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, and glad everyone else's updates are looking good too!

@seven201 I didn't want to say anything until things had moved forward because I was worried my clinic would find out, but I decided to go through some additional collection cycles abroad, I actually did 3 back to back cycles at the start of last year and made 3 euploids, 1 euploid and then 4 euploids. I kind of figured with my implantation failure that I needed to bank as many as possible so had 11 euploids at one point although most in clinics abroad rather than the UK. Currently there are 6 frozen euploids left, after unsuccessful cycles in me and our surrogate and both of us have embryos on board right now.

So that's where I'm at, I only knew the transfer dates would line up at the point where all the plans were in place, it all happened so quickly, the surrogate finally made it to transfer and with me having a chemical which delayed things and then two cancelled cycles I just didn't expect for us to have transfers 5 days apart. But thought, well the prognosis is not great, I worried the issue could be the embryos and may never work in either of us, so it seemed like the options were neither of us got pregnant, 1 of us did or the unlikely scenario: both of us. And yeah like you say, potentially twins without the higher risk multiples pose to baby and mother. But definitely not planned this way!

@Janefx40 wow 6 days away, you're almost there!

@Faithhopelove83 I'm not sure I'm using the right terminology, it's a beta hcg and Progesteone blood test I ordered :) anyway it's in the postal service still so who knows. My psychologist wants me to stop tracking she said what will be will be and that I won't change the outcome.

@Gardenlady543 that is absolutely wonderful news - how funny that it’s happened at the same time for you and your surrogate, it was obviously mean to be.

@seven201 congratulations on having a little baby girl, that is so lovely to hear.

I have probably had one of the worst 36 hours of my life, I started to lose sensation in my lower left leg on Monday, I started to panic that maybe it was a blood clot due to the oestrogen, CRGH were very keen to get me to go to a&e and wouldn’t help. I went to a&e and told the doctor I was pregnant after 2.5 rounds of ivf. She scored me 0 out of 5 on the scale of likely to have a clot but booked me in for a scan today and in the meantime prescribed me a blood thinner Rivaroxaban (I am already on Clexane), the pharmacist was a funny about prescribing it and I couldn’t hear the reason why but the doctor held firm so I took the medication and basically my
gut instinct told me something was wrong - I read the packet and it is not to be used in pregnant women, I did some googling and saw in animal studies there was a big chance of pregnancy complications with the medication. I called my consultant at CRGH and he said to follow A&E’s advice. Thankfully I called my partners mum whose friend is a consultant haemotologist who said I should never have been prescribed it when my risk of clots was so low and all they should have done was increase my Clexane (it’s also dangerous to mix these types of blood thinners) - she said it’s not safe for pregnancy and I shouldn’t take anymore. I went to the hospital this morning for my scan and was in floods of tears, a senior doctor came to see me and agreed I should never have been given the medication and that she would escalate with the Executive Director for A&E and she called the hospital at UCLH who said that one dose should be ok but agreed it should never have been prescribed. I’m in bits. Just terrified for my scan next Wednesday.

@AM08 yes absolutely I would have gone with treatment dose of clexane vs the prophylactic dose you are currently on if high risk/confirmed clot. I honestly think the one dose you had will be fine but can see how stressful this was and it shouldn't have happened.

It's amazing @Gardenlady543 . Is your surrogate abroad then in the same place as those embryos?

@AM08 oh gosh. How stressful. Well done for fighting for what you believed in and eventually getting the answer. Just one dose hopefully means it won't have made any difference. Try and sit down and give yourself time to process it all. So will you ever know if there was a clot or not?

@Gardenlady543 I’m just so incredibly sad, I’ve been on back to back ivf since November and to finally get the BFP and now just to have this worry is awful - why the doctor felt it was worth a roll of the dice when I was low risk for a clot I don’t know.

@seven201 the scan and blood showed no clot, so all of this for nothing, I’m just terrified until the scan next Wednesday, it’s such a sensitive time for embryo development

@AM08 oh your poor thing. How stressful. But I'm sure it will be fine with one dose. Having had a quick read the animal studies were done with much higher doses and the only example of a pregnancy on the drug turned out fine (and she's been taking it regularly).

Totally get that you don't need the additional worry. Well done for checking this out tho and I'm very glad you don't have a blood clot.

Are you on pred? I think this gave me occasional numbness tho nothing as extreme as you describe.

Sending you love after a horrible ordeal xxx

@Janefx40 thank you, it’s so kind of you to take a look and share some reassuring words, i just can’t help but feel at 5.5 weeks the embryo is in such a hyper growth stage that it’s so delicate. I do hope that it’s right that with this dose that it should be ok - I did try and make myself sick after I took it but think I was too late.

I’m not on pred but I am anaemic and when I had my transfer, they did mention something about my red blood cells - I wonder if the embryo is pulling all of my blood towards my uterus…

The idea of the next 6 days until the scan is just dreadful now ☹️ Just did a clear blue ultra which is silly as I was over 3000 HCG last week but it is still saying 3+ weeks

@AM08 the anaemia sounds like a very likely cause of what you are experiencing (she says with no medical knowledge whatsoever! But it sounds like sense!).

