IVF / ICSI AUGUST 2025

[VioIetMoon]

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

@VioIetMoon I’m so sorry it didn’t go as you had hoped- I can understand your feelings of frustration. It’s so important to trust your nurses and consultant in IVF, I’m sorry it didn’t work out this way for you.

The balls up with the trigger shot time- how infuriating! Only good thing about this I suppose is you did it later so they could just delay the EC slightly- did they do this? My trigger is 10pm tomorrow for EC 9am on Monday morning.

Only having local sounds painful! I recall having this for a Lletz procedure a few years back and it going in still makes me wince to think about haha but it did numb me successfully.

Paracetamol up to bum is a new one! I’ve not come across this before- was this because you didn’t have sedation do you think?

Take it easy on yourself and rest up- be kind to yourselves. We’re cheering on your three little eggs 🤞🏼 it’s good you’re distracting yourself with thinking about a possible next cycle at a different clinic, I too am a practical thinker when things aren’t quite going to plan. Take it easy 🥰

@VioIetMoon so sorry to hear! It’s so hard going through all of this and so expensive which adds to complications! Really hope the eggs you’ve got bring you some luck! Sending best wishes, be kind to yourself!

@Georgiaivf good luck for tomorrow. Hope it all goes well. Nobody deserves to go through this.
I honestly have no idea. On my last cycle I had intravenous pain relief. Maybe its a cost cutting alternative?
I was shocked when she said I had to stuff them up the rear end .
I went to my holistic centre this evening and ( If your easily offended please do not read on) but I genuinely thought I'd shit myself on the table 😆 I had to run to the bathroom and discovered I'd had a pessary explosion .what goes up must come down 😅 I think they may be similar to the progesterone pessaries , im not sure . I'm lucky I have the crinone gel progesterone again this time as its not leaky at all. I've heard the pessaries are really messy .
I start the progesterone tonight. The nurse said the dr told her to go ahead and instruct me to take the progesterone to prep me for a fresh transfer, even tho the dr told me if we did get an embryo we shouldn't have a fresh and should freeze because of the high progesterone at trigger so I'm kinda confused there

@Peonies94 Thankyou so much

I'm so sorry it's been such a mess @VioIetMoon (no pun intended re the pessaries 😆). It's beyond frustrating and I recapped it to my husband in horror. It sounds like they really let you down but like everyone else I am keeping my fingers crossed for an excellent egg to healthy embryo ratio ❤️ this time next week you might have your future baby on board! It does sound confusing about whether it will be fresh or frozen. I would normally say trust the clinic but if you have any reason to believe that your progesterone is too high for your lining to be receptive and they don't test you again beforehand then maybe you could tell them you want to convert to frozen? I hope you recover quickly physically. And we're always here if you need to vent!

@VioIetMoon I am sorry your EC didn't go as planned. I am crossing my fingers for your 3 follicles!!! Your clinic really sounds like a nightmare, I hope you can find a better one if you decide to do another cycle.

You scared me a little as I won’t have anesthesia for my EC tomorrow. They haven’t mentionned anything about local anesthetic, so I assume I will not get any pain relief.

You made me laugh for the pessaries. I remember reading on my EC reports in the UK that they administered some pessaries, thankfully I was asleep then. I hope they won’t administer a pessary whilst I am fully awake tomorrow. I will have everyone looking into my vagina, I think that is enough for one day. I will report back tomorrow 😅

Good luck tomorrow Yellowtack!!! (It never lets me tag you for some reason). Hopefully they will give you some pain relief.

@YellowTack Good luck for today.
I apologise, that definitely wasn't my intention to scare you. My EC was particularly painful as my cervix was very high and he ended up piercing it. they also had to go through one ovary to get to the other as the follicle was really deep in my ovary.
My first retrieval was very straight forward tho and I was told the majority of women find it bearable with local anesthetic if that helps. Is the anaesthetist not on hand should you change your mind at any point ?

Hey Ladies, lots of catch up on. @YellowTack good luck for today :)

@VioIetMoon im so sorry to hear your experience. Its mad how there were 30 follicles and they only got 8 to retrieve from. How big were the other ones? Did they expect to only collect 8 and did they manage your expectations?

@Georgiaivf are you triggering tonight for EC Monday?

