April IVF

KLake42

@daisy222-2 I'm sorry to hear your IVF was converted.  I don't have any real advice, but all the (non-creepy internet) hugs.  I've totally been there, twice.  After 7 failed IUIs, I had two IVFs that were both cancelled and converted (both BFN).

After all the disappointments I've experienced, I've learned that my emotional/mental strength has its cycles.  The hardest part is right now, when you've been all hopeful, and then everything goes tits up, but you can't really fully process the disappointment because you've still got that freaking two week wait following the IUI.  

And yeah, I've heard of that kind of IUI working, so you still have reason to hope, but it's a rough kind of hope, because yeah, the stats aren't on your side.  
I recommend you find some self care, whatever it looks like.  Me, I liked planning a night out on the freaking town with a designated driver, so I could get as tipsy as I want, for the day AF shows up.  Sushi and the most pretentious cocktails I could find.  (With some moderation, so I don't get sick, but only moderate moderation.)

But back to those cycles of strength-- it gets easier to feel strong, once you get past this and start looking forward.  There are different protocols that might work better.  And the best side of a cancelled cycle-- it usually works out to be cheaper than a failed cycle, because you got to skip the ER.  I had such a substantial credit with my clinic, it was like I had already almost paid for the next cycle.  (I won't think about how much I spent on meds.)  So if you feel like things are hard right now... I honestly believe it gets better.

As for me, my wife has had two nights of stims, and we go to the doctor for an ultrasound for her tomorrow, and blood work for me (I'm only on estrogen).  She feels sort of strange and prickly after the injection, so I hope that means it's doing its thing, and that her ovaries will behave much better than mine did.

ttc_ivf

@Momifbysea Hi! I hope all goes well on your appointment on Thursday. Does it seem like it's taking forever to get to that day? It does for me. I've been counting days since they gave me the appointment. Do you know what your protocol is? This is our 3rd ivf. The last couple of times I started on BCP but this time our new clinic wants to start mid cycle and didn't start me on BCP. 

ttc_ivf

@Aera11 how exciting! Sending you good vibes for a BFP.

radmom27

@fivetimesnoluck I got a call about fertilization the day after retrieval and then at day 3 before 5 day transfer and then usually a call on day 6 to let me know how many made it through all the way.  It depends on the clinic though...

MMD1986

@kiwisun4385 congrats on the great fertilization report!  Hope you are still feeling well after the retreival.

@mjpbarretto welcome!

@cashewchicken welcome!

@fivetimesnoluck have y'all picked your donor yet? Sorry if you've already mentioned this, hard to keep up in here sometimes.

@aera11 yay for a complete transfer!  Fingers crossed!  I've heard a couple of days on the hcg getting out of your system, but it is probably a little different for every person.

@KLake42 good luck to you both on the blood work and ultrasound! Hopefully the stims are working great.



I start my follistim and menopur tonight and go in for blood work and ultrasound on Friday.  I have enough medication to get through 8 days of stims at the current dose.  How many days did most of you do your stimulation shots for?

fivetimesnoluck

Yes! @MMD1986 - we have picked our donor. I am arranging shipment of the lot from the egg bank in Atlanta to the clinic we are using. She had a total of 20 eggs available and this was her first donation, so no outcomes to study.

Momifbysea

Edited to fix autocorrect for cetrotide...

@mjpbarretto YES! It seems like forever to that baseline day! I'm doing 23 days of BCPs first which is taking forever. I feel like (well I AM) such a newbie that I'm embarrassed to say I don't know what protocol I'm on except that meds ran $7,000, so a lotta drugs. I have menopur, follistim, ovidrel, and cetrotide in the mix. What I'm wondering about is how long I'll have to wait after ER until the FET since we are having PGS.

artemis618

@MMD1986  For my last cycle, I stimmed for nine days, triggered on the 10th (looks like for my egg freezing cycle years ago I stimmed for 9, triggering on the 9th).  But last cycle I was concerned about not having enough gonal-F - turns out the nurses can get quite a bit out from the residual (each has >100 extra) from the others.  Unfortunately for me this round, my first u/s was at another location without nurses to draw it out for me (because of Cesar Chavez Day), and I forgot to bring them all (leftover from this cycle and last) with me to this morning's appointment.  They ordered me 8 pens of gonal for this cycle - tonight is night 8 and it's a good thing I had one leftover from last round because my next appt isn't till Wednesday.

