hey everyone- I'm just starting now...
little about me: name Kandice- 26, dh is 33, doing ivf/icsi due to dh's vasectomy after his first child from previous marriage. last thursday was the saline ultrasound- that was a trip! the female gyno startedit- dh is inthere with me the whole time, then dr comes in and finishes and during that time IVF Coordinator comes in too- it was like- come on in- doesn't matter I've got my legs spread wide open! not used to that at all! guess it prepared me for the birth!
I started on lupron last night sunday 11th- I'm fine- freaked myself out over the shots for nothing! I was like "that's it?" I'm only doing 10ccs- is that a normal amount to start?
we go back toorrow tuesday for med teaching. then my baseline on the 20th, er on 3/1 and et 3/4-3/6. really looking forward to it all!
IVF first timers - Welcome!
needle trick
Hi Everyone ~~ Happy Monday
Count down for a lot of us on the 2WW (YEAH)
Ok Ladies how about trying an old myth (the needle trick) to have a little fun and see if this really works.
I can say I’ve done it with my past pregnancies and w/ friends & it always came out true.
Some of you may have heard about it .. anyway here is what you do put thread through a needle (8-10 inches) & let the needle dangle in the center of your palm .. if it goes back/forth they say it’s a boy .. if it goes in a circle it’s a girl … it if stops and begins again watch out that means possible multiples.
Just thought this would be fun to do! Let’s hear everyone’s feedback
I’ll begin: it went in a circle, stopped then went back/forth
Count down for a lot of us on the 2WW (YEAH)
Ok Ladies how about trying an old myth (the needle trick) to have a little fun and see if this really works.
I can say I’ve done it with my past pregnancies and w/ friends & it always came out true.
Some of you may have heard about it .. anyway here is what you do put thread through a needle (8-10 inches) & let the needle dangle in the center of your palm .. if it goes back/forth they say it’s a boy .. if it goes in a circle it’s a girl … it if stops and begins again watch out that means possible multiples.
Just thought this would be fun to do! Let’s hear everyone’s feedback
I’ll begin: it went in a circle, stopped then went back/forth
Hello guys!
I came back from the clinic with a LOT of explanations and info and I was so impatient to share all that with you! My sweet DH left this morning for a convention in San Francisco so I can't share the info with him yet!
It's great to have a lot of "someone" to talk to!
So I sat down with my doctor and he reviewed my "cycle history" with me. He told me that, since the clinic has been running for quite a few years, they now have stats for the cycle histories of their patients who became pregnant or not, so they kinda know what the "ideal cycle history" looks like on average (mark my words... no absolutes here... those are the stats for Procrea clinic; I'm sure a clinic in the UK for example would have different stats!).
First, he looked at my stimming. He said that most women who get pregnant produce between 8 and 12 eggs for the retrieval. I was 14, so he said it's good (in the high zone, but not a bad thing). He also looked at how many mature eggs I had. 100% of my eggs were fully mature; he said it's a rare thing, as most women can only expect 50-80% of their retrieved eggs to be mature. So bottom line is, it looks like I produce very high quality eggs (hey, didn't get pregnant, so gotta brag about something! lol)
Next, he looked at my DH's contribution. Out of the 14, 10 eggs were fertilized. On average, one can expect 50% of the mature eggs to fertilize, so we could expect 7 and we got 10. That's also very good. Then he looked at the quality of our eggs. Again, the 50% rule applies; 6 of our 10 eggs were good for transfer. We're again above average, if only slightly this time. Division was good too; they want embies between 6-8 cells on a day 3 transfer; we were 9-10 cells.
So the problem definitely occurred during the implantation stage, according to him. He said that, with those stats, all the things I did, the way I reacted to the treatment, there was no reason for me not to become pregnant other than having the misluck of falling in the other 50% (given my age group and physical state, he said that I had 50-50% chances).
