Ladies that have used agonist protocols with birth control prior to stims?

panda100

Hi 'Im interested in what your response was when using birth control pills prior to starting an antagonist cycle? I am going over the data of my cycles and I am starting to see that bad things happen to me when I have used lupron. A lot of REs overlap the last few days of birth control with lupron, like in the long lupron protocol because some believe that birth control can suppress the early recruitment of follicles since recruitment of follicles is actually done by the body in the week prior to menstruation. Then some doctors do not believe this. I have learned the most throughout this expensive, stressful terrible journey from you all. . What would we do without each other, seriously? So if you used birth control pills without a lupron overlap prior to starting a stims and then used an antagonist like ganirelix or cetrotide to suppress premature ovulation in your cycles, could you please share with me how many follicles you had, how many eggs were retrieved, how many mature, how many fertilized and how many made it to day 3 and blastocysts stage? Oh and how long you were on the pill? While I know we are all different learning from you ladies has really been a great help and I appreciate it so so much. I love you all for everything. The support, the information. You're all great. Thank you. :-*

ronniesgirl1981

I am a poor responder, so my results are going to be atypical. However, I can report that lupron shuts me down hard! My estrogen never rose from where it was at baseline after 8 days of stims. My current RE does not believe that BCPs suppress you....I know that others disagree, so we are seeking some second opinions.

CML11

You might be on to something. I'm on my second cycle and I have even less follies going than last time. Last time they were watching 11 follies, but could only take 6. This time I only have 6 going so far.
This cycle I had to do BCPs for 33 days. I'm going to look into Lupron, despite hearing it turns nice girls into Lucifer.

StacyLH24

During my monitoring I always counted 12-15 follies being measured. I had 9 retrieved, 6 fertilized and 4 of those were normal. Two were a day 3 transfer and the other two were frozen blasts.

I did BCPs then stimmed with Gonal-F and used diluted HCG at the same time. I added in Ganirelix along the way. I had already used Gonal-F for IUI cycles, so we already knew that I responded well to it. The goal at my RE's office is 8-12 eggs so they don't go crazy pumping you with meds to make a ton of eggs.

alpCRNA

12-15 follicles, 13R9M8F, Day 3=8 embryos, Day5= 1 low grade blast and 3 morulas, nothing to freeze

We are trying the long-lupron protocol this time in hopes of better embryo quality.

przemosbabe

I used BCP without a lupron overlap. I don't think it suppressed me. I had 12 eggs retrieved but I had maturity issues. Out of the 4 mature eggs they retrieved I had 100% fertilization and one blast at the end. That's pretty good for 4 eggs.

StacyLH24

@panda100 - my dose was 10 units using an insulin syringe. I believe that is the equivalent of 0.1 mL. If I remember correctly, the does never changed.

mrsCW

I did BCPs, then stimmed with 225 IU follistim for 5 days. Then 150 IU follistim + 75-150 IU menopur, and ganirelix. I had a great cycle! 14R, 13F with ICSI, and we ended up with 8 blasts to freeze on day 5.

kristyn831

I was on BCP for 17 days and just started gonal-f 225 units last night.

Twinkie0612

I don't seem to respond well to stims, so my results are probably not typical.  My clinic also batches IVF patients so you have to be on BCP.  I was 30 when we did our first cycle and will turn 32 a few weeks after our 4th cycle.  My AMH has been good 1.8-2.2 and day 3 FSH 5-7.  Here are my stats:

IVF #1 (Long Lupron with BCP overlap.  Lower dose stim Follistim 150-300IU I believe) 6R, 5M, 3F, 0B transfer canceled.

IVF #2 (Agonist/Antagonist Conversion, it's a SIRM protocol. Start with lupron, but switch to Ganirelix before stims.  Higher doses of Follistim 300-450IU I believe) 8R, 7M, 5F, 1B Chemical Pregnancy

IVF #3 (Agonist/Antagonist Conversion. Higher doses of Follistim 375-525IU) 8R, 8M, 8F, 2B Negative beta

I am currently starting IVF #4 which will be the same protocol again, but also with estrogen priming.  My stims will be upped again, Follistim will be 375-600IU.  We are also adding treatment with a RI into the mix.

saratrying

I did antagonist protocol in August. I had a BFN but it was the first protocol that got me to an ER and ET. I had two prior cancelations for dominant follicle/poor response. 

My protocol was pretty typical. Started with  21/2 weeks of BCPs. Three days after stopping the BCP, I stimmed with 2 vials of menpur in the morning and 300 units of Follistim at night, plus dexamethasone. I started ganirelix on day 7 of stims. I stimmed for 10 days. Had 13 eggs, 9 mature and 8 fertilized with ICSI. All 8 grew, but none hit blastocyst. We transferred 3 = 1 morula and 2 early blasts. Resulted in BFN and nothing made it to freeze. 

Good luck!

ddvj79

I am doing antagonist protocol with microdose Hcg right now. (450 IU follistim + 20 HcG)
This is generally used for poor responders & they focus on getting a fewer but higher quality eggs.

My RE said my Estrogen levels are doing well & I have exceeded her expectations...I was terrible during IUIs, barely made 1 follicle...
She also said while I was making more follicles that she expected, they are growing very slowly!

mrsCW

@panda100 sorry for the delayed response! I was on BCP for 3.5 weeks.