IVF/ICSI February 2025 🌟 ❤️

[ivfjourneyandme]

Hi ladies,

Starting early with this thread in hope some are on a similar time frame!

36yo, been trying to conceive for 2yrs. Severe MFI as well as AFC of 3 and AMH of 1.9pmol/l

First IVF cycle with ICSI ended with a total failed fertilisation - 4 eggs collected, all mature but no fertilisation.

We have now switched to long cycle and added in DHEA, COQ10, melatonin, vitamin D, omega 3 alongside our fertility vitamins.

I should start my period end of Jan; and then start down-regulating February with transfer hopefully late February if I’ve worked it out right!

Anyone else on this mental torture of a ride?

@YellowTack good luck with your trigger and EC! Hopefully your follicles will be bigger by then as well!

I emailed my clinic this morning and let them know about AF starting and they’ve said I can stick to the original protocol which is great news because it works out really well with dates/times for work etc. I was worried that it would change since AF came two days earlier than expected. So as long as the norethisterone withdrawal bleed isn’t late or anything I’m really happy about that. I’ll be having EC 12th March if all goes to plan now 🤞🏻

@spttc I had several Antral Follicles Counts (AFC) scans done in the past, the latest one last December, and I had the exact same number of follicles (8) as this cycle. For me at least stims don’t seem to increase the total number of follicles.

@Happibara today‘s scanned reassured me a little so it was definitely worth it in my opinion. My biggest fear would be to wait until 9-10 days of stims to realise I only have 1 or 2 follicles growing. My treatment was not changed based on the scan but it could have been. All in all I think it was good to do it both from a medical and from an emotional perspective.

You can always ask your clinic for more scans if you think it would helpful for you, the worst thing that could happen is them saying no!

@captainsmal thank you!

It’s great that your original protocol hasn’t changed and that the dates work for you even though your AF came early!

@YellowTack thats good! Sounds positive!

I had my second scan today and they have booked me for a third on Wednesday… they are hoping for trigger Wednesday and Collection on Friday!

I just want Wednesdays scan to go as planned as I don’t want to wait for collection and have it Monday!

@YellowTack Will they scan you again Wednesday to confirm you’re ready for trigger?

@ChyLL good luck for Wednesday! (And hopefully Friday too 🤞🏻)

Is anyone doing a fresh transfer after their EC? I got told as long as my progesterone blood test on EC day is fine I can have one but apparently according to someone I know who used my clinic, they always say that and then her and 3 others she knew ended up having to freeze all and wait for a FET, so I’m trying not to get my hopes up tbh but it’s tricky 🙃 I know if it happens it will be better to do it that way and have better chances of implantation working but I hate all this waiting around so much 🙁

@captainsmal thank you ❤️

this is what worries me… I’m not having any blood tests but am having a Fresh transfer. They haven’t even mentioned a blood test

I just wanted to ask you all did your clinic tell you not to excercise when taking stims? I thought it was quite interesting. They said no issue after egg retrieval, fine after embryo transfer but none when growing follicles as it can reduce your number/damage them. She even said - you can go on walks but slow walks not bouncing around.

@ChyLL so I got told they do the blood test on EC day, maybe they’ll just do it when you’re there and they forgot to tell you? And they said if progesterone is below 4 then it’s okay to do the transfer, they just want the womb lining and everything else to be in a good place to support a pregnancy 🤞🏻 I’m really hoping that I get to have mine but it seems like my clinic in particular might be overly cautious about it and rather freeze then wait! I think it’s only a month or so wait so not the end of the world but it’s that fear of coming so close then being disappointed that’s stressing me a bit 😬 I’m also worried about ohss but I’ve got loads of electrolyte drinks and salty stuff in for during stims and after EC cos I heard that really helps so 🤞🏻🤞🏻 and I’m upping my protein a lot now too ready for next month

@captainsmal I might give them an email and ask as I’ve paid it private and it wasn’t included in my plan. They tell me my womb lining is good but nothing about a blood test.

Does anyone know if there is such thing a womb lining to be too thick?

@ChyLL worth asking but it might just be my clinic being overly cautious, I’ve heard it a lot about Care online and they definitely seem more prone to freezing “just in case” than other places!

I think it is because of the risk of ovarian torsion. Also, intense exercises change your hormones.

@captainsmal I'm taking provera instead of norethistherone due to suffering with migraines. I'm not due to stop taking provera until 02/02 so cannot tell you from my experience but my clinic has scheduled 6 days between stopping provera and starting stims.

Glad to hear your period has started now though!

