ERA/Alice/Emma infertility thread graduates/pregnancies

[seven201]

If you are a regular on the infertility board you may have seen the ERA/Alice/Emma threads for those going through those tests after lots of unsuccessful IVF or recurrent losses. This thread is for the ladies from there who are now pregnant. We can share our worries and joys.

I am useless at remembering who is pregnant from which thread so please do add yourself or tag others. @Janefx40 and @Faithhopelove83.

Also, if anyone who has fully graduated/had their baby, then please feel free to join if you wish. I don't want to tag individuals as I don't want people to feel obliged.

If you've also just had lots of failed ivf and/or recurrent miscarriages you are of course welcome too!

A little bit about me. I have a naturally conceived nearly 7 year old dc. Have been trying for dc2 for 5 1/4 years. One natural early loss, 5 failed ivf, 3 surgeries (main one being an adhesion removed), 2 natural pregnancies and early losses, 1 ivf pregnancy that got to heartbeat stage. This pregnancy is a letrazole round and I'm 9+6 (although measuring 9+0 but that's been consistent) so due early November. I've been spotting brown for the past 3 days but my scan was this afternoon, so reassuring (although still worried). I'm under the CRP clinic in epsom due to the miscarriages.

Good luck to us all!

Thank you all, I’m incredibly sad, they said it’s a 1/126 chance but that I’m better off doing the CVS rather than NIPT testing tomorrow as NIPT is less accurate for Edwards and Patau’s than it is for Downs but the CVS does come with increased chance of miscarriage - sorry you went through this time too @seven201

@Gardenlady543 how bloody stressful, I wish we could just catch a break, thinking of you too

@AM08 NIPT is pretty sensitive though and far less invasive, is there a way you could do this first?

@AM08 oh that is stressful. Did they say how long the results will take from that?

@Gardenlady543 that's complicated. It doesn't sound a big leap in drug doses to me so try not to worry about the sudden drop. I think some people are on much higher doses. Good news the scan is close.

1/126 is not a bad number I think x

@AM08 I know nothing can reassure you at this point but that is less than a 1% chance. So it's 99.2% chance of all being fine. If you were told you had a 99.2% chance of winning the lottery you'd probably feel pretty confident. So you have a really really good chance of things being ok especially as there was nothing picked up on the scan.

Thinking of you. Let us know how you get on xxx

Thank you all for your replies, it genuinely means alot. I do agree that the stats are on our side and I am trying to take some comfort in that. One thing that did come up in the scan was when she looked at the placenta she mentioned it looked like one artery (not sure if it’s an artery but something to do with blood flow) versus two, which can be a marker of edwards. I think it can mean a few different things but that has worried me and DH.

I think from what they mentioned, if the NIPT result is low risk you just move into your 20 week scan, the thing that worries me is they did say it isn’t as accurate for edwards or patau’s syndrome as it is for downs so think I’m moving towards the CVS - the CVS results also take 3 working days versus 2 weeks for the NIPT results.

I feel like after all of the ambiguity with the blood thinner thing that I just need some certainty.

Good luck @AM08 hope all goes smoothly today x

@AM08 I hope today goes well, let us know how it goes ❤️

Thanks for checking in, the appointment went well, 2 people scanned me and couldn’t see any abnormalities and could see both arteries in the placenta. The consultant said for edwards and pataus it is easier to see on an ultra sound than downs so we should feel reassured so we just went for the NIPT testing. He mentioned it is likely my Papp-a score that drove me being flagged as a risk and he thinks it’s more likely to be related to preeclampsia then the trimsomy’s (let’s hope so) and prescribed me aspirin.

thanks everyone for being so supportive through this - how are you all doing?

Oh @AM08 I am really glad to hear this update and really glad you could go for the NIPT blood test rather than something more invasive, the thought of that type of test definitely scares me.

I had to chase down the blood tests the midwife took a week ago which are consistent with the thyroid tests I did this week. I have done some searching and found information about gestational transient thyrotoxicosis, so this is why the endocrinologist asked about morning sickness, a high hcg level stimulates the thyroid gland as it's similar to tsh, it seems to settle by itself and not cause obstetric complications and peaks at the time I'm at and usually settled by 16 weeks. So I'm hoping it's this, it's hard to figure out if it is this but I have ordered private autoantbody tests which I'll do next week, if these are positive then it indicates a autoimmune issue (which I really don't want since it comes with risks) if the autoantibodies are negative it would seem to point to the transient condition.

@AM08 that is great news!! Sounds positive to me but I'm sure the wait until the NIPT will feel long.

@Gardenlady543 well done for getting to the bottom of it all. Your research skills really are impressive. Glad you have a plan.

