IVF/ICSI October

[Rorograce]

I’ve looked for an October thread but can’t see one - please direct me if there is though!

Day one of my cycle last Friday (it’s now Tuesday so I’m day 5) - I’m very new to the process, this will be our first time and due to low sperm count after trying for 2 years and not even one pregnancy to show for it.
I haven’t heard back from my clinic yet after letting them know Friday I assumed because of the back log from the weekend! But I’ll chase tomorrow. I think I’m to start tablets from day 19 which will take us into October
anyone else on a similar timeline/journey? I’d love to connect and hear others journeys :)

@Elxt 9 eggs is great! Glad you're feeling okay. Deffo enjoy a takeaway. I can imagine the nerves over the next few days. That's good they didn't think you needed ICSI!

I just want it over with now so I can feel normal again haha

Good luck today! You’ll be back home before you know it x

@Rorograce how are you feeling? Hope all has gone well!

We’ve had the phone call to say 7 eggs have fertilised so we feel really happy with that. The other two eggs weren’t mature enough! Provisionally booked in for transfer Sunday but we shall see how it goes. They said they would expect as standard to lose 50% more by then but of course we could lose them all in theory! X

@Elxt oh that's great news on the 7 fertilised eggs. Bet you're relieved! So now a waiting game till Sunday? Interesting they do transfer on a Sunday, mine tries to line it up so that doesn't happen I think. How are you feeling now?

My egg collection went well. They got 16 eggs! Afterwards didn't go so well though, they messed up my trigger so we had to wait around for about 3 hours trying to determine what medication I needed to do a fresh transfer, a bit annoyed as I always said I wanted one but the nurse who did my last scan had said I was doing delayed, which I'd never said!

Just had a call to say 11 of the 16 are mature and they've started the process. Will get a call on Friday to see how many fertilised. Worried on the big drop already and now we'll see how many more drop off haha!

Feeling a quite sore and a bit nauseous and I have a very bad stomach ache almost like I'm full of air or something! Hoping it passes

@Elxt @Rorograce Good luck for both of you with fertilisation/embryos.
We had egg collection last week, I got 7 eggs of which 5 were mature and 4 fertilised. I was a little disheartened but 3 made it to day 5 blastocysts and the 4th one caught up on day 6 so has also gone in the freezer. I was torturing myself with drop off rates, as we didn’t get any updates after fertilisation (our clinic operates a ‘no news is good news’ policy) so we didn’t find out until the morning of embryo transfer 5 days after EC. So without wanting to risk being patronising try and stay positive for good embryo success!
And look after yourselves following EC x

Hi @Rorograce , congrats on the 11/16!

I posted on the other October thread yesterday but chipping in here too with a question as hoping to get a similar number to you. Do you remember any of your follicle sizes over the last week? Measurements from my scan today are shown on the right of this image.

They consultant suggested a collection on Saturday but I asked about Monday instead (they don't do Sunday collections) to give the smaller cohort a chance and they agreed (subject to my blood test result they'll be ringing with soon). Now I'm wondering if possibly sacrificing the front runners is a bad move - the orange team are suddenly striding ahead. Are the largest supposed to be the healthiest or does it not work that way? Having them all PGTA tested.

Felt quite rubbish yesterday but i'm okay today, a bit sore still and still bleeding. Start progesterone pessaries (cyclogest) this morning. I have to have 3 a day (every 8 hours), as well as Lubion injections, starting this evening. I'm not sure why i've been put on both, is this normal? - also not looking forward to it, i have mildly bad skin anyway and all these drugs are making my skin even worse!!

We don't get a call till tomorrow morning to determine if/how many eggs fertilised - can't help but constantly think about it!!

@Elxt how you feeling this morning?

@Nic28j thank you, thats really positive to hear! When was your transfer? hope all going well xx

@sirensong I had a scan on the Friday and i had 8 follicles that were looking like they would be the right size come egg collection, with a couple already at a good size, however, i then had a scan on Monday morning and i had about 6 that were already 17-22mm, with about another 7 that were not far behind and would be ready by Wednesday.

I then got 16 eggs, 5 of which were immature (which i assume means weren't big enough?). So all i can say to that is things seem to change very quickly. I'm afraid i don't know enough about it to give advice on which day would be better! I have heard that if they get too big this isn't good either?

@sirensong I will say it shouldn't really be up to you to make such a big decision, your clinic should be advising you and know what the best option to be is. Maybe push with them further on their thoughts?

Oh god the wait is so awful I was a nervous wreck yesterday morning! I’m not feeling too bad, a little crampy but haven’t even had any bleeding weirdly! Hopefully you feel much better tomorrow, I feel a lot better than I did yesterday. The only meds I’m on is progesterone twice a day. I started the night of the collection and just keep going!
@Nic28j thanks! That’s really good news, hope your wait is going okay! When do you test?

