IVF / ICSI June 2025

[GLizzie88]

Hi All!

I might be early to it here, but thought I'd start a threat for anyone who knows they'll be going through it in June this year!

I'm based near Sheffield, and will be going through the treatment in sheffield. I'm 36, will turn 37 during the treatment. We've been through one failed round last August, so we've spent the time since getting further private checks done, and now we're ready for the next round. We came back as 'normal' on the nhs tests, but we found other things with these private tests! We've had all of our follow ups, catch up consultation appointments. Next appointment is our nurse appointment on the 5th May, then after that it's waiting for my next cycle to start at the very end of May / beginning of June.

From the further tests we've had done, I'm now on thyroid medication to bring my thyroid down to fertility recommended levels, my partner had DNA Frag & Oxidative Stress tests done and we've made improvements based on the results of these. I've also been having some acupuncture, which I've also feel has helped my sanity!

Please share your stories and hopefully we can all support each other during this. I'm much more nervous this time, even though I know we're better set up than we were last time.

Hopefully it won’t impact transfer date will it? Are we and @Hopeandfaith1990all due transfer Monday all being well?

Not me - I’m doing frozen because we’re doing PGT-A due to recurrent miscarriage in the past xxx so I’ll be off drugs for about a month then hopefully a transfer late July / early august. Super super good luck for yours xx

@Hopeandfaith1990looks like we’re in the same boat, enjoy your time off from meds for a bit and relax xx

@KayEmmSquared ooh fingers crossed period shows soon. I don't have any signs ATM feel like it will be later on in the week/weekend for me. No it's different for me so my clinic wants me to call them once period is here & they will tell me when to inject. No scans or anything booked in yet it's hard with work because I will be just springing it on them when I'm in for scans! Would be nice to have some ideas of timing but they just said it all depends when I start injections. Watch this space I guess. Fingers crossed its any day for us both now.🤞🏻🤞🏻

@anna6186 @Hopeandfaith1990 @cakeislife1234 I’m also doing frozen, but that was always our plan for PGT-M testing. We are doing IVF due to a 50% risk of passing on a genetic condition. So luckily it hasn’t meant any disappointment with change of plans etc. ☺️

We had 24 eggs collected, which I was not expecting! I’m conscious that a lot of them might not be mature. It’s made me a bit more hopeful. As well as seeing how many (or if any) reach day 5, we will have the extra hurdle of seeing how many do not have the genetic condition (tested after they are frozen at the day 5 stage). So for us there is likely to be an extra drop off of viable embryos at that stage. The science behind it is amazing though, feeling very lucky that it is an option for us.

How has everyone celebrated post-egg collection? I’ve ordered a Nando’s. 😛

That’s fantastic @Gosia19 enjoy your Nandos! You’ve definitely earned it!!!! Xx

Wowza @Gosia19thats a lot. You must have been uncomfortable before!! I was so bloated and uncomfortable- never been more aware of the presence of my ovaries 😂😂

Nando’s is a great shout, I think I’m ordering pizza which feels like a deserved reward as I’ve tried to be so ‘good’ in the run up to EC.

@cakeislife1234you too - I was annoyed about having to wait but as I see if we’ve waited so long for this so what’s another 4 ish weeks hey! Xxx

@Rayofsunshine22 when I did my NHS round I didn’t have any timings or scans pre-booked and it was a bit annoying for planning things but I am lucky enough to work from home so I am able to work later the days I have scans to make up time lost. I don’t want my work knowing I’m going through treatment as they don’t have any positive IVF policies so telling them isn’t an option. The same for my current cycle, I’ll make the time back but I have really early morning apps so I shouldn’t need to do that much! On a positive note, my period has arrived so I am good to go for starting my injections on Friday 😅 I hope yours comes soon! 🤞🏻

Nando’s sounds good! Football and then cheeseboard for me (got the all clear for football)

Congratulations everyone on successful egg retrievals today and being another day down on stims!

Thanks @KittyIIV! The GP said my lungs were fine so I’m just going to keep pushing through it and assume it’s just a side effect.

@cakeislife1234 oh I’m so sorry to hear you also have OHSS! I’ve only started feeling normal again today, 9 days later! Hope yours is shorter. I went for a short run earlier and my lower belly felt like I was about to get a horrendous period 😂

@KayEmmSquared oh amazing! Bet your happy you can get started! No sign still for me yet. Feel very tired but no real change there. I have a feeling it will be the weekend :(
I'm not NHS & yeah they just seem to leave me in the dark! They keep saying they don't want to give me too much info as it's overwhelming & I'll forget anyway but I would like to be able to plan. I work in a school so I've had to tell my work. I'll be in and out a lot. That's so much easier for you working from home you can work everything around work hopefully.
Good luck for first injection tomorrow!

@Limmers14 Glad to hear the doctor says you’re okay. Rest up and ask others for help if you need.