So maybe they can get the excess out of the follistim pens for you the same way?

@Momifbysea Sounds like an antagonist (the Cetrotide) protocol to me!  That's what my first one was, trying luteal lupron this time.

kiwisun4385

@MMD1986 I did days 1-8 of Gonal f & Menopur, on the 6th day I added Cetrotide, which I did days 6-9.  Then I triggered with Lupon day 9 & 10 and my egg retrieval was day 11.  I'm sure everyone is slightly different, but figured I'd give you an idea of what my stims were like.  

@Aera11 Congrats on your fresh transfer being complete, fingers crossed for you!

@mjpbarretto  This is my first IVF cycle, but the nurses I spoke with said I should get my period any day and then I will start estrogen, and progesterone for about 2-3 weeks I believe, then the transfer will be done.  They said they do it much quicker than it used to be, you used to have to wait like 2 months for the frozen.  Now the way they do it, it is only a few weeks.  I don't believe we are doing PGD or PGS though, I'm not sure if that delays things? 

ttc_ivf

@Momifbysea don't be embarrassed. I think that's the protocol I had the last 2 cycles. We have a new clinic and the dr wants to start me mid cycle and that's completely new to me

daisy222-2

KLake42  Thank you! Your post was so genuinely nice and just what I needed to hear. I have been taking this delay/cancellation hard. I had my hopes up too high like usual, eventually I will learn. Every next/new step we try, I am like "Oh this is it, baby in 9 months ", because I am an idiot.

This past weekend I was at various social activities and was just NOT into it. (Not drinking did not help. People asking why I was not drinking did not help. Ugh.)  I like your recommendation for CD1, reminds me of that quote "everything in moderation, including moderation" 

And great point about a cancelled cycle being cheaper than a failed one, that is a significant silver lining. We ended up paying "just" $4000 in blood tests and USs for this round so have a credit of ~$14,000. (Maybe I also took $1500 in wasted stims....$500 per mature follicle, lol)

I am sorry you have had to deal with canceled cycles twice. I wish it wasn't so hard to find the right protocol.  Fingers crossed for your wife's meds doing exactly what they should be doing!

Rachel_leigh22

@cmiller73 did you transfer the one or did you go right into a new cycle to retrieve more? 

ttc_ivf

@kiwisun4385 glad to hear that the wait is not as long for a FET. What's PGD or PGS? Sorry I'm still learning the abbreviations.

cashewchicken

@caitb13- Cycle buddy!  My u/s would have been today, but I was rescheduled for tomorrow.  Hope your u/s went great!

@mjpbarretto- I did two luteal stimulations my first two cycles.  It's gaining popularity and my RE recommends this protocol on almost all his patients (it seems).  Unfortunately it didn't work for me, but I had very few side effects.  Hope the protocol works for you!

@kiwisun4385-Thanks!  Great fertilization report!

@Momifbysea- Thanks!  I never expected to be doing a third cycle, to be honest.  My first IVF was in October/November 2016 and here I am... I was nervous (and excited too) before my first cycle, and a thought of giving myself injections everyday was scary, but it's really not that bad.  Amazing how quickly you get used to it. 

@MMD1986- Thanks!  I did 10-11 days of stimulation shots.  I have a problem with low % of mature eggs and the doctor originally thought that I needed to be stimulated longer, but then I guess 10-11 is already on the long end... 

cmiller73

@Rachel_leigh22 Into another ER cycle.  Still waiting to O, though.  Very annoying and managing stress levels is proving challenging, to say the least.  I will be testing once more today (morning was a neg on the OPK) and calling the RE to see if they want me in for more blood work tomorrow to see whats taking so long! Meh, it will be a weird cycle and Im owning that ok... my hormones just feel all over the place and Im super cranky, bloaty and out of sorts.  

