Starting IVF in Sept/Oct.--Support for first timers
317 Replies
isa - September 27

cmelissa my clinic accepts anything over a 5 as pregnant but likes to see a 30 at our first beta. Also re adoption we always thought we would do international adoption but the cost we've put into iui's and ivf's wont allow us to afford that (it's minimum $25000) and regarding domestic adoption its about an 8 year waiting list and we cant adopt a child younger than 40 years difference between the oldest adult and the child (canadian rules) and my dh is 42 1/2 so the youngest we could get is 2 1/2 if we did it right now. By the time the paper work is done it would be at least a year so we would be looking at a 3 1/2 -4 year old if we qualified but we are pretty sure we wont qualify due to my physical /muscular medical problems (long story). Getting pregnant would possibly eliminate some of those problems from all the sex hormones relaxing my muscles but we wont know unless I get pg.

 

lifequest - September 27

Hi Ladies, I’m back. I took a few weeks off to just rest and not think about what is ahead. I started doing acupuncture and it actually helped my FSH numbers drop from 8.8 to 6. I’m so shocked. I start IVF this month. I just started my BCP last night and supposable I’m to take them for 13 days. Next week I go in for a class with my husband to teach us how to do the injections etc. The nurse said roughly give or take a day, I’ll be doing the retrieval on Oct 31, so I’m assuming I’ll be doing the transfer on Nov 5th. I’m so nervous. How are all of you doing? Mega, nice to see your back. Hope you had a good rest. I wish you all the best this month. Isa good luck on your first IVF cycle…hopefully with great success it will be your last! What CD are you on? Angie35, don’t loose hope, trust me…you won’t believe what my sister went through 10 months ago…and now today she has a beautiful daughter !!!! Hey Robyn, good luck what CD are you on? I’m from Canada so I guess our meds are different from yours. I will be taking Superfact and than Puregon (Follistim) for my treatment. Superfact will bring me to CD0 baseline before I start with the Follistim. Anyone familiar with this?

 

cmelissa - September 27

Hey Tracy - we'd love for you to join us here too!! Thanks for the chart i will check it out!! Lifequest welcome back - this is my 1st ivf cycle too this month - i have my ER on the 3rd of Oct and the transfer on the 8th! You are right along with Robyn probably! She will be starting her bcp's soon too! Isa i have a good feeling the ovf is going to work for all of us!!!

 

isa - September 27

lifequest I am on cd27 waiting for af so that I can start stimming on cd3. I've been on lupron since cd21.I've not used your meds so I am not familiar with them I'll be on gonal-F and I did not have to use bcp's either. We are not given retrieval days we go day by day as they follow our b/w and u/s. I guess I can estimate it between 12-14 days after I get af but normally she would have come today but she hasnt shown up yet -possibly related to my accupuncture and herbs I've been taking from the TCM accupuncturist. He is working on warming up my body (I have a low bbt -although it falls within the normal range but the very low normal range) and we are trying to increase bloodflow to my uterine area to increase my natural lining so as not to have to do it with meds.

 

ROBYN - September 28

Hey girls checking in... Tomorrow we are closing on our new house so I wont be around a few days. CMELISSA - sound like a good amount of follies thanks for info on the amount no more than 12 you said. LIFEQUEST - I am CD32 and started yesterday on Prometrium 200mg for 12 days to bring on AF. After that I call on CD1 and go in on CD2 for U/S and b/w then start the BCP's my DH reminded that probably on CD20 of my BCP I will start Lupron. They did give me a protocol I need to read it we are just so busy with about to be moving. Good luck to you seems like we are pretty close to one another for the IVF. MELISSA cannot believe you are already going on the 3rd for the retreival. I am so excited for you. Well. gonna go rest a while have a big day tomorrow and I am getting a freaking sore throat YEA!! Anyway will talk to you all probably friday.

 

isa - September 28

Angie prayers are with you for a good night sleep and a doubling beta # in the morning.

 

jamie74 - September 28

so why are all of you girls having to do ivf
i guess we will start soon with it the success rates are pretty good here i think .ROBIN could you check to see if the rates are good at my clinic just google huntsville ivf and click on success rates and let me know what u think thank you . we will have the money soon to start it my husband just started his own roofing buis. and he has been making good money . so the money will be there 4 us after all . also hi to everyone i am a newby here scared about ivf. i have to have it due to an old infection when i had my son i was 15 i am now 31 dh and i ttc for a long time went on clomid nothing then had lapo last month and it wasnt good my tubes are destroyed because of the infection . well i did it to myself i guess i never told anyone i was preg was too scared because i was only 15 and i never once went to the doc and i hid my whole preg for the whole 9 months . parents didnt know i was preg till i delivered my son on our couch but my baby was fine i never knew that this would turn out this way for me i hope u ladies will be good friends and support me i really need it right now thanks alot jamie

 

isa - September 28

LUPRON QUESTION: Did any of you get any reactions on the skin from it. I just did my 8th one and it was itchy almost immediately and i finally looked at the site and there is a tiny bump like a mosquito bite, little bit raised and its red for about the size of a quarter around it. thanks guys-welcome Jamie.