I've been having breakthrough bleeding for 8 days now, apparently it's a common side effect.

@spttc yes - I also got told no strenuous exercise during stims. As @Whisper99 said, I was also told due to risk of twisting ovaries and putting body under extra stress

Good luck everyone 🤞🏽

@Raegs I also have 6 days between on my protocol, due to stop norethisterone 22/2 and then start stims on 28/2
Is norethisterone known to cause migraines? I suffer with them and I never considered that, that’s a bit worrying 🤔 I drink a lot of water anyway but I was planning on upping my water intake so hopefully that’ll help if I do get any

I haven't started anything yet, so I am reading ahead.
I painted a picture in my head that I would like to PGT-A and freeze a couple of embryos (if I'm lucky), but was also hoping to try my chances and transfer a fresh one just in case. However, I'm not sure how stimulation meds affect the chances of successful implantation.

Good luck with your plan

@captainsmal I mentioned that I suffer with hormonal migraines at my first meeting with the nurse. I was originally prescribed norethisterone but the pharmacist messaged me to say she had switched to provera as the way norethisterone is metabolised means it can be prone to causing migraines.

Is it worth calling/messaging and discussing with your clinic? From what my nurse said it's not a definite and it sounds like you have a good plan in place with keeping hydrated.

May I please ask why down regulation is needed in some cases?

@Raegs fair enough, I used to get bad ones as a teen and in my 20s but they’re not as bad or frequent now so hopefully not a concern 🤞🏻 they were always hormonal/period related a lot of the time though. I was on medicine but I didn’t get on with it so I stopped taking it years ago and luckily not had a really bad one since (touch wood!) I guess I’ll just have to see what happens, at least it’s only for 9 days lol

@Whisper99 I don’t know about all cases but with my clinic I believe it’s a) so they can schedule your cycle to fit in with dates they’re available for EC and scans etc, and so they can give a more accurate schedule for you especially for people who have irregular periods
also b) I think it makes it so that you don’t get one dominant follicle and they are all starting off at the same place so they should hopefully grow evenly and roughly the same sizes without having one that gets way bigger than all the others and interferes with stims/EC. That’s just what I’ve read about it though they didn’t really explain it much lol. Basically just like a reset button on your natural cycle so they can still on a clean slate I guess

@ChyLL it sounds like we have exactly the same timelines! I have another scan on Wednesday and will hopefully trigger on Wednesday night for an EC on Friday. If I remember correctly from my last cycle I had some blood taken on the day of my last scan.

@spttc regarding exercise, I actually asked my nurse about that because I work in a warehouse so I do a lot of heavy lifting, up and down ladders, using heavy equipment etc. She said that I’m fine to carry on as I am during stims, but that I might not feel up to it cos of bloating etc, but essentially she never said anything about not exercising, but she said that after embryo transfer is when I would need to go down to light duties, get a risk assessment with work etc and basically stop all the heavy lifting (and then if it works and I’m pregnant I’d be doing that anyway) so kinda the opposite really? But I have seen online about the risk of ovarian torsion and so I think it’s definitely just a precaution against that. I already told my boss I’m just going to see how I feel and we’ll probably try and put me on light duties sooner than ET anyway. I’m also dropping hours during stims so that I can be home to do injections as I didn’t want to have to bring them to work with me. (I usually do 10hr shifts but 4hr commute as well so I leave the house at 7.30am, don’t get home til 9.30pm so it’s just too much with stims on top of that I think)

@spttc my clinic has said I can continue exercising but nothing “strenuous”. I continued my regular exercise until day 3/4 of stims, but then stopped. My last cycle was during the summer so I could do lots of walking. I am getting slightly crazy at the moment because it’s pouring rain so I can’t even go for walks!

@captainsmal my last cycle was a fresh cycle with Care and so is my current one, but I am not at risk of OHSS as I have low AMH. I totally understand not wanting to wait for another month!

@Whisper99 in my case I am not having down regulation because I have low AMH and there is a risk the down stimulation could shut down my ovaries too much which could make them less responsive to stimulations.

@YellowTack that’s good that you’re able to have fresh ones, I definitely feel like waiting around is the worst part of this whole process 😅 I’m not sure what my amh is, I know it’s not low and it’s not overly high either, but I can’t remember my exact number. It’s on my paperwork somewhere but I guess just “normal/average” so I guess I have a bit of risk for ohss but not as much as if it was really high or anything

@YellowTack I’m really hoping that Wednesday will be trigger day for me as if it goes in to next week I’ll have to order more medication!

I know everyone is different but so mad how different clinics vary so much on what they do/number of scans and things!