IVF treatment and pregnant

[K2012]

Hi everyone

I had ICSI done and egg transfer done on 6/9/2021, on 16/9 I had a positive pregnancy test and tested again everyday till Monday 20/9 just because I wanted to be sure. It was positive for 4 days. This is my first pregnancy and I’m 37.
I’m on progesterone (rectally) and some days I have a lot of side effects (abdominal cramps, gas in stomach, a bit nausea headache and dizziness, but worst is that I go to the toilet a lot about 3-5 times a day. Some days I don’t have anything side effects other than cramps and going to the toilet often.

I’m very nervous and anxious as this is my first pregnancy. I don’t feel any other typical pregnancy symptoms, should I feel that this early? I Check myself every time I go toilet and no blood on the tissue paper or underwear.

Please give me some advice as I’m very anxious

Thank you xx

Hi, congratulations!
I'm also pregnant for the first time following ivf. I'm 20 weeks. I think the cramping and gas are definitely a usual side effect of progesterone. I've had it three times for three cycles of ivf and it's always the same. But I'd say the neasuea and needing a wee so often are normal pregnancy symptoms, the weeing for me was very unexpected, I'd never heard of it as a pregnancy side effect before! I'd keep an eye on the dizziness though, make sure you're eating enough and maybe mention it when you go for your early scan if it's still the same. Although I'm sure it's nothing to worry about, there are alot of hormones from both pregnancy and ivf in your system xx

Hi,

I had icsi too and was successful on my second round, he's now running around soft play and is almost 2!

I had no typical pregnancy symptoms until I was about 9 weeks or so, even then I just felt slightly faint if I didn't eat little and often.

I had period like cramps for the first 4 weeks which I was told were stretching pains.

Good luck op and congratulations xx

Thank you very much for your replies. I only felt sick and dizzy and headache one day last week (day before I took my first pregnancy test) nothing since just cramps and have bowel movements 3-5 times a day. I don’t really wee more often as usual.

I’m 4 weeks and 5 days today (since my last period but 17 days post op embryo transfer) and don’t feel any typical pregnancy symptoms yet. Maybe it’s too early…? I’m very anxious and have been reading about chemical pregnancies here, what exactly does it mean that you’ve miscarried but not bled yet?

I’m having my first scan in 3 weeks.

Hope you don’t mind me asking did you take progesterone rectally or vaginally?

And congratulations to both of you on your successful IVF treatments 😊

@K2012 it's still really early, also some women don't have any symptoms I didn't take progesterone x

If it is a chemical pregnancy (which I don't think it is based on what you've said) your hcg will go down so tests will eventually come back negative. So you could always carry on testing every few days if you really wanted. Although that would drive me mad personally. I also read somewhere that chemical pregnancies are less likely with ivf as embryos that are transferred are generally good quality.
I took my progesterone vaginally but I think it's pretty much the same, I just wanted an excuse to lie down for half an hour in the afternoon 😂
I'm sure you'll be fine x

Thank you Dove88 for your reassurance 😊 xx

@K2012
Think you talking about a missed miscarriage, people sometimes find out through a scan like 3 weeks after baby has stopped developing and not bleed at all.

Mines an IVF pregnancy too and I think it's normal to be extra panicky when you have been trying so long/suffered from infertility. I'm 15 weeks now with my first/only baby (at 40) and had no obvious pregnancy symptoms until about 6 weeks when I gradually started to feel more nauseous (which eased about 11 weeks when the placenta started to kick in).

I did have sore boobs and some cramping in the early days - but I put the boobs down to the cyclogest (I always got it on cyclogest even with no BFP) and for the cramping I wasn't sure, but the IVF nurses said some women get it as the uterus stretches - but not all women feel it strongly/notice it much.

I think diarrhoea/loose stools is an occasional side effect if you take cyclogest rectally - I took it vaginally and got the more usual constipation instead (also a common pregnancy problem so may not have been the cyclogest alone).

I know it's easy to say and hard to do but try not to think about a chemical pregnancy -at least with IVF you should get a scan at your clinic soon (in a couple of weeks). It's just a waiting game till then unfortunately, but good luck!

Sometimes there just are no symptoms. My last pregnancy was a twin one, so I assume double the hcg and I felt nothing in the early weeks x

Congratulations OP! Can't wait to be pregnant too! Best wishes to everyone who is going through this.

Thank you Isabel and I hope you get pregnant soon too 🙏🏻 Xx

In the first 2.5 weeks after I started cyclogest my stomach was really hard/tender, I had stomach cramps often and felt like my uterus and ovaries were stretching. I was really bloated and stomach felt hard but in the last 2 days stomach is soft and I only have cramps lower stomach but not often as before. I don’t feel bloated or anything else.

Sorry I’m a bit paranoid/anxious but shall I be worried? Please advice

Forgot to mention as I was a bit paranoid this morning I did another pregnancy test and it came back positive within seconds but I feel there’s something wrong as I don’t really have any typical pregnancy symptoms yet. I know it’s early days (I’m 5 weeks tomorrow) but still.. shall I be worried?

[quote Babyghirl]@K2012
Think you talking about a missed miscarriage, people sometimes find out through a scan like 3 weeks after baby has stopped developing and not bleed at all.[/quote]
Which symptoms would you have of a missed miscarriage? Other than bleeding. Would your pregnancy test still show positive if you’ve recently miscarried?

Hi @K2012 I know it’s really difficult, I am now 21 weeks pregnant after IVF and nothing is worse than the first few weeks...really try not to worry though, in the absence of any obvious bad news you can only assume that everything is fine. I had no symptoms at all until around 9 weeks, and some days I woke up and just felt ‘empty’ and I was sure it had all gone wrong, but whenever I spoke to my clinic they just said that if I didn’t have bad pain, cramping, and bleeding the overwhelming likelihood was that it was all fine. And thinking pragmatically about it (which I found helped, so apologies if this comes across as harsh, that isn’t my intention!) no amount of worrying or speculation will change what is ultimately going to happen, so you might as well stop worrying about it and just be happy that as of right now, you are pregnant 😊

Hi @K2012, I’m currently 34 weeks following IVF/ICSI. I was very anxious at the start as like you I didn’t get any typical early pregnancy symptoms, no nausea. I started getting very tired but I don’t think that kicked in until about 7 weeks.

Hi LFH1990 and Sara83zivf

Thank you very much for your replies and reassurance. I know it sounds ridiculous but I am very anxious/nervous and can’t stop thinking about all these things. Fingers crossed everything goes well 👍🏻🙏🏻 Xx

Fingers crossed for you that it all goes well and hope you will feel reassured after your first scan! I nearly drove my self insane with daily pregnancy tests but each passing day the anxiety lessened.

I had ICSI too and the progesterone pessary made me so bloated and gassy. I had a bump straight away with them! 🤣
I had absolutely no pregnancy symptoms and like you worried about that. I’ve now got a healthy 7 week old. At the 8 week scan you’ll get some reassurance. I’m sure everything will be fine- congratulations!

Thank you everyone 😊