IF testing & treatment 7/12

daisy0322

This is a place for those of us who have already started TTC, but have started infertility testing and/or treatments. You can express your thoughts, feelings, and frustrations on infertility. TTC can be a long journey naturally, then add in the difficulties associated with infertility, and it becomes a whole new ball game. The road to infertility can be lonely, frustrating, and complicated, so let's make this a place where we can vent, ask questions, and support one another. Feel free to resurrect this thread at any point in the week if you have something to say. Treat this as an ongoing conversation.

Diagnosis (if you've been):  

Status (WTO/TWW/TTA):  

What are you doing this cycle? (Testing? Treatment?):  

How are things going?:  

Any questions?:  

GTKY: What is the best advice you’ve ever been given? 

kiwi2628

Diagnosis (if you've been):  unexplained

Status (WTO/TWW/TTA):  WF FET

What are you doing this cycle? (Testing? Treatment?):  FET on Saturday!!!

How are things going?:  good! Feeling good and excited. 

Any questions?:  

GTKY: What is the best advice you’ve ever been given? Worrying and anxiety about inevitable problems makes you have to deal a problem twice, so don’t give extra time worrying about a problem that hasn’t happened yet or you are just wasting time. 

I loved my PPD therapist

laura-kay

@kiwi2628 Good luck!!

mokay19

@kiwi2628 can't wait for Saturday for you!  Also, love that advice.

Diagnosis (if you've been):  PCOS

Status (WTO/TWW/TTA):  on BC waiting for post-op follow-up

What are you doing this cycle? (Testing? Treatment?):  after I get the all-clear, we'll do Clomid and Letrozole, trigger, progesterone, with TI

How are things going?:  The nurse gave me the option to keep taking my birth control and stop it for my post-op to have a bleed right after that and start the next cycle then rather than take Provera after the post-op.  I figured this will save time and money since I have enough BC left to take until the post-op appointment.

Any questions?:  not presently

GTKY: What is the best advice you’ve ever been given?  You don't get a second chance to make a first impression.

daisy0322

@kiwi2628 ahhh Saturday! That’s so exciting ❤️

@mokay19 when is your follow up? Do you have to wait much longer?

Diagnosis (if you've been):  POI

Status (WTO/TWW/TTA):  WTO

What are you doing this cycle? (Testing? Treatment?):  Letrozole

How are things going?:  okay, the letrozole makes me super dizzy at night but that’s my only real complaint. I’m taking it for 8 days only 5 more nights to go. 

Any questions?:  when did you all ovulate when taking letrozole? I know everyone is a little different, Im just curious. 

GTKY: What is the best advice you’ve ever been given? “You’ll be married to a lot of different people in your life but if you pick the right one they’ll all be the same person.” They mente in in the way that people change and through different phases you’ll love each other different ways and relationships are supposed to evolve. 

keikilove

@optimistgardener Thinking of you and sending all the positive energy for a super successful retrieval this morning!

mokay19

@daisy0322 my follow up isn’t until the end of this month unfortunately. 

For your question, first of all, I’ve never taken Letrozole for 8 days... did they give you a reason why you’re not doing the normal 5 days? Second of all, I have PCOS so I’m slower to respond than most probably but I usually ovulate day 18-20 when I take Letrozole from Days 3-7. But again, I’ve never taken it for 8 days straight before like you are so I’m not sure if that would change things. 

And846

@daisy0322 my 3 cycles on letrozole: CD 16, CD 14 and CD14. It also made me dizzy and sweaty so I just took it at night at bedtime so I could sleep through feeling icky. 

@mokay19 I can't wait to hear about how you do with clomid and letrozole 

@kiwi2628 ah! Exciting about FET Saturday! What are you doing this week leading up? Is the week going slow or fast as you wait? Love that advice. 

A few mentions from last weeks as I lurked... 
the Reese Books are all hit or miss. Some I have loved and others I could have gone without but still completed because I committed. 
The beach I went to was just a couple hours away from home so easy enough to get there! 


