have 7 that could become good embryos, which is fab! I'd think you might have better conversion percentage than me. Just sharing the 50% figure as it's what the embryologists at my clinic tell everyone to manage expectations and I think belongs protect our hearts.

Thanks so much @charja100. I've never heard of a zymot chip. The clinic mentioned the drop off rate for surgically retrieved sperm to be slightly more, but i don't know whether they were referring to the fertilisation rate, as I can't find anything that suggests that's the case for day 3-5 online. Either way, it's out of my hands till tomorrow 😬

Had my transfer today.

Feel strange, like I'm pessimistic but also relaxed. Guess I'm in a 'what will be will be' mindset. Can't guarantee this will last though 😂

It isn't looking good. The first thing the embryologist said was "it isn't great". She didn't use grades, we didn't have anything good enough to freeze, we had one she called "fair" and one that hadn't quite made blast (i think) but was showing some potential. So they just put both in. There was an air of pessimism, DH felt it aswell.

@wateringcanface sometimes that what will be will be calm is beat route as you need to stay calm and allow your body to work with no pressure.

Don't give up hope till you truly know though.

Your round sounds very like my first round but being in these forums I saw mine failed but others similar worked out. It's a game of chance.

This second round they looked at how it went last time and said just need an extra day of stims and feeling positive that will make an impact. We shall see.

I have an app Friday for scans, then another sunday/Monday and egg retrieval tuesday/Wednesday. I was so stressed in the aftermath last time I want to try rescue remedy or something to keep calm.

I worry stress is stopping my body from doing it's thing.

Oh @wateringcanface. Well done for getting to transfer, no matter what happens. You’ve been through so much physically and mentally to get to this stage. I know of course that the goal is ultimately to become pregnant but having gone through ivf myself now; I think getting to transfer is amazing on several levels. I think your calm attitude is probably for the best. If it works, great, if it doesn’t, plan something else lovely for yourself.

@ClaireBear101 I think rest, supplements, sleep and diet are more important than stress levels. I was very stressed leading up to my egg retrieval but it’s gone better than they thought. I’m sorry you feel stressed though. Rescue Remedy is great.

The clinic will give me a day 3 update today but so far, my results are: 6 eggs retrieved, all 6 mature and all 6 fertilised. She said there’d definitely be a drop off so I have no idea how many will have grown over the weekend. It’s all pretty nerve-wracking as you literally have no idea what will happen from one day to the next! They’ve booked my transfer for Wednesday so I guess the clinic are hopeful.