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!

Thanks everyone! I'm not too worried about the swollen kidneys; I'm hoping they just sort themselves out postpartum.

If anyone has any baby girl name suggestions then send them my way! I like Maeve and Alana, but my husband doesn't. He likes names like Amy.

@Gardenlady543 yes I do remember us three and our endless issues and tests. Look how far we've come! It's mad. I have you and cream to thank for suggesting the saline sonogram that finally found my main problem after all that wasted ivf! You're right, I hadn't twigged we all had/having girls .

@seven201 i went to primary school with an Alana, it’s a name that I’ve not heard since but I do like it. Would he like something like Amelie, instead of Amy?

You’re all younger than me, but yesterday I read that two thirds of older fathers (40+) have girls and the chances of men 35+ increases every year of having a girl over a boy, which I thought was interesting. My own dad was 50 something when I was born to my 36 year old mother.

@seven201 there is an app called kinder, which is tinder for names. Think you can link to your partner and see what names you both swiped on.

@Gardenlady543 that sounds cool, I’ll look that up if our Thursday scan goes well

Can I ask, did you all do NIPT privately? I’m not sure I feel the need to do it privately. Thinking of waiting for my 12 week scan and see how the bloods and NT result go and do NIPT if they offer it.

@Gardenlady543 guess who spotted thread veins on the top of her boobs tonight 🫠

I’ve ordered the burts bees cream and also hyaluronic acid to mix in with it because that’s apparently got a small amount of evidence that it could help.

@thislittlebird oh that's interesting about older men having girls! I'm 41 and dh is 40. I like the name Amelie but I don't think dh does - will check tomorrow. I paid for the NIPT privately, although turns out would have got it through the nhs anyway. Personally I just wanted to get it done asap, but if you feel you don't need it for extra reassurance then see what the nhs bloods combined with scan shows.

@Gardenlady543 thanks for the app suggestion - we'll take a look.

@seven201 I didn’t realise you were in the 40s club too! That’s a shame because Amelie or variants of it feel like a good Amy compromise. Does he like any others that you could find a compromise on? Or just Amy?

I have a few girl names I need to convince dh about and I have one boy name, which is DH’s grandad’s name, and I think that will be the easiest to sell. I found that Kinder app and the names seemed very American so I will not be showing that to dh lol.

When you say you would have got it through the nhs, is that automatic or because you had a result they wanted to follow up on? I was hoping they might automatically test me because I’m 40. I would like to get it but I’m worried by getting bad results and then having to wait weeks for next nhs appointment or a result that stresses me out. Our embryo was PGT-A tested so hopefully that was accurate.

Oh yeah and the advice I read said you have to do NIPT with a scan, and my scan is Thursday at 9.5 weeks, not 10/11.

@thislittlebird dh is really hard to talk to about names. He just shuts down and says I don't know a lot. I think that will change once the baby is actually here though.

I had a high result, they wouldn't have offered me the NIPT without it. Where I am you get a phonecall a day or two after the scan to say if you got a high result or not then invited in for the NIPT blood test. Your scan is too early for the nipt though so maybe they'd ask you to come back for a second scan or something. Having a pgta tested embryo hopefully means you sail through. My scan was completely fine, it was something in the blood test combined with my age that gave the high risk result to trigger the NIPT. The nhs NIPT doesn't include finding out the sex by the way.

@thislittlebird I got a high risk result on the combine testing which I wasn’t expecting due to age etc but was told that for ivf pregnancies it’s quite common as one of our hormones called Papp A which is to do with the placenta is often lower than with none ivf pregnancies - I think your situation should be much better knowing you have a PGT- A tested embryo but I have always said not getting the NIPT done privately was something I regretted and caused me a lot of upset. What are you veering towards doing?

@AM08@seven201 I don’t really want to pay for two scans, that’s part of the issue. Having one at 9.5 weeks then another at 10 or 11 weeks doesn’t make sense to me. If we could have it without the scan I’d be more inclined, but then it’ll be another £600-700 plus the other £200 scan. It seems a lot, my clinic can scan up to 10 weeks but I really do want my scan this week to check I’ve not miscarried.

So you do the 12 week scan, then a call comes in with outcome, then they offer NIPT. I’d be 13 weeks at this stage. I can live without finding out the sex for now.

@AM08 is combined testing the nhs one? I’m guessing my age would mean a high result for us too.

@thislittlebird I paid privately through www.conceptodiagnostics.co.uk/this was the cheapest one I could find, I did it mostly because I'm impatient and wanted to know the sex so did the test at 10 weeks. Think the NHS may have offered me it if I wanted but I wouldn't find out the sex. I used a euploid embryo so it was
mostly double checking, I'm glad I did it as they didn't do NT etc as it's less accurate and may have caused me stress. I didn't need to do a scan just provide the result of the scan I'd already had to book it.

Oh dear for the thread veins, not sure the oil helped me, I didn't use it much to be honest anyway. Make sure you wear a supportive bra.