I had my scan yesterday, got 26 folliiles now, 22 look to be growing, who knows how many i will get, i need to continue on the meds till Monday and then last Scan and potentially trigger and EC Wednesday, i was hoping for earlier as i feel so uncomfortable. I can bare the injections now but just feel like i am 6 months pregnant and having to take paracetemol to manage the pain.

sending love to everyone :)

@Jecca88 the rest were all under <10mm . They have no explanation other than "they just didn't want to grow"

We got an update this morning from embryology and 2 of the 3 eggs are mature and have fertilised so we just have to wait and see if either make it to day 5 now.
I'm really pleased with that as on our successful round we ended up with 4 mature and 3 fertilised out of the 7, I went to bed last night thinking none of the 3 eggs would be mature and thinking none would fertilise as the number was too low so I think we got a great result so far out of a bad situation

I'm incredibly stressed about what is to come tho.
As I mentioned yesterday my progesterone levels were very high on trigger day so they are advising against the fresh as this has a detrimental effect on the lining and its very unlikely to be receptive as it prematurely matures but according to embryology this morning they are still going ahead with preparing me for a potential transfer on Wednesday FOR NOW. The staff don't work weekends, only embryology so I feel like were in this uncertain area until next week . Id rather know are we hoping for a fresh or are we freezing if you know what I mean rather than be stuck in limbo .
Embryology will update us on Wednesday morning if we have anything to transfer
but the rest of the decisions is down to the dr. I know I'm thinking ahead and the key is getting one to day 5 first but it's the fact It could possibly mean If we're lucky to get a day 5 , we could travel 4 hours just for them to tell us were freezing it which I just really couldn't be bothered with. Sorry I'm rambling on , I hope I'm making sense

Jecca are you on a freeze all cycle due to all those follicles?

The paracetamol instance sounds like it was a bit of a saga @VioIetMoon! I’ll see if I get given one on Monday

@Jecca88 yes I will be triggering 10pm tonight for a Monday EC so seems we’re only 2 days apart :) Sorry to hear you’re uncomfortable, hopefully not too long to go now and fingers crossed for your EC 🤞🏼 sounds like you’ve got a good lot of follicles growing.

I’m so randomly nervous about doing the trigger shot- not the actual injection but the prepping of it as Buserelin isn’t a pre-filled syringe and that’s all I’ve done so far! I don’t want to mess it up when I’m pulling it up lol

Just seen your update below @VioIetMoon. Fantastic news on 2 mature and fertilised! Keep going eggies!!

I understand the uncertainty around freezing/fresh transfer and super annoying given the travel aspect too, my clinic point blank told us don’t take travel into account when it comes to appts/updates but I feel like it should do when it’s not simple to just “pop by”! The nurses are always surprised when we tell them where we’re from as I think they’re used to locals.

Fingers crossed for good news for you on Day 5 and I hope you get some clarity from your clinic soon 🤞🏼

Ah I'm happy to hear that @VioIetMoon fingers crossed!! Yes the uncertainty around fresh or frozen really isn't needed when the wait is already so stressful.
@Georgiaivf good luck with the trigger tonight. I asked my husband to draw the syringe up to share the burden 😆 I would recommend checking your syringe and vial size now as we had a bit of back and forth trying to figure out how far to draw the liquid as the syringe didn't neatly display the dose we needed (ours was a 1ml syringe but the dose was 0.5ml. You'd think it would be easy to figure out but the syringe did not make it clear where halfway was. If you are unclear you could go to a pharmacy and ask for 0.5ml syringes but hopefully not needed as I think our pharmacy gave us the wrong syringe. The actual drawing up and injection was fine once we decided where to draw it to but of course it's super stressful. I forgot whether or not it needed air bubbles pushing out like cetrotide so had to make a judgment call so maybe double-check that too before the time comes so you don't panic.

@Georgiaivf have you tried watching any videos? It might give you a little more confidence in how to prep it step by step

Thanks for the tips @Waitingforday6 ours are to 1ml so luckily I don’t have to do it by half- and they’ve given us insulin syringes so we just have to do it to the 100 mark.

No I haven’t yet @VioIetMoon but that’s a great idea. The nurse did give me a quick demo but I don’t have a point of reference to refer back to so will look on YouTube!

