Cycling In 2012 Board (formerly Fall/Winter 2011-2012)

[Sunshine1576]

So tonight I'm having major cramping that it's making me want to curl up in a ball and die but instead I soaked in the tub for over an hour... With all honestly I've never hurt this bad before a period and I didn't realize I was moaning until dh came in there to check on me. My bleeding is "spotting" more then flow but I feel majorly bloated just needing to break the AF dam once and for all. When I read about this synthyroid, side effects are it makes AF light and spotty, I knew about the irregularity (days skrewed up) but didn't know about the spotting on and off. So anyone else who is new at taking Levothyroxine for underactive thyroid should know it takes some time to adjust. I know it's hormonal, but why do meds have to screw with our cycle, I just want to cry right now.

[WeHaveHope]

Sunshine-I am so sorry that your not feeling well. I definantely think that your DH has a good idea in wanting to meet with your RE. I really hope that you feel better today. Sendi g you a great BIG hug.

[WeHaveHope]

Yes we are going to freeze all the embies and as soon as AF starts I will begin my meds for a FET. My concern is that there will be a problem with the thaw. I need to research and inform myself better about the process. I have been relying on my RE for advice and trying not to obsess with research.

Becca-the Internet can be useful but in many if our cases it can be quite destructive. I know that you are upset with your RE and that fact that you could have had a fresh transfer instead of a frozen transfer. I would say tsp at this point don't do any research on the Internet. There is alot of information that favors both fresh ET and FET. Your going to be doing an FET soon and you will be PUPO. Righ now that is what is important. Many on these boards have had very successful pregnancies and babies with FET. So, take a deep breath and just think that your envies will be home soon.

[WeHaveHope]

UPDATED 09-21-11@ 9:05am EST. Please let me know if I have missed anyone or if I'm missing any updates. Sending you lots of xoxoxo.







UPDATE NEEDED
Melinda72-ER 9-12-11


WeHaveHope-On Lupron & Estrogen patches for FET on 9-30-11
Jen8675309-FET 10-13-11


Becca-Fall/2011
Tamera-11/2011
Kiminsh-Fall/2011
Alwaysangel-Fall/2011
Sunshine1576-Fall/2011
Lyd10-Fall/2011
Anton-Fall/2011
Fruit-Fall/2011
Krrice28-IVF 10/2011
Jasmin-Fall/2011
Rosie84-IVF Late Oct/2011
Cheri76-Fall IVF
LauraN-Nov/2011
Blessed143-Fall/2011
Neffi211-ET scheduled for 10-28-11
Lauren319-Fall/2011


Sky7371-waiting for AF to start BCP for 1st IVF attempt 10-28-11


Blueeyedreamer-on BCP for cycle 10/2011
Kerpupples-on BCP for cycle Fall/2011
JenMink55-Start BCP on 9-14-11 for Fall IVF
Leorira-On BCP for FET 11/2011.



Kendra_n_Michael-on Lupron, estimated ER 9-20-11
Kamina-On Bravelle & Menspur for Fall IVF



Fvrogers-FET 9-22-11
Akdelp-FET on 9-22-11
Toniaa-ER 9-19-11, ET 9-24-12



Sunshine and stars-PUPO on 9-12-11
Indigofire-PUPO on 9-16-11
K8ielovett-PUPO 9-19-11

RESULTS

[akdelp]

We- When we did our retreival I got 59 eggs. Of those 39 fertilized. They let 7 go to day 5 and I had to have my Fresh transfer canceled due to OHSS. We had 2 blast's we froze from that cycle. The other 32 they froze in single tubes at the pronuclear stage - on day 1 right after they fertilized. My clinic has done studies and the survive thawing much better than freezing them all at a blasto stage. So, 5 days prior to my transfer they thaw as many as we want, we choose 7 since we have a ton, and we will see how they go. We have the two frozen blasto's as back up in case all 7 are no good.