Hopefully whatever is going on in there sorts itself out and the egg releases soon!

brooklyngirl18

I'm finally going to be able to join you ladies with stim's starting Friday. I'm not sure if I'm doing gonal or menopur first, or both together. I'm currently on Lupron since Friday, I have an appointment tomorrow and again Friday. I went over all my medicatin again last night and wrote down all my questions and had horrible anxiety dreams all night about messing up the dosages and missing shots. ugh, the worst!

Momifbysea

@brooklyngirl18 I've been having the same dreams lately! I start Monday. I have to wonder if once we get the first couple under our belt if this anxiety melts away? Thinking of you and wishing you strength and confidence!

kris031409

Momifbysea My ER was March 22.  I just got my PGS results yesterday (1 of 2 is normal!) I had my baseline today, starting ~3 weeks of estrogen, then 6 days progesterone, so transfer should be the first week of May.  Good luck!

brooklyngirl18

@momifbysea we can be cycle buddies! I'm sorry you're having the same dreams, it's awful.

KLake42

After 3 days of stims, my wife has a (on the right) 4, 9, 9, 10, and 10, and (on the left) 4, 5, 6, 6, 6, and 7.  A little small, but for 38 years old, she's doing way better than I did.  Estrogen at 213, which they said was great (mine was just 79 at this stage, last time).  

Are the numbers good?  I'm not sure, but I think they're ok.  All we can do is wait.

Momifbysea

@KLake42 I think those numbers sound great, especially for 38! I have to wonder what I'll get at 42? Sounds like you're off to a great cycle! Does she have any side effects from the stims or how is she handling?

ttc_ivf

@cashewchicken did you also do freeze all cycle? I'm kinda nervous. My baseline appt is tomorrow 

kiwisun4385

@mjpbarretto  Haha the only reason I have a clue what they are is from lots of reading on these forums, and googling stuff I didn't know .  From all that I have read -  PGS is genetic screening of the embryo to make sure the chromosomes are all normal, but doesn't look for a specific disease diagnosis.  PGD is also genetic screening but with this they use this to look for a specific genetic condition, an example would be cystic fibrosis.  Very interesting!

nim81

It is good to see all of the updates and good luck to everyone.
My retrieval is this Thursday!!

cashewchicken

@KLake42- That looks great, I think!  I think it's nice that all of them are growing at a similar pace.  I have a question- did you remember the follicle size, or does your clinic give them to you?  I've had u/s done at two clinics and I've never had a clinic hand me a follicle size data.  I've always wondered how people remember all of the follicle sizes...

@mjpbarretto- I did freeze all cycle, and for luteal stimulation protocol, you have to.  For luteal stimulation protocol, since you start your stimulation mid-cycle, your stimulation period is not in sync with your natural cycle.  I ended up retrieving what would have been the first week of my next cycle.  I think the first time I did the protocol, I got my period during stimulation phase.  For the second cycle, I didn't get my period.  I was okay with freeze all as I am at high risk for developing OHSS anyway, and I wanted get PGS testing done for the embryos.  Good luck tomorrow!

@Nim- Exciting!  Hope you get lots of good eggs!

ttc_ivf

@cashewchicken thank you so much for the information. I'm a little nervous for our appointment tomorrow but I guess also excited lol. 

Momifbysea

@mjpbarretto good luck today!

Question...does anyone know what factors determine which protocol we are doing? I'm doing antagonist, wondering if it's based in part on my age or my AFC or other test results? Or is the typical one they try first?

brooklyngirl18

I had a scan this morning to confirm supression and make sure everything looks good to start Friday. I stopped bcp Monday night so hopefully I get my period in the next day or so. My dr said i need to start it before starting stims and I'm scheduled to start Friday. I told him I'm really concerned about ohss, especially since my AMH is 9.8. he agreed and lowered my dosage of gonal to 150 and 1 vial of menopur. the nurse gave me a heart attack this morning and told me to take menopur IM with the large needle!! i was like umm, I'm pretty sure that's wrong and thankfully another nurse corrected her and said to use a small needle sub-q. thank GOD!

