IVF / ICSI AUGUST 2025

[VioIetMoon]

I thought I would create an August support thread for anyone that may need it ❤

@Jecca88 I think if they think there's any risk of OHSS they give the Buserelin only (and I heard someone say they had good results with a combination trigger so fingers crossed!!). But drinking lots of water (I also had lots of coconut water) is meant to help as well as protein (but your clinic might have given you specific instructions).

Thank you for the reassurance all ☺️ and @Chlo1995 for sharing your fertilisation vs blast numbers, IVF really is just a numbers game of chance isn’t it! I’m feeling more positive about it now- I think because I found EC painful I was thinking about being poked 10 more times than the number fertilised lol 😂 but I know this is still a good number.

That’s a fantastic number of blasts @Peonies94! And how exciting you have an embaby on board!

@VioIetMoon what a fab update that your 2 are still in the game! Got everything crossed for your day 5 update tomorrow 🤞🏼

@Jecca88 Im back to work tomorrow so that should serve as a good distraction until the weekend, I’ve felt tired today and got a blocked nose from the oxygen I had up my nose I think, but feeling pretty ok (more ok and less tender than yesterday/what I was expecting)! I hope you get your energy back soon.

@Jecca88 Hopefully you'll be fine and I think you said your doing a freeze , isn't that right? Freezing can help prevent ohss.
Have they been monitoring your estradiol levels during treatment ?
Drink plenty of fluids, especially those with electrolytes. Get lots of protein too and don't be afraid to eat salt to balance any fluid in the ovaries.

I was deemed a high risk for ohss on my first cycle but they didn't really monitor my bloods. Their approach was just to gently stim. I had alot of small follicles but only 12 grew to adequate size and I got 7 eggs. I didnt realise you can still get ohss even with a small amount of eggs retrieved. It was originally a freeze all cycle but none of our 3 blasts were good quality and they wouldn't freeze. When they asked if I was feeling well for a fresh, as I'd already been prepped with the hcg trigger. I admit, I was so uncomfortable and sore but I pretended I felt fine just so that we could go ahead with the fresh transfer as opposed to discarding all 3 embryos. We transferred two and the other was discarded. I got pregnant from that cycle and that's when the ohss started. I ended up on bed rest for about 8 weeks as it hurt to even move. My partner had to help me get out of bed at night to go toilet. Thankfully i didn't have any of the severe side effects

None of the above I followed, so this time around I've been drinking electrolytes daily and poisoning myself with salty take aways 😆

Got the news this morning that our 2 embryos made it to day 5.
They want to freeze them as opposed to a fresh given my high progesterone.
I'm kinda sad, I had my heart set on a fresh as I know my body responded well to my last fresh transfer and my clinic have poor fet success rates but if we did a fresh our success rates would be significantly lower anyway due to the progesterone levels. Feeling all a bit like a no win situation today but the good news is they said our embryos were good quality. We got a 4ab and 3ab which I cant believe. I was in no way expecting this. Our last grades were all 5bc 3cc and a day 6 3dc. I got up this morning fully expecting to travel up just to dump a couple of low grades in. As much as I dislike our clinic, we got 2 good grades from it which im so pleased about as i didnt think we could produce good quality ones. I wonder if this was the embryoscope or the fact we did IMSI instead of ICSI as I was expecting them to be very poor again. It was all worth poisoning myself with vile supplements in the end 😆
They haven't provided us with the next steps. I'm not sure how long I'm supposed to continue with the progesterone ect .
We're in two minds whether to do a FET 🤞 ASAP or to do another retrieval. I really don't want to go through it again but I'm also thinking realistically that at nearly 40 I have a lower chance of them implanting and a higher incidence of genetic abnormality. Were not doing testing.
What are your opinions?
And why are FETS so expensive?
I cant believe it costs 2k for a transfer . It's literally a quick 5 minute job

I hope everyone is doing well this morning

@VioIetMoon that is amazing news I bet you are so pleased with your 2 trooper embryos! That’s fantastic that they are good quality too.

Aw I understand, it’s so hard to adjust to sudden changes within a cycle- but overall I believe frozen transfers do have good success metrics. It allows the body to recover and hopefully have your progesterone at optimum levels before transfer.

I can’t help you with any suggestions on doing a transfer vs another retrieval- have you asked your consultant for their opinion? If you did both transfers and they were (touch wood they won’t be!) unsuccessful that would probably take you up to December-January time… is your egg quality likely to decline drastically in this period of time?

@VioIetMoon congratulations, it’s such a great news that your 2 embryos made it to day 5!

I understand the disappointment about fresh vs frozen, it’s such a long process that we just want to get pregnant ASAP!

Regarding doing another retrieval vs. transferring, I am in the same situation so I understand the struggle. Are you hoping for one child or more? I am not going to mention the stats as I am sure you are aware of them and they are quite depressing.