Diagnosis (if you've been):  unexplained

Status (WTO/TWW/TTA):  TWW

What are you doing this cycle? (Testing? Treatment?):  Letrozole, estrace, progesterone, PNV and HIO (break cycle between IUI's). Kind of annoyed about timing - we got in -3, -2, -1 and +2 only 

TW *LC

Our almost 3 year old was in our hotel room with us and we only had 1 giant king bed so it kind of disrupted our timing this cycle.

How are things going?:  just got back from beach weekend with our friends and family group and dealing with sickness in the household, luckily a good covid tests came back negative + me and DH are vaxxed...so I guess my can say my mind is preoccupied. 

Any questions?:  none.

GTKY: What is the best advice you’ve ever been given? Life is like driving a car. You have a windshield and a rear view mirror. Which one do you look out majority of the drive? The windshield - so you can see what is going on. If you spent all the time looking in the rear view, you would crash because you are not paying attention to what is happening in front and around you.

bows22

thinking of you @optimistgardener!!

acleverusername

@kiwi2628 Good luck!

@mokay19 sounds like you made the right choice staying on BCP until after post-op appointment! 

@daisy0322 Are you taking the Letrazole at night? Also, you're right that everyone ovulates at different times when taking it. When I took 5mg or 10mg, I would ovulate on Day 11-12; but then I took 2.5mg, it expedited my "natural" ovulation, but only a few days (I normally ovulate on CD20-21, and that time, I ovulated on CD 16). Others will tell you a completely different story though. Also... I LOVE your "best advice;" so good. 

@And846 that timing looks great IMHO; I believe the day before ovulation is statistically the best day to have intercourse. Also love your "best advice." 

And since I didn't get a chance to do all my tags at the end of last week... 

@bumblebee0210 so happy another ER is over and you have similar results to your 1st & 2nd ERs. I echo what Keiki said: I hope the quality will be better with the EPP. Keep us posted!

@optimistgardener eeek! I can't believe it's already retrieval day for you! Good luck! Thinking hard about you and your little oocytes. Hopefully they'll be in tip-top shape. Also, your plan for if/when to do a transfer now is complicated, but required. I also thinking in the "if yes, do this; if no, do that" type of way. Hopefully your internal flow chart has lots of "yes's". 

@keikilove your transfer plan is also a complicated flow chart! Wow. Very well thought out too, as it would be. Anyhow, I'm glad you managed to sneak in that Covid vaccine (was this your 2nd shot?) and that you can get back to prepping for hysteroscopy / final DuoStim / transfer. Re: Seattle LOL. It's funny... we had a FANTASTIC trip, and MH did take me on a tour of his former stoping grounds... including the fancy-ish restaurant he'd take dates to. And then we ended the trip doubling down on sticking around the Bay Area for a couple more years... mostly for professional opportunities. As someone with low Vitamin D, I really am not sure if I can handle the Seattle winter. I need to go there a few times in the Winter before I commit to living there. 

Diagnosis (if you've been):  Hashimoto's, AMA, sperm-driven fertilization issues

Status (WTO/TWW/TTA): WTO

What are you doing this cycle? (Testing? Treatment?):  attempt #2 at ER #1

How are things going?: good! Excited to get stimming.. I believe Sergio is about to make an appearance. Today I finally got a blinkey smile on the CBAD; I have a feeling it'll be a solid by tomorrow since I started having some EWCM yesterday. So yeah... if I do get my peak, I'll start stims this weekend! Woot! 

In the meanwhile, I connected / had a session with resident lurker @lickastick (she's a herbalist / acupuncturist specializing in thyroid autoimmune disorders) and she reviewed all of my blood work results (that my functional medicine doctor ordered) as well as all of the vitamins and supplements I currently take and wow - that was the most info-packed 1-hr session I've ever had. Definitely money well spent. She told me which vitamins/supplement to keep and avoid (some vitamins don't have what they say you have), which ones I need to take more of (because I need more of them), and just general lifestyle changes I need to make given Hashimoto's. 

All in all, I'm really happy that I'm taking the time to focus on my Hashimoto's; if the opportunity presents itself, I'm actually considering - once we're done with our embryo creation - trying naturally for a few cycles, but only if my hormone and HDL, Iron, Cortisol, Vitamin D levels have balanced out through supplementation / diet / lifestyle changes. 

