Nervous/Anxious - could do with some success stories

[Rettafun]

Hey everyone! I'm currently browsing through stories on Mumsnet and Reddit in search of similar experiences and success stories. I know that each journey is unique, but I'm feeling quite nervous and anxious right now. I started my stimulation medications on Monday (Gonal-F 150).

A little background: this is our second round of IVF. In our first round, we were really disappointed when we didn’t end up with any viable embryos. We retrieved 6 eggs, but one was immature and the others didn’t fertilize properly due to a thick zona around the eggs. We attempted rescues ICSI the following day, but only one egg made it to day 5 and then stopped growing.

During my first round, I was on the lowest dose of Gonal-F at 12.5, which went smoothly without any side effects. I was hoping for a higher yield of eggs, so this time they increased the dosage to see if my follicles would respond better. This round, they opted not to give me down-regulation medication and started my stims on day 4 of my period instead of day 3. I'm really anxious about whether starting on day 4 will affect the outcome, and I've read that increasing the dose doesn’t always guarantee better results.

I would love to hear any stories from those of you who have been through similar experiences. Thank you!

Hi @Rettafun sorry to hear about your first round, I'm sure that was really stressful. I've not been through anything similar but I have listened to podcasts which have basically said that rescue icsi never really works and that it is often too late for fertilisatikn. Hopeful for you that doing icsi right away this time will result in some nice embryos that lead to your little baby xx**

tbh I haven’t seen a story where a baby has resulted from recuse icsi. Thank you though keeping my fingers crossed for this round

@Rettafun you got this! 💪

Hi, I’m truly sorry to hear about your situation. While I can’t provide personal advice, you might find some helpful insights on myivfanswers, where top IVF experts address a wide range of questions. That said, I believe your fertility specialist, who knows your unique health history, is the best person to guide you. As you mentioned, every situation is individual, especially when it comes to IVF-related matters. Good luck on your journey.

Hi there, I'm really sorry to hear about your previous round :( I'm glad they have upped your Gonal-F this round which surely should help get more eggs.
My protocol is to start stims on day 2, I'm with Care Fertility.
I've just started round 2 with stims starting on the 7th, so I'm just a day behind you. My first round was 150 Gonal-F and this round they have upped it to 225 in order to get more eggs, as this is our last round.
Hope you're feeling okay. I know how stressful this journey is.

Sending love and hope to you! I under went a highly stressful second round of ivf which was almost cancelled after my first scan due to a big cyst and no follicle growth. After a month of egg stim and scans every 48 hours, I managed to get 4 eggs, ICSI, on day 5 we had 2 embryos remaining. After genetic testing, only 1 was suitable for implantation which we did in January 2024 and now I have a 14 week baby!
Keep the faith.

Hi Rettafun,

I am so sorry this happened. I know exactly how you feel we had a phone call yesterday that all 4 eggs that were collected from me had a hard thick shell around them causing 0 fertilisation.

have you taking next steps? If so what did you do?

im struggling to find much information on this online.

thank you

Jade

@JadeD92 Hey Jade,

I’m really sorry to hear that none of your eggs fertilized.

I'm currently funded by the NHS, so my experience might be a bit different from what you’ll encounter at your clinic. About two weeks after my procedure, they brought me in for an outpatient appointment to discuss the protocol we followed and our next steps. A week later, the senior nurse called to let me know that we could start again with my next period, but I decided to wait until January so I could take CQ10 tablets and see if it would improve my egg collection.

This time, I went ahead with ICSI for my egg collection and was able to collect 12 eggs. Out of those, 9 fertilized, and 3 made it to freezing. I also did a fresh transfer and am now waiting for the results.

Take care, and I’m here if you need to talk!

Hi @Rettafun I'm sorry your first round was disappointing, its so hard.

My first round didn't go as well as hoped, they collected fewer eggs than they'd thought they'd be able to and half fertilised, one made it to blastocyst. While that's not bad in itself, they kept telling me they'd expected more which made me feel quite shit. The 2nd round they put me on much a much higher dose of menopur (450, previously I'd been on 300 ovaleap) and got 9 eggs. They did ICSI, all fertilised, 7 made it to blastocyst. We did get really lucky with round 2, but I'm sure as well as some luck that was also down to a different protocol - they did stims for longer and a different trigger too, also the ICSI from the start seems to have helped a lot! Good luck for your 2nd round xx

Rettafun that is amazing!!!

I am so happy for you, wow what a difference!

I have read a lot of good things about CQ10, how many mg where you taking? I’m going to order some and start to take them to get them into my system. Xxx