42 and starting IVF treatment tomorrow - would love some company for the journey ☺️

[Sheffters]

Hi ladies, so, as the title reads, I start the injections tomorrow evening. I have an appointment with my clinic (Care) tomorrow morning for the baseline scan and to get the treatment plan. Meds have arrived so we are ready to go! My AMH is 8.3 with follicle count of 14.

I had my son via IVF 11 years ago and was very lucky that it worked first time and on the NHS. This time it's private and costing a fortune. This is the only shot we have at this so we are feeling the pressure for sure.

I fell pregnant last month naturally (first time ever due to PCOS) but that ended in a chemical at 5 weeks. We are opting for PGTA testing and keeping everything crossed for a euploid.

Is anyone else starting this journey?

Hi all, 10 eggs retrieved this morning, hopefully this a good yield! They will call me tomorrow for fertilisation update then again on Saturday and then on Monday. Monday will be day 5 update and they will let us know if we are able to test and freeze anything. If any aren't good enough quality to do this then they will do a fresh transfer. Prepping now with progesterone pessaries for the next 5 days.

Hope you are all doing well! X

@Sheffters Congratulations!! That's a fantastic outcome! Fingers crossed for lots of positive updates through the weekend. My clinic doesn't do testing so I'm not familiar with the decision of frozen vs. fresh - do you have an ideal scenario between the two?

@Sheffters that's a fantastic result, I'm so pleased for you!! How long will it take for them to be frozen and tested if you go down that route?

@Sheffters that is amazing! Congratulations!

Congratulations! That’s a fabulous number! Hopefully baby number 2 is hiding amongst them

How are you feeling?

@Sheffters what a lovely number! Well done. How are you feeling after the collection? Sending positive vibes your way for all the next updates

I start stims on Friday. Also having some thoughts about what we do if we do get embryos but they aren't good enough to freeze - as we're doing a duo stim round this was supposed to be a freeze all with no transfer but I'm starting to wonder if I'd actually want to have a transfer if any weren't good to freeze! If that makes sense? I have a call with my clinic tomorrow so I might ask what our options might be in that scenario

@Magix86I have my apt today too and it’s amongst my myriad of questions. Though I have the added complication of regularly having fluid in my lining, so I suspect if that were there, I wouldn’t be able to have a fresh transfer regardless. Expected my period by now, if it doesn’t arrive by tomorrow morning then I won’t be able to have my first scan until Monday, which I guess would mean starting the injections on Tuesday.

@overwork I hope your appointment goes well and you get some answers to the questions you have!
It's funny how clinics have different processes, we don't have a scan until after 5 days of stims. I had my last scan to check everything was all OK more than a month ago!

Hi all, I hope the appointments go well today ladies!

Feeling a bit flat. Just had the embryologist call. 3 fertilised normally, 2 atypically, 3 immature eggs and 2 not full eggs.

They will watch the atypical embryos and if they reach blasts on Monday they will have to be tested before transfer. The 3 normal embryos is what they are concentrating on.

Had a cry and feel disappointed. I just hope they keep growing and that there's a euploid in there somewhere. I wasn't prepared for how I would feel after getting 10 then It going to 3/5.

Need to give myself a shake! X

I'm sorry to see this @Sheffters that must have been a difficult call.
The attrition rate is such a heartbreaking part of this process!
On our first round we got 16 eggs and ended up with 2 embryos out of 13 mature eggs. I'm hoping your 3 continue to develop as they should 🤞🏻
Be kind to yourself during this time. When are they calling again with the next update?

@Magix86 thank you. They are calling Saturday. I have been looking up about the atypical embryos. Ours are 3PN and apparently these have a chance of self correcting over 2PN embryos. Likely 2 sperm fertilised the egg. Will just have to wait and see.

I need to see it as a positive that we achieved fertilisation at all and be grateful for that. X

That’s still a possible 5! 3-5, from 10, is bang on the stats that were shared up thread. I do realise it must be hard when this is happening to you in person though.
I should have wrote down my questions @Magix86I completely forgot to ask about a fresh transfer. We are not going for the duostim though. Mainly because, if I don’t respond well, the consultant will want to speak to the embryologist about the eggs behaviour and she can’t do that until about day 7 post collection. By this time I would be taking my stims again. So if she wants to mix it up I would have wasted money on drugs. The more realistic option for me is this an egg collection this cycle (of course my period is now a day late, I wanted to have my first before the weekend!) and then another egg collection following my first natural period, probably end of July-ish. She confirmed that we were right to cancel our May cycle (had a lot going on and she said stress really didn’t help!).
As for transfers, she said there were things which could be done about the fluid, and if we get 4 x euploids, she would be willing to experiment. If I only get 2, she would recommend surgery first. Which wasn’t what I wanted to hear. So now I just need to get 4 euploids…

@Sheffters Im sorry you’re feeling quite low. I feel like the emotional roller coaster is almost as hard to cope with as the actual impact of the medications. Stay positive though - I know it’s annoying to read but you only need one and you may have 5. Hopefully the week brings a positive update

@overwork good luck with Stims! I’m sure AF is on her way. I swear the anticipation of starting a cycle always makes it late. I’ve literally never been late and mine was 2 days late waiting to start this round of Stims.

