IF Testing & Treatment w/o Jan 29

aisleofviewtwo · January 2024

**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 ballgame. 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 (TI/ICI/IUI/IVF/FET/benched):

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

How are things going?:

Any questions?:

GTKY: Do you collect anything?

britters314 · January 2024

Diagnosis (if you've been): Unexplained

Status (TI/ICI/IUI/IVF/FET/benched): Benched

What are you doing this cycle? (Testing? Treatment?): lots of paperwork for embryo adoption process

How are things going?: We hit a bit of a delay in the process. The agency we are using requires a family evaluation (kind of like a home study). We were hoping they could just use our home study from fostering, but it wasn’t recent enough so now we have an extra step we need to do. We knew it was a possibility, but it’s still a bit disappointing. Hopefully we can get the extra stuff done quickly.

Any questions?: Nope

GTKY: Do you collect anything? I used to collect souvenir spoons, but I haven’t added to the collection in a while.

bumblebee0210 · January 2024

@britters314 That's annoying. I always find it so amazing how much goes into determining whether you can raise children who aren't biologically related to you, and how *little* goes into determining whether you can raise children who are biologically related to you. My dad went through the adoption process for a grandchild, and he was like "did you know you can't set your thermostat below 68??" I was like oh god what would these people think of my drafty old house...

Diagnosis (if you've been): RPL, DOR

Status (TI/ICI/IUI/IVF/FET/benched): FET TWW

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

How are things going?: Ok. I had the transfer on Monday, and everything went smoothly. The embryo thawed well and was already mostly hatched when they transferred it. I am now in the waiting phase, which is particularly unpleasant, as some combination of the PIO and my own crazy brain conspire to make me feel all of the symptoms. I know that it isn't real, but it's also hard to ignore, and honestly pretty unpleasant! I am just trying to download some real page-turners to my kindle to make the next week fly by...

Any questions?: Recs for distracting media appreciated!

GTKY: Do you collect anything? I think just books. My house is filled with them. I particularly like beautiful copies of childhood favorites (Roald Dahl, etc).

ATolentino89 · February 2024

@bumblebee0210 I. LOVE. BOOKS!!
@britters314 I am sorry for the hiccup. I had to do a home evaluation when we had temp custody of my nieces.

Diagnosis (if you've been): unexplained

Status (TI/ICI/IUI/IVF/FET/benched): TI

What are you doing this cycle? (Testing? Treatment?): medicated TI and HSG. Currently in my paper skirt waiting for mid cycle monitoring (you're welcome for that) then HSG

How are things going?: busy. Between school, my job, and normal household things I have no time to breathe. It will make these next 10 weeks go by super fast though.

Any questions?: nope

GTKY: Do you collect anything? Books, random heirlooms, animals...

aisleofviewtwo · February 2024

@britters314 Sorry for the unexpected extra hurdle. Given your fostering experience I have no doubt you’ll pass with flying colors, so FX the agency bureaucracy moves quickly for you!

@bumblebee0210 Any particular medium/genre? For lighthearted TV, I’ve recently enjoyed Jury Duty and Schmigadoon (have also heard great things about Only Murders In The Building but haven’t watched it myself). For books, I’ve loved every romance novel I’ve read by Emily Henry and Ali Hazelwood. I used to listen to NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast religiously and it always felt like a fun conversation with really smart friends—might also offer other inspiration for your self-distraction quest!

@ATolentino89 How is the new job going???

aisleofviewtwo · February 2024

Diagnosis (if you've been): Unexplained

Status (TI/ICI/IUI/IVF/FET/benched): IVF

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

How are things going?: I am anxious. Had my initial cycle visit yesterday and even though they said everything looked good I just went into this awful spiral of being convinced this isn’t going to work for us. Ugh. A bit more stable today, but with all the hormones coming my way we’ll see what happens… Feelings aside, things are fine. First injections will be tonight; I initially made my husband promise he would do them because I do ok with needles as long as I don’t have to see them, but as we get closer I’m feeling like the control freak in me is actually going to insist I do it all myself. 😆

Any questions?:

GTKY: Do you collect anything? I used to collect mugs from places I’d visited, but then I moved 6 times in 7 years and dispensed with most non-essentials along the way. I do still keep small mementos (movie tickets, concert programs, love notes, etc.) and have a shoebox full from every phase of my life so far.

