New to IVF

[EmilieNZ]

Hi,

My name is Emilie and I live in New Zealand. My husband and I have been ttc for over five years and I recently had surgery for Endometriosis. It was moderate and all successfully removed. Until then we were in the 'unexplained infertility' basket.

We had scheduled IVF to begin in April and even though the endo diagnosis and treatment happened in the meantime (and was most likely the cause of our infertility) we saw no sense in changing anything.

So as of Tuesday this week, I begin daily shots of Buserelin, followed by Gonal-F with a forecasted collection date around April 27.

I have basically come to terms with the process (had a while to think about it!) and I am optimistic. I am 29 years old and hubby is 34. I just have a few anxieties in relation to, well, stabbing myself in the stomach (!) and of course negative outcomes. I do have a few questions and if anyone can help with these, Iw ould be very grateful:

1. I have been taking a pre-natal vitamin for a feew months - have others done this? How long do I keep taking it?

2. What is the egg collection / transfer procedure like?

3. I have a trip to the UK booked fairly early on in the process (7 weeks). I'm quite annoyed about this because the system entered the dates wrong and our treatment was delayed by a month. Is flying an absolute no-no?

4. I'd love to hear some positive stories from endo sufferers who have had IVF.... tell me yours!!

5. Any other advice for me?

We're kind of isolated here, as all our family are in the UK. I have told only 3 people of what we're going through (I'm quite a private person by nature). So we lean on each other a lot. Also, we live about 3 hours away from our treatment facility which will mean a lot of upheaval next month - c'est la vie!

Well, I look forward to hearing from you and reading some expereinces on here.

Em x

[hjw]

Hi Emilie, nice to hear your story. I'm an IVF first timer too so I can't answer all your questions, but the ones I can answer are:

- it's good that you are taking pre-natal vitamins. If you get your BFP (big fat positive) you only need to take folic acid all the way through your pregnancy but I personally would take the combined pregnancy vitamin (it should say on the packet that it is OK to take through the whole 9 months, but just check).

- Personally, I wouldn't worry about air travel. There are lots of people on these boards who travel for the IVF itself (let alone after they get pregnant) and are fine, and I have lots of friends who've gone on holiday when pregnant but before they've had their 12 week scan.

There is a thread in the IVF board for 'March/April cycle buddies' - if you haven't already, why don't you come over and say hello? There are lots of us having IVF now or next month and while some of us are first timers, there are lots of ladies who have had it before and can answer your questions.

Best of luck!