July IVF/ICSI/FET

[DeeKel]

I didn’t see a thread for July IVF yet. I am due to start stims around 18Jul with estrogen priming starting the week before that. Collection will be the end of July all going well.
This will be my second IVF and I will be using ICSI. I will be 40 during treatment and 41 come collection. I have a child from my first IVF 3 years ago. Since then I had a chemical pregnancy Dec 2024 with my only other embryo from my 2022 cycle and a failed IUI in Feb this year.
I found the discussion board really helpful and supportive in my first IVF round as we all understand the crazy ups and downs of this rollercoaster. Wondering if there are any others with similar timing?

I’m a bit early but I feel a bit late for June so I’ll join you! I start injecting tomorrow evening for the first time. I’m 39, no children and will be attempting ICSI. I’ve been crying all day, nerves, sadness that it’s come to this, anxiety already that it won’t work…all of the above! I’m on an antagonist protocol, I think that also means short protocol.

@SummerSolstice25 the hormones send you on a wild ride emotionally and It’s totally normal for you to feel all that. You kind of grieve how you thought you would have children but it doesn’t matter one little bit how they came to be and all that matters is being able to welcome them into the world.
I was 38 when I did my first IVF and I only got two blastocysts from my cycle but it only took one. I will be wishing a positive outcome for you too. The anxiety is an annoying friend that walks with you every step of this journey but just know that it’s out of your hands, take some deep breaths and trust that the doctors know what they are doing and will do their very best for you.
I will do a week of estrogen priming and then I will be on pergoveris for 12 days or so. I’m on quite a high dose- my AMH was 7.43pmol/L which is low but I think it’s normal for my age. My left ovary seems to be in hiding so we are probably looking at only have one ovary accessible for collection.
Hope you are feeling better soon.

@DeeKel I’m starting Pergoveris 225 units (is that high or low?!) tomorrow evening. I then start Cetrotide on Sunday morning and will be going for a scan on Monday morning. My AMH was 19 and AFC was 12 when it was checked in March. Are you doing anything in particular to prep in regards diet, vitamins, acupuncture etc?

I'll join! I was on the June FET board but had the longest cycle ever (52 days!) And only just started my period today - so I'll be looking at a July FET. Had my fourth egg collection in April and have six euploid embryos from that so transferring the first. No kids - all the previous rounds failed one way or the other (chemical, missed miscarriage, failed transfers and total fertilisation failure). This is the best results we've ever had at this stage but it's the hope that kills you isn't it!

Oh wow your AMH and AFC is great. My AFC was 6 on the right ovary as they couldn’t find the left so hoping for the best. My first round it was 14 and I was on 300 Pergoveris and this round I’m on 387.5 which I feel is very high and I was hoping for more of a balance between quantity and quality. I think 225 is a happy medium, they have plenty of room to increase if you needed to but they are not starting really high either.
Ive been taking Proceive max strength (for over 35s), omega and coq10 supplements. I should have about 3months of them in my system when it comes to egg collection. I haven’t been doing acupuncture, I don’t seem to be able to find the time. I’ve done it previously and would recommend it. I’ve reduced the amount of sugar im having but haven’t made any drastic dietary changes. How did you prep for it?

@DeeKel I take Proceive max, between 400-600mg of coQ10 but I’ll probably wean down to 200mg of that from tomorrow, and omegas. I’ve been taking them in those quantities since December. I haven’t done acupuncture but I was thinking of adding it. I didn’t change anything diet wise. The round is publicly funded and it all happened quicker than I expected.

Welcome @FancyGoose I have my fingers crossed for you.

