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?

@PrincessofLiechtenstein do you have the intramuscular ones in oil or the subcutaneous ones. Had a Quick Look at studies but very quick as I'm simultaneously potty training my toddler 😅 how are you finding the infections vs the pessaries. The pessaries just kind of seem like a pain / time consuming / messy 😬

@captainsmal great news. Fingers crossed for you 🤞🤞🤞🤞☺️

@spttc thanks! Hoping we get a decent handful of eggs out of that and then with attrition rates hopefully still get at least one or two embryos 🤞🏻

@captainsmal ah 17 is great and maybe even a few more! Nearly there now! It’s funny I looked forward to my collection 🤣 just wanted it all done! Best of luck for weds!

@spttc ah sorry you mentioned they can retest so assumed that’s what was happening. Hopefully it won’t be needed.

@captainsmal I'd say you will. We started with 9, 6 fertilized, 5 went for pgt testing. 3 normal and 2 need retesting due to biopsy issue so all 5 might be normal. That's more than we need! You don't know what way it's going to go. You see people with a starting number of 40 who get 0 and people starting on 5 getting 5 embryos so you just need to go with the flow. Try stay calm. And if they come back and say only x number fertilized don't lose hope as really until the end you don't know. Fingers toes and everything crossed for you I have a good feeling - 17 is a good number. Like you said you only need a few.

Yeah 17 total but only 7 big at the moment, but still really pleased with that! And they keep saying at the clinic quality over quantity so I’d rather have a handful of nice good ones than loads of them lol. I’m actually quite excited now whereas I was a bit nervous before the scan 😬 but it all feels like it’s happening now if that makes sense 😅

@Quaver9 the relief I felt after the egg collection was great. I felt I couldn't walk normally by the end. It's like the feeling of your body being your own again!

@captainsmal that's exactly what my clinic did. Quality over quantity. Because I was almost disappointed with 9 and they said just said to me I was looking at social media too much where Americans are posting about getting 30+ but it never ends well. Over stimulation etc. affects quality. Less can be more.

@spttc yeah and also with those numbers the ohss risk is so high so end up having to freeze all anyway, whereas I am really hoping to have a fresh one so 🤞🏻 plus I was on the lowest dose of stims as well so I knew I wouldn’t get crazy numbers. I think I’ve actually responded more than they thought I would lol

@captainsmal yeh same. Your treatment sounds like mine. (Minus the fresh transfer) Bring on egg collection now🤞🤞🤞🤞

@spttc I've got the subcutaneous ones which are fine. It's very easy, just one vial morning and evening.

The suppositories have been ok as well. I've been setting my alarm half an hour early, popping it in and going back to sleep for a bit. And just before bed in the evening.

I wasn't given a choice but if I was paying for them myself I'd just pick the cheapest probably.

@PrincessofLiechtenstein I'm in Ireland so all the drugs are covered by the drugs payment scheme - we pay a maximum of 80euro per month for all drugs covered under the scheme so cost isn't a factor. I think clinic are agreeing to subcutaneous 👌

@captainsmal did you say egg retrieval was today? Hope all went well 🤞🤞

@spttc hi yeah was today! It went okay, for some reason sedation didn’t fully work on me even though I’ve had it before on other ops etc! So I basically felt the whole thing and it was so painful 😣 they topped me up 3 times as well! But anyway got through it and got 8 eggs collected so now just waiting for the call tomorrow to see how many were mature and how many fertilised 🤞🏻🤞🏻 and then fresh transfer Monday if we’ve got any embryos obviously
oh and had a little scare after I got out as they found a tablespoon worth of free fluid in my abdomen and they were worried it was internal bleeding so I had to stay an extra hour and have an ultrasound but luckily it was gone by then
had a long nap when I got home and feel a bit queasy but eaten now. Just got bloating wind pains and some mild cramps now but due another dose of paracetamol soon

