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?

Did anyone continue to exercise during stims?
I normally strength train 3 times per week plus a conditioning day and active recovery (low level cardio).
I started stims yesterday and plan to stop strength training and conditioning (as per advice of my clinic) but do low level cardio in its place if I feel up to it. This will probably involve sitting on the bike.
Curious to hear what others did or are doing.

Hi @Raegs sadly I don't work out regularly, but after a few days of stimulation I wasn't comfortable even walking. I could feel my ovaries hitting by every steps. Someone said it's like carrying a basket of eggs :)
It might be safe to exercise, I wouldn't know.
I do run sometimes but nothing during the treatment.

@Raegs I typically do strength training 4-5 times a week. During stims I did my last session on day 3 and then stopped. I then mainly walked, or did stationery bike (but very gently while watching Netflix so that my heart rate wouldn’t go too high). It was very hard for me to stop honestly because I tend to feel guilty if I don’t exercise. But the risk of ovarian torsion isn’t worth it, and I was telling myself that I wanted my body to use all of its energy growing follicles, not building muscle or doing exercise.

I had my transfer last Wednesday and I don’t plan to exercise again until after I test. I am just walking at the moment, which is very boring and I can’t even do long walks because of the wether.

@Raegs my clinic told me no strenuous exercise or heavy lifting during stims. The nurse even said no ''heavy hoovering' 😂- I haven't figured out what is light hoovering or heavy hoovering yet so figure my husband can do the hoovering for the next couple of weeks!

Thanks for sharing @RitaDsZ @YellowTack @Allnew2021 - helpful to hear your experiences and opinions.

Good to know about the heavy hoovering - I'll tell my partner about this 😂

Fingers crossed for a good week for everyone.

In terms of excercise my clinic said.... just avoid. It's not the stress or heart rate or anything it's that the follicles can literally be damaged by the movement. Essentially move as little as you can. Like you're carrying uncooked chicken eggs in a bag around your waist. They rub together etc and it can damage them. It's a short period of time and those follicles are the priority during that time u can exercise after 💯

I got the day 5 call today, ready for them to tell me none of the embryos made it through, but I have two “early stage” blastocysts that need another day to culture and hopefully turn into full blastocysts on Day 6. I’m full of nerves and still waiting for the other shoe to drop. Too scared to feel too hopeful.

Hope other Day 5 folks are hanging in there ❤️

@CanuckinLondon I'm really sorry to hear this. Fingers crossed for the two early blasts. I'm day 5 today too but my clinic aren't telling me until tomorrow

Best of luck everyone for today with EC and embryo developments! 💜

Can anyone explain to me what you mean @YellowTack when you mentioned a grade 2. 2 blasyocyte?

Iv only in past cycles had a 3AB(mc) 3AA(mc) 5AA (didn't implant) 5AA (my DC). So I'm confused by the 2.2 system....is it a different grading system? I'd love to know!

Good luck today and tomorrow everyone waiting for embryo updates, and good luck those with scans, EC and transfers this week!!
Hope everyone is going to have a great week, we got this!!

My meds are being delivered within the next hour eeeek! Does anyone know with norethisterone twice a day, if it has to be dead on 12 hours apart for each dose? I know with injections it will be more specific but wondering with the tablets whether I can have more leeway. Because of my long shifts/travelling at work I’ll have to end up taking the evening dose while I’m still working if that’s the case and I’m just so worried about leaving the tablets in my work locker or something and forgetting to bring them home 😬😬 I’d rather just take one when I wake up and one when I get home but that’s about 14hrs apart which feels like it’s probably too long to wait.

During stims I’m dropping down my hours to 8hr shifts so that I’ll be home in time to do it all at home exactly 12hrs apart so that’s not a worry luckily.

@CanuckinLondon That's great news, from what my consultant said they have every chance: he said that if an embryo got to day 5 then they are optimistic that it'll ll develop in the afternoon and evening, or even day 6. it's the day 3 when attrition is worst, ant that's behind you 🤞

@Cherryblossom90 how was your scan today? I hope the news is good!

I've had my egg collection today, very good experience at the clinic. They confirmed that 10 eggs have been collected, and I'll get a call tomorrow to learn how many are mature and fertilise.

@captainsmal exciting! I remember getting my box, I actually got quite emotional 😂

My clinic said morning evening for Norethisterone,and to basically aim for the same time window every day; it doesn't have to be exact to the minute.

