IVF March 2025

[Banksl92]

Hiya. I’m due to start IVF in March and just wanted to find some people who were going through the same so we can support/ advise eachother! I’m 32 and have been trying to get pregnant for 8 years now and just wanted to meet some people in the same boat!

Good luck with starting stims @ivfjourneyandme I hope this protocol works better for you.

Good luck to others starting this week as well. It can all be quite overwhelming but I have found these threads very helpful.

@Allnew2021 really pleased about your embryo. Fingers crossed for the PGTA testing.

I started my progesterone injections and pessaries this morning- not the most fun! Also had an anxiety dreams about going for the transfer, and finding out someone I manage was scrubbed up with a speculum. Not what I needed 😆

@PrincessofLiechtenstein oh gosh that wouldnt be good would it haha! Thats so funny that your brain made you have that dream (nightmare haha)

Hi all 👋🏼
Sorry to be late to join the thread, I’ve been staying mostly offline this cycle! I recognise some names from previous threads so hope you ladies are doing ok! 😊

Had my egg collection today and it was a bit disappointing 😔 previous scans showed up to 11 follicles but I ended up with 5 eggs collected. Had a little cry when they told me. Last round we got 7, round before that was 8. Please feel free to share any similar stories or stories of hope with lower numbers!

How is everyone feeling? I’ve been feeling mostly ok this cycle, I do think I might try the counselling again though as keep having strong reactions at work eg. yesterday someone in work kitchen started talking about someone who’s just gone on mat leave, asking whether they’d heard any ‘exciting baby updates’ and I just felt so distressed I was dying to get out of there before they carried on, I nearly spilt my tea trying to hurry out of there! I think it’s just because you never know when someone is going to veer into baby talk at work, and sometimes I’m fine then sometimes I feel so pissed off I want to tell them to shut up! I’m not normally an angry person so it’s hard to manage. Any tips most welcome 🤗 😂

Sending you all big hugs x

@ivfjourneyandme good luck!! Hope it works out for you.

@LimeBird I've been told that I'll be lucky to get even 2-3 eggs. But it's as they say, 'it only takes one egg'
Don't lose hope, it really does take one egg. Sending lots of baby dust your way.

@lovelivelaugh63 thank you, it’s such a rollercoaster isn’t it?! I remember last few cycles they said I only had 2 or 3 follicles ready to go, then I got more eggs, then this time it was the other way round! I hope yours goes well, do you know when your collection will be yet? Mine was earlier than I thought as my follicles had a growth spurt over weekend!

@LimeBird im starting stims end of march so im guessing in April

Great news @ivfjourneyandme good luck with stims!

I had my EC today and unfortunately only one egg collected. Fingers crossed it’s a fighter 🤞🏻

@KayEmmSquared thats tough. How are you? Here’s hoping it fertilises and goes all the way ❤️❤️ Was you expecting only one?

I had 6 follicles ranging from 13mm-20mm on Monday so I suppose I was hoping the 13s would catch up and I’d at least get 3 eggs 🤷🏼‍♀️ it is what it is I suppose, was just hopeful for more. Will see what the embryologist says tomorrow 🤞🏻

Well done for getting through EC today @KayEmmSquared , I had mine today too! How are you feeling? I feel so tender and keep getting twinges on the right, feels worse than last time but maybe I blanked it out 😂 just on sofa with hot water bottle attached to me!

@LimeBird and @KayEmmSquared congrats on your EC but sorry to hear numbers were lower than expected for both of you. Have they said why that was or not? Like others have said it only takes one so 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻 and I wish you both all the best

I’m on day 6 of stims today and I already feel quite bloated and crampy with it so I’m getting a bit paranoid about what’s going on down there tbh. I don’t have my first monitoring scan until Monday (day 11) and now I’m worried, what happens if they get too big by then? I know I’m on the low dose and other people I know on this dose needed a couple more days of stims so I’m hoping side effects doesn’t necessarily mean they’re getting big already? I think I’m just nervous as it’s my first cycle and I don’t really know what to expect 😬 and everyone else seems to have way more monitoring scans than my clinic!

Sorry to hear your numbers were lower @KayEmmSquared and @LimeBird.

@captainsmal what trigger are you taking and what dose? I had my nurse planning appointment today so now know what I'll be on.

@Twofromanotherkind my stim is Gonal F 150 and then got Ganirelix to stop the ovulation. And then I’ll be triggering with Zivafert next week either Monday or later if the follicles haven’t got big enough. I just hope I won’t over respond since they’re literally not checking til Monday? Apparently that’s normal with my clinic but other places seem to check like day 3,5,7 etc… not that I want to have to keep going to scans because my clinic is hours away! Just seems strange

Thanks everyone, I’m a little disheartened but like you say, it only takes one!

@LimeBird well done on getting through EC too, I’m not feeling too bad, a little crappy but nothing worse than AF cramps. Still, like you, I’m curled up in the sofa with a hot water bottle 😂 if there ever was a day to have a sofa day, it’s today!

@captainsmal my clinic only scan from Day 10 with every protocol, if that gives you any comfort?

@captainsmal they didn’t really say, but they did say that 2 of the large follicles were empty sadly. So 5 contained eggs (and god knows what happened to the other 4, think must have been too small still for eggs).
A couple of differences this round is that I was on higher dose stims (450 Ovaleap), plus they triggered me slightly earlier than last 2 rounds as they said 7 were large enough. I also had a different trigger, Buserelin whereas I had Ovitrelle last time. Hard to know it any of these things caused the decrease, or just bad luck etc!

@KayEmmSquared that’s actually really comforting thank you! Just had sudden fear of over responding (I know it’s not likely with my dose!) think the ivf anxiety is getting to me a bit now lol 😬
@LimeBird oh so could be any of those things really? Well hopefully it doesn’t matter because those 5 are good ones for you! 🤞🏻

Good luck! I'm starting my injections tomorrow x

Heya. I'm starting my gonal injections tomorrow (day 2) and I've been booked in for my first scan on Tuesday which will be day 7 x

@Banksl92 good luck! I’ve found the Gonal nice and easy so far 🙏🏻 Ganirelix was slightly more stingy going in but still pretty easy to use etc

Mine don’t scan till say 10 or 11 either so I wouldn’t worry, I thought it was strange but quite grateful tbh in terms of getting time off work

@Twofromanotherkind yeah that was my thoughts at first like yay less time to book off work, just got a bit worried when I ended up on here/Reddit etc seeing people having way more scans! But sounds good a few of us on here all on the same sort of schedules with how many scans etc so I feel a bit better now!

@KayEmmSquared and @LimeBird well done on getting through the egg collection. I hope you both feel OK over the next couple of days. Sorry to hear the numbers were not what you both hoped for, it is such an emotional roller-coaster. I hope that things go well over the next few days with fertilisation and embryo development 🤞

@captainsmal I think the amount of scans sometimes depends on any potential complications - ie anyone with PCOS, lots of follicles, issues with womb lining, AMH levels etc, high medication dosage etc. My AMH is high and I had a lot of follicles so they wanted to keep an eye in case of OHSS. Good luck with it when it rolls around xx

I have PCOS and high AMH so they have told me I am at high risk of OHSS so yes that may be why

@Banksl92 I think they thought I was definitely going to end up with it! I had 36 follicles responding at one point even on standard dosage. I was in quite a lot of discomfort by the end of the stims too!
Apart from being tender for a few days I was fine and even got okayed for a fresh transfer so fingers crossed you’ll be ok too!
I had lots of protein, electrolytes etc to help! They also started me on Cabergoline after collection too x