IVF / ICSI AUGUST 2025

[VioIetMoon]

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

@BellaTink647 I think each persons experience really is individual to them.
I was very lucky in my first round that I had absolutely no side effects from the medication

@Georgiaivf Glad to hear you started a bleed.
I started my stims today.
This time around I'm having to take two Injections daily and then next week I'll introduce the cetrotide to prevent ovulation, so three injections. That'll be fun

I did my last injections tonight, trigger shot done! ER due Monday morning x

@BellaTink647 yeah, it just goes to show it’s different for everyone- I was on it for 10 days also! Thank you

@VioIetMoon I was starting to think it was never going to come tbh haha, it’s very light which I wasn’t expecting from other people’s experiences. Hope your day 1 of injections went well- are you doing yours am or pm? How long have your clinic planned for you to be doing stims for? I think mine are down for 10 days- gonal f and then adding in fyremadel for 5 days before trigger.

@Hopeful786 how exciting, good luck for EC tomorrow!

@Hopeful786 all the best for EC today Xx

Evening all, I did my second Gonal F injection this evening and after waiting 10 seconds before removing the injection the window was still saying “25” and not “0”- this is a new pen that I only started using yesterday so it wasn’t time for a new pen as there was plenty of liquid left! We changed the needle and administered the remaining 25 and it did then go down to 0. Just wanted to see if anyone else has had this before when using a Gonal F pen? And any reason why? I was told by nurses not to press the top down more than once or let go and press down as this can cause blood to go back into the pen hence why we changed the needle before readminstering- confused!!

@Georgiaivf im on Gonal F too. The first two days I had no issue with the pen but while administering todays dose , mine was stuck somewhere between 0 and the first number.
Yes your correct, I was told the same that if you let go before taking the needle out it can draw blood up and contaminate the pen, which stupidly I forgot yesterday 😆

@VioIetMoon lol oh no what a pair we are! 🤣 did your pen get down to 0 eventually? I think I was panicking over nothing earlier but it threw me off wondering why the pen wasn’t behaving how it should haha. How are you finding stims now you’re on day 3?

It could be the dose did administer correctly but just perhaps the dial might have been stuck on the way down.
No side effects so far. I'm on a second injection called luveris and it's a pain in the backside. You have to mix back and forth between two bottles , a liquid and powder and swap needles. I spend a good 20 mins each day just trying to suck the liquid up into the syringe as I can never get it all. Arrgh! I have my scan on Wednesday and then i also introduce a third injection to prevent ovulation so we'll see how I'm getting on. Hopefully theres some follicles growing.
When is your scan? Have you had any side effects?

@VioIetMoon Yeah true, thinking back to my day 1 it did seem the tiniest bit stuck between the 12.5 and the 0, so maybe that impacted tonight’s dose- I didn’t have to move the dial at all when I did the second injection tonight though so it definitely didn’t administer the full amount for me the first time.

Oh wow luveris sounds very complicated! I bet you’ll be a pro by the end of stims though. Fingers crossed for your scan on weds 🤞🏼

My scan isn’t until Friday which is my Day 6 of stims, which feels quite far into it considering this is my first round, but dependent on the number of follicles they will decide whether to introduce Fyremadel to prevent ovulation. In terms of side effects I’m having mood swings (but not much different to the down reg meds tbh), and a slight headache at points but that’s about it so far. I’m expecting the bloat as the days go on haha - I just really hope I have follicles growing as expected as I feel like I’m on quite a low dose because of their concern of developing OHSS

@Georgiaivf yes I completely understand. I'm on the same dose as you as they are concerned about ohss. I think our amhs are similar too around the 40.
I worry it won't stimulate me enough but well see.
My amh was 60 + on my last round so they stimmed me very gently. Only a few follicles responded and I'll admit, I felt disappointed that they didn't utilise my high follicle count. I only ended up with 4 mature eggs, which is apparently what they wanted around the 5 mark.
This clinic seem to be taking the same approach, despite showing them my previous results. I do wish they'd just stim me slightly higher so that we could retrieve more eggs and give us a better shot. Ideally I'd love to have an embryo to transfer plus a frostie for future use if needed.
Ive been following a womans ivf journey. She just did her second cycle.
On her first she only got 5 eggs and none made it to day 5.
On the second round they increased her dose and she said she got 24 eggs and now has 11 top quality day 5 embryos in the freezer.
I feel like I could only dream of getting 11 eggs . This clinic are big advocates of mild stimulation tho so I think a slight increase will be absolutely out of the question

Thank you, ER done, only 2 eggs retrieved but DH sperm count was the best it has ever been so trying to stay positive and waiting for our first update tomorrow.

Fingers crossed for you @Hopeful786x

@VioIetMoon ah yes we are and yes my AHM was 42. I agree I would prefer quite a few eggs to give us a good shot at getting a few Frosties for future transfers, but I guess we’ll just have to see how this round goes 🤷🏼‍♀️ I will be annoyed if I’m under stimulated though especially as my clinic do so little scans (I didn’t even have a baseline) but I do understand them trying to prevent OHSS… but I don’t want this cycle to feel like a waste haha

Well done @Hopeful786, got my fingers crossed for you 🤞🏼 how are you feeling after ER?