3+ is the highest result and suggests you hcg is over 2753 so definitely not dropped anyway.

Am hopeful this is going to work out fine x

Thank you @Janefx40 your so kind, so grateful to have you all xxx

I just need to hold on to the fact that if this doesn’t work out then I was able to get pregnant 🙏

@AM08 I'm so sorry for your ordeal today, what a nightmare. I hope you're managing to rest up this evening after it all. Reassuring that you're still 3+ on Clearblue. Hopefully the next week until your scan passes quickly for you. Is there any way they could bring it forward a few days? If that would help.

@Faithhopelove83 thank you for checking in - do you think we could get a heartbeat before 6 weeks 5 days? I just worry about going and being more freaked out if it isn’t there yet - what a mess, tonight hasn’t gone well at all, sat and cried and haven’t eaten which isn’t good for the embryo but hoping tomorrow will be better xx

@seven201 yes abroad :) so that will add a lot of complications as they give birth abroad which means I probably will need to as well. But it's early days for me and her so I guess I don't need to worry about that for a while.

@AM08 my psychologist described my situation as a "high risk, high stake" pregnancy so I completely get how you feel. I know you are really worried and we will always behave super cautiously because of how long we waited and longed to get to this point, but it was one dose and likely did no harm. You know on 4dp5dt I was so thirsty I put a load of lemon in water, I guzzled it down all day, glass after glass of strong lemon water. And then I randomly thought "is lemon ok?" and googled it and the internet says it's a contraceptive!!! I think it interferes with sperm more than anything else so hopefully wouldn't have had an impact, but I mean we're going to be in contact with stuff that we don't know is bad at the time, I never would have thought to check if lemons are ok.

Are you sure the test you used doesn't stop at 3+ the CB one I considered buying only has the options: 1-2, 2-3, 3+

@Gardenlady543 I bet your head is spinning thinking about everything. Does your psychologist know your surrogate was doing a round at the same time?

@AM08 sorry you're having a stressful time. I (with no knowledge whatsoever) do think just one dose isn't a worry.

@seven201 yeah I had a session with her yesterday and updated her after the result came in.

I decided not to test today, I hope this is the right decision. I hope my betas will be reassuring.

@Gardenlady543 I’m so happy for you news, it’s early days but it is a really exciting place to be - how do you feel
about 2 babies at once potentially!?

I do agree, I think I’ve just been so cautious with everything from sugar to cosmetics that this has sent my anxiety through the roof. Everyone has said ‘it should be ok at this dose’ but there is no more reassurance then that and I’m worrying that because the embryo is in such a growth phase, is this going to impact the health of the baby - I don’t want to spend the entirety of this pregnancy freaking out before every single scan. I think the plan is that I’ll call UCLH today and see if i can self refer as I’m 6 weeks tomorrow, and then speak to a consultant as it was mentioned to me yesterday that the pregnancy would be consultant led due to ivf and I’m likely to have a rhesus negative pregnancy (the doctor who spoke to me yesterday also mentioned the consultant she spoke to yesterday at UCLH said she would be my consultant when my referral went through.)

I just want to hear from someone, about women who’ve taken a medically risky drug at this stage of pregnancy and what the outcomes are, at the sort of dosage I’m at. I just feel I was already nervous for the 6.5 week scan and now this. Sorry for venting but I’m so worried.

@seven201 thank you, it does feel logical that one does should be ok but I’m so scared.

@AM08 it's not quite the same but in my second fresh cycle that resulted in my DD, they gave me a burserelin trigger rather than a standard hcg one because my oestrogen was a little high. I then read up about it and found out something like 80% of women given this trigger didn't get pregnant and of the 20% who did nearly all of them miscarried. I literally screamed when I read that. I rang the clinic and they said "yes that's why we give you a small hcg injection at egg collection and oestrogen tablets to counteract this effect" to which I pointed out that they hadn't done either. This was already 2 days post egg collection. They said "oh dear, can you come in now?".

They recommended freeze all as they didn't know if I'd be able to be pregnant after this but I didn't have that many embryos so might not be able to freeze anything.

They suggested I take hcg that evening and started me on oestrogen then but there was no research to show if this would help as it is meant to be given at egg collection.

On transfer day 5 there was one embryo suitable for freezing and one that was still at day 4 morula stage. They told me we could wait a day to see if it could be frozen but there was only a 5-10% chance that it could be. We went back and forth and in the end decided to freeze the good embryo and transfer the one that probably wouldn't make it just to give it a chance.

On test day I was crying saying it was so cruel to even make me take a test because we knew I couldn't be pregnant anyway.

And that embryo is now 4 years old and kept me up half the night because she dreamt Daddy went to prison!

