FET #1 - Dealing with the 2ww

[ATaylor99]

Hi all,

Long time lurker, I’m 27F from England and 6dp5dt for my first frozen embryo transfer, and looking to hear from others within the community.

For context, my partner and I have been trying to conceive for 3 years. I have anovulatory PCOS. We did a year of medicated letrozole cycles, which wreaked havoc on my mental health. I ovulated every time but never saw anything other than blank negatives. Eventually I had a HyCosy, and they found one fallopian tube was either blocked, malformed or spasming. My partner had mild MFI,
slightly low count and positive MAR.

We were referred for IVF with ICSI, I had my egg retrieval and we had 37 eggs retrieved. 25 mature, 20 fertilised and 18 of the fertilised embryos became day 5 blastocysts. Of the 18, 11 of them are classed as “A grade” by our TFP clinic.

I did a fully medicated transfer, I’m taking 1200mg progesterone and 6mg estrogen a day, and they used an embryoscope and review of morphology to pick my best A grade embryo. They also used embryo glue.

The 2WW has been tough, my letrozole cycles last year were so awful, I had every side effect under the sun, breast tenderness, cramping, everything - but never got pregnant. I always seemed to react heavily to progesterone.

I’m really trying not to symptom spot, as I know it’s not indicative of the outcome, but I’ve found the last few days so difficult. I had a really sharp electric jolt in my lower stomach 1dpt, but after that I had absolutely NO symptoms and had a complete meltdown to my partner as I have a gut feeling this transfer has failed.

My partner and I are staying at a forest lodge to avoid the temptation of testing early, but I’m finding the wait impossible.

Yesterday 5DPT and today 6DPT, I feel like I’d been hit by a bus, I’ve had a really awful cold, body aching but no fever, sinus pain, mild intermittent cramping and intermittent breast tenderness. Truly wiped out.

We are waiting to 11DPT to test. Can anyone provide any insight or words of wisdom? I can’t shake the gut feeling that this transfer hasn’t worked, and this journey can be very isolating.

You had an amazing amount of eggs that made it to blast! I did 3 rounds of IVF for a genetic condition I suffer from. I also have lean PCOS. Finally on the 3rd try I had 5 blasts that were sent for genetic testing. Got 3 normals back 1st ended in miscarriage 2nd is my big, healthy 3yr 10month old. I didn't have symptoms until week 5 and also had bleeding then too but luckily she was safe. The 2ww is the worst but please don't test early it can be really disheartened. You aren't alone it is tough xx

As above poster has mentioned. I didnt really get any symptoms in my positive transfers, what ever symptoms I got, I already had due to the medications and progesterone which when its increasing can cause havoc. For my last successful pregnancy, My first real sign was maybe 17dpt when I got a wave of exhaustion that I couldnt shake, that stuck around until about 15 weeks pregnant and then lifted. But any other real pregnancy symptoms didnt start until 6 weeks, like nausea and vomiting, sore nipples, headaches, all that sort of stuff. Its good if you can hold out until your otd to test so there is no confusion. Dont give up hope just yet. There is always a chance.

Good luck OP! You have a great advantage having so many blasts. Our ICSI was successful with our now 3yold son. I didn't have any specific symptoms and was convinced it hadn't worked. Take care xx