I didn’t word that last comment very well @Waitingforday6and now can’t edit but what I meant was my dosage is 1ml so it is clear on my syringe :)

Hello everyone,

I am back to the UK from my EC this morning, it was a long day.

I was pleasantly surprised by the EC without anaesthesia, it wasn't too painful for me. It was more awkward than anything to be awake for the full procedure, including the disinfecting before which was uncomfortable. And I said I would report back on the suppository, I indeed had someone administer a suppository to me whilst fully conscious. Honestly what do we have to go through for IVF 😅.

They managed to get 2 follicles, one good quality one, and one bad quality one which was the one that was only 11mm on the day of trigger. They said they will try to fertilise both even though there is a low probability the bad quality one will fertilise.

I am actually happy about this outcome as I expected only one follicle and ended up with two.

@VioIetMoon it’s an amazing news that 2 out of 3 have fertilised! Fingers crossed for your little embryos. It must be really frustrating not knowing if you will do a fresh or frozen transfer! I think the clinics don’t realise that we have a life outside of IVF and that the constant uncertainty, change of plans, or appointments have a huge impact on our lives!

@Georgiaivf good luck for the trigger tonight! I understand the stress about having to use manual syringes, but I am sure you will be fine.

@YellowTack I think i would feel anxious either way to be honest. Our clinic have a poor FET success rate. It just feels all a bit doomed at the moment no matter how we proceed.
Trying to cheer myself up and get some endorphins from junk food.
I've just binged on rubbish since the retrieval .
Have you had much cramping or pain this evening? I had a fair bit of pain yesterday but thankfully its all starting to subside a little today

Trigger went absolutely fine tonight! The anxiety beforehand turned out to be pointless as per lol. I think it was the anticipation more than anything!

Glad you found the pain manageable @YellowTack. Fingers crossed for your two follicles/eggs 🤞🏼 For some reason having to put pessaries/paracetamol/whatever up your bum feels like a step too far despite everything that’s happening in the front end on this journey 🙈

You deserve alllll the comfort food @VioIetMoon. I intend to do exactly the same after EC

@VioIetMoon I have not had any pain/cramping. I had some cramping before EC (so much that I had convinced myself I had an ovarian torsion) but it’s all good now. I honestly think they had to be a bit more gentle without the anaesthesia, as during my 2 previous cycles with the clinic I bled after the EC but this time nothing.

Enjoy all the good food, you deserve it!

If I am honest I also already feel a bit doomed, and although I swore this was my last cycle, I am now having second thoughts and have already started spiralling about the next steps. I have even started looking at clinics in Spain, even though I know it’s not really reasonable as I am starting a new job in a month and don’t want to miss random days for IVF. I just want to have a reasonable chance of IVF working, and we all know the stats! I feel quite a lot of pressure to take a decision soon as my number of follicles as halved between January and now, so I feel like if I wait a couple more month it could be zero!

@Georgiaivf great to hear your trigger went well!

@Georgiaivf I'm glad the trigger went well and hope you are feeling ok and that all goes well tomorrow!! I had lots of comfort food after EC too @VioIetMoon and still now 2 weeks on if I'm honest 🤣 need to get my head back in the game 😀 keeping my fingers crossed for everyone waiting to hear back on fertilisation rates and day 5. @yellowtack ooh this time I was able to tag you. I can recommend my clinic in Dublin so message me if you want any info. I don't have low AMH so I don't know about their protocol in that instance but they definitely exceeded my expectations and are less expensive than a lot of UK clinics I believe. Not sure how close you are to London but they now have a satellite clinic there for bloodtests and scans and they offer finance options so it might be worth looking into as you might be able to keep the days off to a minimum by doing most of the run up in London. Hope the new job goes well! 😊 And fingers super crossed that you get a lovely embryo or two from this cycle!!

Does anyone know if there clinic will offer them a day 3 update? My clinic apparently don't do day 3 updates, and will only update us on day 5 which feels like an eternity

@VioIetMoon mine said day 1 and day 6 but they were happy for us to contact them for additional updates in between. I was thanking them for the day 1 update and they actually came back to say no problem and included a day 3 update without any prompt which was sweet. I would hope if you ask they wouldn't refuse the information.

@Waitingforday6 tysts good to know! We’ve been told day 6 but was really banking on updates a little sooner! Feel like it’s such a long time waiting! Will call tomorrow and see if they’re able to offer any update!