My goal was to bank 3 euploids before proceding with any transfer but that’s not going to happen. I would love to have 2 euploids now to at least get more than one chance. I have 1 euploid and 2 untested, but based on my 2 MMC I am afraid this won’t be enough.
My thinking is that my eggs are only going downhill in terms of quality and number.
A middle ground is to try one FET and if it doesn’t work move on to another retrieval.
My biggest fear based on my previous experience is that I will do a FET, get pregnant and then have a MC, and by the time I can do another EC my eggs will be even worst in terms of quantity/quality.

But at the same time this process is so expensive and so hard on our bodies! I just don’t want to have any regret but it’s hard to know what is the right thing to do.

Yay @VioIetMoon I am so pleased for you, 2 good quality embryos is such a good result! I understand the frustration but if they offered you a fresh would you go ahead despite the high progesterone? Or would you then blame yourself if it went wrong and think 'I should have known progesterone was too high and I wasted one precious embryo'? All you can do is give your body the best chance to recover and trust your good quality frosties. But I understand wanting to get it done ASAP and the extra money for the transfer stings.
I was thinking about what you asked about another retrieval vs FET soon. And if you are hoping for one more as opposed to multiple pregnancies then I think I agree with @YellowTack. I would probably do a transfer now and if it doesn't work do another retrieval this year. A couple months will hopefully not make a huge difference particularly because you seem to have a good reserve but one pregnancy and postpartum period might if you were planning more than one (coming from someone with zero children).

@VioIetMoon Yeah that’s great news you got 2 embryos.

I’ve had egg retrieval this morning, considering I had 50+ follicles we only got 7 eggs. One ovary had moved super high and they couldn’t safely get to it so all those follicles are still full. The surgeon got a second surgeon to come in and try to manipulate it by using fingers to move my womb forward and allow my ovary to be pushed back down but no luck. It’s safe to say I’m feeling very sore now I’m home. Fingers crossed we get good maturity and fertilisation figures tomorrow.

@hopeanddreams oh I'm sorry that's super frustrating! 7 is a good number of course and many dream of it (and hopefully there will be some lovely embryos in 5 days time) but not being able to access one side must be disappointing. I hope you aren't in too much discomfort.

@Waitingforday6 thank you. It is frustrating but like you say we are lucky to get 7 as well - all these things are there to try us. I’m feeling incredibly sore for the moment, getting in and out of bed is tricky. Hoping this eases tomorrow

thanks for all the reassuring guys around OHSS and tips - been hydrating and downing the coconut water today.

@VioIetMoon great news on the two - I agree with most and think you should go with a transfer as a few months won’t make much different - give you body a break from the stims too.

@YellowTack did they ever find out why the MC happened? Have you ever looked in immunology? Not sure if they were genetic issues?

@hopeanddreams well done - super frustration and being poked and proded more than normal sounds horrible - no wonder you’re in so much pain. Have they said what the follicles will do in the other ovary? Are you taking pain killers.

I also had my EC today and like @Georgiaivf want to be sensitive - we fortunately got 23 eggs - I don’t know the maturity but find out on fertilisation tomorrow and then hoping make it to day 3/5 for the PGTA testing to commence. So glad it’s over and I had deep sedation so didn’t feel a thing and just on the paracetamol now and managing the aches. My husbands sperm motility and morphology has reduced since March this year and he is feeling pretty down about it but it was all within range for ‘standard ivf’ think it must have been his mental health this year as we have been through a lot and lost our dog suddenly too which has had a huge effect on us.

thanks for all the support guys and sending everyone love ❤️

@hopeanddreams I hope you feel steadily better and that each update brings good news.
How are you doing @Georgiaivf ?
Are you managing to distract yourselves @Chlo1995 and @Peonies94?
Fingers super duper crossed @Jecca88 . I am so sorry you and your husband have been through so much. And I hope that amazing number of eggs translates to lots of embryos for you to test (and lots to put back in)! I have never heard of an immunology protocol what does it entail (if you want to tell us)?

@VioIetMoon fantastic news on your 2!!

@Waitingforday6 I’m coping okay really, through the day isn’t so bad as I’m at work but it’s the evenings that are worse, I’m trying to read so much just to keep my mind off it😂 how are you going on?

@Waitingforday6 thanks my love, I know it does sometimes feel the universe is against us, so there was a win today but always need to protect myself with getting my hopes up.

so I’m with the CRP clinic - dr Shahata who tests for Natural Killer cells, thyroids and clotting disorders, but mainly looks at your immune system - how it respond to a pregnancy and the reason why I kept miscarry was because I have high level of these natural killer cells - where my body basically see the baby as a foreign threat and kills it. I am on all sorts of meds to suppress my immune response and with my last pregnancy we got to 13 weeks and they say if you pass 10 weeks your immune system has settled so I was on the right mix of drugs/protocol. But the issue was genetic. So hoping this PGTA and immune protocol is winning combo! I’m trying everything I can. Last time was the first time I had tried steroids - so think that defo helped me get to the 13 weeks. Xxx

@Jecca88 that’s a fantastic number of eggs collected! Got my fingers crossed for a good fertilisation rate for you 🤞🏼 Bless your husband, I think we underestimate how much this process affects them and the pressure on them for their, albeit small but crucial, involvement. If the levels were good enough for standard IVF and not ICSI he shouldn’t worry himself too much. So sorry to hear you’ve had a tough year leading up to IVF.

