Even before I came to this site, I knew the statistics so it is clear to me that there are so many people going through the same thing. Good luck to all! (As luck does seem to have something to do with it.)
I am originally from Oregon and now immigrated to the Czech Republic. We have very high-quality health care here and good insurance that covers 3 full IVF cycles when needed. But the local doctors are notoriously uncommunicative. In fact, the Czech Republic is ranked last in Europe when it comes to doctors' communication with patients. I am finding that this is a major problem when dealing with IVF and that is one major reason I'm trying to seek out other people who are going through the process. I don't really need expert advice, just a sense of perspective.
In July, I started my first IVF cycle, survived the hormone treatments and the egg extraction. Then, they said that I had too much endometrial hyperplasia to attempt a transfer. I looked that up and it is usually what women get who don't ovulate and the lining of the uterus thickens too much. But my menstrual cycles have always been so regular, you could set your moon calendar by them. (The reason for the IVF is supposed to be with my husband's slow sperm.) But the doctors wouldn't tell me anything more. Finally, I did enough reading to find out that sometimes you can hyperplasia from a hormonal reaction. So, it appears that it was some sort of side effect to the hormone treatments.
So, I waited in great suspense for this month and now they say that I am not ovulating! So, they won't try it this month either. After months and months of tests, which I'm sure you have all been through as well, this is really discouraging. We have six frozen embryos that seem to all be OK. But the doctors won't talk to me about why all these problems keep coming up or if there is anything I can do to mitigate the trouble. They won't tell me if any of these are common or extremely rare complications. And women never talk to each other in the waiting rooms here. It is socially unheard of. This is simply nerve wracking.
All this I can survive. I am not very experienced with medical problems but I have reasonably good nerves. What I worry about is this: If this part is hard, how much more stressful and anxiety-producing is it going to be to wait for results after the embryo transfer. Instinct seems to tell me that anxiety is not going to help me get pregnant. Any suggestions or perspective on getting my mind to stop stressing and go with the flow?
Wishes of strength to all! And my one little bit of advice to all is that everyone I have heard about had such different reactions to the treatments that we shouldn't panic when odd things come up because being odd is so common.
Arie