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?

Thanks for the well wishes @captainsmal @Allnew2021 @Cherryblossom90 @LuckyFlash @ivfjourneyandme @Toryory21 . Had a really rough night last night, the pain was unbelievable. I went back to the clinic this morning to be scanned. My ovaries are huge which is what is causing the pain; they reckon i could be like this for a week. I’m on 2 tablets and 1 injection a day for the next 10-14 days. Also on iron for the blood loss yesterday! Got the devastating call this morning that out of the 13 only 4 have fertilised (we are doing ICSI) , the embryolist said they were all completely shocked that it is a huge drop off rate but the majority of eggs were immature. I can’t really understand how this is when I was overstimulated 💁🏻‍♀️

They are getting my consultant to call me today to try and shed sone light on what’s happened but i’m not holding out much hope of any reaching day 5/6 to be frozen.

@captainsmal congrats on starting! Fingers crossed all goes well for you!

@Cherryblossom90 how are you feeling today?

Hi @Twittwoo2020 I'm so sorry to hear your still in pain! Your experience with ICSI sounds harrowing. Hopefully everything improves from here.

It does take months for ovaries to shrink back down to normal size post stims (I know this becuase I was told this by the clinic when I wanted to do ICSI cycles back to back in the past) It sounds like your ovaries are extra swollen and painful though! Did they at least give you some good pain relief meds to take home?

Thanks for asking I'm still fairly uncomfortable but I think from pp on here and my own memories this level of pain is normal and should resolve in 4ish days.

I'm sorry that so many eggs didn't fertilized. Please don't lose hope, if you have 4 fertilized eggs there's statistically a good chance one of them will reach blastocyte stage and be good for transfer. They haven't let me know how many of mine fertilized yet (waiting for the call!) but I'd be thrilled with 4. In a past ICSI cycle Iv gone from 17 eggs to 10 mature to 4 fertilized to 2 blastocyte to 1 DC!! So I can tell you from my personal experience not to lose hope yet!

The clinic just called 2 embryos fertilized normally tg out of the 6 mature eggs. Such a massive relief! ET will hopefully be Monday if I they become blastocytes but they will update me on Saturday.

@Twittwoo2020 so sorry, you have really been through it! Hope that you feel better soon. It definitely feels like they need to review the medication you were on. Keeping everything crossed for your fertilised embryos now.

@Cherryblossom90 great to hear you have some embryos. I hope you get a good update on Saturday

@Twittwoo2020 - you’re an absolute champion, what a harrowing experience! Hopefully your recovery is going well and you get some answers soon. Fingers crossed for getting to the blast stage!

@Cherryblossom90 - that’s hopeful news! Hopefully great news on day 5 🤞🤞

@Twittwoo2020 Keeping everything crossed for your fertilised embryos! Your whole experience sounds positively awful, I'm really sorry ❤️‍🩹 I hope you're recovering well and that your team will come through with some answers and ideas how to adjust treatment in the future.

@Cherryblossom90 I'm so glad you've had a positive update! Hope they both thrive and you get a green light for ET on Saturday.

I've had a day 3 update message, apparently 7 of our 8 embryos have reached the 6+ cells they're looking for at this stage. The last one is slow, so perhaps it won't make it. I hope with all my might that, even with predicted attrition rate for our age, there will be some blastocysts to transfer and test on day 5.

The clinic confirmed our ET for Saturday! I know they can cancel last minute if things are not looking good on day 5, but I'm allowing myself to be excited 😊

@Happibara exciting! So pleased ivf has worked so well for you 💜wishing you all the best for Saturday!

I've been following this thread for a while and you've all brought me so much comfort during my downreg and stims this month, but I had my first scan today at day 7 and I've only got 3 follicles on one side and nothing on the other side. I just feel so so disappointed. They've increased my Ovaleap and I'm having another scan on Monday but I feel kind of hopeless at the moment. Is there even any point in going ahead with egg collection with only three?

Hi @BeSharpPinkDreamer welcome. I'm sorry your having a hard time with the stims, it's awful when they don't work well.

I'm guessing this is your first cycle so maybe they have given you a to low dose?What dose are you on? Iv only ever had sucsess on the highest dose so you may be the same!

I'm sure the clinic can advise on wether it's sensible to continue.

Do you know your AMH? If you have a high AMH there's a chance all those 3 follicles will produce mature eggs. Although if you consider the funnel effect 3 mature eggs is still a little low.

Anyway wishing you all the best with whatever you decide! 💜

Welcome @BeSharpPinkDreamer I'm so sorry you've had disappointing news from today's scan, that's rough after all the downreg & stims!

Hopefully Monday will show more have grown (it was the case for me) but if you're still anxious, it would be worth to discuss options with your team.

My clinic team stated that they'd go ahead with EC as long as there were at least 2 follicles of the right size seen at the last scan; but that will vary for different patients.

Your circumstances are unique to you, there are so many variables in the decision whether to cancel or go ahead: your age, test results (I presume this low count was unexpected based on your AMH and AFC), if you're preparing for more than 1 EC anyway, or just a single one with no option to do another later. And of course your clinic should advise how much of a difference could be expected if they adjusted your protocol.

