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 to hear you were fine after egg retrieval 😁🤞 yeh she's the type of person she just wants to take it easy, help us in the garden, hang around, cook, she wouldn't be wanting to go out etc. An introvert definitely. We have a cabin in our garden so she will actually be staying in that, it has a full kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, living room. So she will be pretty self sufficient, we will stock up her fridge etc. I'll actually be finished my injections minus trigger shot when she arrives, or be very close so in terms of meds in the house there won't be a lot (that's if dates remain as they are of course). Yeh no tbh I just didn't want to delay it. I actually saw a woman in TikTok who had to evacuate her house during the LA fires 4 hours post egg retrieval! She had to drive, no choice, and they are fully under general anesthesia in the US for egg retrieval 😬😅 her house actually did burn down too. Crazy. If she can do that, I can do this.

I ended up waiting until I spoke to the clinic (after a second call to them to confirm taking it later on day3 would be ok).
My clinic have always said to me to take the injections in the morning and have never mentioned an evening option.

I’ve just had my second injection and will be doing them in the morning from now until they say stop. Second injection has been booked in to start Saturday and I have my first scan on Friday!

@Cherryblossom90 evenings aren’t a massive issue but my clinic have always said morning so just gone with that.
They confirmed that taking it later yesterday was ok and that it happens all the time with people
starting over the weekend. I’ll just take in the morning from now on 😊

@spttc you are so right to put things into perspective!

@ChyLL it’s good to hear that your clinic was reassuring and that you have started your injections.

I have strarted stims yesterday with Menopur with a tentative date for EC on the 31st of Jan! So exciting!

Really exciting @YellowTack looking forward to being at this stage! Having my meds delivered this week for starting next week....
But eek to the 31st being a Friday, do they do egg retrieval on a Saturday too in your clinic?

So exciting @YellowTack I'm 3 days behind you right? I start Pergoveris on the 23rd. My egg retrieval is scheduled for 5th Feb. when do you stop menopur and do trigger shot? I know trigger shot is 36 hours before right? So I'd be taking mine the 3rd ... ish

There was discussion on time of day - my clinic said same time every day. They specified evening. I asked why and they said because in the mornings people might be late/rushing/waking at different times so she said it doesn't really make a difference once it's the same time.

"Baseline scan" is that a scan before any medication?

@Cherryblossom90 my clinic don’t do Egg collections on Saturday (I thought they did) so I will have to be either on the Friday or the following Monday which is quite a large gap!

@spttc yes we are only a couple of days apart 😀. Trigger is 36-37 hour before egg collection and they will give you a specific time.
For me the plan would be to take my last Menopur on the 28th, trigger on the 29th in the evening for an egg collection the morning of the 31st of Jan, but this could of course change depending on how I respond to the stims.

In my clinic they want to do a « baseline scan » to check that the uterus lining is thin enough before starting the stimulation.

@spttc we don't have baseline scans at my clinic. We just start meds in day 2. But we do need to come in for a scan in the first 4 days to see what's happening hen E my stress of period being due Wends/Thurs.
@YellowTack yeah happened to me once it was really disappointing at the time 😭 basically becuase the trigger injection is 36hr before EC they told me on Wendsday sorry it's not going to be Friday so it'll be Monday which (feels like) almost another weeks wait from Wendsday and a hell of a lots more injections 😱 It was v stressful and took me completely by surprise which didn't help! Hence me telling you this so you don't get a shock in the eventuality BUT obviously here's to hoping you are ready for egg collection that Friday! 💛

@Cherryblossom90 yeh I don't know I keep seeing it mentioned. I had a scan at my consultation to count follicles. Before I'd even said I wanted to go for it. I guess so the doctor knows what he's dealing with. That might be it - baseline scan. I have a "monitoring scan" on 31st Jan

Exciting ladies getting nearer! I’m impatiently waiting for my period to start, then have to wait 21 days before can down-regulate. COME ON already! 🤭

@ivfjourneyandme same here! I’m on cd 26 but I have 32-34 day cycles usually so the clinics pencilled it based on starting next Tuesday I think 🤔 but I’ve been known to have as short as 28 days and as long as 40! So I’m just getting impatient now hoping it doesn’t decide to be really late this month!
I start suppressants cd14 of next cycle so still a wait even when it comes so I know how you feel! The ONE time in this whole long ttc journey I actually want a period to come lol 😂

@captainsmal I’m still naive enough to hope I fall pregnant naturally which would be some form of miracle as the embryologist couldn’t even get my eggs to fertilise 😂

