April IVF

cashewchicken · May 2017

@brooklyngirl18- My clinic also told me two days. The only time I was told to abstain for a week was when I had a hysteroscopy to remove a very small polyps. I bleed for about two weeks after the surgery, so even if my clinic didn't tell me to abstain, I wouldn't have been in the mood for it anyway.

@sm05-2- I'm so sorry. I'm glad you're taking a vacation though. After my first IVF cycle failed, my husband and I went to Hawaii to just relax and take our mind off of infertility. It was really nice.

@artermis618- Seriously though, one is definitely better than none, from my perspective. But I do understand the frustration of not knowing when banking will be over, at the rate we are making embryos. My RE recommend 2 PGS normal embryos per child, assuming no issues with carrying the baby. My initial goal was 5-6 in case we want 3 kids... but with the way things are moving along and my AMA, my goal is now 3-4, if we can even get to that. Having one normal is really great though. At least you know that you can produce a normal embryo!

@cmiller73- 18 mature and 14 fertilized is amazing!!! Did you do an antagonist cycle? My problem has always been a low % of mature eggs (fertilization rates have been okay), so it's awesome that you get so many mature eggs!

@KLake42- Congrats on awesome beta! And 1 normal embryo!

cmiller73 · May 2017

@Hopeful_mom Oh, I am sure someone is working and checking on them, but since BWH freezes on day 6 they might not get the news to my doc's office until after they leave for the day (they close at 3) so no one would be there to read the email. They only have an on call nurse there on weekends for monitoring apps for other clients so if they don't have someone needing monitoring, she only holds the beeper for emergencies. They might get the report before 3 on Friday (my hope) and call... I think they were just preparing me in case they don't call that it isn't because of a problem, just logistics haha

We are doing PGS of all day 5 blasts (including the one that they froze from last cycle) and will be transferring (I guess in late June?) the best if one comes back normal. Since it is a freeze all cycle, starting with these numbers is very promising!

I guess I just decided to try to do a little less of the habits I have (not that I have a lot of them but a girl does like wine with dinner and a good cuppa joe to start the day!) We already drink 1/2 caff coffee and I basically just drank decaf tea the last 7 days of up the ER. Mainly because its quicker and easier to get hot water going as I am mixing my shots at 6am!

It was an antagonist protocol (my RE's office calls it the Climara patch protocol). Priming month of Patches every day and 3 Cetrotide shots leading up to the stimming cycle. Cycle of 300 Gonal F (pm), 4amps Menopur (am) and Cetrotide (am) for days 9-12.

brooklyngirl18 · May 2017

@cmiller73 awesome results!! good luck with a good 5 day report. the waiting is awful!
@klake42 congrats on the great beta, so happy for you!

brooklyngirl18 · May 2017

The nurse called earlier and we have 7 pgs tested embryos! I have a baseline tomorrow with the RE for my FET.

kiwisun4385 · May 2017

*TW* Soo.. I broke down and POAS yesterday morning and there was a faint 2nd line.. So I of course had to check again today, and it was a bit darker! Beta is Thursday so we will know for sure, but starting to feel good about this. The worrying will never stop though, because there is a long way to go from here..

cashewchicken · May 2017

@brooklyngirl18- 7! Wow! Congratulations!

@kiwisun4385- Congrats on BFP!

Hopeful_mom · May 2017

@brooklyngirl18- Congratulations! I feel like that was really fast! 7 how amazing is that! Are you going to find out the genders? How old are you again if you dont mind me asking? I'm sure the labs are closed over the weekend and feel like they probably fist started on my samples if i'm lucky!

@kiwisun4385- yay!! Seeing a faint line is a true moment, so glad its getting darker! Excited for your beta on thursday! Keep us posted!

KLake42 · May 2017

@kiwisun4385 THAT'S AMAZING!!!!! Congratulations! And yes, there's a ways to go, but from here on, the odds are actually in your favor. Breathe and be happy!

@i-wanna-b-the-girl-w-most-cake How are you doing? This is the day you're peeing in a stick? Are you waiting until tonight, so you can focus on your birthday? I hope you get all the cake today, and my fingers are crossed for you.

sm05-2 · May 2017

Hey everyone, thanks very much for your support. @Momifbysea, I'm sorry that we are in the same boat, but at least we have plans to move forward.

