IVF / ICSI AUGUST 2025

[VioIetMoon]

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

I am sorry to see your update @YellowTack! Thinking of you!

@hopeanddreams OMG I feel SO bloatted with my 2 ridicoulous follicles so I can’t imagine what it is like for you with that many!

@Jecca88 what you wrote really resonate with me, I also can’t believe this is my life now! I never thought I would have to go through this, and also never thought the road would be that long.
It’s so warm in Prague at the moment! This is my third cycle there and I have almost lost interest in visiting the city. I can’t believe I am saying that as I love travelling! I have booked myself a haircut for tomorrow as a distraction!

@YellowTackah I see, I understand their logic now, but frustrating it didn’t seem to make all that much difference. Aw bless you, this journey is so hard! I hope you’re feeling a little better now and good that you’ve got some distractions booked in.

@hopeanddreams ive not found the side effects too bad on Stims and I’m on Day 11, I can definitely feel movement on my ovaries (like twinges etc) and have a bit of bloating as well as brain fog + the occasional headache- but I really was expecting the worst so feel like I’m getting away quite lightly!

@Jecca88 our clinic just said to do it in the thigh! I think because I already have injections in the tummy in the evenings and they want to spread it out a bit? I’ve heard the skin toughens a little around injection sites so it might be to do with that. Completely understand, I’m the sort of person that prefers to be in control of doing it but it was a mental battle to pluck up the courage to do that very first one! I did let my husband do my gonal-F the other day but he ended up pulling it out so wonky that I won’t let him near them now haha 😅 how did you find the fyremadel in the end?

@Jecca88 Oh no, sorry you are struggling. I haven't been to bad on stims so far. Just make sure you go easy on yourself and get plenty of rest.

@YellowTack Considering how many follicles I'm not feeling to bad so far, however the largest were only measuring 8mm on Mondays scan. gong back today to see if they are at 12mm so I can start the anti ovulation meds.

@Georgiaivf That's great - I'm the same, planned and expected the absolute worst so the fact I'm coping with 9 hr work day and still cooking a meal in the evenings is a huge win!

@Georgiaivf my clinic advised me just tummy. I'm bruised to death doing 3 injections a day. It becoming so painful to inject around the area .
I'm probably a bit late to ask about injecting into the thigh. There's a possibility I may trigger today. Will know later as I have my scan this morning

@hopeanddreams huge win for sure to be able to continue life as normal which is a great distraction. I hope this continues for us both!

@VioIetMoon I’m sorry to hear that it’s become quite painful for you, fingers crossed you’re near the end and hopefully triggering tonight 🤞🏼 have you got anymore anti ovulation injections left if you trigger tonight? It is working quite well for me having different injection sites.

@Georgiaivf most definitely. I resonate with your comment about brain fog. Last night I mixed up a via of Meriofert multidose, once done was clearing the side and my husband say's 'did you throw the vial in the sharps bin' I said 'yeah' carried on doing a few bits. Bearing in mind I hadn't even injected my dose for yesterday at this point, husband goes 'what do you mean you threw it in the sharps bin', Me 'I was tidying up' Oblivious to the fact that's my medication for the next 6 days!! Me 'OHHH I threw it in the sharps bin' Got to laugh about it.

@hopeanddreams haha oh dear!! Good job your husband realised. Can definitely relate lol. Stupidly I keep mixing my numbers up and yesterday ended up injecting my Gonal F dose in 3 different doses 🫠 I didn’t have enough for a full dose in my pen so knew I would have to do it in 2 parts but when I finished the first one, it tells you how much of the dose you need to inject using the new pen… idk why but I thought I had to do maths to figure it out so subtracted the number on the pen by the dose I’m supposed to take (but this actually just calculated the amount I had received from the pen) 😂 luckily I film myself for our own documentation of the process and when I was watching it back I was like … “why did I do that?”, so then had to inject a third time for the remaining 50 that I’d missed! It really does make your brain go all over the place haha

@Georgiaivf Haha, good job you realised and filmed yourself so could check! I've never considered filming tbh

@hopeanddreams Lol I feel like I definitely need to now so that I can catch my errors!! 🫠🥲

ahh @YellowTack glad you booked yourself a haircut. I did read about IVF in Prague being really good and also a bit cheaper than the UK. What's your experince been like? Is there a particular reason you chose Prague? Can you get yourself a nice decaf iced coffee and a treate from a bakery too :)

Fair enough @Georgiaivf - I asked today about the thigh - and they said it could actually be more painful in the thigh, and doesn't change effectiveness where you do it. Bless your husband pulling it out wonky, gosh i bet that was painful. It wasn't too bad last night going in, my husband said he applied more pressure as the needle is thicker, but it did hurt for about an hour after. I have also been filming, it gives us a bit of a focus and like we are working towards something and hopefully one day will be able to show to our child the process, watching the videos back though - i look huge and it is so unflattering lols.

