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?

@Allnew2021 I don’t know about meds, can you ask the nurse Friday? Or email before then maybe?

@YellowTack omg so exciting, good luck and fingers crossed for your transfer!!

Seems like everything is happening for a lot of us now, can’t wait til I’m in the thick of it after next week 😬🤞🏻

Good luck to everyone getting their EC and ET tomorrow, fingers crossed for you all!

I’m getting my Prostap injection tomorrow morning, all going well, so hopefully start stims in a couple of weeks.

@captainsmal I will double check with the nurse on Friday but I just opened a box of meriofert and the leaflet inside says it should be used as soon as its prepared. I'll just have to take everything with me which is fine. It'll be my first injections not at home so I'll have to find a private space to give myself the buserelin, meriofert and Gonal-f!

Good luck @Allnew2021 make sure you take your sharps bin too 😬for a those needles!
Good luck with embryo transfer tomorrow @YellowTack and everyone having EC!

Hi ladies,
I just found this site, and I'd like to jump on. My second egg collection is tomorrow, 5th Feb.
Both cycles we did 5 days Gonal-F, then 7-8 days Ganirelix and Meriofert. Last round we had 10 embryos fertilised, 4 frozen for PGT-A, non viable.
Now we go for fresh transfer. I'm with Care, and I'm not convinced about their lutheal phase support. They've never done blood test, other than the initial virology checks. I have short lutheal phase I thinj, and their response was: ok, use not 2 but 3 progesterone pessaries then..
I hope they'll give more instructions tomorrow as for how long etc..
Not afraid of the collection, it was a good experience last time. :)

Good luck tomorrow @spttc @InGodsHands @Sell123!!! And @RitaDsZ welcome and good luck too, hopefully a better outcome this time! I'm keeping everything crossed for all of you, let us know how you are after EC, if you feel up to it ❤️

@YellowTack wow, that's amazing! Good luck and well done on getting to the transfer! I hope it's a sticky embryo.

@Allnew2021I'm sure you'll do great! 3 injections at once, you're a trooper 👍

@Cherryblossom90 how do you feel before your scan tomorrow? I'm feeling okay physically but getting really impatient; I hope hearing the numbers tomorrow will restore some sanity to me; at least I'll have a launching point for my spiralling thoughts 😅

Hi all, good luck and baby dust to everyone! I am 40 and waiting for af to start a natural cycle ivf and icsi at create. Not sure what’s going on but I’ve had a stomach ache for a week! And Jan period was knocked off by the flu! We had sex around ovulation in Jan but did a test and was bfn.
Have done ivf twice before with care, 1st time successful with only 1 egg retrieved on mild 350 meriofert in 2022 (keep heart ladies, it can happen!!!) and 2nd time unsuccessful on 450 dose in feb 2024 at care - without any checks and it messed up my periods for almost the year. Only 1 egg collected again. Create seem lovely so far and much better with scans and checks but I’ve been down the bottom of a rabbit hole with health anxiety convinced I’d given myself some killer disease and now this stomach ache why!?! I’m almost worried about what they might find at first scan on day 1? And icsi is new to us. How do you all handle the nerves?! I’m doing accupuncture and meditation. Health peace love and luck to all! 😊Xxx

Hi @RitaDsZ I had the same experience as you. As you’re in a cycle not sure what I can advise other than stay positive, rest, stay hydrated and take your supplements. I had the worst experience with care on my 2nd cycle, but my 1st cycle did produce my DD now 2, so keep faith! Feel free to dm me if you want to chat any more, good luck lovely xxx

Hi @RitaDsZ and @Poppycock84 welcome to the thread! If you don't mind me asking @RitaDsZ we're the 4 fertilized and frozen embryos you mentioned not viable becuase they got damaged during PGT-A testing? See we were advised to do PGT-A testing after two ET led to miscarriages... But we've never had more than a couple of embryos from EC so the risk of freeze and test damaging the embryo has always not been worth it so we've never done it! I'm so interested to hear from someone whose done PGT-A testing!
Anyway good luck with EC tomorrow 💚
@Happibara yes so excited for scan and to see what's going on, hoping for really good numbers for all of us!

Thankyou for the lovely welcome @Cherryblossom90 🥰 ive never had any eggs /embryos to store so can’t comment but for me personally pgt-a testing felt too risky given I’m only producing 1 egg at best to retrieve! I think if you have enough to choose from then maybe on weigh up it could be worth freezing and maybe testing.

Hi, no, the PGT-A went "well", with bad results.
I'm 41, husband is 45, and 3 embryos were abnormal and 1 was complex abnormal = none of them viable.
We decided to not to do PGT-A again, because of the costs, and I don't want to hear similar results again after so great egg/embryo numbers. As I read, chromosome issues would result mostly in no implantation.
Anyway they still recommend prenatal genetic tests, if there is a successful pregnancy.
It's a tough decision either way..

Oh wow okay I'm sorry to hear you went through that! Testing is really expensive but worth it in the long run I guess. What a difficult decision to make! Wishing you all the best with this round💚

Anyone else got sensitive/ slightly cramping ovaries with stims? I'm feeling then escpesially when walking rather than lying down. Definitely going to mention it at the appointment tomorrow but I now (stupidly probably) googled OHSS and am worried I have this. I can't remember ever having had cramps etc before on stims which is why it's worrying me..... But maybe it means their working better than normal and not OHSS. Anyone else had side effects like this?

