February IVF

Mando15 · February 2017

Congrats on the good numbers at ER @PolythenePam and @rayoflight80! Excited to hear your reports and hoping for lots of fertilized embryos!

I'm headed in for my first monitoring appointment this morning to see how my follicles are doing. Today is day 6 of stimming so not sure what is typical to see at this point. I feel pretty good so far though!

rayoflight80 · February 2017

@Mando15 Thanks so much ... hope all goes well!

I just got the call from the clinic. It wasn't great news. Of the 16 retrieved, 15 were mature. DH's microtese managed to get 15 of his guys (but because of his azoospermia, the quality isn't going to be great). Only 4 fertilized. I'm really sad. It's only day 1 and I know that they statistically won't all make it to Day 5. My greatest hope is that we'll have at least one to transfer and it sticks. But I feel like the odds are against us.

I really wanted one to stick and one to freeze... Sigh. If this doesn't work then we'll have IUI with donor sperm... with my blocked tube. I am praying for these 4 fertilized eggs to make it to day 5.

DH says to take care of myself and be positive but I am feeling a bit down right now. Sometimes it's hard to be positive!

missydallas · February 2017

Just got done at the dr and waiting for my labs - but they are saying that retrieval most likely Friday - but potentially tomorrow!! At the sono today - it looked like I had at least 20, if not over, follicles. So hoping for a big number!

@rayoflight80 - I'm so sorry. I'm sending lots of positive vibes your way. It's so difficult to stay positive sometimes - especially when dealing with infertility.

enchilada16 · February 2017

@missydallas ooh! So exciting! When do they think you will trigger for retrieval? Tonight? I just got back from my appt too. Looking like trigger Friday and retrieval Sunday for me. I have 8 good measurable follies this morning and a crapload of guys behind them trying to grow. Docs think ultimately will be a good collection. Are you triggering with hcg or lupron? I think they are going to likely trigger me with lupron.

@rayoflight80 so sorry to hear your news. But it's good you have 4 fertilized - only takes 1! Thinking good thoughts for you.

Polythene Pam · February 2017

@rayoflight80 praying for those 4 embryos!! Will they update you as you go? Man this process is emotional huh? I'm glad you got the 4!

Finally got the call, of our 10 all 10 were mature, 8 fertilized. Now just to stay strong little embryos!!

they're shooting for a Sunday transfer. We'll get an update on Friday with how they're doing.

rayoflight80 · February 2017

@Polythene Pam It sure is emotional! Thanks for the prayers and good wishes from you and everyone! 8 fertilized is so great and I am sending you good, sticky vibes that you will have success. They'll give me a daily update so I'll know how my little embryos are doing.

I'm feeling a bit better now, and you're right @Enchilada , IT ONLY TAKES ONE. I literally made that my screensaver today, it's my new mantra. No one said this would be easy, but I'm glad I have a community to talk to about it that gets how hard this can be.

I have been meditating daily and sent you all love and light and hope that we are all successful this month.

laurad75 · February 2017

I just got my call and I'm triggering tonight and ER will be Friday morning. @missydallas my numbers are way lower than yours but we will likely be ER buddies!

Mando15 · February 2017

Well, today's appointment didn't go so great. I am clearly over stimulated and my Dr. thinks she'll probably have to cancel this cycle and start fresh next month. Waiting to hear back on my estrogen levels but based on my follicle count, 20+ on each side, it doesn't look promising. I'm pretty disappointed, I know too many eggs is a good problem to have but it really sucks having so many delays!

caseyw8784 · February 2017

@Mando15 - oh no, that sucks! how come they want to cancel? I thought by doing a lupron trigger and taking that certain medicine will prevent/ease ohss if you get overstimulated? Are not enough follicles mature? FX that your estrogen levels come back not too high!

@laurad75 - yay for triggering tonight! good luck with the shot and will keep FX for lots of good eggs on Friday! what time is your ER?

laurad75 · February 2017

@mando15 Ugh - you and I have opposite problems. I'm sorry about your delay.

@caseyw8784 Yay is right! ER is at 8:30 on Friday morning.

My office has officially closed in anticipation for a big snowstorm tomorrow so I will have all day to relax and take good care of myself. Hopefully all the snow will be cleared on Friday morning so we can get the job done first thing in the morning.

caseyw8784 · February 2017

@laurad75 - we're also hunkering down here too, and i get to "work" from home, so i'm looking forward to relaxing! I think i heard that the storm should be over middle of the night tomorrow night, but who knows...apparently we've just been upgraded to a blizzard warning! how much snow is expected where you are?

enchilada16 · February 2017

Ugh I have to go in for morning monitoring tomorrow and may have to pick up my trigger. Definitely not a good day for the snowstorm!

