what's the normal schedule?
what's the normal schedule?
hi, i'm victoria and i've just started b/c pills on the 22 of aug, i'm going to do ivf, but i am really confused about what happens first, second and so on could anybody explain it to me! thanks
victoria
Hi Victoria
I did not take bc pills so not sure how good my info on timings will be for you. Also different hospitals use different protocols. I was on the longer cycle starting on Day 2 of my period. Some ladies are on a shorter cycle sometimes called a flare cycle.
I started by taking down regulation injections (lupron to close down my systems). I need to be on those for a minimum of 2 weeks. For me it was 18 days due to clinic dates. Some ladies sniff the drugs rather than doing injections. They call this scan your baseline scan. To check that there are no cycts and your system has been shut down. If not then this phase can go on longer
I then started the stimulants injections. So kept the daily down reg injection. So on 2 injections per day. Had scans at Day 5, Day 9 and Day 12.
At that stage, they are checking to ensure that you are growing enough but not too many folliclies (which you hope contain eggs).
At Day 12 of the stimmies, I was told to take my trigger shot at 10.30pm that evening.
Then there is a day with no injections - just waiting!!!
Then I went in for Egg Collection.
Then wait for eggs and dh's stuff to do the business. I had a 2 day transfer but some ladies have 3 or 5 day.
Then it is 2 week wait to see whether it has worked or not. You have progesterone during this part - either via suppositories or via injection.
All in all I started on 25th March and got my test result on 10th May but that is quite a long cycle.
It varies from person-to-person and depening on your protocol and your clinic but hope that gives you a bit of an idea.
Good Luck for your treatment. The girls on here are a godsend. Link up with some people cycling at the same time as you so you can share the experience.
Take care.
carolyn xxxx
I did not take bc pills so not sure how good my info on timings will be for you. Also different hospitals use different protocols. I was on the longer cycle starting on Day 2 of my period. Some ladies are on a shorter cycle sometimes called a flare cycle.
I started by taking down regulation injections (lupron to close down my systems). I need to be on those for a minimum of 2 weeks. For me it was 18 days due to clinic dates. Some ladies sniff the drugs rather than doing injections. They call this scan your baseline scan. To check that there are no cycts and your system has been shut down. If not then this phase can go on longer
I then started the stimulants injections. So kept the daily down reg injection. So on 2 injections per day. Had scans at Day 5, Day 9 and Day 12.
At that stage, they are checking to ensure that you are growing enough but not too many folliclies (which you hope contain eggs).
At Day 12 of the stimmies, I was told to take my trigger shot at 10.30pm that evening.
Then there is a day with no injections - just waiting!!!
Then I went in for Egg Collection.
Then wait for eggs and dh's stuff to do the business. I had a 2 day transfer but some ladies have 3 or 5 day.
Then it is 2 week wait to see whether it has worked or not. You have progesterone during this part - either via suppositories or via injection.
All in all I started on 25th March and got my test result on 10th May but that is quite a long cycle.
It varies from person-to-person and depening on your protocol and your clinic but hope that gives you a bit of an idea.
Good Luck for your treatment. The girls on here are a godsend. Link up with some people cycling at the same time as you so you can share the experience.
Take care.
carolyn xxxx
Me 42, DH 52 IVF #1, #2, #3 ICSI #4 - 10.05.2006, 12.12.2006, 10.03.2007, 27.07.2007 ICSI/DE/TESA #5, #6 PGD/IVIG #7 - 24.11.2007, 27.02.2008, 23.05.2008 - 7 BFNs
Surrogacy/FET #8 - 15.10.2008 - BFP
[img]http://lb1f.lilypie.com/2iB9p1.png[/img]
Surrogacy/FET #8 - 15.10.2008 - BFP
[img]http://lb1f.lilypie.com/2iB9p1.png[/img]
thanks carolyn
thanks carolyn for the info, i noticed u are 40, so am i, i also noticed in your signature that you had blocked tubes but then not blocked later, the reason i'm asking is becuz i had a tubal reversal oct 2005 and just found out in july that my tubes are blocked i guess scar tissue, just wondering how you had them unblocked, if you don't mind me asking. thanks , victoria, from california
victoria
Hi Victoria
Don't mind you asking at all. Always 'nice' or should that be useful/comforting to find people who are in a similiar position to oneself.