@cmiller73, what a great initial result! I hope that a lot of them make it to blast!

@KLake42, what a great beta! And 7 is great @brooklyngirl18!

@kiwisun4385, CONGRATULATIONS!

As for me, I'm feeling better now. Yesterday I was having a hard time keeping it together, but my DH came to pick me up after work and we went out to eat and he generally cheered me up--I feel so lucky to have him, and I'm thinking of next steps.

brooklyngirl18 · May 2017

@kiwisun4385 yayyyy congrats!!
@hopeful_mom thanks! I am 32. We found out the sex breakdown but will choose the best looking one.

I had my baseline today and officially have a June 2 transfer day. so freaking excited I can't wait.

Hopeful_mom · May 2017

brooklyngirl18 I'm really happy you get to move on to the next stage, thats sooo exciting!!!

question for all....

AFM: My RE believes since I responded well last cycle she still thinks I should go with a regular IVF cycle or prep for an FET. I'm leaning towards another cycle, I wouldn't want to prep for an FET and then take a chance I have nothing to transfer. This whole process is such a struggle. I really wanted to have a few normies to work with before moving on to the next process. Its because of my age that it frieghtens me

cashewchicken · May 2017

@Hopeful_mom- I guess it depends on how many you plan to bank. I think at our age, on average, about 40% of the blasts are normal. So I would expect 2, maybe 3 normal from the batch you sent out to be normal. If that's enough, then I guess it may be good to move on to FET. That said, I understand your concern with not having enough or any to transfer as that is my concern as well. Having all abnormal from pgs testing is so crushing and there is a fear that it's going to happen again. If I were you though... I agree with doing another cycle especially if your goal was to have 5-6 normal embryos anyway. You responded so well doing a back to back cycle, that this next one might be another successful cycle for you.

Hopeful_mom · May 2017

cashewchicken thanks for the response, I just find myself really struggling and it is because of my age that I know banking has to be done now. You truly know what I'm going through, this PGS really is very hard! Especially when you read up on some of the abnormal ones can be normies. Its the stats that they say to bank 2-3 embryos for each viable pregnancy. Thanks for the advice I am leaning towards cycling again if my body says its ready.

artemis618 · May 2017

@cashewchicken @hopeful_mom Ah, to be "average." My insurance company got back to my RE (but not to me) and it seems they'll let us postpone a transfer 30 days at a time for what sounds like as long as we want. So we will also have to decide how many more cycles we want to do beyond this next one (OOP now) before a transfer. Limited time offer.

The one normal out of the six tested last round makes me think this could take a while... Also, the RE who froze my eggs seemed to think that my 1 normal out of 5-6 blasts was "normal" for age 38-9. *sigh*. Also kind of scares us away from trying naturally. Waiting to ovulate (late for the first time ever) to start lupron again...

Hopeful_mom · May 2017

artemis618 I really appreciate the info. I'm just having an ugly cry day, between all these hormones and now AF on top of it I'm just a mess today. It's very hard to except the "normal" ratio when it happens so easy for others. I know each person is on their own journey, but I can't lie and say it doesn't sting to hear a friend who already has 2 kids and just gave birth to surprise twins with her new BF at I think 42/43. I'm glad your RE is honest and put things in perspective so expectations are low. I think for me I just keep thinking I can have that moment where I'm ahead of the odds! It kills me the day I left my RE and MC my twins I literally said to her I get to go into your success column for woman 40 and above pregnant with twins which is a 1-2%. She said yes happily, hugged me and I was on my way. UGH its just so frustrating. I'm glad I'm not a lone and others understand this emotional roller coaster BUT at the same time my heart hurts knowing the few of you suffer this way too!
I was like you trying a natural cycle and was silly to think when they took my BW one time that it would magically come back positive...no reason to not have that hope and I wish it could work out for you!

mandasd · May 2017

@Hopeful_mom if you can afford another cycle so you can bank I say go for it!

artemis618 · May 2017

@Hopeful_mom I'm sorry you're having an emotional day and for AF.