8 is a great number congrats 🎉
Omg that sounds terrible. I was fully out like a light it may aswell have been general anesthetic. That's crazy it didn't work on you. Did they weigh you before to get the dosage right? And then the drama with the fluid ugh but glad all ok

@spttc they weighed me back in December but I have gained weight during stims so maybe that was the case? DH said I was a bit groggy when I came out and asked him the same question 3 times so it definitely worked a little bit but I still remember the whole thing and the pain whereas for my other surgeries I’ve had total amnesia etc afterwards! So definitely harder than expected tbh. Just hope they’ve fertilised overnight 🤞🏻🤞🏻 I’ll be happy with one or two so I can have a backup in case fresh transfer doesn’t work but just trying not to get hopes up in case the drop off rate is really high or none fertilise etc. Hope they call fairly early tomorrow so I’m not waiting round all morning 😬😬

@captainsmal I'd say they will call early. My clinic used to tell me "we will call in morning before 12" or "we will call between 12-3" so then you knew when to expect it. Defo makes it less stressful to not be watching the phone 😫

@spttc yeah I hope so! Don’t have DH with me now as well so he’ll be at work waiting around for my call afterwards. I’ll be with my mum all day and then got a few things planned for the weekend at their house to distract me. Got my niece and nephew over Sunday so looking forward to that. Actually had a really adorable video from her this morning saying good luck auntie I love you which made me like 😭😭😭 (she’s 4 lol) They said I’ll get a call either Saturday or Sunday to book my time slot for transfer which will be lunchtime or mid afternoon ish

@captainsmal exciting! Fingers crossed for you 🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞 I got my meds for transfer - not many, a few letrozole. Natural cycle. Then I have progesterone for after transfer. They included a trigger shot which I may or may not need. I have to track ovulation etc. So just waiting on my period due this weekend then it's go time

@spttc ooh that’s exciting then! That seems really quick as well after EC, I know people who couldn’t have their fet for 3-5 months after. Fingers crossed for you!

Had my call this morning 😬
8 eggs collected
6 mature
5 have fertilised!
really happy with that tbh 😊
my clinic doesn’t do day 3 update so I won’t hear anything now until day 5 Monday morning before we leave for transfer but I’d be happy with one to use and one spare maybe 🤔
at least that’s the biggest step out of the way and transfer won’t be as bad as EC and then it’ll just be the dreaded 2ww 🤞🏻😬

We ended up with 5 too!

The 2ww isn't really 2 weeks especially with ivf - most seem to start getting faint lines about 5days post transfer because your embryo is 5 days old. So 5+5 is the same as 10dpo. On my 2 naturally conceived babies I had lines at 9dpo.

@spttc yeah I think my trigger shot will be out of my system 100% by 7dp5dt, which is two weeks after the trigger, so I will probably wait until at least 8dpt which is probably only a few days before otd anyway 🤷🏼‍♀️ I worked out it’ll be around Mother’s Day so no pressure right 😅

@captainsmal yeh I may or may not be taking a trigger so we will see. If I do I'll probably "test it out" as in test daily until negative on cheap tests. Then test 🤞🙈 I'm definitely testing before the blood test though 100% as I want to be prepared if it's bad news. And even if say I've a chemical or miscarriage I'd want to know if it worked initially or didn't at all etc. I think my period is tomorrow right on time because the last 2 days I've been a bit irrational towards my unfortunate husband 🤣 so I'd say transfer will be in and around March 31st 😬

Seperately - has anyone done acupuncture or rate it for this? I never have. I know there's no real scientific evidence right?

@spttc i considered testing out the trigger as I do have a big box of cheapies at home but then couldn’t be bothered and as I’m staying at my parents this week too much hassle tbh 😅 so I’m just thinking longest possible time they say is 14 days so 24/3. And I think otd will be around 27/3 probably anyway 🤞🏻 I will prob test early depending what day of the week otd falls on like I don’t want to test then go to work especially if it’s bad news so I will try and do the closest day off to the day they give me