Ivf, icis January 2025

[Nobodyknowsitall5]

Anyone starting next month? I'll be on my 4th cycle. I've just bought 2 cycles with manchester fertility and it will be me done. I'm 36, have a low amh of 5.2 and afc 10. I'm doing the estrogen priming protocol so will take estrogen tablets for 7 days starting from day 21. I then take 450 meriofert. I'm not sure whether I am excited or nervous. It has been a year since my last cycle and I'm going to struggle with another loss but wanted to get started again also. No children yet and over 3 years trying. Have blocked tubes and endo xx

Morning everyone lol

im actually sleeping until 5 shocking

how is everyone feeling??

so uncomfortable on the cycligest but a necessary evil! back to the office tomorrow god knows what I’m going to wear !

keeping myself busy despite my other half constantly saying sit down !! Getting my steps in at least

have a restful Sunday all xx

Can I ask, did the stims affect your UC at all? I've got UC and am starting stims tomorrow and am worried my UC will flare xx

Not at all @Sell123 didn’t have any gastro issues at all to be fair

Bloat by the end but just donned over bump leggings

Thank you so much. That makes me feel better

@Sell123 I’m the same, day 11 of stims over here and my UC is fine. I haven’t had a flare in nearly two years so I was worried about the impact of all these drugs but if anything my bowels have been behaving even better than usual 😂

@Rebekah77 thanks for your message and sorry you’ve been having a tough time of it with pain - hope it’s starting to ease for you xx

Hope everyone else is doing well today. I’m bloated beyond belief and will be relieved to stop stims (hopefully) tomorrow!

I got my BFP this morning at 5dp5dt. Good luck everyone x

Huge congratulations @IVFlife that's amazing news!

Hi everyone I'm wondering if I could get your thoughts on what you would do in my position because I feel like my head is spinning!

Just to recap I had my scan on Friday and I only had 3 follicles of a decent size (17.5mm, 13mm and 9mm) so it's likely I'm only going to get 1-2 eggs in egg collection. I'm due back again tomorrow morning to check progress and egg collection booked for Wednesday but they have given me the option to cancel this cycle due to poor response.

I've paid upfront for 2 cycles of ICSI through Access Fertility on the 50% refund package, so the paid cycle only counts once I go into egg collection. If I cancel, I'd need to pay around £1500 for my next lot of medication but I would still have both cycles left if that makes sense.

On the one hand im thinking it only takes one good egg but then I'm also worried it won't fertilise and I will be out straight away! But then I'm also worried if I cancel and start again that I will have a poor response again and still end up with low egg numbers.

For context I'm 31yo, AMH 7pmol, have 1 child already and led to believe we only have male factor issues.
Would love to hear what you would do in my position. Sorry that's so long! Thanks so much.

Congrats @IVFlife !

I had to look up what this meant! I'm not quite there with the IVF or MN lingo yet. Congratulations to you xx

That's a tough one @emeraldhope - sorry you are in this position. £1500 is a lot of money, but how affordable is it to you?

I might be tempted to try again with another cycle instead of going ahead but I'd ask the clinic how likely they think it might be that you would have a better response next time. For example, can they up your drugs? Change your protocol? What might make the next cycle different and more successful?

See how you feel at the next scan and what the advice is, and then go with your gut. It may be you feel it's worth £1500 to have another 2 attempts, rather than use a cycle, or you may just want to go for it and see how it goes after all the effort and energy of getting to this point. Good luck with the scans and your decision x

Congrats @IVFlife such great news! You must be over the moon! ☺️❤️❤️❤️

@emeraldhope this is such a tough position to be in. Was there any other follicles there at all? I was surprised that when we went for egg collection I had more eggs than I was told during both scans. And the two scans had different numbers slightly too.
Could you speak with your consultant after the scan to get hers/his thoughts and ask questions?
Have they told you how your husband sperm is looking? I think I would personally continue with this cycle as it’s hard to know what the next one will be like and how many follicles you will get. As it’s an ICSI cycle they will pick the best looking sperm which is an advantage but also if there are only two eggs the stats aren’t amazing but all you need is one to fertilise and make if to day 3 or 5 depending on the clinic.
What is your gut telling you? Will you potentially regret it or would you be happy knowing you still have two more cycles to go?