So! The plan is slightly different than what the nurse told me, but it will change nothing after all. He said I could do a natural cycle one AF after the BFN AF (instead of the two AFs the nurse told me about). I could do the FET in April, but we'll be in Europe/Africa at that time. Given that I have a big flamenco show coming on May 12th, waiting until the May AF will be ideal. The show will be done, the lessons will probably stop after that show and I won't have to feel guilty skipping lessons for implantation's sake.
So here's the plan. I'll call my clinic on day 1, but I won't have any ultrasound or blood check before day 11. From then, they'll keep a close watch on me until my follicle disappears and then the FET will begin. They also realized that, by doing assisted hatching systematically (giving a little nick in the enveloppe of the embies so they implant more easily), they doubled their FET success rate. For now, they don't even charge for it and just give it to all their FET patients. What's amazing is that the whole FET procedure is only 750$CAN. It's FAR less than I anticipated (like 2250$CAN). My doctor said that the clinic wants the patients to pay as little as possible for a FET cycle because they consider it a bonus for parents to be to have frozen embies from a fresh cycle. I won't be refunded if no embryo survive the thaw, as it's not the transfer per se that's expensive, it's all the blood checks and ultrasounds and thawing process before that cost money.
He said that I should expect 50% of my embryos to survive the thaw, maybe less, especially that I have two perfect embies and two that are borderline fragmented. He also said that, again given my age group and situation, I should expect a FET success rate betwen 10-25% only. He said that studies and his personal experience show that, given that you traumatize the embies when you freeze and thaw them, it's normal that implantation is more iffy than with a fresh cycle (despite the "but you have less meds in your body" argument). So my hopes are not sky high at all, but he confirmed that I could go straight into a fresh cycle with my possible AF on the FET cycle if it fails. I love that thought; no waste of time.
He seems really, really confident that I can become pregnant with IVF given my "cycle history". He also said that, should we do a fresh cycle, he'll adjust a couple of things: the dosage during my stimming for example, and he also might help me with the implantation phase a little more by... prescribing me fire injections for the butt!
Awww guys, I'll share the pain!
He also suggested me to take the transfer day off. He said it won't do miracles at all for the implantation, but he said that it would help me take it even more easy. Given that the problem occurred at implantation, he also told me that it would prevent me from feeling guilty during my next cycle(s). He also said that, given my job as a psychologist, staying home watching TV or listening to clients wouldn't make a big difference and he advised me to work the next day. Again, he strongly advocated against bed rest and said it could even harm me by putting me at serious risk for developing blood clots in the legs. And implantation is also about blood circulation, so...
So there ya go! Sorry about the lengthy explanation, but I thought the info might interest those who'll attempt a first FET.
Take care, and have a great day!
Sophie
I came back from the clinic with a LOT of explanations and info and I was so impatient to share all that with you! My sweet DH left this morning for a convention in San Francisco so I can't share the info with him yet!
It's great to have a lot of "someone" to talk to!So I sat down with my doctor and he reviewed my "cycle history" with me. He told me that, since the clinic has been running for quite a few years, they now have stats for the cycle histories of their patients who became pregnant or not, so they kinda know what the "ideal cycle history" looks like on average (mark my words... no absolutes here... those are the stats for Procrea clinic; I'm sure a clinic in the UK for example would have different stats!).
First, he looked at my stimming. He said that most women who get pregnant produce between 8 and 12 eggs for the retrieval. I was 14, so he said it's good (in the high zone, but not a bad thing). He also looked at how many mature eggs I had. 100% of my eggs were fully mature; he said it's a rare thing, as most women can only expect 50-80% of their retrieved eggs to be mature. So bottom line is, it looks like I produce very high quality eggs (hey, didn't get pregnant, so gotta brag about something! lol)
Next, he looked at my DH's contribution. Out of the 14, 10 eggs were fertilized. On average, one can expect 50% of the mature eggs to fertilize, so we could expect 7 and we got 10. That's also very good. Then he looked at the quality of our eggs. Again, the 50% rule applies; 6 of our 10 eggs were good for transfer. We're again above average, if only slightly this time. Division was good too; they want embies between 6-8 cells on a day 3 transfer; we were 9-10 cells.