@FancyGoose Welcome and best of luck with your upcoming FET. My first IVF cycle I had to do a freeze all and I remember when I finally got the go ahead for my FET my period was delayed by maybe a week - it was torture as I just wanted to get going so I totally understand. It sounds like you’ve had a very hard journey already but wow look at your last round- that’s amazing! Did you do anything different? My clinic doesn’t do PGT (despite my age) so if all goes well and I get to transfer stage then I’m going to have to roll the dice and hope for the best!
@SummerSolstice25 that’s great that you are on the supplements for over 6months, you are giving yourself the best chance and fingers crossed it will all pay off. Do they recommended reducing coq10 during stims? I didn’t realise that. I’m on 400mg ubiquinol/coq10. I would do the acupuncture if I could and would recommend it. My friends successful rounds were ones when they did acupuncture. Both my parents are in poor health at present so between work, a toddler and sick parents I can’t seem to find time at all. I’m probably mad doing a cycle but unfortunately time is not on my side!

@DeeKel they said I’d have to stop the coQ10 after egg collection. I’m just going to wean down now as it’s in my system already. Did they do acupuncture during stims? I will call and see if I can get an appointment

Thanks both and wishing you both all the luck for your upcoming rounds! @DeeKel it was a different clinic so a slightly different protocol, with clexane and dexamethasone which I've never had before. But I think the biggest difference was my partner had an embolism for a varicocele. We haven't tested his sperm since as we didn't want to delay and it sort of made no difference as we were going to go ahead either way - but that's the only major thing that changed so I can only assume that's what made the difference. The only other thing I did was be quite obsessive about hitting 25% protein a day and less than 40% carbs as I'd read a study that someone posted on here that it gave better results. However, I also did it for the previous cycle and while I did get lots of eggs (20 compared to 10 which was what I got for both egg collection 1 and 2) there was a total fertilisation failure on day 1 so it wasn't a successful round! This time we got 15 eggs so still an improvement on 10 though - although I have also had different stims each time so who knows whether the diet had any effect.

The delay for the period was torture- they're so spiteful aren't they, the only time you want it to come, it disappears! That's frustrating your clinic doesn't do pgta but I guess it doesn't change the outcome at the end of the day anyway and it is bloody expensive!

Hello, please can I join too!
@FancyGoose i think I’m on the same transfer timeline as you! Just stared my period, I did a freeze all cycle in April (had to freeze all due to OHSS risk). I lost half the embryos in genetic testing, so have 3 quality ones frozen.
The waiting is the worst.
i didn’t really change diet during stims, just tried to eat more protein and drink loads of water. Wishing you all the best of luck this month.

Hey all,
I'm waiting for AF so I can start my FET meds, I had norethisterone but I'm now 9 days after my last pill and still no bleed, need to call the clinic tomorrow if I've not started, which seems unlikely! But hoping to transfer mid July :)

I think we was on the same April thread @FancyGoose :)
@GreenBunny I'm on the same timeline too, had my egg collection start of April, didn't PGT-A test which is making me more nervous! Your right, the waiting is torture!

Can I join too!? Im moving over from the june group, I feel a bit left behind. Im waiting for my period which doesnt seem to want to come what so ever. I had blood work done today and just needing to get results in the morning to figure out where I could be in my cycle and then get a plan in place from there. I have a large family but most of my kids are all older teens now, 2 of my kids moved out a couple yrs ago and are in their early 20s. I have 2 toddlers that are home with me through the day who are 3 and 18mths who were ivf babies and my 11yr old is an ivf baby. We also have an angel baby via ivf aswell. We had a transfer of our last embryo from our 2021 cycle and unfortunely that was a chemical confirmed by blood test results. We decided to do a brand new cycle in april which was complete failure. We got no embryos fertilised at all, so complete fertilisation failure even using icsi. Il be 40 in July and my husband is 40. Iv also started perimenopaus so in reality we may not get a chance at having another baby so we are also preparing ourselves for that. Depending on what happens with our next cycle , it will very likely be our last. I was put on a fertility compound that our clinic has their pharmacy make which is full of all the good stuff for fertility and hubby started taking a conception supplement. I dont seem to have an issue falling pregnant but i dont make good embryos and i have a high miscarriage rate. See how we go. Good luck everyone for this month