 

isa - September 28

Jamie i checked out your clinic stats and there is not much info to go on with how they pick their info and comparing clinics is fifficult even as stated on your clinics page " as entry criteria are highly variable for each program center by center comparison of results is not valid". Some centres refuse clients of certain ages and fsh levels or cancel cycles when it wont be "good stats" for the clinic.You need to know who is included in the stats, the ages, the cancelled cycles, etc. I copied this over from one site I found for you explaining the difficulties in comparisons without all the same info. You will have to speak with your clinic and find out how they do their stats, who is included/excluded etc. ...

Regarding Success Rates:

Average statistics may not apply to an individual patient or couple within an age or treatment group. Success rates vary depending on many factors including the causes of infertility, the adequacy of ovarian reserve ( as measured by cycle day - 3 serum FSH, LH, estradiol levels, and the clomiphene citrate challenge test ), and the number, maturity, and quality of eggs retrieved.

It is important to understand the philosophy with which the Institute approaches the management and treatment of infertility. Here, our goal is to help couples achieve their dreams of having children. The Institute does not preselect patients; in other words, we do not exclude couples due to the presence of factors that may negatively impact their success rates. For example, one third of our female patients are "low responders ( they are more than 37 years of age and / or have a day - 3 FSH greater than 10 mIU / ml ( normal range is between 3 - 10 mIU / mL for the assay used in our laboratories ). In addition, another third of our patients performed at least one failed IVF cycle elsewhere. These two factors are typically considered to compromise success; nonetheless, we have been able to achieve pregnancies in many of these cases. As a consequence, the Institute offers all couples the possibility of enrollment and participation in an IVF attempt to have their own genetic children.

The exception to this rule is the presence of a female older than 43 years of age and / or with an FSH level greater than 15 mIU / mL on basal cycle day - 3 ( the value of FSH is laboratory - dependent, therefore these thresholds apply to values obtained in our laboratories ). These patients are directed to egg donation, a program that offers a high chance of conception.

In addition, and up to a certain point, success rates in our program increase as the number of IVF stimulation attempts increases. There are several methods of calculating pregnancy rates. Here, we include our most recent results for IVF and donor egg cycles, our cryopreserved cycle pregnancy rates, combined pregnancy rates for the years 1981 - 2005, and the so - called total reproductive potential success rates. Our IVF rates include information on female age because a disproportionately high number of treated young females may result in higher than "normal" success rates. This is an important factor when comparing success rates from different treatment centers as fertility usually begins to decline in females aged mid to late thirties. " I hope I helped some

 

Mega - September 28

Hi ladies. CMelissa--Great follie count. You're off to an excellent start, 12 definitely sounds like a good # to me to aim for. Good luck tomorrow, you'll be surprised I'm sure. Each follie checks seems to bring new results, new possible contenders, etc. Robyn--Congrats on the house closing. How exciting! Isa--Wow, you're moving quite a long. Almost stim time, that's exciting. Hope AF comes soon for you (for her final visit for 9 + mos.). I don't remember having any site reactions to Lupron myself, except for the occassional bruise, normal. I'd suggest talking to your dr, just in case.Probably nothing, just stay away from that site in the future, but still best to let your dr know what's up. Angie--Good luck with today's beta, I hope you get much better results today. Thinking of you. Jamie--Welcome. Getting ready for IVF is a crazy/exciting time. We're happy to answer any questions you have. I did IVF b/c of male issues (low morph) and female issues (PCOS). We tried several IUIs, no luck, DH's morphology got much worse so really our best chance is IVF I think. Tracy--Thanks for that beta link. I'll have to check it out. Lifequest--Yay, you're back. Welcome back. You're moving along nicely too. Wow, that's fantastic how much accupuncture helped your FSH levels. Sounds like it's going well for you. Thanks!