Welcome @RitaDsZ and @Poppycock84 !

You’re on the same protocol as me @RitaDsZ. How are the stims on that one? I’m not starting til the end of this month after my norethisterone withdrawal bleed

Good luck everyone today with scans, retrievals etc! 🤞🏻

When I had to inject when out I took a small Tupperware box with all the vials etc in and put the sharps safely in it afterwards to dispose of at home.

Also just wanted to say hi 👋 everyone, I recognise a few of you from the December thread. I've had a bit of a break but I've just started down reg now for a FET at the end of the month.

Fingers crossed for everyone having procedures/getting news this week

I started with the Gonal-F on day 2 of period both times.
First round I had 18 eggs, 10 fertilized, 4 frozen on day 5, with the non-viable results.
Today I had 20 eggs... They are cautious about the quality..
As now I'm in risk of OHSS, there won't be fresh transfer. We will know the numbers of frozen embryos on Monday and then they will put them in one by one in every 6-8 weeks.
They are still secretive of what's next, do I have more scans, what kind of medicine comes etc.
Bit stressful as this will fill out our next months.

Egg retrieval done this morning. We got 9 eggs. So I guess the first of the many waiting games starts now to see how many fertilized 🤞

@RitaDsZ hopefully you get some good results of how many fertilise and get to day 5 🤞🏻 are you doing ICSI or normal ivf?

I think it’s quite common with that clinic to freeze them because of ohss risk, I know a few people it happened to. Lots of salty food and electrolytes are meant to help lower it now you’re waiting. Good luck!

@spttc good luck! Hopefully good news tomorrow for you! Are you having a fresh transfer after this or freezing?

@captainsmal no we aren't doing fresh transfer as we want pgt-a. It's basically the only reason we are doing ivf. In that I can get pregnant naturally but after my miscarriage I did a lot of reading and saw how valuable pgt-a can be in minimizing miscarriage rate. If we got 2 "normal" embryos after pgt-a I'd be thrilled with that. If one doesn't work I have backup, if the first works we will use the left over embryo and if it works we would have another child then. If none work.... I'd do 1 more round I'd say. But tbh I'd hate a situation where I end up with too many embryos as I'd feel pressured to try use them all. The 2nd round is heavily discounted in my clinic so I'm trying to just be pretty calm that's if none are normal I'll try again 🤞

@spttc That's great, I hope you are feeling well post EC... and fingers crossed you'll get good news! What's your clinic's policy on updates, when do you expect to hear from them?

@RitaDsZ wow 20 eggs! It must be hard to wait until Monday to hear the final number, keep strong! My clinic would always do a freeze-all if there were 20 or more, they just consider OHSS risk as too high then. But not everyone develops it, so hopefully you'll be fine. Try to rest, stay hydrated and take electrolytes.

@Cherryblossom90 how was your scan? I hope your follicles made good progress!

My scan went well, the technician said everything looks fine and the clinic will be in touch. Sadly she hasn't told me the number of follicles, but I counted 13 when she was measuring them (some may be too small I guess though 🤔). She said I should prepare for EC early next week.

@Happibara so they said around midday tomorrow for how many eggs fertilized. They said the sperm is good. So hopefully. But no need for icsi or anything.

Then on day 3 (Saturday) and day 5 (Monday). Then the pgt-a is 3-4weeks wait. So yeh it's really just waiting game now. Feeling calm.

He seemed positive that the quality will be good. And said literally you don't know until you know. Hes had people with 20 eggs and end up with zero. People with 5 eggs that end up with 3 live births. So it's a wait and see 🤞

@captainsmal @Happibara
We are doing ICSI in both round.
Also for newbies I recommend to look up IVF funnel. They talk about it, but it's different when the hard reality hits. In drawing my chart and excel sheets to track: first round 16 eggs, 12 mature, 10 fertilized, day five only 4. This is a typical way of number drops.
Now 20 eggs from 20 follicles, we will get updates from the embryologist team every day, so fertilisation number tomorrow, and day 5 info on Monday.
I don't know why won't they transfer 2 embryos at once, as the pgt results were bad last time, and I don't want to spend the whole year for waiting for next single transfer. We have one more cycle lined up too.

@spttc you know I thought that after I asked but I’m trying to keep track of who’s doing what etc without scrolling back on previous messages 😅 hopefully you get at least two good ones! The pgt testing isn’t covered by nhs and I saw how much it cost from a friend who went privately and I was like errr maybe not lol. At least until after we try a round or two first anyway 😬

@RitaDsZ we are doing icsi too and zymot. They warned us about the attrition rate and keep stressing quality over quantity but I know it will be hard seeing it actually happen when it comes to it

Thank you for the egg collection updates, it's good to hear such good numbers! @spttc and @RitaDsZ Your right though @RitaDsZ to mention the funnel effect becuase it can come as a surprise, I know it did for me! It's basically the statistics saying that for most people a quarter of eggs retrieved in EC make it to embryo stage.

@Happibara glad to hear it's looking good for you, my scan was okay they also took some bloods to see if I'm at OHSS risk. They are still seeing 8 follicles growing at the same rate and some smaller ones that may catch up. They were around 14mm. They said hopefully they will be around 16mm on scan Friday and then I'm to come in for a scan on Monday to confirm egg collection for Wendsday next week. So we shall see! When's your next scan?