They had Saturday pencilled in for the trigger but have just phoned with my oestradiol results - 8500 pmol/l - and now want to trigger tonight to avoid potential OHSS. Can you remember your level?

Hi @sirensong. From memory each mature egg produces about 250pg/ml so you can kind of work out how many mature eggs you can expect (but would need to convert pol/mol to pg/ml) - if that makes sense!
My Clinic said that when the level it is over around 5000pg/mL then there is a risk of OHSS, but the fact that it is rising means there is a good response! Good luck :)

I’m just on my way to the clinic starting stims again tonight - oh the joy.

Thanks @Obrm. They said my level would be higher today than the 8500 yesterday morning but should hopefully be ok. Think the risk was going to be if collection was left until Monday.

Good luck with this cycle!

@Elxt How are you finding the pessaries? so far not too bad, yes messy but i think i'm used to thrush pessaries so i'm not too grossed out 😂Found out i'm on the extra progesterone injection because i had the trigger shot that was more for a delayed cycle despite trying to do a fresh! Bit rubbish i'll still have to take an injection once a day but willing to if it means a pregnancy!

The morning can't come soon enough. Really hoping for some fertilization.

@sirensong i didn't get told my level, starting to realise there is a lot my clinic doesn't tell me, not great really! What time are you doing your trigger? exciting it's happening though!

@Obrm good luck for the stims! xx

just had the call, of the 11 mature eggs, 8 have fertilized. At this stage (day 2) they expect 2-4 cells. Grading:

1 with 2 cells. A-B
3 with 3 cells. 1 A-B, 2B
4 with 4 cells. 1 A-B, 2B and 1B-C

She said of at this stage, they expect c.40% to reach blastocyst. I am already worrying. Just doesn't seem like a lot at all! I know it only takes one, but the change of it all working once it's transferred is also only 50%, worried we might not have any to transfer, or to freeze. This is so far the worst bit of the process! Just seems such a big drop already when starting with 16 eggs. No further update till Monday morning now and if all goes well I will have transfer monday afternoon. I may do another post to get peoples thoughts the grading / number!

hi everyone, thought i'd update!

I had 2 blastocysts in the end of good quality. Went ahead with transfer of one yesterday. 1 is being frozen (had 2 others but ended up being too poor).

From 16 eggs, to 8 fertilised to 2 blastocysts - drop off rate is crazy and i can't help but feel very nervous about it all. This process tookkk a lot out of me and affected my work a lot, so the thought of going through it all again is a struggle.

Praying for this one, although i know the chance of success first time round is unlikely. Test date is next Friday (i had a shot of HCG yesterday morning so theres no point testing earlier than that, as would likely get a false positive)

It's going to be a long wait!

@Elxt @sirensong @Hep1989 how are you all getting on at your stages? xx

Hi @Rorograce I’ve been meaning to reply but I’ve just been so full of worry and nerves!! We didn’t have the best outcome either. We had one blastocyst that they said was really good quality (they grade them 1-3 1 being best and it’s a 1 for the baby growing and a 2 for the placenta apparently). So that got transferred on Sunday! I’ve already convinced myself it’s not worked. Test day isn’t until Saturday 16th but I’m definitely testing early as I’ve been testing out the trigger shot already 😂none of the others we had made it. 3 more made it to the stage just before blastocyst but stopped and the other 3 didn’t make it that far. Very concerned that this is now our only chance. If this doesn’t work then we are going to have to pay £££ for another round. Feel very emotionally drained right now! I could cry at anything but not sure if that’s all the hormones?! Hope we both get good news x

@Elxt oh bless you! hope you're doing ok. we're very similar aren't we, although strange our tests dates are different, i'd expect you to be the day before me! especially as i had a later shot of HCG, it'd just be awful to get a false positive wouldn't it. I thought about testing the trigger out but i think it'd upset me to see the positive as i've never seen it before. Has it faded quite a lot already?

The whole process is so strange to me, how do so many not make it! but as they say, it only takes one, keeping our fingers crossed for both of us xx

Also agreed on thinking it's not working, or if i'm doing anything to ruin my chances of implantation. This week is going to be long!! xx

It took 10 days for the trigger to leave my system! I know what you mean though it was sad seeing it negative again. I know what you mean about ruining chances. I’ve been so worried about lifting anything etc! But try to remind myself that people get pregnant every day naturally and do whatever they want without knowing! Hope your weeks gone okay Xx

Thought I'd update you all for the sake of this thread. Did a test today, 9dp5dt, (equiv to 14 DPO and period would be due today) - completely negative. So first time didn't work for us unfortunately.

I’m so sorry to hear this. I hope you are doing okay. Do you get a follow up appointment to see if there’s anything they can do differently moving forward? Hopefully it was just down to luck and the next embryo will implant fine.
We were extremely lucky and are currently pregnant x