There was actually one main academic in Denmark who had done most of the research on this topic. I emailed him but he didn't get back to me for a couple of weeks until after I'd tested. He said he thought it might be fine because they believed there was a 3 day window to give these meds but they had always done trials of giving it at egg collection because it was easier to do.

It's not the same as your story but I did go through a similar process of despair and distress at one point too.

Sending you love. X

@AM08 I'm so sorry for all the additional stress this is causing at what is already a stressful time.
You could maybe bring your scan forward from 6+5 to 6+3. It's only a couple of days but every day helps. Although I understand the worry that you don't want it to be too early in case it causes more worry. I think the heartbeat can be seen between 5-6 weeks, but I would wait until after 6 weeks. For this pregnancy, I had my first scan at 6+3 and there was a strong heartbeat at that time.
I'm sorry, I don't have experience of taking a medically risky drug (although I'm not sure they really know how safe Prednisolone etc in pregnancy is). But I do know what it's like to have additional stress at this time. I was told on the morning of transfer that my progesterone levels were too low and we were advised to cancel due to the risk of failure and MC. We pressed ahead and took steps to rescue the progesterone levels - which turned out to be the correct decision - but it was an anxious time. I know it's not the same thing, but I do understand the worry. I hope you get on well with the hospital today x

@Janefx40 What an amazing and beautiful story! 💗

@Janefx40 that must have been absolutely terrifying to see that study and for the clinic to have made that mistake - I guess you held your nerve and ultimately it paid off and now you have DD. Thank you so much for sharing! I know it’s not the exact same but it is comforting to hear about an experience that is really worrying but did work out wonderfully. I’m so pleased for you and it does show not to rely to heavily on these studies found online. I think I just have to hold my nerve, I got to a point this morning of wanting to come off the ivf medication and just start again as I can’t face the anxiety I’ll have at each scan but I need to be stronger than this. I need to remember it was one dose and there must have been people on this blood thinner that have fallen pregnant and not known about it.

@Faithhopelove83 I will give the clinic a call and see if we can do Monday, it is agonising - I do need to try and just focus on something else to take my mind off things. I’m so happy you pressed ahead with your transfer even after advice and it worked out, it shows that when something is meant to be that it just works out. 💕

UCLH have not been very helpful today, and said because I’m on the list for ivf with them (I’d get one full cycle) that they won’t advise me until I register as pregnant undergoing there care, which would mean coming off the ivf list. I’m going to wait until I’ve had the scan, and then if all good register with them next week. I need to try and focus on other things for now.

Thank you all you all for sharing your stories and giving me comfort. It means so much.

@AM08 Thank you. That's exactly it. Stay strong / positive, keep taking your IVF meds, and hopefully you can get a scan for Monday. Let us know how you get on. Hugs x

Arg @Janefx40 what a horrible stress that should never have happened. It's so frustrating how on the ball we need to be and how things need to be questioned when really we should be able to sit back and have everything planned out properly.

Is 6+3 the earliest date for the scan, if things are going well for me on Monday still then my clinic will likely book me in for a scan and I have never got to this point before so have no idea about timing. According to my natural cycles app I am 4+1 today. All I know about the scans, is that I've seen a few people go in too early and have the stress of no heart beat only for it to be there a week later.

@AM08 I'm really not sure how I feel right now, I guess I'm keeping quite guarded about everything having had so much go wrong and just trying to tell myself that I have two chances of success at the moment, so hopefully the statistics are in my favour.

@AM08 I'm sorry that I can't remember your full history and whether you've had prior pregnancies but this phase of pregnancy is almost unbearable for all of us who have had infertility/loss. But the aim of all of this is to have a baby and there is no way to do that without going through this bit first.

It takes a lot of courage to do what we do and we all have to use every ounce that we can find to get through those early weeks.

Sending love xxx

@Gardenlady543 the earliest you are likely to see a heartbeat is 6 weeks. At 5+6 the doc thought he could see a flicker. I've seen a proper one before at 6+1. 6+3 is more certain. You can see something earlier. You might see a sac and yolk sac and maybe a fetal pole before then. I have seen those at 5+4 before but not always. This time at 5+6 he couldn't see the fetal pole but as he could see a heartbeat we knew it had to be there. All very tiny at that stage and very easy to miss stuff and get measurements wrong.

@Gardenlady543 I think it's more accurate to calculate how far along you are based on your transfer date rather than LMP. In the case of a medicated FET, the date you start progesterone is the 2 week mark and then count forward from there. I think you were natural FET though? So then ovulation would be deemed the 2 week mark. Transfer day of a 5 day blast is 2+5.
I don't think 6+3 is the earliest scan date, but I'd be nervous of going much earlier than that in case it was just too early to see much. I would just be guided by your clinic.
Is Monday your OTD?

@Janefx40 so probably best to go at 6+3 or later.

@Faithhopelove83 I triggered on 24th April so ovulated and started Progesteone on 26th April and transferred on 1st May. Do you know what my dating is and when l I have a scan? OTD is Sunday but clinic doesn't open until day after.