I had another progress check and the clinic just scheduled me for ER on modnay. I’m a little nervous that’s late as I had a lot of follicles that seemed too close to mature but I’m not really sure if this is because they don’t do ERs on Sunday or if she really thinks Monday is the best day. I feel like no matter how much I learn I still realize how much I don’t understand about this process

@Sheffters I've actually not heard of atypical embryos before so that's really interesting that they think 2 sperm fertilised the egg! That's even better that they could correct themselves. You've done everything you can now so I hope the call on Saturday is good news for you

@overwork ohh so that's exactly what we're doing! One collection now, a withdrawal bleed and then a normal bleed and then we go again. Our clinic is calling this duo stim, and said they don't recommend going again with stims just after withdrawal bleeds as they often have to cancel those cycles. I have read of duostim cycles being done within days though. Do they know what's causing the fluid to be able to fix this? It's good to hear there are options tho!

Still waiting for my call from the clinic. I also need to ask about my injections as we had a power cut in the night for several hours so the stims in the fridge might not be OK now 😭

It’s scaring (scarring?) from an emergency c section I have with my son. It’s created a little pocket in my uterus (ithsmocele), which fills up with fluid, and then leaks into the cavity. It makes a toxic environment, and, if there’s enough there, can prevent the sperm / egg implanting

@Magix86 what did the clinic say about your medication? What ridiculous timing for that to happen! So I had my day 1 scan, I have a cyst I never have cysts (I’m a sonographer so I check sporadically). Why on earth would one pop up now! Had a blood test to see if it’s elevated my oestrogen levels. If not I believe we can still start this cycle. I hope you’re doing okay @Sheffters, and your embryos are still fighting! How are you getting on with stims @Onesaddogand @PearOpal?

@overwork I hope you do okay! I know sometimes the body has cysts that form as like a residual form the corpus lutum the cycle before so maybe it could be something like that? Hopefully you hear that it resolves and you can get started this cycle.

Im alright. Bloating is officially quite visible and rather uncomfortable and I’ve started getting the migraines I’ve heard about so that’s tough but only 2 more days before ER so I’m staying positive and thankful I have the weekend to rest.

@overwork they said it was fine to use as it wouldn't have heated up enough to have caused a problem! So day 1 of stims done! I can't believe how relaxed I am about it this time round, it feels quite odd.
Ohh no bad timing for you too with the cyst! I hope it is still OK for you to go ahead, when do you find out?

@PearOpal only 2 more days!

Results came back today, hormones are satisfactory and I start injections this evening.

YAY!!! So excited for you! How’re you feeling?

Great news @overwork !! Good luck for the first one, I'm only a day ahead of you! We might end up with egg collection on the same day lol how many days are you due to be on stims for?

I think I’ll be with you the whole way through by the sounds of how our clinics are doing things! Start tonight and I think I have 12 days worth of injections. I feel relaxed, it’s nice that it’s in someone else’s hands now, rather than my partner and I having to have regimented sex at specific times. But also daunted, as it’s a lot of money and I know our chances are low.

Only one more day @PearOpal! Does that mean that you are done with injections now?

How exciting @overwork! How are you feeling about starting tonight?

How is going for you @Magix86? Any side effects?

I really hope your ER goes well @PearOpal 🙂

Just had a call from the clinic for day 3 update. Our 3 normal embryos are doing as expected and have divided into 9-12 cells. One id of good grade and the other 2 are average at the moment. Our atypical embryos are also dividing which I was surprised at! Their grade is of lower quality but they could make it blast stage. They will need to be tested before being transferred if they make it that far but clinic said that their are lots of studies that say that 3PN embryos can be euploid.

Just a waiting game until Monday morning now. They have booked me a transfer at 10am just in case we have fresh transfer rather than PGTA testing. This will only happen if they feel that any blasts wouldn't survive the freeze but have a chance. I am happy with todays update as it was best case scenario. Watch this space! X