I feel quite a lot older than many of the ladies on here which I know makes it harder in terms of % success rates. However, never quite got around to joining the thread for the over 40s. Guess that I am still in denial!!!??? Was 40 at the end of May so ought to be used to it by now!!
So when I was initially diagnosed, I had an internal dye test (may be called an HSG I think). That showed that both my tubes were blocked near the womb - no idea why. 1st consultant suggested ivf straight away given my age so that is what we did. Cycled in April-May as you can see. Had good response (which is critical at our age). On lowest dose of puregon but still managed 13 eggs. 10 fertilised but only 8 were good/average. We were lucky to be able to freeze 6 which are our back-up plan!
Then 1st consultant retired so we were transferred to a 'younger' guy. Same hospital/clinic. He suggested that we tried surgery so that we could try naturally as well as doing ivf. After the drugs of a cycle, my clinic makes me wait 3 months before I can do ivf again so he said that we would be able to try in the 'wasted' months as well.
1st I had a laparoscopy to see the state of the rest of the tubes - he took loads of photos. If damaged at top end then he would not have bothered with full surgery. He felt that as the damage was only close to the womb that surgery was worth a shot. Lap was not too bad - small cut in tummy button, under general for about 1/2 hour. Did not need to stay in overnight. Went back to work on Wed after op on Monday (although that might have been a little crazy
). My insurance covered the cost of this op in full as part of 'diagnosis'.
Op was much bigger deal. Called Cornual Surgery - Rejection & Anastomosis (so you can google it or ask your consultant). Stayed in for 2 nights but he warned me it could be up to 4 nights in hospital. 4 weeks minimum recover. Off work, no driving, no lifting. My op was 22 days ago and only now that I feel anything like normal. He used microsurgery on tubes which he said made the recover time quicker!!! Been pretty painful for me. Scar is on bikini line like a caesarian scar I guess?? Will only seem worth it if it gives us the end result that we all want!! Could not get this covered on insurance so we had to pay for it ourselves.
Think the key issues - from web research and consultant - that indicate whether it is worth doing the surgery are where the blockages are (nearer womb is better for success afterwards), the length of tubes that will exist post-surgery (longer the better) and the level of scar tissue around the whole area (less the better). Many consultants think that it is 'better' just to go straight to ivf. The surgery has about 50% chance of success - if it is going to happen after surgery then 80% happen within 8 months. Also the risk of eptopic is higher after surgery. I guess that we figured that we could afford surgery and further cycles of ivf so why not throw both options at the problem as guess that given our ages, we will only 'try' for another 2 years. We will do another cycle of ivf in Jan if we do not have any success by then.
I hope that this helps. These are all tricky decisions as we just want to do what will actually work!!!!
Lots of info. Hope helpful for you.
Let me know what you decide to do & what your next steps will be.
Lots of Luck
Carolyn xxx
Don't mind you asking at all. Always 'nice' or should that be useful/comforting to find people who are in a similiar position to oneself.
I feel quite a lot older than many of the ladies on here which I know makes it harder in terms of % success rates. However, never quite got around to joining the thread for the over 40s. Guess that I am still in denial!!!??? Was 40 at the end of May so ought to be used to it by now!!
So when I was initially diagnosed, I had an internal dye test (may be called an HSG I think). That showed that both my tubes were blocked near the womb - no idea why. 1st consultant suggested ivf straight away given my age so that is what we did. Cycled in April-May as you can see. Had good response (which is critical at our age). On lowest dose of puregon but still managed 13 eggs. 10 fertilised but only 8 were good/average. We were lucky to be able to freeze 6 which are our back-up plan!