@thislittlebird i totally get it, it does feel like a lot of money and after how much ivf is overall it just feels like yet another thing. Would you consider pushing your 9.5 week scan back to 10 weeks so you can get NIPT at the same time? I think each hospital is different in how they do tests and results but I had my combined test and had a call 2-3 hours later that I was high risk for Edwards/Pataus, then the next day we went for a scan at the fetal medicine unit, and a really great doctor did the test and said there were no physical markers, that in his view it was the Papp A/ivf that triggered the result, I then did the NIPT test and the results came in 5 days later which confirmed low risk - I do know other hospitals can take longer so just something to bear in mind. It’s so hard as you’ve already paid to PGT-A test your embryo so likelihood is everything is all good.

*the doctor did a second scan rather than a test

Yeah, that’s basically it. I’m sick to the teeth of paying for things, half of which probably make no difference to the outcome. I think the only way I’d do it is if I moved this scan, I don’t think paying for another makes sense. We’ve never been rich enough for all this, we still aren’t and my clinic charging £200 for a scan has already annoyed me. So the benefit for you @AM08 was that the NIPT said it was low risk and you’d have already had that reassurance?

I’ll ask my clinic the price and go from there. But I’m sort of expecting a high risk result based on my age (and from what you’ve said the ivf PAPP-A issues too) anyway.

@Gardenlady543 I have some of those bras to try. Were they supportive? Also ordered a sloggi brand one to try. I’m currently wearing bras around the house because it’s more comfortable tbh. They’re more like bralette type of things, that go over your head. I don’t want to wear proper bras in the house all day, so these are my go to. But I’m getting to the point where I’m putting them on as soon as I get up, next step might be while I sleep.

Hello everyone! Sorry to dip in and out so much.

I've never heard of the NHS offering NIPT unless someone is found to be high risk based on the combined tests that they do at 12 weeks. Bear in mind I was aged 45 and they still didn't offer it to me - so age isn't a factor. I did mine early at 10 weeks because I was so paranoid about something being wrong even tho our embryo was euploid. But in the end we didn't get results until 16 weeks due to various shenanigans.

You don't have to have a scan at the clinic you know. Places like Window to the Womb charge about £60 and in my personal experience they are just as good! They won't do NIPT but they could do your regular scans. I didn't do any bloods or scans at my clinic after positive test for just that reason.

@seven201 I am genuinely feeling butterflies of excitement for you for tomorrow. We've been on this journey for a long time. I remember when I first went to Mr Shehata and we were there at similar times but never quite crossed over. I was half hoping we'd meet!!!

The journey has been hideous but I have met some wonderful people along the way.

@thislittlebird the ones I'm wearing are definitely better than not wearing a bra, I couldn't manage anything tighter. I know after a breast augmentation people have to wear specific bras post op.

I went for my NHS 28 week scan today which was fine. Have a consultant appointment tomorrow.

Did I mention the issue I'm having with my annual leave. My workplace waited until now to tell me I can't use it at the end of my maternity leave so are forcing me to take most of it before my due date :(

@Gardenlady543 Glad to hear your scan went well!

It does feel better than wearing nothing, I'm wearing something like this right now: https://www.marksandspencer.com/3pk-seamless-non-wired-bralettes/p/clp60500235?extid=ps_ps-pla-pmax_ggl_lg_ch__-UK-_-_baussc&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI8eu2ze6LggMVTuftCh26xgG3EAQYBSABEgJnF_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

@Janefx40 so all of your tests came back low risk? I thought age would always trigger it in the computer calculations they do. The wait is my main worry, but so far they've been good at doing things quickly.

I wanted a scan at my clinic in case it's bad news, because it feels like a space with some people I know. But it doesn't really make a difference, other than price. I plan to use regular places for scans in future.

@thislittlebird I think that's fine, we have to be comfy when breasts are tender and swollen. My issue was not wearing anything early and now half way through the day I'm uncomfortable and taking off my bra.

@Gardenlady543 the concepto diagnostics place…how did you provide the results of a scan? I might go this route if/when I do it. I don’t want to know the sex just yet but I’m thinking it sounds like the least convoluted option.

@thislittlebird when I go to ultrasound direct they upload images and videos and a report. So I just sent the report screen. Most people haven't had a scan by the time they do NIPT so I think anything you have should hopefully be acceptable. Do you have images or anything from your scan? I didn't have any local concepto clinics near me so called them up and they were quite happy to send me the vial and I just sent the sample back to them. The results came really quickly via email.

@Gardenlady543 I'm debating whether to push my scan back a few days to 10 weeks ish so that I can use concepto if I want to. It's such awkward timing, I don't want to pay all these places but I don't think if I'd be able to use my NHS scan at 12 weeks for this purpose.

@thislittlebird I think it just needs to be a scan to prove there is a intrauterine pregnancy, rather than any particular date being needed.