JAN/FEB/MAR 2009 Ladies!!! :arrow:

[okandtxdr]

Hello ladies,

I also have started my IVF cycle this month...

Started Lupron 1/12/09
Will DC BCP on 1/18/09
Await period....
then Begin Follistim 300iu x2 days then 225 x2 days then sonogram

This is my first IVF cycle. I am 29 - no fertility problems, my husband is almost 38 - low sperm count, decreased morphology etc...

I am very nervous about how these medications will affect a healthy reproducing female... any insight will be helpful and appreciated.

I wish you all the best of luck this month!

[CT_Michele]

Welcome to the boards OK. Well, I guess I consider myself a healthy reproducing female. I think my body took the meds like everyone else, felt bloated, sometimes tired, sometimes crampy. My first ivf was successful and I don;t feel like my pregnancy was any different due to ivf than from someone who conceived naturally. You said dh has low sperm count...will he need to do a sperm extraction like my hubby and will you be doing icsi?

Dys- yay for bd'ing...and we are all praying this is your time. Keep us updated on hpt's.

Espinozal- That is so cute about your daughter. How old is she? If this cycle works for me, Ella will not be old enough to understand and say cute things like that. But while I was pregnant with Ella, my 5 yr old goddaughter use to insist it was a girl in me, b/c she didn;t like boys, boys were yucky.

Lady j- glad to hear you are progressing...and try to stay warm in the bitter cold. It is headed my way today/tomorrow/friday. They are saying 0 degrees not factoring in the wind. I wish I could just stay in the next 4 days, but unfortunately dh and I made dentist appts tomorrow, ugh.

[to_have_fun08]

CT_Michelle - I am sure your DH is not too happy for another Tese. I have heard they are not too pleasant. I am really glad we don't have sperm issue, I really don't know how far my DH would go to have a child.

Dys - I guess you are in a really good mood since you have been bd'ing. Hope this works for you.

Espinozal- The 2ww drove me crazy. I had so many symptoms that were either AF coming or PG. i don't think I got any work done in the 2ww. 8 cell embies are really good on day 3. I also got pics on my little embies on my first IVF. I put them on my fridge and looked at them everyday. No wonder I was so obsessed. Only 9 more days to go before your Beta. YEY!!!!!

Ok - Welcome to the board. Sorry you have to be here. Everyone reacts to the meds in so many different ways. For me, I am older but I stim really fast so if I took as much follistim as you are taking, I would only stim for 4 or 5 days. You just have to trust your RE that they know what they are doing. Good luck.

Lady_J - Glad to hear AF came. It's about time. Good luck at your appt today. So you will be doing BCP's and Lupron. I guess then you will start stims after your next AF. I don't know about you, i feel that time is going by really slow. I hate waiting.

brit1612 - Welcome to the board. Hope you don't have too hard of a time getting your embies from the other clinic. Every lady that I have met on these boards that have done donor embies or donor eggs have gotten their BFP. So I have faith that this will work for you.

Praying4BFP - Have you turned off that TV yet? I think I would go really crazy not having a job and it being winter time. At least in the summer you can enjoy going or a walk. Winter time all you would want to do is stay inside and stay cozy and warm. I feel for you. So when is your DH supposed to be back?


The cold weather sucks. Supposed to get to 5 degrees tonight. BRRRR I am not going to want to get out of bed tomorrow and it isn't supposed to warm up till Sat. I can't wait for Spring.
I am still trying to iron out my insurance crap. Talked to the insurance co today and they are waiting on my RE to fax SA results so they can approve ICSI. So I guess that mean I won't be able to do ICSI because DH swimmers are good. Which sucks. I wanted to do ICSI on all my eggs just to make sure they all at least have a chance of fertilization. Oh well, I am just happy I have coverage. So I won't complain too much.



Hope everyone has a good day.