Last cycle we got an excellent grade, expanded blasto. Unfortunatley I miscarried at 7 weeks. I had some sac of fluid right next to the baby and when it burst, it also took the baby with it, after 3 days. This is VERY rare they said and had only seen it one other time. Go figure. So, after this cycle we will have 24 at the PN stage and 2 blasto's frozen. We really are setting pretty good. Just need to maintain the pregnancy. In my opnion, I really like them thawing starting at day 1 and letting them grow as they would in a fresh cycle. Hope this helps!

Sunshine - I will post Lucy soon. She was also a rescue! Someone had found her in the corn field in the middle of no where - someone dumped her. She was sick and went to the resuce shelter. They got her healthy and adopted her out. They even trained her to set, house broken, etc. After she was adopted those people brought her back - she came back to them as a nervous, scared, not house broken anymore dog. And deathly afarid of car rides. They don't know what they did to her to make her so opposite of what she left as....The resuce then fixed her, and worked with her to be social again by having her got to a foster home. Then I found her online. There was another family wanting her and I persisted that I wanted her. We won!! She was a year old and they told us all her bad qualities and that she hates to be touched and won't set on your lap...I told them I wanted her and that she is only like this because she has never known love by a human and I will make it my mission to make sure she knows it! Now, Lucy is the baby girl of the family. She LOVES car rides, sleeps with us and if we are ever setting down, she is on our lap! I love her to death. She goes everywhere we go....even DH loves her to pieces. We have had her almost a year and I could not imagine life without her.

Transfer tomorrow!!!!!!!!

[WeHaveHope]

Dear friends,
I think I shared with some of you that one of my hobbies is photography. I love taking photos. I always find something so special in each of the photos I take. I have one photo that I took a few years ago which is one of my favorite photos. It may sound funny or strange, but everytime I look at this photo I find myself filled with a warm feeling and a feeling of eternal hope for something so much bigger. Instintly, I am reassured. Today, I wanted to share this photo with all of you along with a special hope quote. I hope that you see what I see and feel what I feel when I look at this photo. I hope it brightens your day and gives you a sense of hope for the future. I wish for all of you today, eternal hope and pray that God fulfills your your deepest dreams and desires. Sending you all much love today.

     
“Never let go of hope. One day you will see that it all has finally come together. What you have always wished for has finally come to be. You will look back and laugh at what has passed and you will ask yourself... 'How did I get through all of that?”

[WeHaveHope]

Akdelp-thank you so much for sharing that information. I had never heard of that. It sound quite fascinating and makes alot of sense. Thanks again. I am praying that all goes well tomorrow. Keeping my fingers crossed for good luck.

[anton]

Hi there!

Sunshine1576- I am sorry you are not feeling well honey. I hope this pass soon and don’t worry! I don’t think the thyroid pills are going to cause you any side effects like the cramps you are feeling now. I am on Levothyroxine for almost 2yrs now and the only side effect from the pill I got was light period some times and heavy period some other times. And that’s about it. NO cramps no nothing! I never felt anything on my AF anyway but even with the oills the only thing that changed was either heavy flow or light flow. Overall, Levothyroxine did only good to me So dont worry honey, you'll be fine! ....about IUI Vs Natural IVF cycle...Well, due to male factor we must do ICSI and by doing IUI we can’t do ICSI. IUI is baby steps in our case ICSI is performed if male infertility is very significant. IUI is just insemination. IVF obviously has higher chances of success than IUI and If you do IVF with ICSI you will probably get more embryos since sperm is injected into the egg directly. In our case, with our history of repeated failed IVF cycles, my OB believes that even though there a number of obstacles going through a natural IVF cycle (the ones I have mentioned in my yesterday’s post) he believes that maybe the drug free procedure will help the embryo implant. My body will be more relaxed and stress free. And yes, it is much much cheaper than a fresh IVF cycle. If the money were the same with either natural of fresh then yes, I would probably decide to do a fresh cycle, freeze my embies and do an FET then next month or so when my body is drug free. But since this is not the case I find the natural IVF cycle a great idea. Plus, my OB believes that after 2yrs of trying and going through 6 failed IVF cycles having “break” from it can only do good. And even if when we first started IVF back in 2009 we knew the risk of multiple pregnancies and to be honest we couldn’t see that “risk” the doctor was talking about. We still can’t! We were, still are, thrilled with the idea of having twins! And with going through a natural IVF cycle we get to transfer ONLY one embryo so bye bye chance of having twins. If this is our destiny of having one then one will do! I don’t want to sound “greedy” or something, don’t get me wrong! What me and DH want is to make a family and if that means one or two or three babies all is welcomed!.

