IVF/ICSI - your best advice please!

[PGY7]

Hello all - this is my first time posting here.
Over 10 years of TTC and finally at the stage of having IVF/ICSI within the next couple of months.
If you have been through either of these, please can you share your best advice? Anything! What "extras" did you pay for? What vitamins do you swear by? What company/clinic would you avoid? any super foods that you recommend?
I don't have long until we will be starting, so trying to get as much advice as possible! TIA

We had successful IVF ICSI first time with Care and now have a 3 yold son. I had acupuncutre, ate healthily loosely following Zota West's IVF Diet, dialled back the gym and did more walking and yoga, used a Pregnacare Conceive prenatal. Wishing you good luck!

Hi can I please ask which Care clinic you used and what your thoughts were thought of them?

We're with Care Chester. Our first round was at the Countess of Chester which has since closed, and just had a unsuccessful FET sadly at the new Warrington site. This site is lovely, very modern and feels muxh less clinical than being at the hospitsl was. We were automatically referred to Care through NHS funding. Whilst our most recent round wasn't successful, I can honestly say Care have been great. They offered add ons which you can top up privately. Staff are friendly and seem to genuinely care. Communication is via an app now as well as phone calls.

We had successful IVF and ICSI first time. Here’s what I did
PAID FOR:

• Embryoscope - this kind of livestream of the embryos that helps them choose the best one and the best transfer day
• Whichever extra progesterone or other meds they recommended, really can’t remember what

MEDICATION stage (4ish weeks)

• Didn’t really do anything special except not drink alcohol.
• I even forgot a dose a couple of times so ended up doing it a couple of hours late, once had to nip home from work 😅

EGG COLLECTION

• Didn’t sleep the night before 😭
• Jst rested up afterwards
• Drank lots of lucozade just before and after, basically kept hydrated

TRANSFER - happened at 3pm

• Went to work in the morning then drove there for whatever time they said (half hour early maybe??)
• Ad the fullest bladder ever ahah bolted to the toilet ater
• Did NOT do the fries (wasn’t aware)
• Went for a gentle stroll when got home after the nurse advised
• Sat with a hot water bottle on womb - like during a period - that evening onwards every day until I tested positive on day 11 (it was November so it was cold, not sure this HWB thing is actually recommended but it’s what I did 🤷)

Thats everything I think. Lmk if you have questions xxxx

What made the difference between a failed and successful round for me? I honestly think the biggest factor was reducing stress - work was less hectic for my second round and I did Acupunture and it just chilled me out. I also think cutting out caffeine and alcohol helped as well as using clean cosmetics - my gosh some cosmetics can have major endocrine disruptors (I used the little bean app to check - £4.95 but worth it). I also added more antioxidants (berries) and increased my water intake.

we didn’t have the option to PGT at our clinic - if there was I likely would have paid as I was 39 approaching 40. We just did IVF so it was about £1700 for meds and £5500 for the cycle. Our first round was NHS.

Oh and I used a vaginal probiotic too for successful round!

Thanks so much!

where are you proceeding with treatment? some clinics have really varying costs for the add-ons (e.g. some include first year of storage, some don't, some charge wayyy more for icsi) so definitely keep that in mind

Thanks so much for your replies. I'm having ICSI through yorkshire fertility/CARE leeds. After a wild ride the past few weeks it's been confirmed and agreed for october. Fingers crossed.

Despite 10 years of infertility this is my first round of anything. I'm terrified and honestly not fully sure about what's available and what I should be doing.

Thanks so much for replying. Sorry, what is PGT? X