I just took my first Fyremadel injection this morning. A few drops leaked out when I was getting rid of the air in the syringe as it went up a bit quicker than I expected! I got a hive on the injection site and some localised redness and itching. Maybe because of the solution on the needle? I’ve sent a note off to the clinic but I don’t expect there’ll be an issue as ‘swelling at the injection site’ is listed as a common side effect. (It was mainly the itching that made me check with the clinic.)

Has anyone else experienced constipation as a side-effect? It’s not actually listed on any of my meds but my nurse specifically asked me yesterday so I wondered if it’s actually common. (I has actually though it was more down to my recent increase in protein intake.)

@FluentTealGuide I always get a rash with Fyremadel! I didn’t think you needed to get rid of the air in the syringe with Fyremadel, but I might be wrong.
I also lost a couple of drops last week and told my Doctor who said it was fine!

@YellowTack That's reassuring to know! I know the instructions say to just inject but the nurse said to get rid of the air so I went with her instructions. It makes me feel better, too, as air in the needle was probably my biggest fear with IVF (blame TV for that one!). They asked me to do stomach too (rather than leg), so it's getting all the action!

@Rayofsunshine22 if you’re not NHS then I think you would be well within your rights to ask for some forward planning, I didn’t expect to have all my scans booked up after my NHS cycle was such a “wait and see” drip feed cycle but the nurse was so on the ball and just booked everything. Of course, that can change depending on how I respond to the meds but it’s good to have a plan and I feel much more relaxed this cycle!
Normally I cramp for a couple of days then get my period but this time was cramp at lunch and full on period a couple of hours later so keep the faith your period is on its way 🤞🏻 xx

Hi all, we’ve just had our scan on cycle day 5/ after 4 days of stims. They could see 6 follicles and the consultant said realistically they’d have been hoping for more at this point (last month naturally I had 17). Does anyone know if more will start at this point or is that my lot?

@Limmers14 glad you are feeling better, I was always told no normal exercise until day 10 so hopefully your next run you will feel even better.

I had my scan and a load of blood tests today so my wallet feels a lot lighter 🤣 plenty of waiting around but finally on my way to work now. I decided to wait for the sperm DNA fragmentation results to come back before I decide whether to get the immune testing, the test itself is £1200 and the treatment is expensive too. Really hoping there are no issues with me to keep the costs down! They didn’t even notice my fibroid in the scan, it took literally all of 2 minutes which was strange when I’m used to having everything measured and analysed.

Glad everyone's getting on well.
Had my egg collection this morning. Got 6 eggs and almost had to go for icsi so its been a nerve wracking morning. Just want the next couple of weeks to be done with now!

@GLizzie88 sorry you’ve had a stressful day, hope you can try to relax now this stage is over with! And congrats on your eggs too xx

@FluentTealGuide I was worried about air in the syringes too, I spoke to my nurse about it and she said its basically impossible to hurt yourself with syringes and needles this size - she said you'd basically have to inject 4 syringes the sizes of the ones we get for IVF to be any danger (which obviously wouldn't happen!!) so it made me feel a lot better. I also got the redness when there was liquid on the tip of the needle, I think its pretty normal.

@GLizzie88 congrats on having your egg collection complete - sorry it was so stressful. I was so relieved when mine was done but then it dawned on me that we have so much waiting to do now!! Haha.

@RainbowFluff I'm on an NHS immune protocol after recurrent loss, they tested me for NK cells so you could try on the NHS if they'd do it for you.

@Limmers14 What were your symptoms of OHSS if you don't mind me asking? I'm one day post EC and feeling a bit rough - probably overreacting though!!

Is anyone due to have embryo transfer over the next few days? Out of the 11 eggs retrieved yesterday, I found out today that 5 have fertilised. Waiting for a call on Sat (day 3) for a potential transfer on Monday if they last out. So nervous 😩

@Hopeandfaith1990 @FluentTealGuide I carefully wiped the end of the needle with a pre-sealed alcohol wipe (in the little sachets) as I read online it can reduce the irritation. I just went for it and it was fine but have zero medical training so maybe check this with someone first.

I’m back on the Cetrotide wagon and started Inhixa (blood thinners) today. I was a bit nervous about Inhixa as lots of online comments saying the needle was blunt/the liquid burned. It was absolutely fine and didn’t burn, yayyy. Leaving this here for the next time someone googles it and hopefully brings reassurance.

I’ve got all my fingers crossed for you and your fab five@anna6186. You’ve got this!

@Hopeandfaith1990 sadly I already had my one NHS round. I moved 20 minutes away in the same county and found out afterwards that I would have got 3 rounds at my old address, but anyway no point worrying about that! My GP won’t even do standard blood tests for me now, the clinic suggested we get virology and thyroid function done on NHS to cut costs but my GP said they won’t do anything that’s linked to private treatment 🙄

We will transfer a pgta normal embryo most likely this month

Hertility health do thyroid as part of their panel
Im sure randox health do too

Randox were only 30 quid ish i think