 

isa - September 28

well the bump went away and the itch didnt stay long so i am wondering if maybe i just stuck it in too hard this morning (probably didnt pay attention when i did it or something) any ways its all ok now but your right Mega i do try and stay away from the same site. I have a paper i write on each morning to keep track of what side (I alternate each morning) and how far down and over from my bellybutton so as to not stick the same spot each day. -can you say anal? hahaTalked to nurse this morning to ask how long i wait until we take action to bring on af (I'm cd28) and she said wait til Saturday and if a no show call her. I'm guessing they will induce with something if need be. I don't typically have issues with af coming so she said the Lupron has delayed it. I see accupuncture again tomorrow so maybe he can bring it on for me to (?). Just got the invite for dh's family thanksgiving which is next weekend. I will be at the most day 7 of stimms in me which is much less days then anticipated when I asked you guys this before because i was going by my typical af of 25-26 days and i'm already at 28 days. With that night being my 8th night of stims how do you think i would be with a 1- 1/2 hour drive each way for dinner? The email we got was saying how much we are thankful for this year (dh's dad just finished his last chemo today after 4 months of it and so far so good no more cancer found. ). Do you think i will be able to make the drive or should i say i cant go? I'm thinking of how will i be feel in the bloated/belly uncomforable stage? If you think its stupid to go tell me, if you think we should be able to go let me know please be honest.

 

angie35 - September 28

well it's official now.. I guess it was too good to be true... The beta went down to 2 which is negative.. No baby..and no more tries for now.. too many tears and destroyed dreams... GOOD LUCK to all of you..

 

isa - September 28

Angie I am so sorry to hear it. I'll keep you in my thoughts and prayers at this difficult time. If you need us we are here for you.

 

Galina - September 28

Oh Angie, I am so sorry that this happened. As Isa said, you will be in my thoughts and prayers. I wish you the best.

 

lifequest - September 28

Hello ladies. ANGIE35, I’m so sorry to hear about your negative beta. Stay positive and never give up. We’ll all be here if you need to talk. CMELISSA, I’m so excited for you. Good luck with the ER. That’s coming up real soon. How you feeling? Are you nervous? I’m sure everything will go well; I look forward to following your journey. ISA, never thought I’d say this but I can’t wait for AF to show up for you, so you can get this show on the road. I’m surprised that there are so many ways of doing this IVF. So you don’t have to take the pill. How interesting! I am given the BCP so that my body goes down to normal. All my hormones that I have had stirred up, in the last few months with meds from IUI…are down to zero. The nurse called it my CD0. Which is a baseline…before I pump myself up again? I'll reconfirm with B/W and U/S too. Which ever way it’s done, I just hope it works for us, ALL OF US! I’m glad that your acupuncture is doing well. It sounds like he really knows what he’s doing. I’m sure it will help the blood flow to your uterus. I mentioned that I did acupuncture last month too, and I’m pretty confident that it helped my FSH levels drop from 8.8 to 6. Anyways, I have now been introduced to another Dr. He has been a TCM doctor since 1974. He is the seventh generation of TCM doctor in his family, in over 30 years. He does Holistic meds and acupuncture. Well, anyways I find him amazing. He has given me some herbs to boil and drink twice a day. He told me, I don’t need acupuncture. Hearing this from him, and knowing he does acupuncture I find this quit e fascinating? He says the herbs he’s given me, alone will help my infertility problem. (I gotta see this). ROBYN, good luck with your house closing. I heard your cycle is close to mine, so I’m excited to learn more. I’m just taking different med than you are. MEGA thanks for the warm welcome back…how you doing?

 

Mega - September 29

Angie--I'm so so sorry. I know how painful a BFN is, to have your hopes up with the first beta, that's much worse. Anyway you're in my thoughts. As the others said, if you need to talk/vent, please do. Get it out! We're always here for you. Isa, at this point I'd say at CD 8 you should be fine to attend Thanksgiving, you will be starting to bloat a little, be a tad uncomfortable but not so bad that 1.5 hour drive would affect things. That said, it all depends on how many eggs you're brewing at that time. If you have a lot, and your e2 levels are climbing up quite a bit, maybe you could call in sick but honestly, I think you'll be okay. At CD 8 I don't remember being really uncomfy & remember I did have a lot of eggs too. Really the bloatiness reaches is max point about 5 days past the ER, according to my clinic and I thought they were correct in that assumption. Glad your reaction site bump is better now. Wow, you do keep detailed records of your shot sites. Lifequest--The holistic dr sounds interesting, and honest if he does accup. himself but still thinks those herbs should help you instead. Good luck with your upcoming cycle. When is your shot 101 class, you mentioned that'll be next week. I'm doing pretty good, thanks for asking. Robyn--Hope things are going smoothly with the closing. Galina--How are you doing? Anything new with you? How's Brit's school year going? Have a great weekend ladies. Happy Friday!! TGIF!

 

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