IVF / ICSI AUGUST 2025

[VioIetMoon]

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

@Georgiaivf It's worth mentioning if it's not something youve ever experienced before. Just to be safe.
My left knee has been aching for the past two days but I'm not sure if there's any link to the stims as I think my knees are a bit over sensitive. Even a change in weather often sets them off.

I had my scan today. I basically have 10 follicles on each ovary but only 6 in total are developing. 5 on my left and only 1 follicle growing on my right :(
Despite this, they are keeping me on the same low dose of gonal f and will reassess me on Friday but so far nothing is looking like its going to change for me.
On my previous cycle I saw a big drop in the number of follicles in the later stage so that is making me quite nervous

Ah I didn't see this. On day 4 of stims one of my shoulders really really hurt. Top of the shoulder pain the way it is described for ectopic pregnancies. Obviously I knew it wasn't that but I mentioned it to the clinic because I thought it might be to do with something going on in my uterus. They didnt think it was related although some people online had mentioned it. It went after a day or so. So definitely mention it!

Edited to tag @Georgiaivf 😀

@Waitingforday6 fingers crossed for your update tomorrow 🤞🏼 you had quite a high fertilisation rate so really hoping this means you’ll have a fair few blasts! Do you know your reason for infertility? Our is MFI. Completely understand the waiting, I just keep telling myself our TTC journey has required a lot of patience so far so I can wait 5/10/14 days for the next stages haha, but I will probably drive myself crazy in a week or two once I actually am at that stage lol

Ooh that’s interesting about your follicles doubling, I didn’t know more could come about later on!

And I will definitely mention it to the nurses when I go for my tracking scan on Friday if the weird pain persists so thank you @VioIetMoon @Waitingforday6 for encouraging me!

@VioIetMoon I did read (when I made the mistake of googling lol) that stims can impact your bones and joints mainly because of all the hormones so I’m thinking it could be that.

I suppose it is a fairly early tracking scan, are you on your day 5 of stims? So there’s time for more to progress at this stage, as @Waitingforday6 said they had a few more follicles develop later on, so fingers crossed this is the case. As we’ve said before let’s have faith in our clinics, if not we can complain to them afterwards 😅

@Georgiaivf yes it's understandable. All those hormones have quite an impact on on the body . It definitely isn't easy on the body.

Its good to know its not too late for new follicles to grow. I'm trying to stay positive. Stressing isnt good for the body at this time either. I can only compare it to my first cycle . My follicle count had dramatically decreased as time went on.
I don't know if I could go through ivf a third time.

@VioIetMoon deffo!

Every cycle is different and you’re on different stims this time, hopefully it’s just too early and more will develop 🤞🏼 when is your next tracking scan?

@Georgiaivf im in again on Friday. I'm dreading it. They are so early in the morning at 8am and it's a 2 hour drive for me
What day is your scan?

@VioIetMoon well keep us posted how it goes, I’ve got my fingers crossed for you! Wow 2 hour drive is v long! Do you make the trip alone or does your partner go with you? Ours is a 45 min drive away so not too bad as long as we hit the traffic right.

My first scan is Friday also, at 11:30!

@Georgiaivf thank you!!! ❤️ We are unexplained. Are you doing ICSI? I heard fertilisation rates are better so fingers crossed it means more blasts too! 😀 and it's so true about the patience required. And I feel like if we ever get to pregnancy we have already fought so many battles before those 9 months of anxiety even begin so we should be allowed to skip straight to having a baby. It's only fair. 😆 I was quite relieved about the frozen transfer (unless we get an embryo that would be OK for fresh transfer but not freezable of course) because by the time EC came around I felt so battered and bruised I didn't feel I was in the right mindset and welcomed the break. Saying that I recovered quicker than I thought so would be ready now. 😆

@Waitingforday6 I can't comment on fertilisation rates via standard ivf to compare as we did icsi in last cycle but we had 3/4 fertilise with icsi which I think is quite good. Were doing icsi again as partners results seem to be very mixed and we worried it we did standard ivf we could have fertilisation failure due to morphology. Our clinic offer imsi . I'm contemplating adding that on as an extra

@Waitingforday6 ah I see! Yes we are doing ICSI- is that what you did?

haha it’s so true, the waiting around during IVF is nothing compared to the wait between NHS pregnancy scans, I’m sure!

Ah bless you, from what I’ve seen frozen transfers seem to have a higher success rate which I assume is due to your body being at a point it’s recovered from the stims/EC, but saying that I’m secretly hoping we’ll be able to do a fresh. Our consultant initially said to plan a freeze all so I was mentally prepared for that, and then when our protocol came through they said we are trying for a fresh but see how it goes, so now I know I’ll be disappointed when it changes to a frozen haha

I feel like I’m feeling okay on stims but I’m only on day 4 so maybe I’m still at the naive point and I have all the uncomfortable bloating to come 🥲

It’s good to read about everybody’s updates, I keep my fingers crossed for everybody who is waiting for updates.