Any questions?:  Nope

GTKY: What is the best advice you’ve ever been given? Can't be summarized in a neat sentence but it's something my late grandmother told me. I used to be obsessed with expressing my love / having someone's love expressed to me with frequent "I love you's." At one point, I was complaining to my grandma that my partner at the time didn't say it frequently enough. And she said "your grandpa never told me 'I love you': but when he called me "Nataschka" (a Russian diminutive for the name Natalia), and I knew that it his way of expressing his love for me." Made me realize how "empty" those words can really be. When I finally started dating MH, it took him like 1 year to say the words, but boy oh boy did his show it from Day 1... So I didn't care he didn't say the words, because he showed it to me in so many ways. 

acleverusername

@keikilove forgot to follow-up with you: I tried using the Omnitrope discount and unfortunately "Adult HGH deficiency" doesn't qualify me for rebates because the RE has prescribed it for fertility purposes. Then I tried to see if my clinic would allow use of Humatrope (HGH from Eli Lilly), and my RE wasn't comfortable with that. Oh well... 

daisy0322

@mokay19 5 day wouldn’t be enough for me my ovaries were already not triggered by high levels so I need to go higher. It’s safe to assume that if I’m doing something weird it’s because my ovaries and body are extremely jacked up 😅

@And846 girl that timing is great 😁 even without the circumstances 

daisy0322

@acleverusername Im taking it at night I’m just so miserable I wake up 🙃 but thank you for sharing youre experience! I appreciate it. I love your advice too!!! It’s all about recognizing live languages. Mine is very verbal too but my husbands is physically affection. But not like sex like holding hands, hugs, rubbing his back when I walk by. Which is like totally not how I was raised lol so it was an adjustment for me but just finding out what fills someone’s love tank but how they show love is so so important 

mokay19

@daisy0322 what dose do they have you at? 

daisy0322

@mokay19 2.5 this time but I’m not expecting to ovulate this round they’re trying to get my body out of menopause 

mokay19

@daisy0322 well, FX the 2.5 for 8 days does the trick!! 

optimistgardener

hey guys! thanks so so much for all the well-wishes, I swear I felt them all and they helped! This is just a really fast update for now because I'm still kinda in the dumb phase of my recovery, but somehow they managed to retrieve eight eggs after only counting seven on Sunday. So, fx I get a good one out of the deal! I'm so proud of my ovary.

bows22

@optimistgardener that’s amazing!!! and yay for not ovulating your eggs away! 🙂

kiki047

@optimistgardener YAY! That's wonderful news! Hope you get some rest, and I'll keep everything crossed for great fertilization/blast rates. 

and may the odds be ever in your favour

acleverusername

Yay ovary @optimistgardener!!! 

kiwi2628

@mokay19 I would do the BC option too

@daisy0322 on letrozole I usually ovulated CD 13-14 (I usually ovulate day 12-13)

@And846 the week is going SO SLOW. I wouldnt be annoyed about your timing BTW. That timing is fantastic

@acleverusername that cosnult sounds amazing! GL with all the changes and GL with stimming!

@optimistgardener yaaaaas! Congrats on the 8!

gingermama29

@kiwi2628 yay for FET on Saturday!!! I’ll be thinking of you! 

@mokay19 I hope this month flies by so you can do your post-op and get going on your next cycle!

@daisy0322 I took Letrozole for 5 days both cycles I was on it. I O’d on CD 21 the first time and CD 23 last cycle. I definitely have a late O I think because of my PCOS.

@And846 boo to being sick but yay that is not COVID. I hope aside from that, it was a nice vacation!

@acleverusername yay for stimming soon!! 

