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!

@Gardenlady543 I also don't have any but I suppose my weight has never fluctuated hugely. I remember my sister having boob stretch marks and she had kids much younger than me. The one vein in particular is super evident and dark in real life, more than the photo shows, I was quite surprised to see it staring back at me :/

I'll look these bras up, thanks. It's so hard to know what to do. I'm 40 and my body is barely different than it was 20 years ago, feels like this will be a shock.

Thank you @Gardenlady543 for the stretch mark link and bras! Just before I saw your message, I bought the neal’s yard mama balm or whatever it’s called. I bought the bras you shared. I don’t wear a bra when at home but I guess I should be! i can see so many veins over my breasts when I look in the mirror!

@Spin101 I didn't wear bras at home either because of my ivf treatment my breasts were constantly changing in size and sore. Then when they were getting bigger in pregnancy I went into Marks and Spencer and asked about their maternity bras and all they had was feeding bras that have hooks and the cup comes down, which I'm sure is great when breast feeding but not what I wanted in maternity. It's really annoying that you can't seem to get a maternity bra that is made just for pregnancy. I just wanted something comfortable and not tight. These ones are good as they are like a loose sports bra, they have the option of getting the breast out easily for breast feeding too. I also like the colour combo of white, nude and black.

@Gardenlady543 i went for that colour combo too! I’ve bought some sports bras from Amazon in the past and I liked the fact they weren’t so tight and there was breathing room! I looked in M&S too and like you, I didn’t want a nursing bra. I have my 16 week appt tomorrow - I hope I get to hear the baby’s heartbeat

Hi ladies, was looking for some advice, I’m 29 weeks and had my bloods and gestational diabetes test result back and all good with GD but all of my results relating to red blood cells are out of range and too low - count, haemoglobin, MCHC and ferritin. I was told to come off the ferrous sulphate as it was making my issues with digestion worse (I’m speaking to the doc about this today as I’m puking once a week and have really bad heartburn every night) but I’m worried about how I can get my iron levels up in a way that doesn’t completely kill off my digestion - does anyone have any advice? Apparently the midwives will talk to me about this at 32 weeks but I don’t want to wait and for the situation to get even worse

@AM08 what level is your ferritin? If it's less than 30 in the third trimester they recommend replacement. There are some oral preparations you can get from abroad with less side effects or you could enquire about a transfusion. This is what the iron clinic I saw earlier this year told me:

A course of oral iron should aim for 65 mg elemental iron daily. The absorption over the period of a month would be approximately 180 mg to 240 mg of iron per calendar month. Alternate day dosing is an option and data a suggest you can achieve the same monthly amount of iron absorption with alternative day dosing. This is particularly useful for those people that develop side effects to oral iron of abdominal pain, constipation, or diarrhea. If after 3 months a ferritin < 30 would indicate a failure of iron absorption in which case an iron infusion would be indicated.

Most oral irons are much the same i.e. Iron sulphate / gluconate / fumarate. Other choices are not readily available but include Maltofer, sucrosomial iron and on prescription Ferracru which may well lower side effect profile.

For intravenous iron the new products Monofer or Ferrinject enable a total treatment dose of up to 20 mg/kg to be given safely in one infusion. Infusions can be over 15 to 30 minutes, have a low risk of serious adverse events compatible with that of an antibiotic. In the setting of pregnancy then these are very useful if a patient has Ferritin < 30 at the third trimester.

@Gardenlady543 thank you so much for your help as always! My ferritin is 13 - it was 27 when they last checked so very much going in the wrong direction - feel in a lose lose situation as the supplements make me feel so bad digestively but I’m so low on iron. I think it sounds like I need a transfusion, do you know if the nhs will offer this? I’m happy to go private but I’m seeing my GP on Monday and wonder if I should wait until then.

@AM08 they sometimes offer them especially if close to a due date leaving no time for iron tablets to increase levels. But I suspect it will be hard to get one. The iron clinic do them.

www.theironclinic.com

It's £770 for the consultation plus infusion. They arrange it so you have the consultation then have the infusion right after.

But they want this blood tests doing:

Full Blood Count, Iron studies (Ferritin) that have been taken with the last month.
Thyroid, liver, Electrolytes, B12 and Folate in the last 2 years.

I saw them in January after my chemical to go through my iron blood results, I have a weird history as my gp thought I had haemochromatosis at one point, anyway the conclusion is the doctor I spoke to said he didn't think I needed a transfusion.

@Gardenlady543 Thank you for sharing, really useful. I’m going to see what the doctor says on Monday and then either go private (will use your link above) or see if my MIL’s close friend who is a haematologist can try and get us sorted on the nhs - she was brilliant with the issue we had with the blood clot medication so maybe she can help. How is everything going with the pregnancy for you since you’ve been on the new acid reflux medication?