I didn't mean to be such a downer - I had in my head that maybe up to 40-50% of my blasts might be normal (after having had none make it to blast my first cycle), so that was disappointing to hear (unless he was trying to make me feel better about being below normal? But that's not really his way.). I think he thinks we should try naturally because we got pregnant our second month trying (really my first month temping/using OPKs). I suspect we can get pregnant naturally (again, we haven't tried since July) - I have less confidence in our ability to stay pregnant beyond 12 weeks

Hopeful_mom · May 2017

artemis618 These boards usually help me through my down days so please dont think that, I appreciate the extra info always!! Its truly amazing being able to experience conceiving naturally...I'm sure many woman our envious they couldn't experience that magic once...but having that loss come with it is heart wrenching. So close to that 2nd trimester thinking ur in the clear...I was having that hope just by 10wks so I cam imagine how you must've been. You're anniversary will be here soon so you have fun things to celebrate and hopefully this next cycle will bring you more good news. I think IF brings more worry on what our bodies can't do what theyre suppose to do and carry to term falls into that...I'm with you. However my RE said its still separate things and not to worry on that point as so far tests show that wasn't the case...I still hope I'm not at fault only as I pray it doesn't happen again! Are you on the May IVF board now? I thought I was going to be doing an FET but I think I'm still gonna be in the banking game.

sm05-2 · May 2017

There are some interesting discussions here, and it brings up a related question that I've been thinking about these past few days, and I could use some advice.

**TW**

After my egg fertilized last week, my RE did offer to do a fresh (day 2?) transfer because she was worried the embryo wouldn't make it to the blast stage. Because I had two losses last year, I told her that it was more important for us to have the blast pgs tested so that we could know if it was abnormal before implanting, even if the embryo didn't make it to the blast stage.

I don't regret that decision, even though it didn't work out. But I'm thinking about my next IVF cycle, which will have a tweaked protocol. If I still don't respond well and maybe end up with just one fertilized egg again, would you transfer it, given that I'm 40 and have had two losses? I ask only because if the next round doesn't work, my RE may recommend that we start thinking about a DE instead, which we are open to, but still need to wrap our minds around. Plus if there's a wait to get a DE, I don't like the thought of more time passing by given my age. And yet the prospect of another loss is daunting, too.

**End TW**

radmom27 · May 2017

@sm05-2 I'm 40 rounding the base to 41 and just had a cycle where I had three embryos make it to day 5 but by day 5 all looked pretty bad. There are different schools of thought about this...they could be genetically abnormal embryos OR they could be embryos that don't have the mitochondrial power to keep dividing in a petri dish. My next cycle I told my RE that we're doing a 2-3 day transfer. I don't have a lot of embryos to begin with and have never frozen more than two for any of my 5 IVF cycles. Again, this could mean that my eggs are abnormal, but there's also a chance that I'm losing some normal embryos that don't have the power to make it to day 5 outside my body and in a more natural environment, could have a shot. I've done a lot of research about this and the short answer is, there are no definitive answers about day 3 versus day 5 transfers (for older people). I think it's an emotional decision. Getting a positive pregnancy test for me at my age, won't really mean that I'm pregnant with a viable pregnancy until we pass the genetic testing and make it past at least the first trimester. These are risks I'm willing to take to give this a shot before I think about moving onto a donor. Rough decisions

artemis618 · May 2017

@Hopeful_mom Yup, I've been on every month's IVF board this year

(stim, ER, stim, ER, stim late this month for probably an early June ER as I JUST got my +opk last night on CD16 - super late for me). I've mentioned before that I do appreciate the months in which more AMA ladies participate. DH was looking forward to calling his mom on our (MIL's and my) birthday a week later to tell her we were expecting (on his birthday!). We'd just gotten the normal NIPT result two days prior, which was also falsely comforting (as I'm sure that last u/s was

). I only told like four people last time, but I don't think I'd tell anyone until like 20 weeks or whenever I can't hide it anymore (whichever is later) next time! Sadly, even without having experienced a *TW* loss before, we weren't really able to enjoy the pregnancy at our ages.