@optimistgardener yay for 8 eggs!! That’s awesome!! 

gingermama29

Diagnosis (if you've been):  PCOS

Status (WTO/TWW/TTA):  WTO

What are you doing this cycle? (Testing? Treatment?):  Clomid and TI

How are things going?: things are good. 2 days into Clomid so far and I’m not noticing any real side effects for which I’m grateful. Hopefully that will stay the case. Looks like if the timing of O on Letrozole is any indication, TI is going to happen during my big family vacation. We’re doing our annual house rental with my entire family (21 of us total!). Could be interesting trying to sneak away but I’ve also been very open with my family about my fertility struggles so they all know we’re TTC. 

Any questions?: those of you who have done  Clomid and Letrozole, was there much of a difference in when you O’d between the two meds?

GTKY: What is the best advice you’ve ever been given? You can’t control how other people will react to things, only how you conduct yourself. For someone with anxiety, like me, I stress constantly about how interactions will go and I definitely need to remind myself of that often.  

acleverusername

@gingermama29 I’ve done both Clomid and Letrazole and it didn’t have much of a difference in terms of O day. Maybe by 1-2 days. I do recall that first round on either drugs tended to result in hyper follicle growth: On my first cycle of Clomid, I was ready to trigger on Day 11 (follicle was 26mm). On my first cycle of Letrazole, I triggered on Day 9 (follicle size of 24.5mm) thereafter, on either drug, I was usually triggering around Day 10 or 11, with follicle sizes remaining under 23mm. Hope this helps! 

daisy0322

@gingermama29 oh goodness good luck on vacation haha - our family knew we we’re TTC on a trip this past weekend and they gave us the whole guest house ton ourselves 🤣 great advice! I try to remind myself of this frequently 

mokay19

@gingermama29 I have PCOS like you and there wasn’t a difference in my ovulation timing (still around CD 18-20) between the meds. Though, once with Clomid I didn’t respond at all and we had to switch me back to Letrozole that cycle. 

What dose do they have you on? 

gingermama29

@mokay19 I’m taking two 50mg pills a day

optimistgardener

Doing tags now and will do my weekly update after I hear from the clinic today (and perhaps after I drive back home from my mom's place where I'm staying).

@kiwi2628 I am so excited for your FET this weekend. I hope you're feeling good about it.

@mokay19 the advice you shared is so interesting but also a little terrifying to me! As a shy person, I'm terrible with first impressions and always have relied on the hope that I can make up for my stumbling efforts the 2nd (and 3rd and 4th) times around.

@daisy0322 I hope the letrozole makes a difference for you! are you're also taking HRT this cycle? if so, do you feel like you can distinguish between the letrozole side effects vs whatever the HRT drugs feel like? it's interesting reading everyone's experiences with letrozole... we're really all over the place! For me, letrozole maybe decreased my follicular phase by a day (if anything), so moving O day from 13-14 to maybe 12-13, and then lengthened out my luteal phase to 16 days. i feel like i never really full returned to my "old normal" in my luteal phase after coming off the letrozole, although my luteal phase did drop back to 15ish (but not what I seem to recall as my old-old normal of 14).

@and846 I join everyone else in saying that your timing this cycle looks great. there is definitely evidence out there that prefers O-1 to O for pregnancy rates, and combined with your o-2, you're in good shape.

@keikilove this is a reply to something you said last week, but i was so grateful last week for our active thread while i stressed out about my cycle! And i was really impressed with the # of posts as well (probably some of that was my fault, as I was being a bit compulsive in hanging out around here).

@acleverusername i'm really jazzed about your cycle this month! I hope everything goes well for you and you get a good crop. It's really great that you've had the time to think about strategies for you Hashimoto's diagnosis, and that you had that in-depth consult with the herbalist/acupuncturist. I'm happy that you're feeling so positive about the diet-related changes you've been making that you'd be open to trying some natural cycles in coming months.

@gingermama29 good luck with your cycle this month. I don't remember any particular difference between the clomid and letrozole. i'll be curious to learn if you do!

daisy0322

@optimistgardener I am on HRT but estrogen doesn’t do this I’ve taken it before. More frustratingly I can get ahold of the people who are supposed to monitor me closer to hopeful ovulation that’s by my house though so we may just have sex every other day until I do progesterone 😅 

optimistgardener

@daisy0322 there are worse things!

acleverusername

@daisy0322 Oh no! Sex every day?! Poor you! ;-) (But also, good luck... that gets tiring after some number of days.) 

acleverusername

@optimistgardener you must be like... 