@Georgiaivf I suppose I'm quite lucky that I haven't had any side effects but at the same time , i do wish I felt something so at least I'd know its working on my body ya know?
I was only scanned twice during my first ivf cycle. I do kinda feel that being scanned every 2 days is a bit over the top, especially when I haven't even had one scan yet to confirm how I'm responding

@Hopeful786 well done. Fingers crossed . Any news have both fertilsed?

@VioIetMoon haha agree, I’ve had slight headaches but not much else. I don’t want too many scans but not having a baseline seems strange that they aren’t aware of the starting point before I started stims! Hopefully come my scan on Friday everything is progressing as it should 🤞🏼 let us know how you get on at your first scan. My tracking scans are booked for Friday and Monday with EC meant to be next Friday.

@VioIetMoon and @Georgiaivf I just had my egg collection last week and was using Gonal F and after the first or second time it looked stuck between 0 and the next one up every single time so I think it's quite common. I just pressed it down until I was confident there was no more left and counted as instructed. Good luck!!

@VioIetMoon both eggs have fertilised, we have our next update on Friday and then ET due on Saturday fingers crossed x

@Georgiaivf Thank you, i rested all of yesterday after ER with a hot water bottle, feeling better today just tired x

Thank you for the reassurance @Waitingforday6! How did your EC go? Did you do a fresh transfer or will you be doing frozen?

Glad you’re feeling better today @Hopeful786- just seen your update on both fertilising, that’s amazing! I bet it’s feeling like a long wait until Friday, I’m dreading this bit haha. Got everything crossed for a positive update for you 🤞🏼

No worries I know the insane pressure to get every part of the process just right or worrying it will all collapse immediately. 😀
I have an AMH of 31 so like you I was worried they were going to understim me, particularly because I didn't feel anything for the first week so was convinced they weren't growing and that I had done the injections wrong (it's our first round). But they grew steadily and in the end I had 31 eggs, 30 mature and 26 fertilised so I hope it will be the same for you. I kept telling myself they must know what they are doing. 😀 I have to do a frozen transfer if we get any of freezable quality fingers crossed! I drank lots of coconut water and water in general during stims and after EC and touch wood so far no sign of OHSS (but I did trigger with Buserelin to reduce the risk). I recovered quite quickly thankfully, a couple of hours of very slow waddling but I immediately fancied going out for brunch 😀 By the afternoon the pain had reduced a lot and by the evening it was pretty much gone. I didn't feel I needed a painkiller top up in the afternoon. The first few hours did hurt but hopefully all worth it!!

@Waitingforday6 ah that’s amazing numbers! Haha I’m definitely feeling like I’m going to mess up the process since I’m not feeling too much but only on Day 3. 26 fertilised is good- when do you find out how many you have to freeze? Got my fingers crossed for you.

Ah I think my clinic will swap me to buserelin too if my follicle count is particularly high- if I’m able to go for fresh it will be ovitrelle.

Pleased it sounds as though you’ve kept OHSS at bay- my clinic say to do high dairy, high protein so I’ve been trying to do that along with the water, but I’ve not tried the coconut water! Not sure I could stomach it to be honest lol

Glad you recovered well post-EC and still have your energy- I hope I’m the same!! :)

Anyone else had leg pain/tenderness from stims? 😅 random but my knees hurt in the night when they were positioned together when I laid on my side and it was waking me up. I probably shouldn’t have googled it because now I’m concerned it’s DVT but the only symptom is the tenderness when pressure is applied, not sure if I’m being v dramatic over a tiny little pain or whether to mention it to the nurses or not 🙈

Thank you!! They will let us know tomorrow (day 6) so they can include any stragglers that might have made it last minute on day 6. Waiting is the worst isn't it? We keep going back and forth on whether we want to ask for another update today. The reason we haven't asked since day 3 is that we didn't want the anxiety of being told we are down to the last one but equally it might soften the attrition blow. Not easy either way. Just want it to be tomorrow!! We did say to contact us if there is a catastrophe. 😀
I'll keep my fingers crossed for you too, high protein is also something I heard, and I also read somewhere that full fat dairy is good for fertility in general so that all sounds sensible. Yes coconut water is an acquired taste 😀 I was given both ovitrelle and buserelin as well and they confirmed on the day which one to take. And if your scan shows they aren't developing as quickly if they are taking a cautious approach they can always up your dose of Gonal F and mine were 'small but normal and a 'decent' number' on day 7 of stims and then really sped up over the next couple of days despite them not upping the dose. I also had almost double the number of follicles on day 10, I somehow thought that the ones they can see in the first scan grow but there wouldn't be any more after that. And most importantly the nurse said side effects often don't kick in until a week plus of stims, I was so convinced they'd see zero follicles as I had very limited bloating on day 7 and even 10 but by day 11 or so there was no doubting the follicles were there 😀