Chris

[robin611]

Hi Everyone,
Sorry I've been MIA but there hasn't been really much to post. My b/w yesterday showed hcg at 6.5 so almost there but I can't believe how long it takes to get down to "negative" (under 5). Also, met with RE last night and got my schedule, assuming we go this route. DH has been on meds to improve morph & mot and they seem to be working, slowly, so RE said we could try for a few months on our own but odds are still low. I think we will likely go the FET route first and hopefully be able to try on our own for later children. Anyway, assuming that, I start estrace when I get AF (hopefully soon) and do that for 2-3 weeks. Then PIO for 6 days prior to transfer. We have 4 frosties but RE recommends thawing & transferring 2 blasts. I think DH & I assumed we'd have to thaw all 4 but RE doesn't seem to think so.
Anyway, that's my story. How are you all doing?
-Robin

[to_have_fun08]

robin - Its good to hear from you. Was wondering the other day what you were up to. I can't believe it takes that long to get the HCG out of your system. You are almost there. YEY!!! Can't wait for you to start your FET cycle.


Chris

[okandtxdr]

CT_ Michelle

Yes, we will be doing ICSI. I don't really know what to expect with that either. Recovery time? Extreme Pain for my husband? I do know it will be done with local anesthesia only.

thanks for the warm welcome and your words were encouraging to me

[Sophie1]

going to start first IVF cycle in february. we have gotten pregnant on our but miscarried. tried clomid with iui no luck. any ideas on how to mentally prepare for ivf process

[aspotofTea]

Hi everyone,

Well, aunt flo arrived today, which means I will be starting my very first IVF cycle. I will start taking BCP on Friday, and I go for a baseline scan on Feb 4.

I'm excited, but I'm so scared. I have no idea what to expect. I do however, have an idea, just from reading what you all are so gracious in sharing. So, I'm incredibly grateful that I have found this board, and that everyone here is so welcoming of people into this community. I look forward to getting to know you all and share in this journey.

[Rosario]

I am happy and proud to say I took my last pill early this morning. I go for my suppression check tomorrow morning. Hopefully all is well and I get to start stims. Wish me lots of luck.

[to_have_fun08]

Rosario - Wishing you the best of luck. Keeping my fingers crossed that your supression check goes well. Yey !!! can't wait for you to start stimming again.

aspotofTea & sophie1 - Welcome to the board. I will also start at the beginning on Feb. We will be pretty close. Look forward to cycling with you.

My RE is sending out my schedule today. YEY, i am almost there. Talked with my insurance and they won't let me order my meds till next week. UUUGGHHH can't they make anything easy. I just want to have eveything in place so I won't have to stress.

Well hump day is about over, only 2 more days till the weekend.

Chris

[Molly23]

Hey to_have_fun08- Sorry your doctor does not cover ICSI when sperm is at a good rate, but like you said you are lucky to have insurance that covers it. Best of luck to you.

I was reading this thread and started to get concerned that maybe my Doctor did not do ICSI, but I called today and they said they do it on all their patients, unless the patient does not want it. I was happy to hear that. However, the reason we are doing this is because my husband has poor swimmers.

I still have not got my period yet, and I am hoping it comes by the end of the week, so I can start Gonal F.

My cycle seems pretty short after reviewing the sheet. I start Gonal F, and I only got 4 treatments of the Ganirelex. I start that on the 7th or 8th and egg retrieval is on the 12th day. Does that sound like a normal cycle to you guys?

[CT_Michele]

Molly- It sounds like a fairly normal cycle to me. I remember from my first cycle that I did my first stim shot on dec1 and retreival was on the 11th, so it was only 10 days, I had 4 or 5 days of ganirelix too.

Rosario- congrats on your last bcp!

aspotoftea- welcome to the boards, it is a wonderful place to be and you will find a lot of comfort and support here. I remember being scared too, but i just went with the flow, trusted my docs and it all worked out for me. I just felt like it was all part of my plan and i had to do what I had to do...that is ow I got through it.