@ivfjourneyandme oh I’m like that every month and it’s been almost a decade 😅 you’d think I’d have taken the hint by now lol… and right now we’re on a ban/protected only before treatment starts so there’s literally no chance but I still somehow have that thought 🤦🏼‍♀️

You’re doing icsi as well right? did you use zymot last time? We’re doing both because of the morphology, obviously it’s my first go so I don’t know what will happen, but I’m in a WhatsApp group for women in my area and apparently zymot is really good for fertilisation 🤞🏻 one girl only got 1 embryo first round and 9 the second round and it was the only change they made that month

@captainsmal ooo I’ll email my clinic and ask!

@ivfjourneyandme its an optional add on here, we’re NHS funded so main treatment and ICSI is funded but zymot isn’t covered by nhs so we paid for it, it was £240 which I thought wasn’t bad considering how expensive some of the other things are going private! So from what they explained, it’s like a microchip they make the sperm swim through, it’s supposed to mimic how they would swim through the fallopian tube… almost like an obstacle course I guess 🤣 and basically the ones that make it out are the best sperms. I think it helps rule out dna fragmentation too but don’t quote me on that 😬 I’m cautiously optimistic about it given the success stories I’ve seen in my area and online with it 🤞🏻🤞🏻

@captainsmal oh my clinic does zymot as standard. This is good news 💯

@spttc our view was anything to help! Luckily in our area we get 4 rounds funded (the fresh then 3 frozen if you get that many extra embryos, but if you don’t you can do two retrievals once they reapply for your funding) but of course ideally we want it to work first time so just throwing literally everything at it we can within reason and without overly stressing ourselves!

Speaking of stress, for those who’ve done rounds already, how are the hormones and stuff during treatment? Anyone got any tips for like relaxing and the mental health side of things? I’m autistic and I have a history of anxiety/depression so I’m mostly concerned with whether I’m going to be really up and down 🤔 I have a really awesome bestie who’s sent me like a care package thing from up north with face masks and stuff, and I’ve ended up getting myself a bunch of adult colouring books 🤣 I’m trying to force myself to be as chill as possible while I wait to start and during but then I’m also the type to spend hours googling everything and stressing over the littlest details 🤦🏼‍♀️ they did offer us counselling at the clinic, we got 3 sessions on our plan but I’m “saving” them in case the first round doesn’t work out

@YellowTack They have h given me the estimated date of the 29th… I’m just going with it.. I think my clinic only do EC on Mon, Weds and Fri so hoping everything plans out ok.

When is your first follicle tracking scan?

@ChyLL I have my first tracking scan on Monday the 27th of Jan. My clinic typically does only one tracking scan (it would have been on the 29th), but I insisted to have one before because I don’t feel comfortable waiting all this time without knowing how I respond to treatment.

When do you have your first tracking scan?

Hi, I hope everyone is having a good week. I did my firstever injection of buserelin this evening! It wasn't too bad once I'd worked up the courage! I had a bit of a reaction around the injection site where the skin went red and was stinging - it felt a bit like a nettle sting but it went away after about an hour. Did anyone else get this from their injections?

@Allnew2021 I used bruselin in the past and yes stinging at injection site. Cetrotide is THE WORSE for this oh my goodness. Refused it this time having fryemandel instead (which from experience is much nicer) Try an icepack after application. Also remember to rotate injection sites. It can be really uncomfortable 💛

@captainsmal four NHS round wow that's good. Good for you!
So distraction wise I felt just 'doing' something wasn't enough distraction for my mind so I was constantly lisining to something too. Like sudoku plus an audio book or the radio on plus a game on my phone iyswim. I like your colouring book idea though I may try that!
The waiting room time in hospital for appointments can be long and tense make sure you bring something to really take your mind off.

@Cherryblossom90 thank you, I'll try an icepack today and see if that helps. Glad I haven't been prescribed cetrotide!!

@Cherryblossom90 that’s a good idea! I usually have the tv in the background while I play games or do stuff unless I’m reading lol. I’m hoping work will keep me busy too, I think the 2ww is going to be the worst part of the whole thing (if I get to have a fresh transfer but I’m not getting my hopes up cos I know it’s really common for them to freeze all after EC) 🤞🏻

Starting injections tomorrow 😬😬😬 does anyone know and maybe this is a stupid question can you pinch your skin when injecting as in gather the fat? Or are you not meant to.