Question for everyone on ahead of me on stims - when does the bloating kick in? I've done 4 days so far and currently feeling totally fine. Also trying to make plans for next weekend and want to try hazard a guess as to how I might be feeling this time next week! First scan to check stims is Tuesday. Hopefully we have some progress.

The belly got me around day 6 onwards lol funnily enough once I triggered it was gone !

now it’s back on cyclogest

Thanks for your message @OneWaryCat £1500 isn't really affordable for me as I would be sticking at least £600 of that on a credit card. Yes I'll definitely ask the clinic what their plan would be for next time and how likely it is that I'll respond any better. Thanks, tomorrow should bring a bit more clarity. I am hoping they will give me a little bit of time to decide after my scan and hopefully my consultant will be there x

@FrostedFlake I did have more follicles, I think a few were 8-9mm and a few under 6mm, that's reassuring to hear that I might be positively surprised. I definitely feel very bloated and tender today. I think my gut is telling me just to go for it but I don't know if that's just because the thought of starting over is sad! We have a frozen back up of my husband's sperm and then he will be doing a sample on the day so hopefully they should have a good one no matter what! Yeah I'm definitely going to try and speak to my consultant tomorrow as I haven't seen him since my initial apt well before Christmas x

@emeraldhope fingers crossed they have all done some good growing over the weekend and you might have a few more. I've seen other people on here be surprised by how much growth you can get in 2 days. Did they up meds or anything on friday?

We have male factor too and I'm a bit concerned no one has tested my husband's sperm in about 6 months but I wonder if they don't bother because we are doing ICSI so I guess they feel confident they can pick out some decent ones?

I've had so many bloomin' scans and he's had nothing for months.

Such fab news @IVFlife weee ! Fab news m

its so hard isn’t it .. is the any chance of speaking to consultant so you can try and weigh up options @emeraldhope know I didn’t see mine even once ! It’s so bloody hard and so expensive

Hope everyone is hanging on in there

fellow cyclogest takers how you finding it ?? It’s really only thr bloating and cramping that’s annoying me !

Got doctors tomorrow about the pain , clinic said they are out of ideas ! They were like it could be a good sign but all you can take is paracetamol

survived being back at work , literally wore tracksuit today was like being in pjs

@Rebekah77 how much are you on? I’m on 3 times a day and I haven’t actually noticed any bloating. I’ve been on it before though and it isn’t bloated me. But I have had constant dull cramps the past 2 days and I’m putting those down to the progesterone

Only two a day.. it wasn’t bad at first but the last two days literally huge bump cannot keep it in ! @jenk91

sharp stabbing cramp is driving me slowly insane 😅

Oh nooo, that’s so rubbish 😢 hopefully the bloating and the cramps are a positive sign for you!! This next week cannot go fast enough, the waiting is the worst isn’t it

Haha this week can go as slow as it likes I don’t think I can actually bring myself to even go near a test !

@emeraldhope such a tough decision. Have your clinic said whether they think you should have responded better?

I would have thought that with AMH of 7, you should definitely be getting more than 2-3 follicles..... I have AMH of 2 and have got between 1 and 4 eggs each of my rounds.

So I think it depends on that really.

If your clinic if confident the protocol was wrong and that you should get more with a different protocol, maybe you should cancel due to the financial side (and wonder if they can still trigger and try naturally or something, to have some type of chance)?

OR if they think you are going to be a poor responder and you'll only get the same amount on a different protocol, then it's worth continuing. I would always continue as I have such low AMH and am a low responder, that I'm only ever going to get 1 or 2!! X

Do you have any other ‘symptoms’ or just the cramping and bloating?

just that horrible pinching/ tugging pain
Don’t think anything else I’ve noticed
either starved hungry or feel sick nothing inbetween @jenk91

my other half is being so hopeful! Quite glad I’ve told nobody else so no pressure

@Rebekah77 at the beginning the cyclogest was fine, although I'm bloated. Last time by about day 8 my boobs were sore and by the end I had a headache and upset stomach but that could have been unrelated.

Had the call this morning and we've got a really nice blastocyst and the other 3 are a bit behind (1 early blastocyst and 2 morula) so they'll keep those for another day to see if they catch up and are freezable.

We decided to do a freeze all in the end because of the high progesterone. I can't decide how I feel about it right now. I've got to go for an OHSS scan soon so I'll need to keep it together today.