@Waitingforday6 I’m feeling ok thank you and
not been in much pain since EC, haven’t even had to take paracetamol so feeling fortunate for that. Just waiting on our day 3 update later on today which we’re nervous for

@hopeanddreams I hope you feel better soon. It must be frustrating that they didn’t manage to reach one ovary! 7 is still amazing, fingers crossed a good proportion will’make it to blast!

@Jecca88 congrats on your 23 follicles, that’s amazing! Sorry to hear that your husband is feeling down. My husband also had worse results this round, we don’t really know what the reasons are but we need to do ICSI anyways.

We don’t know what has caused the 2 MMC as we need 3 to qualify for any testing with the NHS which I find really unfair with IVF given all the pain and money going into it.
We couldn’t get the tissue tested but we did some private tests after the second one, such as karyotypes for both my husband and I, and blood clotting tests for me. These tests came back normal. There could be a hundred more tests we could do but the cost adds up very quickly. Most likely it was a genetic issue as from 35 only a bit more than half of the embryos would have been euploid. This is the reason we have decided to do PGT-A, even though we don’t make a lot of embryos, because I mentally cannot go through this again. I prefer knowing beforehand if the embryo is normal, even though I know there is no guarantee.

@Georgiaivf thinking about you for your day 3 update!

Had our update from the clinic and all 11 are still going on Day 3 🥹 cannot even tell you the relief!

Got our fingers crossed for a decent number getting to Day 5 that are suitable for freezing now 🤞🏼

Can I ask how long after EC did people have their withdrawal bleed? I did a non-HCG trigger (Buserelin) and we’re doing a freeze all so they said they expect I’ll have it by Saturday but wanting to gage how much this can differ!

Had an update today, out of our 7 eggs, 4 were mature, only 1 has fertilised normally over night. Fingers crossed it hangs in there, will get a day 3 update on Saturday.
can’t really believe these are the numbers we are dealing with when started with over 50 follicles.

@Chlo1995 I bet. I always find workdays easier than days off as well in terms of distraction. I am in limbo for another couple of months waiting for our first transfer attempt.
@Jecca88 I completely agree re the protecting yourself. I keep saying to anyone who is trying to reassure me that there are no guarantees in this sadly. But your protocol sounds very interesting and I am sending lots of good thoughts into the universe for this to be the solution for you!!!
@Georgiaivf that is absolutely amazing!!! Go embryos!!!! Fingers crossed for the next few days. I had my bleed on day 5 after EC with Buserelin. One nurse told me 2-5 days and one 5-10 days after Buserelin. And she told me to stick close to home if possible as it can be very intense. Mine wasn't painful but definitely a bit more bleeding than usual because the lining was so thick from the meds.

@hopeanddreams ahh the drop off is the worst isn't it? I am keeping my fingers crossed it's your future baby right there ❤️ I have seen lots where similar stories ended with 'and they are now my son/daughter'

@Waitingforday6 thank you, it’s horrible but there’s one clinging on right there so have to remain positive. I’m just frustrated we weren’t able to retrieve eggs from both sides especially as I’m in more pain on the non retrieved side today from all the pressing

It's so so frustrating @hopeanddreams. Would you go again, not sure if you are private or NHS? And if so is there anything they can do to reduce the risk of it happening again, or is it just a random occurrence? Fingers so crossed this is the one!!

Thank you @Waitingforday6! Saturday would be day 5 so it’ll likely come around the weekend fingers crossed. My lining was 11.3mm at my last scan nearly a week ago so I’m expecting it to be quite heavy!

@hopeanddreams got my fingers crossed for your next update!

@Waitingforday6 I’m NHS, will see the outcome and may be tempted to go again. It’s just random, on Fridays scan they were perfectly positioned and then Monday had moved, they gave me laxative to make some room but it still didn’t drop.

@Georgiaivf thank you. Nice to hear you had good results. How are you feeling from the retrieval?

@hopeanddreams so far so good. I’ve felt fine since the retrieval to be honest, some slight tenderness that hurts like I’ve done weight lifting on my abdominal muscles but I haven’t had to use any pain relief since the EC. How are you feeling?

I also had no idea how moveable the ovaries are, at my 2nd and 3rd scan last week mine had moved in front of my bladder but luckily moved back into their usual position that was more accessible for final scan and stayed there until EC. There’s really nothing that can be done to move them though, annoyingly!