Akdelp- You are like a heartbeat away of being PUPO! So exiting! It will be great!!! …if I got it right, are you transferring 7?! This is IT girl! Good Luck!

Wehavehope- Very nice picture you got there. I am guessing you’ve use shatters to take it. VERY good! Bravo. Photography is one of my hobbies too! I take picture of everything and everywhere! Even from my blackberry if I see something that I got to take a picture of it …Well, with my DH blessings my OB will start monitoring me on my CD7. I am expecting my AF to arrive around the 10th of October. If all goes well my natural IVF cycle will happen week 24th of October…I think… I will know better when my AF gets here. …your FET will be great! Transferring on day 5 or day 6 doesn’t matter much. What does matters is that you will be PUPO on the 30th! Sorry but I am confused how many are you transferring?

Becca- I am sorry you have found yourself in this position. You will have your FET though, no matter what and I will pray that it brings you a BFP! Let us know how it goes. I am keeping my fingers crossed for you!

LYD- Thank you for believing in my natural IVF cycle honey. I am doing the AF dance for you! The road might be long but we are ready to roll!!!

hope I havent forgot any one! sorry if I did! I am in a hurry...

AFM- All is good ...I have applied for this job today I saw in the newspaper and I hope is as good as it looks. I will tell you all about it after they call me for an interview. we are going for out for dinner tonight with DH and his family. its a fair well dinner for his nephew he is going to study in UK. Have to go now get ready

Baby dust to us all!

anton

[blessed143]

akdelp- never thought of it that way..... I have all mine frozen from day 5.... I still hope they thaw out just fine..... How exciting your transfer is tomorrow!! I will be thinking of you!

Becca- I am in the same boat...well I have mine frozen and I have done research online-errr... I think that the best thing to do is to stay off the interenet. I think I have read both positive and negatives about FETs.... I am going on Friday to talk to my RE.. I still have so many questions that I want to ask about it!! I am learning that I need to relax and not stress too much about it - since I have been looking up things online everynight for about a week.... Good luck and hope to hear some updates!

Sunshine- So sorry that you are not feeling well! I know that its hard but I am praying for you and thinking of you during this time. I hope that things improve and return to normal.... I think that it is amazing how much I hated AF before but now i rely on it.....

wehavehope- your photo is beautiful... I agreewith you... Sometimes one photo can just ease your mind and almost take your troubles away... I hope that you are well and thanks for the pic!


AFM- called my RE because I have had questions and left a message... I just rambled and rambled on like a crazy lady.... but oh well.... Have questions... I just hope they call me back soon!

[WeHaveHope]

Anton-thanks for the complements on the photo. I hope put a little  in your life today. I really love taking photos. I would love to see one of your favorite photos. Your plan sound great. This is going to be your BFP. I can't wait.

To answer your question, we will be transferring two blasts. Because of my age it was assumed that I would be transferring two at a time so my embies were frozen in pairs. We have a pair that was frozen on day 6. These two embies are of very good quality, one is a grade 4AB and the other is grade 3BB. These are the two that my RE believes we should transfer. As they have done in the past, they will perform AH on both. Our lab routinely performs AH for all FET's. I am praying that between the new prenatal vitamins, the PIO which will be new for this cycle, and a little faith we will be pregnant again and be able to bring home our baby/s.

