Intro: Is this where I belong? :)

bhaynietippitt · May 2013

Hi Ladies,

If I am in the wrong spot, please refer me to another board! Thanks!!!

Since the birth of DS in 2010 (pregnancy came easily), we have experienced 2 miscarriages, so we are now under the care of a RE. Yesterday, I had my follow up appt to discuss all tests and the outcome of the HSG and hysteroscopy.

Everything was fine anatomically, but apparently some of my numbers don't look great (I'm 40). We've decided to pursue IVF, and the whole process is completely confusing. Any words of wisdom? How did you decide how many embryos to implant? Do the medications make you feel awful?

AMH- 3.15, FSH (day 2)- 2.18, LH (d2)- 2.90, Estradiol (d2)- 313.9

After Lupron challenge: LH- 17.54, FSH- 7.27, Estradiol- 354.1

Thanks so much!

Beth

hugmonkey · May 2013

Hi!

You might want to check out the infertility board where you'll find a lot of people just starting and going through the IVF process. They're a great bunch of really supportive people.

IVF is confusing when you start. But don't worry, it seems like a huge and confusing process, but it's made up of lots of little steps that your REs office will walk you through as you proceed.

As far as words of wisdom, all I can say is be good to yourself and patient with yourself. IVF is very stressful and has a lot of emotional ups and downs. I took a stress management class that was geared toward people going through IVF and found it to be very helpful. It taught different relaxation techniques and coping strategies. It also allowed me to meet a lot of people who were experiencing the same thing I was.

As far as the medications, I had no side effects other than getting bloated. I made sure not to read about the different side effects before starting on the meds so that I wouldn't have them because I expected them. The list of meds can be daunting when you first see it. But, for the most part, you'll only be taking a couple of them at a time, and your REs office will tell you exactly when to start/stop each one.

My REs office pretty much always puts in 2 embryos for my age (I was 35), so that's what I went with.

Good luck!

BabyKsMommy · May 2013

I would check out the second infertility board. Since the pg with DS happened easily that might be a better fit.

mnj05 · May 2013

IVF is very overwhelming. Take it one day at a time and try not to get worked up over anything.

Same as PP, I only got bloated with stims. Lupron gave me headaches and hot flashes but it didn't last long.

We put two embryos back. One was excellent and the other was not so great like the rest of our embryos. The others stopped growing so we didn't have any to freeze. We assume DS came from the great embryo and the other just didn't implant.

Good luck to you!

Dragonfly1226 · May 2013

Welcome! You are certainly welcome to hang out here as many of us have been through the IVF process with success. There are also many ladies over here going through treatments to TTC again. You will see tickers and pics in posters' signatures on this board. You might also want to check out the secondary IF board, although I hear it can be slow at times. With regards to IVF, my best advice is to take it be step at a time. If you get too far ahead of yourself, it can be overwhelming. For me the worst medication was Lupron. It always makes me feel foggy and not quite myself. As soon as I start stims and can reduce my Lupron dose to 5IUs I always feel a ton better. Towards the end of your cycle the stims can make you feel bloated, but for me it was never that awful. Our RE recommended transferring two embies during each of our cycles based on quality andnmy age. I would listen to your RE's advice when it comes time to make that decision. In the end, it was all worth it to go through two IVFs to have DS. I am now pregnant with twins as a result of a subsequent FET. Wishing you the very best of luck!

itsmevkb · May 2013

I agree that you can check out the infertility and secondary infertility boards but you are certainly welcome to stay here as well.

I too had an easily achieved first pregnancy and I've also had two miscarriages. I'm sorry for your losses. I'm wondering which of your numbers they thought looked bad? They don't seem bad to me, and actually seem pretty good. I'm 41 and my AMH is way, way lower and my FSH higher. Not sure about the Estradiol or LH.

Do you know what caused your miscarriages? Is there reason to believe that doing IVF will help prevent another miscarriage? Have you thought about trying an IUI first?

Anyway, I agree with the advice to take each step of IVF one day at a time or it can get a little overwhelming. For me, the medications never made me feel awful but there were days where I felt bloated or just a little "off." I never found doing the shots all that bad but I was always worried that I would screw something up and mess up my whole cycle.

As for how many to transfer, our insurance limited us to two. You don't want to transfer more than you want to get pregnant with because even though the odds of transferring three and ending up pregnant with triplets isn't that great, it still could happen. Personally, I would never transfer more than two.

Another consideration, depending on how well you respond to the meds, is how many eggs to fertilize and then potentially freeze. Many women don't think much about that until they have 7 frozen embryos and then realize they don't want potentially 7 more children and yet they can't bring themselves to have them destroyed or donated to other couples.

bhaynietippitt · May 2013

Wow! We've had a similar path! Most of my drs. think the miscarriages were due to blood clotting issues, but I guess we'll see. Thanks for all of the great information, and best of luck to you and everyone!

itsmevkb · May 2013

bhaynietippitt:
Wow! We've had a similar path! Most of my drs. think the miscarriages were due to blood clotting issues, but I guess we'll see. Thanks for all of the great information, and best of luck to you and everyone!

Hopefully they'll be able to figure out the clotting issue and some baby aspirin and/or Lovenox can help you to carry another pregnancy.

Please let us know what happens.

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