@hopeanddreams did you manage to recover your meds from sharps bin :(.

@VioIetMoon - i think your can alternate, dr said today it doesn't change effectiveness of where you inject, just actually maybe more painful in the leg as closer to the muscle. Good Luck with Trigger potentially tonight.

I just had my Day 7 Scan, still 20 follciles, 2 are a bit slow but the other 18 are growing well. I keep getting the 'this is really surprising good considering your AMH' - feel like this is the only time i have actually had a positive from fertility treatment as i am always on the back foot. Slight relief - but need to not get carried away.

Oh @Georgiaivf that sounds super complicated 😀 good thing you filmed it. Luckily I was able to divide my pen into multiple complete doses so didn't have to do any maths. After each injection I closed my eyes and went through each step in my head, visualising the number on the gonal f pen and the 0 at the end, the injection going in and out and all of that so that I wouldn't doubt myself after (and I still asked my husband 100 times whether he was also sure the dial had gone to 0) 😆 I only did tummy as well but rotated from side to side (my right side felt like a treat as it was easier to hold the needle on that side) 😀 I did bruise and hit a nerve once or twice but it was OK

@Jecca88 ah that’s interesting, I can barely feel it in the thigh but yes I think thigh or stomach is all good for that one. Pleased you got on ok with it, it does feel a bit weird afterwards with the stinging but I think it’s easier if you go in knowing that. Lol I know I felt bad for my husband because he wanted to be involved with the stims but I’m just more comfortable doing it myself which he understands. We’re documenting for the same but yes some of the angles whilst you’re injecting aren’t very flatting haha, got belly rolls and my knickers out in half of them where I’ve been wearing dresses 😂 glad your day 7 scan went well, when is your next one?

@Waitingforday6 it was complicated and it didn’t even need to be, I just made it complex haha! So annoying! Lol I can relate to keep checking it’s gone to 0! Especially if I finish a pen and keep it out the fridge I go back to it to check there’s no solution left lol. Glad you’ve found tummy injecting fine, I too have only had mild blood spots after and a total of 1 bruise so far which I’ll take! 3 evenings left of stims for me :)

Hi all, back from my tracking scan on Day 11, and my goodness our appt was soooo much better than last time, it was like night and day. We even got a scan photo of my follicles that are growing and she was caring and gave us loads of information + a 3D scan of my womb lol. Our bad experience before had definitely been passed on to her to go the extra mile haha

She said they want me to stim for a bit longer (until Friday) so we can proceed with egg collection at our clinic on Monday and hopefully some of the smaller follicles will catch up as most are about 13/14/15 and only 1 was at 18mm. So we’re back again Friday for our final tracking scan and a blood test ahead of triggering on Saturday and EC on Monday.

My lining was at 10mm so in a good place for if we’re able to do a fresh transfer but my right ovary is hiding a little, it’s more central and in front of my bladder so it was a bit more uncomfortable for the scan but still accessible. Not sure if anyone else has experienced similar?

Overall a much better experience and pleased with the direction it’s headed.

Hope everyone else is getting on ok.

You all made me laugh with the brain fog. I am using a multidose Gonal pen and if you don’t see a drop of liquid at the top of the needle when you use the pen for the first time you are supposed to discard a little bit of product until you see the drop.
The other day I completely forgot it was not a new pen so I discarded some product! Thankfully it was just a little bit so I should still have enough for all my doses but still!