Momifbysea

@brooklyngirl18 omg that would've freaked me the heck out! Luckily you got the right info on the needle. Can you explain the tie between AMH and OHSS? Glad your dr adjusted your dose since that was a concern.

brooklyngirl18

@momifbysea AMH levels are related to your egg reserve. I have mild pcos and with pcos, you tend to have a high AMH level and one of the risk factors of OHSS is high AMH. For my age, a normal AMH level is around 4, but mine is well above 9. While it's good to have a good AMH level,  it's kind of scary when it's high since OHSS sounds awful. 

Momifbysea

@brooklyngirl18 thanks for that! My AMH is 3.754 so while that seems low maybe that's why my RE is fine with higher doses for me. Plus being 42 I've heard doses can be higher? Learning more every day on all this...FX your period starts soon so you can start stims!

brooklyngirl18

@Momifbysea that's a great AMH for 42!! usually after 40 the AMH level drops below 1. 3.7 is usually the number of a 20 year old 

Momifbysea

@brooklyngirl18 really?!? You just made my day. Maybe there's hope for this IVF. Our clinic has no real data for the 41-42 age group, like 10 total cycles and no live births. Hoping hoping I can buck the odds.

cmiller73

@Momifbysea My AMH was just under 6 and I turned 43 in December. Yours is amazing!
 

brooklyngirl18

@momifbysea FX you are the first one if your group with have a healthy live birth
@cmiller73 that's great!!

ladies on gonal, what is your dosage? I'm wondering if there's a standard starting dose. I guess same question for Menopur.

radmom27

@brooklyngirl18 I think dosage stuff really depends on what protocol you're on and what kind of responder you've been in the past.  I'm on medium doses (300 of GonalF) and on 75 of Menopur.

KLake42

@Momifbysea Very few side effects so far-- she mostly feels tingly and vaguely uncomfortable, a touch bloated.  She has mild restless leg syndrome, and she says that it's worse.  It could be the meds, or it could be stress.

Also, my AMH at 38 was under 1, and we eventually decided that my ovaries were toast.  I wish we hadn't spent so much money trying, but still, I feel lke I needed to try.  I don't recall my wife's numbers-- they are were almost normal (in the normal range but leaning a little towards lower reserve).

@brooklyngirl18 My wife is on 300 menopur and 300 gonal-F, which is high, but normal for her age (38).  She's also overweight (though I'm so proud of her, for doing the work to lose 15 pounds the last two months).  Being older and overweight, and with no indication of PCOS, she is very low risk for OHSS.  Women who are younger, thin, and/or PCOS tend to be given less medication to reduce the risk.

@cashewchicken We always snap a photo of the ultrasound machine while getting dressed, which still shows the summary of everything.  Our doctor also knows we like to keep up with it, and will print the summary if we ask.

AngryBull

*** lurking ***
@brooklyngirl18 just wanted to let you know that I have PCOS and like you I was really concerned about OHSS when I did my IVF retrieval cycle (I'm 36 and my AMH is about 5).  My stim dosage was exactly the same as yours - 150 GonalF and 1 vial of Menopur each day (we added in Ganirelix on day 5). I stimmed for 9 days and these doses provided very good results (24 eggs retrieved, 15 mature). And I didn't get OHSS - I actually didn't find ER very hard and I recovered quickly. It sounds to me like your RE has you starting in the right place for someone with PCOS. They can always make adjustments throughout the protocol if you aren't responding.  But I remember when I was going through IVF always hearing other people with doses much higher than mine and worrying that mine were too low to get enough eggs. I just had to keep reminding myself that everyone's body responds differently. And it helped to hear from others with PCOS on low doses who'd had success.  Best of luck to you and all the ladies stimming this month  !

Aera11

@brooklyngirl18 for my first IVF I was on 150 Gonal & 150 menopur; this past IVF I did 75 for both.  My RE wanted to try to get in an extra day of stims so she started me off lower.

brooklyngirl18

thank you so much @angrybull that makes me feel so much better. best of luck to you!