@sm05-2 I was thinking the same thing about a fresh transfer last round (my second cycle). I was less open to this with my first cycle as I had insurance coverage for two so figured I should at least do those two and if the second was as bad as the first we'd just concede that our embryos just don't like IVF. Even though the whole point of our doing IVF was to screen (we were traumatized enough after one *TW* loss and thought the insurance coverage might be moot later), when we only had one day 7 morula with my first cycle (of only 3 fertilized from 7 mature all ICSI'd), we sort of figured if we only had a few again at day 3 of our second cycle and if it didn't look we'd any far enough a long to test anyway (since it's not really a matter of selection at that point), we may as well transfer. I started with the estrogen patch and progesterone suppositories preparing for a day 3 transfer, knowing it'd be a day 3 game time decision. Started second guessing when day 5 came and still no blasts, but 6 of the 8 fertilized made it on Day 6. So maybe prep for the fresh transfer and see how it goes? Hopefully your next round will go much better, but frustratingly we never know with these things.

I know you're not there yet, but the DE option will be there, and from the sounds of a couple
ladies' experiences on here it doesn't sound *too* drawn out.

Not profound, but Infertility blows.

Hopeful_mom · May 2017

Todays has been another doozie for me!

AFM: My phone is lost or stolen and has caused me another sleepless night and further crying WTH!!! Its all this extra stress I didn't need!

Ready for this I went in for BW and got the go ahead for stemming AND got my PGS results back too. I can finally say I got a normie back yay!! 2 of the 6 made it. I cried for relief I have a normie but for sadness too that I know its not enough and I have to continue to try and bank embryos. Its such a hard decision but I knew deep down I was going to need to cycle so lets hope I can squeeze a few good ones out this time. We know I"m all about the grading and its really true what they say, looks can be deceiving! I had 3/5AAs and I truly felt I would get at least 3 normies back. 1/5AA made it and the other was a 5BA. That lil normie beat out the 2/5AA and the 5AB, what a trooper. However the 5AA is considered "the best" and thats the one they would transfer first. The thawing process scares the hell out of me why I need to hopefully get a few more in before transfer too. I should feel a sigh of relief that I will hopefully get to a transfer but I"m still a ball of nerves UGH!!!!

I truly have been a mess these last 2 days with such swollen eyes, poor OH I know is scared what another cycle of hormones will do to me!

*TW @sm05-2 can i ask a very hard question and dont mean to be rude in anyway. How were you after you MC? I know its awful but if you could avoid would you? I struggle with this daily especially because i want to carry twins again and OH is dead set against it. He already threatened to not go through with a cycle if I do it. He can't see me go through it, however I argue that if I"m the one willing to go through it then shouldn't I have the right. It was a horrible scary experience and I get where hes coming from. TW* Now after these last 2 cycles seeing that I had 9 tested and 2 came back shows me why I need to keep going if I really want to have the very best chance of more the one child hopefully!!! For me its the age factor too, being 41 (i hate thats my reality) each month is precious to get the normal embryo and even though I'm desperate to be pregnant again now is really the last shot. I'm going through so much I rather get all the stemming, ER, testing done now so hopefully I can be seating pretty transferring and preggers. When I got pregnant with twins I felt like a champ, who needs a back up plan i'm all set right here...and then life happened and I lost a normal girl that I couldve implated alone, and 3-4 months of cycling where I could've been pregnant with a healthy embryo. I gambled and I thought it paid off. Its such a hard decision and I struggle constantly one what the right thing is to do. I try to let my body guide me, if shes ready to go then I do.

artemis618 I'm right there with you, I shall start stemming tonight. AND I'm glad I didn't tell people too soon and I still wont...just wish I told my parents sooner. I put them through torture and hate that i took joy from them and in return just gave them heartache. Age is only but a number is BS, they need to add depending on what your AMH is haha!! My OH kept thinking I had all the time in the world and he now feels bad we didn't start this process a few years back like I wanted where it couldve made all the difference in the world. Its such a mind f*&k pardon my french when your lil fighters work so hard to make it to the blasts stage to freeze and test, its truly shocking they dont all come back normal!! science is a crazy thing! Side not "my best" embryo was regular insemination...I was shocked as I was thinking of doing all icsi next round praying i have mature eggs and all

I was very surprised!

cashewchicken · May 2017

@Hopeful_mom- Congrats on 2 PGS normal embryos! And I hope you find your phone.