Not much news from me. I had my results from endocrinologist today (via his secretary) and my thyroid levels are fine but my iron is low so he's sent me an iron tablet prescription. But I'm already on that iron prescription (he didn't know), so it's obviously not working. So I need to make a gp appt. There's so much admin involved in infertility and now pregnancy.

@AM08 oh wow this is wonderful news! I thought we would have to wait for results to know. Obviously I realise it isn't conclusive until results come in but still great to hear.

Ah I do feel relieved but I don’t want to get too ahead of myself until the official result but it was impressive how the consultant who scanned me was able to get the fetus to open up his palms and give us a bit of a wave and just the way he knew exactly how and where to press to get the double artery - very highly skilled.

@Gardenlady543 it sounds like your doing everything you can and it’s good that results are matching up - keep us posted on how you get on and try not to stress too much

@seven201 ah good news on your thyroid, thats irritating about the iron still being low - are you taking the iron supplements every other day at the moment? Hopefully they can just up the dose.

Thanks again everyone for the last few days in particular, it’s been intense and your messages have really helped me get through it. I’m off on holiday tomorrow, we were going to cancel but decided to go as UCLH were adamant they will get any results across to us and we’re only in France. Hope you all have nice weekends xx

@Gardenlady543 fingers crossed it is the transient thing. As @seven201 said, you really are an amazing researcher!

@seven201 hope you get the iron tablets sorted. My iron levels dipped in pregnancy too. Think it is quite normal x

@AM08 i think you're fine to feel relieved. It sounds like the scan was very thorough and the stats are on your side.

I'm on 3 tablets a day already and have been for quite a while, so was expecting my levels to be in the normal range by now. It's not a big deal though, I'll see what the gp says next week.

Happy weekend everyone.

@seven201 how low is your ferritin, is it worth considering an iron transfusion? When I saw the iron clinic they said it's useful when ferritin is less than 30 in the third trimester.

I've just had my blood results put up on my notes and I'm not sure how much I trust the blood results the midwife did my ferritin is apparently 72 which is pretty much twice as high as it's ever been and I've not taken any iron.

@Gardenlady543 thanks. I'm not sure yet, I'm waiting for the letter to arrive to see the numbers. I doubt it's very low. I'll mention the infusion to the gp. That's interesting yours has doubled - how odd!! Can you access your records digitally? My midwife unit is still paper based so I have lots of pieces of paper.

@seven201 my area use badger notes, so I have an app. The midwife has to manually put the results in I think so there are no reference ranges which differ by lab. I'm going to be doing a test with medichecks this week hopefully anyway that checks: tft, thyroid autoantibodies, ferritin, CRP, folate, b12, vit d. It seems like it's just my tft that are off although my wbc does look slightly high and someone got in touch with me that has the same issue as me, she's 16 weeks with twins and her tsh went from 1 to 0.001 and she mentioned having a high wbc. Her case would make sense as multiples increase the risk of gestational transient thyrotoxicosis due to the higher hcg.

I bet your gp will say no need for the iron transfusion, if things stay low though you can arrange a consultation with the iron clinic for about £200 and see what they think.

My annoyance of the day, I had the consultation on Tuesday and asked for a prescription for Inhixa because I'm on it until 34 weeks. They did me a prescription for 6 weeks, when I didn't received it I called up, they said they were pretty sure they sent it, it didn't come so I called again and they said they'd send another, we specifically had a conversation about it saying Inhixa and not clexane, it arrived today and it says clexane, took it to the pharmacy who can only dispense clexane since it's a brand and I'm not comfortable changing brands at this point. I've had enough of this running about. I think I'll try my luck with the GP, has anyone tried this?

@Gardenlady543 Isn't inhixa Clexane tho? It's not that readily available at the moment so most hospitals are dispensing Fragmin. Blood thinners are really hard to get from GP but the hospital consultant can sort you out?

@Janefx40 they are both low molecular weight heparin, just different brands. The pharmacy I go to can get it in, but they need a prescription for it. The midwife said I was one point off getting heparin, she offered to tick that I was a IV drug user to get the other point, but I thought that was not a good idea!

Scan was all fine, I've jumped another day ahead so measuring at 11+1 now. :)

@Gardenlady543 great news! Sorry about the prescription issues. I have clexane on prescription through gp, but that's left over from ivf prescription they did for me. Worth a try.

@Gardenlady543 this is great news!!! Always nice to be a bit ahead although your due date should stay the same with IVF!

Had my 20 week scan this morning. All looking fine. Had consultant appointment and apart from the big talk she gave me about healthy eating and the potential consequences of GD it went well.