December 2013/January 2014 Cycle Group

[BakersBaby]

DH and I are starting our 2nd round of IVF soon. My period should start around December 10th. Will start BCP December 13th and Lupron early January. Anyone else out there on a similar schedule?

[mommyoneday]

I just finished my egg retrieval process, but because of OHSS and PDG needed to do a freeze-all. I'm scheduled for an ET early to mid-January!

[Hope22]

I am on a similar schedule. This is my first IVF. I just had my ER and now I am waiting to transfer in January. I am doing the pgd as well. I currently have ohss from a very painful ER but I think it's starting to fade. Thank god! It's been a rough few days.

[mommyoneday]

Hope22, this is also my first so I had no idea what to expect (and still don't for the FET). I'm glad you are starting to feel better. It is really rough at the beginning and I found got worse as the first week post-retrieval progressed. I just try to be careful about not sitting for too long and definitely staying away from jeans. I just couldn't believe how much pressure there was.

I'm now 2 weeks post-retrieval and feel like myself again (plus some added belly fat).

[hopeful25]

I'm doing IVF for the first time now, this is also my first time posting on an infertility website. I always read them and they are always helpful. I started follistim on Friday, and just got the call from my nurse to lower my dosage because my estrogen levels were too high, probably because of PCOS. Of course this made me super nervous. My retrieval is either going to be Monday or Tuesday, I just pray everything goes right until then. Any advice from women who have gone through this is appreciated!

TTC: 1.5 years, I have damaged tubes due to endometriosis. Had surgery in October, tubes are much too damaged to conceive naturally. I'm 25 and my husband is 29.

Praying for all your cycles!

[mommyoneday]

Hi Hopeful25! You sound almost exactly like me and my husband - same ages and PCOS. Fun fun fun. I was PETRIFIED during my entire cycle. My doctor put me on almost no medication and threatened to half it almost every other day. I was only taking 75 units of gonal-F (same as follistim) and 75 menopur. I thought she was going to mess up my cycle and I would end up with nothing because she was so nervous about OHSS (which I was definitely going to have and we avoided by doing a lupron trigger - but that makes a fresh cycle impossible).

First, being on a low dose was totally and completely fine and amazing! I had so few of the crazy side effects. I just fell asleep all the time - I slept probably close to 14 hours a day! Also, because of the super low dose, I ended up having my retrieval 4 days late (so 13 days on active shots before the trigger shot). But because of our young age (which is really unusual in the IVF world), we ended up with 28 embryos on day 5. 47 eggs retrieved, 31 mature (with PCOS and tons of eggs there end up being a lot of immature eggs too), 23 divided by day 1, but then on day 3, we found out that all 23 were growing nicely and another 6 that they thought had not fertilized had started to divide! On day 5, all 23 plus 5 of the 6 late-bloomers made it. Doing PGD, so they are currently being tested and we'll find out how many usable ones we have in a few weeks.

I hope this makes you feel better. Your success rates should be amazing! I can't even tell you what a blessing it is to have age on your side. And PCOS (if well monitored) just means more eggs and more chances!

[hopeful25]

MommyOneDay,

I'm so glad you shared your experience. I just went in for bloodwork today and the nurse called to tell me that we may have to do a freeze-all because my levels of estrogen are so high, 3,450. They don't want me to get pregnant and then get OHSS. I am so devasted. I hadn't even thought of this as a possibility. My retrieval is most likely scheduled for Monday. Hopefully my levels will stop increasing and I will still get to do my transfer. I started taking 150 of Follistim, which they reduced to 125, then 100 and now tonight I'm not taking any Follistim. I'm just praying it all works out. This has been one of the most stressful situations. My poor husband, I think he's tired of me crying.

I'm so happy you had so many eggs!! That is so wonderful to hear. I hope it works out for you and get a beautiful baby. Please keep me posted, sometimes I feel so alienated going through IVF. It's nice to talk to someone who understands and doesn't tell me it's not a big deal.

Good luck to you!!! Keep me posted.

[mommyoneday]

Good luck! I'll be praying for you this weekend!

[halvie]

Hello everyone. This is my first time here and this is going to be our first IVF-ICSI as well. We live in Japan at the moment. This is my third day of injections leading to OPU in 7 days or so. My doctor said it is not sure if can do ET this December because there are possibly 14 follicles and if they all grow there is a danger of OHSS. So probably we are scheduled for ET first week of February 2014. But everything is not sure. Praying for an ET this month but God knows what is best hope and pray for the best...

[mommyoneday]

Hopeful, how did it go!? How are you feeling?

[hopeful25]

I finally got some good news today, after 4 days of coasting and my levels shooting up to 10,000 yesterday, they are finally triggering me tonight! We were in danger of cancelling IVF completely because my levels just kept rising. My levels went down to 3780 today. How high did your levels get? The dr. says she probably wants to do a freeze-all, but I'm hoping if I can stabilize enough, we can still do a transfer. My retrieval is scheduled for Thursday at 7:30AM, I'm so excited that at least this part works out.

How are you doing? I feel like the waiting and not knowing with IVF is the worst part. Having to go in for bloodwork and ultrasound every day for a week, that's nothing, but not knowing what is going on with my body and not being able to control it is the worst!

I've been drinking gatorade and eating protein nonstop. I wish they would have told me that those were good things to eat ahead of time!

Good luck to you!

[mommyoneday]

That's fantastic! My estrogen was consistently around 3,500 and up to 7,000 by ER.
If you have a normal trigger (hcg) - which is better because then you can have a fresh transfer, you definitely risk OHSS. Personally, I wanted it anyway because I just didn't want to wait, but my doctor refused.
Anyway, the protein and gatorade (any electrolyte-filled drink, stay away from plain water) diet is meant to reduce OHSS symptoms. It will not help your estrogen levels though in advance. It probably doesn't hurt to be starting the OHSS-symptoms mitigating diet early. Just means your body will hopefully be even more ready to combat OHSS!

I'm glad you are almost done with all of your shots! You did absolutely everything right. Let yourself relax and good luck on Thursday! I'm looking forward to even more good news from you!

[hopeful25]

Thank you for that advice! I really appreciate it, as I didn't know all that. Did you get news from your PGD yet? Hopefully 2014 will bring amazing news for both of us!

I'll keep you in my prayers!

-Priscila

[mommyoneday]

I called them today, but couldn't get through to the right person.... just waiting...

[mommyoneday]

Got the call this morning! 13!! Now I just need to convince my RE that my body is OK for a transfer!