kiwisun4385 · May 2017

Today was my beta, I got up bright and early on my day off to go get my blood drawn. Since then I have been anxiously awaiting a phone call with results. Luckily, I checked my patient portal around like 2.. my doctors office sent me a message that they close at noon on Thursdays, and they had reached out to the lab I went to (closer to home than drs office) before they closed but they did not have any info yet. So, now I have to wait a whole other day!! I did break down and POAS the other day, and it was positive, so I am very hopeful - but I was really looking forward to hearing that beta # to give me some comfort. Ahhh.. I hope tomorrow comes quickly now!

cashewchicken · May 2017

@artemis618- It's great that your insurance company is willing to postpone ET! 1 normal out of 5-6 does seem to be normal. I remember when I sent in my 5 embryos for testing and got back 0 normal, my RE was surprised because he expected at least one to be normal. While 'average' is ~40% normal at our age, they probably see anywhere from 20-60% normal in patients in our age group. Hope after this cycle, you're done with banking!

@sm05-2- If I were in the situation you described, I think I would transfer. Not all embryos survive biopsy or freeze-thawing, so if I had 1 or 2 embryos growing and if I won't be doing any IVF cycles soon after, I will just transfer all and hope for the best. But I've never experienced MC (or pregnancy ever), so I haven't experienced the heartache of MC you and others have gone through.

While I think PGS is a wonderful technology, it is not for everyone, and not all PGS tests are created the same. Many of the tests are pretty good at detecting aneuploid and euploid embryos. The problem is not all tests are sensitive enough to detect mosaic embryos and from what I've read, ~30% of the embryos are mosaics. There were some papers that reported that transfers of mosaics have resulted in birth of healthy babies. So the concern is that for patients that produce few embryos, misidentifying a mosaic as an aneuploid may result in throwing away an embryo that could potentially be a baby. But that said, a mosaic embryo shouldn't be considered the same as an euploid embryo. Not all mosaics 'self-correct' and be euploid and generally mosaics have lower implantation rates. That said, if an alternative is no embryo, it maybe a good idea to transfer a mosaic anyway instead of discarding it.

cashewchicken · May 2017

@kiwisun4385- If you're getting BFP on hpt, I'm pretty sure you'll get a nice beta!

sm05-2 · May 2017

Thanks, all, I really appreciate your advice. @radmom27, thank you for the information about mitochondrial power and the petri dish. Your reasoning is making me wonder if that's why my RE suggested a transfer, since there was just one fertilized egg.

@artemis618, is true that we can never know these things--if only we all had crystal balls! I suppose my decision will partly depend on how my next cycle goes, but it's nice to hear what you're thinking.

@Hopeful_mom, not a rude question at all, and pertinent for me. *TW* I initially had a hard time with each MC, but was much better and ready to move on about a month after each D & E. And if it's not too unusual according to my RE to have two MCs....*end TW*

You're right that age is a factor, but listening to our bodies makes sense, too.

@cashewchicken, thanks for your direct answer. It sounds like I'll need to look more into mosaics, but all of your answers have clarified things collectively.

I'll be talking about this in the days ahead with OH. I think I know which way I'm leaning, but want to hear his POV first.

Now if only AF will arrive so that I can do my clomid testing before my vacation! She's due to arrive today or tomorrow--I hope my body will comply.

@kiwisun4385, fx for a great beta!

brooklyngirl18 · May 2017

@hopeful_mom congrats on your 2 normal embryos that's fantastic. I'm sorry you have to go through another round but I'm pulling for you and hoping this is the last time you have to cycle.
@kiwisun4385 good luck for a great beta today!

sm05-2 · May 2017

@Hopeful_mom forgot to say congratulations on your two normal embryos! Hopefully the next round will be the last one for you!

caseyw8784 · May 2017

@Hopeful_mom - congrats on the 2 normal embryos! I'm glad you decided to do another cycle, and i hope this one will be just as, if not more, successful! FX for lots of embryos!

@kiwisun4385 - that stinks that you have to wait another day to get the beta results! I hope you hear very very soon, and FX for good numbers since the hpt was positive!

Hopeful_mom · May 2017

Thanks ladies - I'm thrilled to know I can g-d willing have an FET and hopefully make a baby!! I'm glad that pressure is off! Praying I can get a few more in as well thanks!! Went to acupuncture today in this crazy rain and theres so much drama just getting there you hope the session still does what its suppose to.