@Jecca88 I got myself a nice brownie at a bakery yesterday and I will probably go for ice cream today. 😀.
I decided to choose Prague because with my low AMH I need several cycles to make embryos, and it was just not financially possible in the UK, especially because we need ICSI and I also want to do PGT-A. I did 1 NHS round and one private round in the UK before deciding on Prague. It’s a bit of a hassle having to schedule last minute flights, and I can only do that because I am in between jobs at the moment, otherwise it would be very complicated.
Overall, even though it’s not perfect, I find the Czech clinic much more flexible than my UK clinic, for example they actually change EC dates or dosage depending on the ultrasound results, which my UK clinic never did. It’s also more Doctor led than it the UK, and even the ultrasounds are done by the Doctor. They are also ready to try new protocols, and are open to discuss all my suggestions.
Even though I have been having very low number of follicles, they must be doing something right because I have a higher rate of embryo per follicle compared to my UK clinic.

@Georgiaivf glad to hear that your scan went well and that you had a better experience this time.

@Georgiaivf glad to hear you had a positive scan and that you are treating yourself Yellowtack (it won't let me add you for some reason). We went to Dublin as it was cheaper too and had a very good experience although it's our first cycle so can't compare.

Hi all, I’m new here! Today was egg collection day and they managed to collect 19, I’m amazed!

I have had some issues with slight overstimulating, so I have been quite poorly, absolutely awful bloating and nausea.

@Jecca88 just read a few of your comments and really sorry about your miscarriages, you have way more will power than I would have after that, also seen your comment about the Fyremadel, I was injecting into my stomach and found that putting an ice pack on the area to numb was great, made the blunter needle more tolerable.

Hope everything is going ok for everybody else here x

Welcome @Chlo1995 😊 well done. Lots of water (I drank lots of coconut water) and apparently a good amount of protein should help if you are at risk of OHSS.

Had my final scan today and I felt absolutely devastated after it. I've been fighting back the tears all evening.
So as i mentioned after Mondays scan the nurse said I would be triggering that night as i had follicles within trigger range, then the dr decided to increase the dose from 150 to 225 and stim me an extra 2 days. Now at my scan today , my only few follicles have exceeded the ideal range of 16mm to 22mm to contain a mature egg . Mine are 23mm almost 24mm . I feel they've fried my eggs as I've always heard anything over 22mm is too mature and won't fertilise ? this certainly seemed to be the case for my last cycle too with the larger follicles. Other than these, i only have two follicles above the 10> that are 16mm and 10mm. The rest of my follicles aren't growing and are still under 10mm between 6mm and 8mm. I just feel hopeless. I've felt like I don't even know if I can be bothered putting myself through the egg retrieval and that dreaded wait. The problem with my clinic is you never see the dr so you don't get a chance to ask what is the reasoning behind his decisions. I feel the should have triggered me yesterday rather than waiting until tonight. The nurse said there's lots and lots of follicles but for some reason they didn't want to grow and now the ones that have I think won't be viable . I've been to scans every other day and I thought that was the whole point of monitoring me to ensure the best time to trigger. Sorry , I just feel like I needed to have a little rant

@VioIetMoon I’m so sorry you’re feeling this way. It’s completely understandable to be upset after putting so much into this and feeling like the timing might have been off. It’s exhausting when you don’t get clear explanations and it feels like decisions are made without you being part of them. The uncertainty is so hard, especially when it’s happened before. Whatever happens with this cycle, it doesn’t take away from how strong and determined you’ve been through the whole process.

I'm so sorry @VioIetMoon! I don't know enough about it but hopefully the smaller ones will grow before retrieval and might be the perfect maturity level? Someone mentioned they can still grow between trigger and retrieval. I completely understand not wanting to put yourself through it but if you cancel the cycle now do you think you will always wonder whether there was that one perfect egg waiting? I really hope that's the case for you ❤️ (more than one perfect egg welcome too!) If you are going again after this there are lots of good and affordable clinics around and some do finance options, on one of the threads there was talk of an amazing sounding clinic in Greece that tailored their approach. It's so hard though so rant as much as you need to. And don't put the added pressure on now about whether or not it is your final round you can decide that later.

Hello everyone! Hope you don’t mind me joining! Just had ICSI done today! So nervous for the next 5 days! Doing a freeze all so no transfer atm! Anyone else waiting to see if they get any blasts?

@Peonies94I just had my retrieval yesterday and waiting to see what all makes it to the blastocyst stage too! I find out Tuesday and then we plan on freezing and doing the pga testing.
Is this your first IVF round?