[LauraN]

Hey lovely ladies! I have like 2 seconds to post and then I have to run. Had blood drawn again, and finally my beta is zero- weird to say, but yeah! And, met with the new endocrinologist, I really, really liked him. He upped my dosage and also changed my meds. I am praying that my level will get down to where my clinic wants them so that we can move forward in November. So, we are just going to live like the thyroid will be taken care of. Now, it's just a wait for AF to come in October, I'm praying for early October, but don't know what is normal since I just stopped bleeding last Wednesday. Does anyone know how that works? I'm not sure if my bleeding was considered AF or was it just from the M/C or is that the same thing? I've never even thought about any of this stuff before- it's crazy. I know way more about female stuff now than I ever did and ever cared to So once I start AF in October, I will start my BCP and then it will be 3 weeks after that, that we start the lupron and follistim. I've seen you guys comment about how crazy lupron makes you..... we didn't use lupron last time, so I have no idea how it will be for me I know that the follistim and ganarelix and low dose hcg....no major reactions that affected my mood....but wow, it was like I entered crazy town when I started the estrogen patches! So what's it like on the lupron? Last cycle we did Follistim (started with 300, ended up with 450 for like 5 of the 10 days), low dose hcg the whole 10 days, ganarelix for the last 3 days of stimming, then the day of ER started the PIO and Crazy Town Patches! This time, I think he's doing Lupron starting the day before stims(no clue on dosage yet), Follistim(starting at 450), menopur (150 and I think this starts same day as Follistim, but I could be totally wrong on that one)......then of course the PIO and crazy town patches...... I'm excited now! I feel like I'm moving forward. Love you guys, think all of you daily and am praying for each and everyone of you. This board is amazing and I thank God daily that you guys are apart of it!

[WeHaveHope]

LauraN-yay for zero Beta. I know how you feel, bitter sweet. After praying for Beta to double you find yourself praying for it to drop to zero. Bit, now this part is finally over with and you can start o.mn your way to your BFP this Fall. To answer tome if your questions; my RE told me thatthe first bleeding after a MC is really not considered AF. He said it more closely resembles a D&C in that it's a bleed that rids the body of the products of conception. Way to much information for me when I went through it but definantely a need to know so I am sharing it with you. The next bleed is what will be your true AF. With regards to when that bleed will happen after your finally hit the zero Beta, I really dint know the answer to that. I can tell you that after my MC, and I had alot of bleeding with that for a full day, the next bleed came about two weeks later. So you may be right on target with early October. I am sending you tons of PMA and know that I am praying for you. This Fall is going to be it. I am so glad to see that you got right back on the crazy train.

[blessed143]

OKay.... I finally talked to IVF nurse.... She said that since I have started a new pack of bcp I can start my lupron next week if my pretest goes well on friday. Will wait for AF around oct 2 so the earliest the transfer will be is the 26th or so of next month!!! I got the call for the meds-which of course I was so excited forgot all the information-like when I will need it hehe... Got all confused left a crazy crazy message again to the RE..... So I have decided that I will just have them send me the meds-free shipping mon-thursday so..... yeah.... Hard to believe its all happening! I guess because I am on BCP, the first step is done but does not feel like it since I have been on them for a few months!!! I think the pretest on friday and the lupron will make it seem more real... Praying for BFP!!!! I guess the next thing is wondering what quality the embies are in when they thaw... I dont know the grades but I will learn when the time comes!!!! So excited!!

LauraN-Yeah for zero beta.... Glad that you like the new RE and that he is making a change... I hope that you get in NOvember and praying for BFP!! I will keep you in my thoughts!!

Praying that all you ladies are doing well and so thankful that I have this place to come and just unload.... !