HopeSIN · February 2017

Rayoflight - I can absolutely understand your disappointment! I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope it will all go well in the end!! Keep us updated!

Mando - I'm on the exact same time line as you. I thought OHSS only kicks in after the retrieval. Is the reason they want to cancel the round because they're worried that the follicles will altogether not grow big enough for collection/to have mature eggs inside or is it purely because of the risk of OHSS?

Laura - all the best for the retrieval tomorrow!!

Two quick question to everyone:

1) I had my stims day 6 ultrasound yesterday and we saw a total of 11 bigger follicles between size 12-14mm (biggest one was 14mm) and 12 smaller ones between 10-12mm. For those of you who did IVF before, did your smaller ones catch up the bigger ones within three more days of stimulation?

2) Did you have an ultrasound on the day of the trigger or only the day before and then they instructed you to take/come in only for the trigger? I feel my clinic here in Asia has a - let's say - very "relaxed" approach about monitoring (eg. blood works only one in the cycle) and I'm a bit anxious cause my insurance only covers one round of IVF and I just wanna make sure all will go well.

Thanks so so much for your help!!

artemis618 · February 2017

@laurad75 Yay for triggering and being DONE with shots!

And yay for all of the positive reports so far - I've been lurking and rooting for you all. Just a bit bummed about my somewhat disastrous cycle. And I didn't hear from my doctor after day 1 after ER till today (day 6) to boot (apparently she mentioned this was her standard but I was a little out of it with the anesthesia). As of today, I only had one BB morula that they're letting sit overnight...so no pgs/freezing anything this round, and will start bc again for round 2 (last covered by insurance) come CD3.

@HopeSIN I don't know for #1&2, but for 3 I had my last ultrasound last Monday AM and they just told me to trigger Tuesday night. ETA: Although this cycle wasn't all that, but I suspect that's due to my AMA/egg quality.

Anyhow, best of luck to everyone!

Mando15 · February 2017

@HopeSIN & @caseyw8784 turns out the cycle is still on for now. My RE decided to lower my Follistim to 150 and she'll check again Friday and then decide if we'll cancel or continue. I think she is just being cautious because of the total follicles growing. She is purely concerned about OHSS. Today was Day 6 of stims and most follicles were 8-9mm. They've got a lot of growing to do before we're ready so I hope 150 still does the job. I will have to ask about the Lupron. My RE hasn't mentioned it yet.

@laurad75 good luck on Friday! Hope all of the snow is gone!

stbollinger · February 2017

@lizycs I agree about menopur being awful!
I just had my first transfer 2/7.

laurad75 · February 2017

Thanks for the encouraging words everyone!

@caseyw8784 In Boston we are expected about a foot or more by tomorrow morning. I think everything will be fine by tomorrow morning when we need to be at our appointment but the roads better be clear by 6:30 tomorrow morning.

caseyw8784 · February 2017

@laurad75 - haha, small world, i'm in Boston, too!

stella_700 · February 2017

stbollinger Congrats on your transfer I hope this is the one for you.

@caseyw8784 Snowstorms are awesome, so long as you can hunker down and watch if fall from your couch. : ) Everyone in the NE stay safe and warm

@mando15 I hope that your levels come down so that you can continue the cycle.

@rayoflight80 I'm sending good vibes your way for fighter embryos.

@Polythene Pam I'm hoping that you end up with a wonderful transfer! Are you doing one or two?

For me I had my baseline bloodwork and u/s yesterday and everything looks good. Meds tomorrow menopur and gonal-f, an antibiotic and the low dose aspirin. Adding ganirelix later. I will have to have the PIO (WHAAAAAA) after ER. It looks like they will do an abdominal ER since my ovaries like to hide behind my uterus. Has anyone had experience with this? Does it delay the recovery time?

Thank you for this board and its members, it has helped me know what to expect which has helped my anxiety over this whole sucky infertility thing.

Polythene Pam · February 2017

I'm kind of jealous of the snow!! I'm in WI and it's been a weirdly mild winter.

best of luck tomorrow @laurad75 update us when you can! @Mando15 fingers crossed you can keep up with this cycle, I'm glad the doctor is helping!