I've taken it between 8 and half past 9 morning and evening and it's been fine, no issues with stopping my period and got withdrawal bleed in the morning of day 3 after stopping.

That's good numbers @Happibara what a relief for you. Did they say how many eggs were mature out of the 10?

Im still waiting for my meds but tg been told egg collection on Wendsday! 😁
They can only see 6 good follicles (and 2 more that may catch up). Not great numbers but I just have to keep reminding myself I really only need one good blastocyte so hopefully we will get this!

@Cherryblossom90 Thank you !

You're absolutely right, it's the quality that matters.

And also, you may be surprised on Wednesday 😊 I came in today expecting they'll get 6 maximum (had 7 on Friday with 2 potentially overmature already and the little ones lagging far behind), so I'm extremely relieved that the final count is better,and not worse!

Apparently I'll find out how many of them are mature tomorrow

@CanuckinLondon fingers crossed for your 2 blastocysts.

@captainsmal very exciting!!!

@Cherryblossom90 Care are using a different grading system which is really annoying. They give you a description of the expansion of the blastocyst instead of a number (for example mine was a hatching blastocyst which I think would correspond to grade 5). Similarly to the standard system, they look at the inner and outer cells, and they have 3 grades with number (1 being the best quality, 3 being the lowest quality). So I think my 2;2 would probably be equivalent to a B;B but it’s really confusing.

@Happibara congrats on your EC and numbers! How do you feel after the procedure?

Yep I actually teared up a little bit opening the box! 😅 just can’t wait to start now. First tablets Thursday morning 😬
I leave the house 7.30am so I’m thinking take one at 7am when I’m getting ready, but I don’t get home til 9pm or sometimes later so not sure if that’s too late tbh, I’ve messaged the clinic to see what the nurse says! Just trying to avoid taking meds at work really lol

Thank you @Happibara that is very reassuring! 💜

And thanks for the explanation @YellowTack that is quite confusing! But at least if I see anything else on MN about this grading system I will understand it (sort of!) Thank you

Day 5 call today. 4/6 embryos are biopsied and frozen, the other 2 they are leaving until day 6 but they think they'll make it aswell. Was a bit nervous when we started with 9 but to get 6/9 to pgt-a I'm pleased with 😍

@spttc that’s amazing, great numbers! How long will take to get the PGT-A results?

@YellowTack yeh I'm so happy! Also always aware it could become zero at any point. But grateful so far it's gone well. I'm not sure. In person they said 3 weeks. Then they gave me a form that said 2 weeks. So I guess 2-3 weeks 🤷🏻‍♀️ I'd be hoping for a March transfer.

Does anyone who's done this before?- they implant at ovulation right? 🤔

@spttc Wonderful, your numbers are excellent! Way better than the statistical success rate 💖We've also been told approximately 2 weeks for PGT-A, I think that's typical.

That sounds good @spttc. My egg collection was 27. Sept and they called with PGT results on 16. Oct I think, so less than 3 weeks.
But it was really bad timing, my husband was in a different country, and they told me, none of them were viable.

Now we are planning frozen transfer again (because of OHSS risk), without the PGT, so I'm also interested of the timings.
We should get the day 5 update any minute now.

@Cherryblossom90 I also had my scan this morning and am on track for EC on Weds at 9am, I am triggering tonight at 9pm. I was told at today’s scans i’ve lost a couple of follicles as they’ve grown over 25mm. I have about 17 follicles that are looking good but they say they are growing super fast so i may loose more and my ovaries are extremely big which means they are going to switch me to a freeze all cycle as I am high risk now for OHSS. I was disappointed because I really wanted to do a transfer straight away but I guess nothing on this journey is in our control really!

Hi all
I started taking my IVF injections end of Jan, and took my trigger at the weekend. Just come back from egg collection (the sedation was a dream) and now I'm just a bit uncomfortable with period cramping which seems to be normal
But I'm super upset, they only got 2 eggs! I was told my AMH is average for my age (35) and that I had loads of follicles getting nice and big when I had my run up scans. But only two, and they've just called to say only 1 is mature enough to try and fertilise.
I'm absolutely gutted. I had issues with my tubes, and been trying to get pregnant for ages. I honestly thought that now I was finally here that I would catch a break.
I just feel really low and sorry for myself right now. Wondering if anyone else has come out with low numbers?

@Baggott1990 so sorry to hear that. Have they given you any explanation as to why the other follicles had no eggs?