ATolentino89 · February 2024

IF humor for you...
I was at the clinic today and the couple in front of me were checking in. The receptionist hands the man his paper to give to the lab tech and explains that once he's done with his part his partner will be checked in and her part will begin. He looked her dead in the eye and said "I have to give blood?!?"
She managed to keep it together to say "no sir. That's not what they neex" and they went to the lab area. She and I were both laughing after wondering if he would figure out what makes a baby.
Spoiler for story with LC
.

Also... I found out that I have a heart shaped uterus... so I asked my 8 year old why he didn't tell me that it was funny shaped in there.

britters314 · February 2024

@aisleofviewtwo FX your retrieval goes well (and that the injections aren’t too bad!)

AFM, I got a list of all the documents we need to submit and trainings we need to do for our family evaluation. Pretty similar to what we had to do for foster care, except the training is specific to embryo adoption. But I told the list to H and he got so overwhelmed lol. So now I need to just give him things to do one at a time. Also I had my first visit with the RE that works with our agency and it went really well! I left the appointment feeling very optimistic about our chances!

bumblebee0210 · February 2024

@aisleofviewtwo. Thanks! I have read all of the Ali Hazelwoods (I am an academic so I particularly like these) and all but one of the Emily Henrys--- maybe it's time for Happy Place! Only Murders in the Building is Great, I might look into the other two (I have also heard great things about both of your faves). I started "Everyone on this Train is a Suspect" this morning, and it's fun (follow up to "Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone"). Normally I don't have a ton of time for media consumption but MH is away next week so I'm stocking up on ideas. (Or you know, I'll just go to bed at 7 PM because PIO is the actual worst).

If it helps, I was shocked at how easy the stim shots are. They go right in your belly and I swear I didn't even feel it half the time. WAY less of a thing than a flu vaccine, or a blood draw. Ganirelix can be itchy after the fact and I've heard some people say menapur burns going in, but I never really found that to be true. When you get to the progesterone... that sucks more. It's intra-muscular, so a longer needle into the muscle (like a flu shot), and it leaves bruises and generally feels crappy. I warm up the syringe before taking it on a heating pad (not the whole vial! That's bad for keeping it fresh), and also then put the heating pad on the site for a half hour or so afterward, and I find that it helps a bit.

@ATolentino89 LOL. I always wondered if IUI requirements from insurance were just those guys making sure you actually know how babies were made before paying for IVF.

aisleofviewtwo · February 2024

@bumblebee0210 What field are you in? I can’t call myself an academic anymore (hubs and I met in our PhD program in History, then I went alt-ac after he got a tenure-track job in a high cost of living city so we could actually afford to live in the same place), but def steeped in the academe culture enough to appreciate a STEMinist perspective .

Thanks for the advice on progesterone for when we get there! Were you given the option of suppositories? Those do sound messy but all in all less miserable than the shots—you’re not the first to tell me how much they suck.

charmedlifex3 · February 2024

Diagnosis (if you've been): RPL, low Amh and some autoimmune issues

Status (TI/ICI/IUI/IVF/FET/benched): benched at the moment

What are you doing this cycle? (Testing? Treatment?): meeting on Monday to talk about going forward with egg retrieval while I am stuck on the bench!

How are things going?: so apparently I am having heart surgery. 😳 I’ve had a murmur my whole life and had some weird symptoms so I checked in with my cardiologists they found a birth defect, and strongly recommended I have surgery before getting pregnant. So benched and apparently having heart surgery in about a month.

Any questions?:

GTKY: Do you collect anything? Bracelets! Small, fun, pretty and when people compliment you on it, it’s fun to say “oh thanks I got this one in (interesting location)”

bumblebee0210 · February 2024

@charmedlifex3. Wow-- that is a lot. One the one hand, it is so great they caught it. Pregnancy con be life threatening for people with heart conditions, and lots of people don't know before they get pregnant. On the other hand, it must feel like another wrench in an endless stream... Hopefully you can do an ER this month!

@aisleofviewtwo I'm an economist. So not technically STEM, but very similar vibes, and similarly male-dominated.

charmedlifex3 · February 2024

@bumblebee0210 I’m a financial advisor so I definitely get it. Definitely a “boys club.”

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