@stella_700 good luck as you start stims! Keep us posted as you move ahead

I don't know anything about the abdominal ER but my mind is just boggled at what all they can do!

we'll just transfer one embryo (hopefully!) *TW* my daughters delivery was very rough so we and my doctors agree twins wouldn't be ideal. Hoping it's one super sticky embryo

SBump · February 2017

So just a quick update, I had to go in on both Saturday and Sunday for appointments. I did the Pregnyl "trigger shot" on Sunday night and egg retrieval was Tuesday morning. Of my 5 mature looking follicles, there were just 3 mature eggs. I'm doing egg freezing due to endometriosis and the lack of a partner. From what I hear, doctors usually want 15-20 eggs banked per desired birth. I was hoping to get close to 15 eggs with 2 cycles. Now not sure I could get close to 10 with 2 cycles. No way I can afford to do this process 5-6 times, especially because my medication costs were on the higher side due to a more aggressive protocol. Not to mention that egg retrieval recovery has been more difficult than expected. (Why don't they give women more pain medication and/or keep them in the hospital for a day?) However, I have personal and religious reservations about using donor gametes, either sperm now to create frozen embryos or eggs in the future if I can't produce eggs down the road. My doctor wants to see me for a follow up discussion in a couple weeks. Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself but I'm kind of stressed.

mandasd · February 2017

I'm converting to an "au natural" cycle this month. I have one fully mature follicle and so I'll trigger ovulation tonight and intercourse this weekend. I have another ultrasound 2/24 (I'll know if I miraculously got pregnant by then) and move to IVF attempt end of Feb/early Mar. it's not terrible, not how I wanted it to play out but I'm not upset.

Keeping my my fingers crossed for everyone else this month

lizycs · February 2017

Day 9 of stim. My progesterone was a bit too high a couple of days ago. I doubled up on my Ganirelix to prevent premature ovulation, and that seemed to have worked. Now my doc says we will proceed with retrieval sometime in the next 5 days but may wait next cycle for transfer to get my uterine lining ready. I'm a little bit disappointed, but another month is nothing in the grand scheme of things. I've waited this long anyway...

Wishing all you girls the best!!!

Gatorgirl2009 · February 2017

Day 7 of stims now. Just had my second monitoring checkup and they said they could see 20 follicles! I only have one ovary so I'm glad it is doing it's job! Anyone who has been through this before, of your number of follicles how many fertilized eggs did you get? I know there are so many factors, but I'm just trying to figure out an average of what to expect! Thank you all, you are such a great group!

caseyw8784 · February 2017

Just checking in...we are still waiting on insurance to renew our prior authorization (any day now, they say! can't they hurry up at all??

), and then we can order meds and I can stop BCP. So it looks like a very late Feb/early March ER and then a late March/early April FET, depending on how long the PGD and PGS testing takes...

rayoflight80 · February 2017

@Mando15 Did everything go ok and continue? Hope so. FX

@laurad75 Hope everything went ok this morning! Update us when you can.

@SBump Sorry to hear it didn't go as well as you'd hoped. You did get some, so that's good

Sooo. After the initial shock of only have 4 fertilized eggs from 16 retrieved, I am doing okay. Just got today's update - 3 are still dividing. 1 is doing pretty well (it has 8 cells, right now they'd look for 5-10) and 1 doing okay (it has 6). The third one is under 5 so not sure it will make it.

I'm scheduled for my transfer on Sunday. The plan is to put one in and freeze the rest (1 maybe 2). I am hoping and praying so much that these 3 guys make it .... deep breaths.

stella_700 · February 2017

@rayoflight80 I'm so pleased for you! Praying that your transfer goes great and that your embryos freeze well!

caseyw8784 Nothing more frustrating than being stalled due to other people...Get a move on it, insurance!

Day one, first shot went smoothly! Programmed the phone to remember aspirin and antibiotic, already took those. Menopur burned but only as the needle entered, then I didn't feel anything after that. : ) Hubby did a great job. He is the dispenser of shots. Gonal-f tonight (which I've taken previously, ain't no thang). Praying hard that this is our miracle. Going to be thinking positively this weekend and begin cleaning up one of the spare bedrooms in preparation for good news. We bought a roomy three bedroom house in 2011 thinking that we wanted probably three children...

Life is sometimes very, very unfair.

Have any of you kept a journal through this experience?

artemis618 · February 2017

@stella_700 I feel you on the house thing. We just moved into our house in December (had to lease back to the seller for a few months) and the neighborhood has some original owners, but lots of families with young kids. When we meet neighbors and they ask if we have kids, I think to myself, "Well, we *were* pregnant when we bought it..." Unfortunately after this first cycle (fail) the path to how we'll get there again is looking less clear.