@cashewchicken, hopefully your good news will be coming in soon!! My big question is when do you know its a mosaic embryo. My RE explained that some that test normal could still be abnormal cause they're mosaic. This round all abnormal had 1 missing gene, its so frustrating that just one didn't duplicate right. I know my RE wants to strangle me before I start googling to ask are you sure I can just do with one gene 12 instead of 2, and last cycle I had 3 gene 12 for one, if I can put them together I would have 2 more normies

sm05-2 I know its so hard to go through all the info but you have some very wise ladies on here! Hope you and OH will come to the same decision, didn't realize that can complicate things at times too. I always want to do the fresh transfer as it did work for me, FET makes me nervous!

kiwisun4385 · May 2017

Thank you for all of the wishes for a good beta! I did get the results today, and it was a very high 537! I go back Monday for a 2nd beta.. but I feel like it is finally real now, so exciting!

cashewchicken · May 2017

Ladies...

I just got my pgs results from my clinic.

4 out of 7 normal! My goal was 3-4 normal, so I'm extremely happy and I'm so glad that I didn't end up canceling my cycle! Not pregnant yet and who knows what problems I'd run into in the future, but I'm extremely relieved that my body can produce normal eggs/embryos. Since the last pgs test was 0/5 normal, I was afraid that I'd get no normal again this time.

I don't know the gender info and I don't know the quality of the embryos yet but I'll call the clinic tomorrow and ask for details.

What did you ladies do to prepare for FET? I think I'm going to get some additional blood work to prep for it! And I need to exercise and eat healthy!

brooklyngirl18 · May 2017

@cashewchicken that's wonderful congrats!!! I am currently on bcp until tomorrow hopefully. Tomorrow i do a saline sonogram and then do estrgoen for a few weeks and add PIO. transfer is scheduled for June 9.

KLake42 · May 2017

@cashewchicken Yay!!! That's wonderful!!

You'll probably prepare for the FET the same way I did for a fresh donor transfer, with progesterone and estrogen. It's way cheaper than the stim drugs, at least, and while there are some side effects, it just felt way gentler on my system than stimming did.

Hopeful_mom · May 2017

@cashewchicken yay!! thats such a amazing news congrats! so thrilled for you, i know exactly how you feel, making that normal embabie is everything!! How many are you going to transfer? Glad you get to move on to the next stage, hopefully I'll catch up to soon

Are you going to find out the gender, its kid of hard not to after all this.
My RE preps for FET with taking estrace first and then progesterone after.

cashewchicken · May 2017

@brooklyngirl18- thanks for the info! I need to ask my clinic about the bcp. I just had my AF last week and this month I'm just resting, no meds. And saline sonogram. I had one done last year and found small polyps and what looked like left over tissue from AF and ended up having hysteroscopy in August to remove it. Probably should get it checked up to make sure there's nothing wrong. June 9th is coming up soon!

@KLake42- I'm also happy that the expensive part of IVF is over (for now). I think my clinic also does vaginal suppositories over PIO so fewer shots I'm hoping.

cashewchicken · May 2017

@Hopeful_mom- I'm transferring just one. I want a low-risk pregnancy.

. As for the gender, Im going back and forth. At the same time I want to know the gender and morphology and everything, I also am afraid that I might become overly attached to them. Knowing the gender makes them more human, if that makes any sense. And if i miscarry I'm afraid it'll be more painful if I knew the gender. But the scientist in me wants all the details! Ugh. Hoping this cycle is it for you and we can do the FET together too!

i-wanna-b-the-girl-w-most-cake · May 2017

hey ladies - sorry I've been MIA recently. I don't have good news and it's taken me over a week to come back to the boards. I POAS last wknd then proptly started my period. Didn't even go in for my beta. I don't need a high priced blood test to tell me I'm not pregnant. I've been pretty down to say the least. The only thing that keeps me going is the thought of our 3 embies (or "baby blasts" as my OH calls them) on ice and that we have enough insurance coverage left to go ahead with a FET. RE appt is tomorrow morning to discuss next steps. I'm slowly but surely gaining more hope everyday. It's just so hard.

brooklyngirl18 · May 2017

@i-wanna-b-the-girl-w-most-cake so sorry for the bfn, it's never easy. FX the next round works.

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