Sophie- a warm welcome to you too! I am sorry to her about your miscarriage, and I hope ivf will do the trick for you. As I said,mentally I just knew i had to get through it, like it was my mission. I don;t know how one mentally prepares for ivf...I guess just try to keep positive is the best advice i can give. Hope is what we all grasp onto during this time.

ok- ICSI will mean nothing different for you than a regular ivf procedure. You will still do stimming shots, still have egg retrieval and transfer. ICSI just means that the will take one of dh's sperm and inject it directly into an egg, since your dh sperm is lower quality or a poor swimmer. It gives you the best chance of fertilization. If he needs to have his sperm surgically extracted (TESE), which is what it sounds like since you said he will get local anesthesia, he will probably be a bit sore. All people have different thresholds for pain, but dh said the anesthia shot hurt, then they cut and he was not completely numb, which hurt, and then the second anesthia to make sure he was numb hurt. He said the rest he didn;t feel, but recovery was sore too. He went back to work/school the next day, but this time we will stay home, he needed the extra rest.

Well, I went back to clinic today for a blood pressure check. It was very high when I first got there, but they checked again and gave me the all clear for bcp's. I picked them up and just took my first pill. I guess I will be taking them until I start stims around feb. 20. My clinic does all of their ivf's during the same week, so I think I am only taking bcp's so they can keep everyone on the same schedule. I will still go for the consult next week, and probably the sonohyst and office hyst, and we will drop off dh's goods monday morning for SA. My guess is that they won;t find anything, but who knows. If they get anything, he may not have to do TESE again.

[kcraven]

Hey Ladies,

Sorry it's taking me several days to get back with ya'll. My dh and I had our appt Monday. He had his sperm test. We should have the results of that next Monday. I had the trial ET, SIS. Dr. said everything looked perfect. I go back next Monday for additional tests. They think I will stop BCP's next Tuesday and start my shots on the 24th!! On track for ET the first week of Feb. : )

It took me awhile to read everyones updates. WOW we have a lot of exciting stuff going on. I just know we are all going to have successes!!! Baby Dust to everyone. Oh yeah, welcome all new comers!! You have found a great cite. These ladies have helped me tremendously!!

Question: I missed one BCP Monday night!! Is that a big deal? I'm scared to tell the dr : )

[waiting for 4]

Hi ladies. I just got back to work this morning after 5 wonderful days in New York City. It is obviously going to take some time to catch up on y'all but i have a bw/us this morning to see if I am ready for stims! I cant wait. Anyone know if this 14 day lupron kit will get me through the cycle? Last time I accidently left it at a hotel and the cleaning staff threw it out so I don't know if I would have needed the second one or not.

Have a great day!

[TKat]

Good morning! I had my ET yesterday. I was really scared cause the RE called as me and DH were eating breakfast. I thought he was calling to tell us not to come in. He actually was calling to tell us we had some great blasts to chose from and said we had some morulla's still growing as well. We ended up putting 2 4AA blasts back which is the best quality!! We are hoping it works this time. I need to keep my stress level down. I'm back at work today but after today am off until Tuesday. Only 8 more days left to wait! I think we're going to start using HPTs to see if the hcg is out of my system yet. Hope these little guys implant sometime today. Last time around I had NO symptoms and I wasn't pregnant obviously so I'm hoping I start feeling something around day 10 or so.... I just can't imagine going through this again! Now its just a waiting game. We're moving into our house this weekend so I should be pretty distracted. I can't lift anything so DH said i can just order him around...which I happen to be pretty good at. LOL.

espinozal23 - I was told we could NOT have intercourse over the 2WW. Sorry you are feeling some pain. I also have pain on my right ovary as well. Very strange. Maybe because our ovaries were so big and are finaly calming down.

Lady_J - That's great you get to start your cycle. How did your 3 day labs go?

CT_Michele - Sorry to hear there may not be enough frozen sperm. Are they going to test his sperm first and then determine if he has to go through TESE again? All of these hurdles will be well worth it once you're holding your new bundle of joy in your arms!

I wish i could write more but gotta run!

TKat