Glad the first set of shots went well and keep up the positive thinking!

caseyw8784 · February 2017

@stella_700 - yay for successful first day of shots! I'm hoping/planning on starting my stims in a week or two (probably 2 weeks...) and menopur seems like the one that i'll me most wary of (i HATE needles!)...do you know any tips to make it burn less?

Also feel you on the house thing. We have a two bedroom condo, and when we moved in, we took the smaller room, cause we wanted/had planned on having 2-3 kids relatively quickly/close in age, and we cannot move out of Boston proper for 5 more years (cause of DH's job), so the kiddos would be sharing and we thought the bigger room would give them more room...funny how things turn out...

Aera11 · February 2017

@rayoflight80 I'm transferring Sunday too! As long as my two make it til then

I had three collected yesterday & two fertilized with ICSI. FX your three keep dividing!

rayoflight80 · February 2017

@aera11 Sending you so many good baby vibes for those two little guys!! Here's to hoping we both get good news.

@stella_700 I've been keeping a blog here: https://notatallperfect.weebly.com/fertility

And YES about the house! We have 3 bedrooms ... I'm trying not to think of any of them as a nursery, but it's tough. I have made a meditation room where that room would be and hopefully infusing it with good energy for when we are successful. But yeah, the neighbours asking about when we'll have a family (and the fact that every other couple on the street seems to have a stroller on their front porch) is hard.

I am finding baby news particularly hard this week.

Polythene Pam · February 2017

@rayoflight80 and @aera11 transfer buddies on Sunday! Then waiting and waiting anxiously together

Glad your embryos are looking strong, still sending prayers!

@laurad75 thinking of you, hope this morning went well!

Sorry I only popped on for a minute so can't comment on everyone but I'm definitely reading the updates and thinking of everyone.

I got my embryo update, they grade them so I have 3 A's, 4 B's and 1 C. Does anyone else know much about the grading? I know A is good but would a B be useable/freezable? They just said they anticipate having "several" embryos for Sunday for transfer/freezing. Darn google, stepping away from my computer...

caseyw8784 · February 2017

@laurad75 - Good luck today! Can't wait to hear how the ER went!

@Polythene Pam - If i'm not mistaken, I think B's are usually good for freezing and using. I hope i'm not mixing it up with how they grade blastocysts (like, AA, AB, BB, etc...)!

Mando15 · February 2017

@rayoflight80 GL with your transfer on Sunday! Hoping for a super sticky bean! And we are still a go! Woohoo! They lowered my follistim down to 150 which seems to be doing the trick. We'll see how my estrogen looks later this afternoon but tentative ER is next Wednesday or Thursday. Dr. counted about 15-20 follicles on each side this morning. Most of them are about 10-12mm with a handful of 7-8mm as well. We started adding Ganirelix today as well to make sure I don't ovulate any of these immature eggs early. Rest up on Sunday and keep us posted with how everything goes! I'll be thinking about ya!

caseyw8784 · February 2017

@Mando15 - that's awesome that you're still a go!! I was hoping that your doc wouldn't cancel this cycle. and that's a great number of follicles! I'm hoping that I'll have that many when i do my stim cycle later this month!

Mando15 · February 2017

@caseyw8784 thank you! I'm pretty relieved that things settled down enough to continue. Although, I am pretty nervous about OHSS... My Dr. told me to start hydrating now and eat lots of protein! Hope it makes a difference.
I hope your insurance company wraps up soon so you can finally get started! The wait is killer. Once you get started it will fly by!

Aera11 · February 2017

@rayoflight80 so happy to have a tww buddy! I'm just hoping they make it to Sunday, I'll feel so much better when the transfer is over. What time is your transfer?

Thank you @Polythene Pam!

stella_700 · February 2017

@Mando15 Yes! The delays and extra time through this process way on one. I imagine many couples find the same. I'm pleased that you can continue! Those numbers are very encouraging.

Mando15 · February 2017

@stella_700 thank you! Yes, the numbers are encouraging. I just hope that most of them are mature. I know quality is more important than quantity. Trying not to get my hopes up on the good numbers so far! And hooray for first day of shots for you! ER will be here before you know it! Hope you get some good numbers too!

SBump · February 2017

@rayoflight80 hope it goes well on Saturday. I appreciate your words of encouragement too. It only takes one to make a baby. Fingers crossed.

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