I have started my periods today, I was really surprised as this is my first « real » periods (not counting withdrawal bleed) after my last EC and I had read everywhere that they could be delayed but nope, they even came early!
I was not ready to start stims already, I thought I had another 2 weeks to get mentally prepared for it, but nope, I will start the injections tomorrow.
Of course I am at my parents so I will need to start the injections hiding, but as it is my 5th cycle, I am not too stressed about quickly injecting while hiding somewhere.

Does anyone here have DoR? I have low AMH and we also have MFI, and during my last cycle we didn’t produce any embryos so I am a little stressed and am really hopping we will get something this time.

Good luck for your day 1 of stims @YellowTack for this round!

We have MFI but I have high AMH, what is DoR? This is my very first round so I’ve no idea how it will go for us

@Georgiaivf how are you doing today? We just got our results and we have 11 in the freezer, we are in shock! Thank you for keeping your fingers crossed!! ❤️

Hi everyone, so happy to find a current thread and hear all your progress.
I'm on Day 2 of stim on my first IVF cycle - pretty daunting!
Super high risk of OHSS which is worrying but doing everything I can to help, hydration with electrolytes, protein etc etc. We are doing a freeze all cycle due to the risks.

@Waitingforday6ah that is amazing news, I bet you are so pleased! Do you know approx when you can proceed with a FET? My clinic require a post EC bleed (about 2 weeks after EC they said) and then you can start the cycle after your first “natural” bleed, but I know all clinics are different!

I am doing well thank you, my knee pain has gone but I can definitely feel a lot of movement/growth in my right ovary (I do usually tend to feel ovulation/movement in my ovaries around my time of the month anyway) so I’m just hoping I have follicles growing in the other one too- will find out at our first tracking scan tomorrow 🤞🏼

Hi @hopeanddreams, welcome! How are you finding stims so far and which ones are you on? Do you have very high AMH if you’re at risk of OHSS? I’m at risk too but my AMH is 42 which isn’t actually that high for my age I don’t think! :)

Hi @Georgiaivf thank you! It was very daunting doing the first injection so I'm glad that is out of the way, 2nd one in a couple hours. Not noticed anything so far. I'm taking 150iu Meriofert, they want to start really slowly as it is my first cycle to see how I respond, have a scan on Monday. I'm 38 and have a AMH of 139!! The second highest my clinic has ever seen - one thing for sure if there's possibility of being different then I usually am, haha!
How are you finding your first round?

@hopeanddreams I felt the same, relieved once the first one was done and I knew that mentally/physically I was able to do it- wasn’t half as bad as what I thought it might be! Im potentially adding in fyremadel tomorrow which I’m nervous for as the needle is a lot more blunt

I think it’s fair that clinics are cautious with high AMH, my dosage is lower for the same- but wow that is high! Hopefully that means you respond well and get a good amount of eggs at collection!

@Georgiaivf im sure it will be fine, a split second of discomfort maybe but fine. Perhaps I’ve the area first to numb?

@hopeanddreams I think I’m going to try first without icing beforehand (as I thought I’d need to with Gonal F and I didn’t) but if it’s super uncomfortable switch to icing for sure

@Georgiaivf yes generally frozen statistics seem to suggest a higher success rate. At my clinic though, they told me if we had to do frozen it would slightly lower the chances of success. Which does baffle me. However, I know some clinics are better than others at FET and have better statistics . My clinic statistics aren't great . They are quite below the uk national average .
I'm assuming everyone here is from the UK?
I heard from the clinic today and they have decided to move me up to 150 dose given my response to the 112.5 stimulation

@Waitingforday6 11 that's absolutely amazing 👏 well done

@VioIetMoon ah that’s interesting about your clinic saying it would lower the chance of success, but as you say maybe based on their overall success rates. Realistically per round there is only 1 chance of a fresh transfer which is why the frozen’s probably rank higher as there’s more opportunities for them dependent on how many blasts you get from a cycle.

I am UK based indeed

Glad they’ve decided to increase your dosage, hopefully that encourages more follicles to grow- did you start that dosage tonight or do you think they’ll be able to see at your next scan if the increased dose is helping?

@Georgiaivf only started tonight and scan is in the morning so unlikely to make a difference. Its such a tiny amount anyway , im not really sure it will have much of an effect. I kinda feel at this stage tho it's quite late to recruit new follicles considering I had follicles around the 10mm at last scan. On my last cycle that's what happened and the late developers didn't reach adequete size before EC. I think they waited a bit too long to see what happens as a had 1 or 2 follicles over mature in the end

@Georgiaivf thank you, first injection done!

DoR stands for diminished ovarian reserve.

@YellowTack really hope this cycle goes well for you. How many rounds have you done ?