(I certainly am for you!)

acleverusername

Followup comment to @optimistgardener's comment re: @keikilove's comment about how many comments there were last week... I was thinking that I hadn't seen a 3-pager IF thread since before the mass-exodus last September (June 2021 grads). I hope that means there's another exodus soon. 🤞🏻🙏🏻

optimistgardener

@acleverusername lol at that gif. you nailed it.

Diagnosis (if you've been):  AMA, DOR, the usual.

Status (WTO/TWW/TTA):  Waiting... to see how things go?

What are you doing this cycle? (Testing? Treatment?):  egg retrieval, possible fresh transfer, possible freeze

How are things going?:  I got a call today from the clinic just before I pulled onto the freeway. The word is, out of the 8 retrieved, 7 were mature, and 5 fertilized and are progressing. I will accept those numbers (not that i have a choice). They seem... roughly within the confines of normal so far? I was, however, slightly baffled to hear the nurse say that they used icsi for the fertilization. I swear we never actually discussed that method before, but I was so fixated on hearing that a few of my eggs fertilized that I didn't actually take that detail in until I was off the phone. I will make a point of asking about it when I get my next update.

Any questions?:  The clinic nurse I think wants me to consider whether if there are 2 embryos that make it to day 5, I would prefer to transfer them both rather than test them. My baseline plan had been if 1, then transfer, if more than 1, test/freeze. I'm open to any and all thoughts on this since I kind of feel like there is no really obvious clear yes/no answer.

GTKY: What is the best advice you’ve ever been given? i've been thinking about this question since daisy posted it this week and i have really struggled to come up with one singular piece of advice that is the best. I had a solid if not earth-shattering piece of advice from (har har) my advisor in grad school, who i think just happened to deliver it at a moment that i particularly needed to hear it. it is: if you want to be here (for me that meant "grad school," but of course it could mean any number of contexts), then act like you deserve to be here until you believe it. i was suffering through one of my many episodes of existential self-doubt, and somehow it felt like simple, manageable advice that didn't ask too much of me. it didn't actually ask me to believe in myself or believe i had good ideas. it just asked me to behave as if it did until i started to believe it. the advice, remarkably, worked, and it also proved infinitely reusable. so if i stopped believing i deserved to be there i could just keep acting like i did, rinse and repeat.

perhaps more universally applicable advice arrived later when i was opting out of the academic track, namely: "you need to make yourself happy first, since no one else can do that for you."

daisy0322

@acleverusername @optimistgardener 🤣 yes there’s worse things lol however day 4-5 starts feeling more like a business transaction. 

acleverusername

@daisy0322 you just gotta switch up the location. ;-) 

laura-kay

@daisy0322 Maybe try slipping away in the middle of the day….sneak it in!  Kind of feels a bit naughty…

Switch up the location like @acleverusername said - and also the timing. 

daisy0322

@acleverusername @laura-kay we were so much more fun 5-10 years ago lol but I do think actually the HRT will help the most. A little less menopause, hot flashes, joint pain - a little more sexy. Bri h in your 20s and feeling like your about 55 is not good for the soul unfortunately 

mokay19

@optimistgardener I think those numbers sound good so far!  Also, some clinic's standard protocol is to use ICSI.  Strange that they didn't outright discuss it with you, but I know at my clinic that they always do ICSI for IVF.

@daisy0322 how have the side effects been from the meds?  Anything to lead you to believe that they're working and kickstarting your ovaries?

bumblebee0210

@optimistgardener. Yay! Those are on the good end of normal. I had 7 eggs with my first retrieval, 10 with my second, and 5 with my third, and each time got 3 fertilized eggs. If you stay on the good/normal train I would expect 2-3 day-5 blasts. Which is great! I know waiting is the worst. I'm only a few days ahead of you and waiting for that day 6 call tomorrow...

optimistgardener

@bumblebee0210 thanks so much for giving me some context. and i have my fingers crossed so hard for your day 6 call!