Then 1st consultant retired so we were transferred to a 'younger' guy. Same hospital/clinic. He suggested that we tried surgery so that we could try naturally as well as doing ivf. After the drugs of a cycle, my clinic makes me wait 3 months before I can do ivf again so he said that we would be able to try in the 'wasted' months as well.
1st I had a laparoscopy to see the state of the rest of the tubes - he took loads of photos. If damaged at top end then he would not have bothered with full surgery. He felt that as the damage was only close to the womb that surgery was worth a shot. Lap was not too bad - small cut in tummy button, under general for about 1/2 hour. Did not need to stay in overnight. Went back to work on Wed after op on Monday (although that might have been a little crazy
). My insurance covered the cost of this op in full as part of 'diagnosis'.Op was much bigger deal. Called Cornual Surgery - Rejection & Anastomosis (so you can google it or ask your consultant). Stayed in for 2 nights but he warned me it could be up to 4 nights in hospital. 4 weeks minimum recover. Off work, no driving, no lifting. My op was 22 days ago and only now that I feel anything like normal. He used microsurgery on tubes which he said made the recover time quicker!!! Been pretty painful for me. Scar is on bikini line like a caesarian scar I guess?? Will only seem worth it if it gives us the end result that we all want!! Could not get this covered on insurance so we had to pay for it ourselves.
Think the key issues - from web research and consultant - that indicate whether it is worth doing the surgery are where the blockages are (nearer womb is better for success afterwards), the length of tubes that will exist post-surgery (longer the better) and the level of scar tissue around the whole area (less the better). Many consultants think that it is 'better' just to go straight to ivf. The surgery has about 50% chance of success - if it is going to happen after surgery then 80% happen within 8 months. Also the risk of eptopic is higher after surgery. I guess that we figured that we could afford surgery and further cycles of ivf so why not throw both options at the problem as guess that given our ages, we will only 'try' for another 2 years. We will do another cycle of ivf in Jan if we do not have any success by then.
I hope that this helps. These are all tricky decisions as we just want to do what will actually work!!!!
Lots of info. Hope helpful for you.
Let me know what you decide to do & what your next steps will be.
Lots of Luck
Carolyn xxx
Me 42, DH 52 IVF #1, #2, #3 ICSI #4 - 10.05.2006, 12.12.2006, 10.03.2007, 27.07.2007 ICSI/DE/TESA #5, #6 PGD/IVIG #7 - 24.11.2007, 27.02.2008, 23.05.2008 - 7 BFNs
Surrogacy/FET #8 - 15.10.2008 - BFP
[img]http://lb1f.lilypie.com/2iB9p1.png[/img]
Surrogacy/FET #8 - 15.10.2008 - BFP
[img]http://lb1f.lilypie.com/2iB9p1.png[/img]
thank you soooo much
hi carolyn, well you have been thru so much, but i pray you have success. i'm 3 months older than you so i hope it makes you feel better, funny. i think you had a good # of eggs with that medication on your first try on ivf. we have so much in common, like when you said your dr. retired, mine also retired 4 months after my surgery, he sent all his patients to another dr. if we wanted to go, we all could go where we wanted, me and my husband decided to go to the one recomemded, he's telling us we can't repair my tubes, due to not having much to work with, since i had the tubal reversal already, i was very disapointed when i found out my tubes were blocked in july as you can imagine, right ? after my surgery my dr ran blue dye thru the tubes and took pictures and the dye went thru, i guess what happens sometimes is people develope scar tissue from the surgery. oh well what can we do. the tubal reversal was over 6000 dollars! so, we are going to do ivf after i finish the b/c pills. i'm still kinda lost in the whole process, but you are such a great help with all your knowledge, thanks , victoria
victoria