[WeHaveHope]

Blessed143-I am so happy that you got your questions answered and your concerns addressed. I am so excited to hear that you will be starting Lupron soon. You are well on your way to your Fall BFP. I am so happy for you. This website has very good information on blastocyst grading. It also has alot of other great information. It helped me to better understand the IVF process and embryo grading. Wishing you all the best. I hope this helps.
http://www.advancedfertility.com/blastocystimages.htm

The information below is only for 5 Day Blastocyst development grading. A different grading system is used for 3 Day Embryo development grading. You can find that information on the website below. This is the most widely used grading system in the U.S., however other grading systems are used. It's always good to check with your RE or lab to to which one they use.


Blastocyst development and stage status

1 Blastocoel cavity less than half the volume of the embryo
2 Blastocoel cavity more than half the volume of the embryo
3 Full blastocyst, cavity completely filling the embryo
4 Expanded blastocyst, cavity larger than the embryo, with thinning of the shell
5 Hatching out of the shell
6 Hatched out of the shell

ICM grade
Inner cell mass quality

A Many cells, tightly packed
B Several cells, loosely grouped
C Very few cells

TE grade
Trophectoderm quality

A Many cells, forming a cohesive layer
B Few cells, forming a loose epithelium
C Very few large cells

[Sunshine1576]

Hi Everyone!
My internet has been "spotty" all day and for some reason always runs better only when dh is at home. So even though AF is lighter then usual I am going ahead and marking today as day1. Tried to call my clinic this afternoon but unfortunately we played phone tag, maybe next time I'll aske to be placed on hold until the nurse becomes available that way I don't miss her. But dh has alot of questions about where do we go from here and so do I. Will I always be on thyroid medicine for the rest of my life? Is this something that is cureable? I really cannot wait to for our next lab results sometime mid October! I'm trying to keep an open-mind about all of this. Anyway, I have some personals tonight...and wish I could touch base with each one of you but please know one day I will get better!

WeHaveHope,
I enjoy reading your inspirational quotes and your photograph this morning reminded me that through each storm we face, the sun is going to make it's way through the clouds to brighten our days ahead. We know prayer is so powerful and it always has a calming effect giving us peace of mind, your photograph reminded me of this power of prayer. Thank you for posting it, we should always reflect to things like this when we are having a rough day. Personally I think photographs like yours should be framed and hung in every patient's room. I want to beleive it would improve their overall emotional health too.

Anton,
I can finally see where you are going with the natural IVF. It sounds like you ahve a really good doctor and wants nothing more then to help you bring home a baby and with this persistance it is going to happen! I know sometimes all these hormones we inject ourselves with can have an adverse reaction to what we are trying to achieve if we continually keep at it for an extended amount of time. This is why our RE's often tell us to cycle every other month, so we can give our body a rest. But we have to remember it's all with keeping our mind and body at it's optiminal best health. Have you considered acupuncture or full body massages along with this natural IVF treatment?

LaureN,
It sounds like you have a good plan in place! As for lupron, I remember the headaches most of all it gave me. But the doctor was so picky about what headache medicine I could take, so I just dealt with them the best way possible and tried to avoid dh at all cost.

Blessed,
Isn't it crazy? First we don't want AF ever to come, and then the next thing we know, "were standing on our head" for her to make an appearance so we can inject ourselves with Lupron, Menopher, Follistim or Gonal something. So in a nutshell this explains why men need to be in our shoes!

Akdelp,
Thank you for sharing your furbaby Lucy's story with us. Poor thing, she went through so much with the previous owners, and I know it took some "one on one" time for her to come back around. I am so glad she found you and now has a loving home where she can be loved to pieces. I know we rescue dogs but in so many ways they really rescue us.

Becca,
Did I understand embryo transfer was today? Please share with us how everything went!

Indigo,
Congratulations on being PUPO. I know it's been an emotional rollercoaster, but you must keep up the PMA and send some good vibes to your precious bean. This is your time and I want to tell you I'm pulling and praying for you!