@seven201 how are you doing with c section date rolling around? And do I recall that maybe you had an iron transfusion?

@AM08 I just got a message from my midwife telling me my ferritin is 22 and that I now need to take iron tablets! She just wants me on one a day so I'll give ferrous sulphate a go but they normalize say this can make vomiting a lot worse so that's not great for me.

@Gardenlady543 ah sorry your ferritin has got lower too. I’d give it a go, I just didn’t get on with it, what a pain!

I had a migraine yesterday which freaked me out, feels like things will go badly because they’re always bad for me :/

Hoping it’s just the hormones triggering it, next scan is on Thursday and I’m really hoping all is ok.

Is anyone else bugged by how the ONS baby name data is so late this year? It’s really annoying me, which is silly because I’m early in the process but it’s just typical it’s late when I finally want to see it.

Ok I emailed them. Baby name data will not be out until mid-December! Typical on the one year I would like to scour it.

All of you who have asked for elective c sections, did you see a consultant in good time? how did the process work

I was referred to the consultant but my appointment is 8th May 2024! That doesn’t seem right, it’s so late? I assumed I’d get a chance to talk to one in the new year.

@thislittlebird I am under consultant led care as they put everyone who has had ivf under a consultant. My due date is mid January, first appointment was going to be in October but they brought it forward to August as I had hyperthyroid and they decided I should be under the endocrine clinic. They then decided I didn't need to be under endocrine and could go under the consultant doing the c section but also said I don't actually need to be under the person who will operate and can still request them and they would not meet me until the day. Nobody has scheduled the surgery and every time I see the midwife she asks me if I want to give birth or have a c section and I have to keep saying I'm not allowed to try and give birth as per the advice of the surgeon who did my open fibroid surgery last year.

My next appointment after the august one is next week (late October). Basically I saw nobody really except a couple of midwife appointments between booking and 28 weeks but from now on I will have 3 more NHS scans, midwife every 3 weeks and I think see a consultant once a month.

@Gardenlady543 at my area at least they've changed that and don't refer for ivf now, so they referred me based on age. That all sounds frustrating when you've told them why.

I called midwives, they said I have to ask to be referred to the birth options team in December when I go for 16 week appointment. All seems very variable.

Sorry for not being on here for ages again. Life is hectic!

@AM08 sorry about your iron levels. Sorry but I didn't end up going down the transfusion route as was always just above borderline, so left it. I'm on ferrous sulphate and an iron spray I bought off Amazon.

@thislittlebird I'm consultant led so have seen them quite frequently but didn't discuss birth options properly until later on. Has your midwife been helpful? Mine was very much "I assume you want a c-section" from the start, which I wasn't expecting but I do have a number of 'reasons'. The doctor was initially very much you can do either way, then suddenly did a u-turn not that long ago and insisted on being my scheduled c-section forward as he was worried about me having any contractions. With my dd it was very late being sorted out as it was because she was breech. I like having things booked in so I understand wanting to know what the plan is.

I can't believe I have 2 days left until c-section! Not ready. No clue on names. House is a mess. Not finished packing hospital bags (nearly there). Currently in hospital waiting for kidney ultrasound that is probably pointless now, but was meant to be for monitoring in pregnancy due to past kidney issues. Also I majorly fucked up my insulin the other night - I accidentally took a huge dose of fast acting insulin before bed instead of the slow release one! Then all night my glucose alarm kept going off so I spent the whole night eating any sugar I could find in the house. I was so annoyed at myself for being such an idiot.

@Gardenlady543 sorry about your iron levels too. I hope the tablets don't make you more sick!

@seven201 2 days!! How exciting, is Tuesday the big day? Sorry to hear about the insulin issue, I'm sure everything was fine though as you kept your sugar levels up, doesn't sound nice being awake to keep topping up though :(

Yes, Tuesday

My kidney scan showed hydroenphrosis (swollen kidneys) and the sonographer says I need to get a dr to review the report before my c-section on Tuesday. Not really sure why, but I will try to get hold of my consultant's secretary tomorrow.

@seven201 just popping on to say good luck Tuesday!!! So excited for you ❤️

Sorry about the kidney scan. Hope it doesn't mean anything serious xxx

@seven201 good luck for Tuesday!!! Very excited for you! Xxx

@seven201 hopefully the swollen kidneys thing is ok, best of luck for Tuesday!

@seven201 I hope you can get hold of the secretary and get some clarity tomorrow and that you're all set and ready for Tuesday! I'm reminiscing about how we started chatting with cream over 2.5 years ago, all three of us have ended up having baby girls haven't we?