Sorry for a long message, bottom line is: share your worries with the clinic and let them support you with next steps. Wishing you all the best on Monday 🤞

Thank you @Cherryblossom90 and @Happibara I'm 39, first cycle, AMH 10.9 so I expected a better response - I don't know if that was naive of me now... They've increased the dose from 225iu to 300iu. My clinic says a minimum of 3 follicles for EC so we could probably go ahead next week but with the funnel effect like you said the odds feel low. Thanks for the well wishes really appreciate it. Maybe Monday will be more positive.

I did my first set of stims tonight. Even with using a plastic ampoule snapper I somehow managed to cut my finger when snapping open the glass ampoule for the meriofert 😅other than that mini drama it went OK.

@BeSharpPinkDreamer sorry to hear you haven't responded as well to the meds as you hoped. Hopefully you will get some positive news at your next scan.

@BeSharpPinkDreamer do you have 3 follicles total or 3 responding? I am doing mild ivf and have had a slow but steady response. By day 7 I only had 4 that were doing anything (and even then the biggest was only 12mm) and my nurse wasn’t worried. By day 10 6 were responding and I’m having EC tomorrow and potentially have 7 but I’m keeping my hopes low so as not to be disappointed. The whole point of mild ivf is to get less eggs but ensure higher quality so I know it’s different to the response you would hope with traditional, but my nurse seems very optimistic about my chances (let’s hope that optimism stays). So things can change and pick up!

@BeSharpPinkDreamer my clinic says at least 3 follicles over 17mm they’ll still do EC but maybe you’ll get some more grown by Monday!
@Allnew2021 omg I hate snapping glass ampoules! When I was a pharmacy tech we did a lot of the end of life/care home stuff and I used to have to dispose of the controlled drugs and it was so nerve wracking lol! Especially if you accidentally cut yourself then get some of those drugs in the cut 😱 glad it all went well otherwise!

First day of down reg yesterday and apparently my body really does not like it at all! Had so many side effects already and felt so crap all day. Extreme tiredness and weepy and headachey 🙄 9 days to go lol

Good luck those who are having ET tomorrow and Monday!

Best of luck with your new meds @captainsmal and @Allnew2021 💜

I had my egg collection yesterday. I got 11 and was so excited. Just had the call to tell me only one fertilised. I'm absolutely devastated and done tbh.

Hi all,

I haven’t posted in a while but thought I would give you some update and hopefully some hope for the ladies who like me had low number of eggs fertilised.

I tested yesterday at 8dp5dt and it’s positive !!!! So my only blastocyst managed to stick, as they say it only takes one!
There is really no respite in this journey, I am quite worried at the moment because the line is very faint, so I am keeping everything crossed but at the same time I am guarding my heart.
I went throught the rabbit hole of comparing my pregancy tests to the ones from my last pregnancy (which ended in a MMC but at 10 weeks), and the ones from this cycle appear lighter. I will keep testing and hopefully the line will get darker over the next few days!

@Nobodyknowsitall oh hun, that’s tough. It’s heartbreaking. I had total failed fertilisation so I know how you must be feeling.

@YellowTack eeeeekkkk! ❤️❤️

Im starting buselrin tonight for down regs and super nervous of the possible side effects. Here we go again, ladies! 💪🏻

@YellowTack I'm so glad to hear that! 💜I was just thinking some posters may be coming up to their testing dates! When is your official test date that the clinic accepts? And have they booked you a 6 week viability scan?

@Nobodyknowsitall that's so hard. I'm in a similar position with only 2 fertilized eggs from Wendsday EC. Here's to hoping for us both that they all get to day 5. There's still a chance don't lose hope yet!

Best of luck @ivfjourneyandme you've got this!

They want to do the transfer tomorrow. That is if the one fertilised egg develops. I feel so hopeless that I don't even want to do the transfer. This is my 4th cycle and I'm so fed up with this shit show.

@Nobodyknowsitall 😭 you poor thing. I have no words of wisdom but don’t not want to reach out and be a virtual hand hold. This journey is truly horrific

@YellowTack amazing congratulations! Hopefully the line keeps getting darker for you 🤞🏻
@ivfjourneyandme good luck starting your down reg, how long do you have to do it for?
@Nobodyknowsitall I know it’s so hard to try and force yourself to stay positive but you never know that one could be the one that sticks for you, I’ve heard so many stories on here of people who’s one and only embryo became their child 🤞🏻🤞🏻good luck tomorrow and good luck @Cherryblossom90 for your update too!

@captainsmal i have my scan on 26th Feb to see if ovaries have turned off. But looking at my protocol I’m on 0.5mls buselrin until my trigger. What are you on? X

@Nobodyknowsitall Iv experienced similar (1 or 0 fertilised) in the past and can remember how awful this experience was. I'm so sorry your going through this I wouldn't wish it on anyone. I really had to push myself to do ICSI cycle number 5 but I'm glad I did as it was the sucsessful one. Youve done so well to get to this point hopefully this will be the embryo sticks. Wishing you so much strength for tomorrow. 💜