Hey @FancyGoose, @GreenBunny, @waitingforourmiracle I’ll be on a similar timeline to you guys ♥️ had egg collection in my May cycle, freeze all due to OHSS risk, ‘withdrawal bleed’ later in May and just started my June period so waiting for the go ahead to start the meds for my first FET - transfer likely mid-July 🤞🏼

The journey for us hasn’t really gone the way we’d hoped / Doctors predicted based on age, tests, eggs collected and fertilised so far, so really apprehensive about this next step. We do have two chances though that we’re grateful for - a day 5 3Ab and a day 6 5Bb (both untested) ♥️ They were both given quite a low ‘AI success prediction score’ (IDAscore through Embryoscope) so we’re hopeful but apprehensive. Wishing and hoping for success for all of us xx

@Miraclemuma03 I'm guessing the clinic are going to want to do bloods or scan me if I've not started by tomorrow, just and extra cost in this already expensive journey 😫

@GamerGirl09 oh I've never heard of the AI success prediction score before!!

@waitingforourmiracle how late are you so far. I might have already read that so I apologise if you have already said that. Im not sure how late I am. For a little while there i was having my period around every 22 to 25 days which was the most regular I have ever been in my life and that only started after my chemical back in November of 2024 but then last month I was 14 days late from a 24 day cycle, this month as of tomorrow il be 10 days late from a 24 day cycle so not exactly sure what my cycles are now or how to calculate them. My period tracker is set to 28 days as thats just standard so its not really accurate at tracking future cycles.

@Miraclemuma03 it's very frustrating isn't it! I'm on cycle day 44 but I did do a week of norethisterone which was meant to bring my period on but I finished that 9 days ago and still nothing!

Wow and you still havnt gotten them? How frustrating. It really just puts everything on hold and you just dont know what the plan is moving forward.

@Miraclemuma03 tell me about it! I will contact the clinic tomorrow if I still haven't come on, doubt I will before tomorrow but will see!

Hi all! I’m gearing up for my final FET in July. I’m lucky enough to have a son from 2021 retrieval, and early losses with all subsequent transfers (3) plus 3 natural losses since, as well as an embryo that didn’t survive the thaw. I’ve been on immunotherapy, blood thinners and all the vitamins the whole time! But since my last transfer (June last year), I’ve discovered I had endometriosis and adenomyosis on top of my PCOS, so had surgery in December. I’ve also been on prostap the last few months to basically switch off all my hormones and reduce inflammation (as a lot of my conditions are oestrogen dependent). So menopausal flushes in this weather have not been fun 😆 we’re looking like a mid to later July transfer. Have my fingers crossed for all you IVF warriors!

Keep us updated with what the clinic have to say tomorrow. What else can be done to start a period of you have taken something for it already and it didnt work?

Good luck for your last transfer. Im sorry for your recurring losses and I hope you find success with the final embryo especially after getting on top of the potential health conditions that could have made the environment hostile . I wish you all the luck moving forward in the next cycle.

Hi all, can I join for end of July FET?
Next Monday will do my downregg injection, and then after AF arrives hopefuly pills and baseline scan on the 11th.
It is my first FET ever, did 3 rounds with OE, have very good high number collected and results on paper…all 10 uneuploid ☹️ Also 5 chemical and 1 mmc in between.. So we have moved to DE, this is for our third baby (second for my husband), we already have a mixed family and kids mid 20 and 11.. Our last chance as we are in mid 40s now 😅
We are still waiting for a shipment from egg bank and not sure how many if at all embryos we will end up, we are hoping for one more child 🙏

@Miraclemuma03 I'm not sure tbh, from online searching I think a medicated FET can be done without a bleed but for my own peace of mine I'd rather follow normal protocol and have a bleed

@MotherOfShihTzus gosh you sound like you've had a tough ride, best of luck with this FET!