So the problem definitely occurred during the implantation stage, according to him. He said that, with those stats, all the things I did, the way I reacted to the treatment, there was no reason for me not to become pregnant other than having the misluck of falling in the other 50% (given my age group and physical state, he said that I had 50-50% chances).
So! The plan is slightly different than what the nurse told me, but it will change nothing after all. He said I could do a natural cycle one AF after the BFN AF (instead of the two AFs the nurse told me about). I could do the FET in April, but we'll be in Europe/Africa at that time. Given that I have a big flamenco show coming on May 12th, waiting until the May AF will be ideal. The show will be done, the lessons will probably stop after that show and I won't have to feel guilty skipping lessons for implantation's sake.
So here's the plan. I'll call my clinic on day 1, but I won't have any ultrasound or blood check before day 11. From then, they'll keep a close watch on me until my follicle disappears and then the FET will begin. They also realized that, by doing assisted hatching systematically (giving a little nick in the enveloppe of the embies so they implant more easily), they doubled their FET success rate. For now, they don't even charge for it and just give it to all their FET patients. What's amazing is that the whole FET procedure is only 750$CAN. It's FAR less than I anticipated (like 2250$CAN). My doctor said that the clinic wants the patients to pay as little as possible for a FET cycle because they consider it a bonus for parents to be to have frozen embies from a fresh cycle. I won't be refunded if no embryo survive the thaw, as it's not the transfer per se that's expensive, it's all the blood checks and ultrasounds and thawing process before that cost money.
He said that I should expect 50% of my embryos to survive the thaw, maybe less, especially that I have two perfect embies and two that are borderline fragmented. He also said that, again given my age group and situation, I should expect a FET success rate betwen 10-25% only. He said that studies and his personal experience show that, given that you traumatize the embies when you freeze and thaw them, it's normal that implantation is more iffy than with a fresh cycle (despite the "but you have less meds in your body" argument). So my hopes are not sky high at all, but he confirmed that I could go straight into a fresh cycle with my possible AF on the FET cycle if it fails. I love that thought; no waste of time.
He seems really, really confident that I can become pregnant with IVF given my "cycle history". He also said that, should we do a fresh cycle, he'll adjust a couple of things: the dosage during my stimming for example, and he also might help me with the implantation phase a little more by... prescribing me fire injections for the butt!
Awww guys, I'll share the pain! He also suggested me to take the transfer day off. He said it won't do miracles at all for the implantation, but he said that it would help me take it even more easy. Given that the problem occurred at implantation, he also told me that it would prevent me from feeling guilty during my next cycle(s). He also said that, given my job as a psychologist, staying home watching TV or listening to clients wouldn't make a big difference and he advised me to work the next day. Again, he strongly advocated against bed rest and said it could even harm me by putting me at serious risk for developing blood clots in the legs. And implantation is also about blood circulation, so...
So there ya go! Sorry about the lengthy explanation, but I thought the info might interest those who'll attempt a first FET.
Take care, and have a great day!
Sophie
1st and 2nd IVF = BFN 1st FET BFP! m/c at 7 weeks. 2nd FET BFP! 3rd FET BFN
Now let's spend the rest of our lives having fun together!
Now let's spend the rest of our lives having fun together!
Sophie,
Thank you so much for that info. Sounds like we have similar situations. I'm going in for a FET mid April. Maybe I'll ask about the assisted hatching thing. Glad I don't have to do so many shots this time.
YOu are always full of useful info. THanks again.
Thank you so much for that info. Sounds like we have similar situations. I'm going in for a FET mid April. Maybe I'll ask about the assisted hatching thing. Glad I don't have to do so many shots this time.
YOu are always full of useful info. THanks again.
Hollie
Me: 29 DH: 31
TTC: 4 yrs.
Problem: Blocked tubes & pelvic adhesions
1st IVF: Dec.- cancelled due to cysts
2nd IVF: Jan-BFN
FET-April
[img]http://tickers.TickerFactory.com/ezt/d/0;1;10719;19/st/20070116/l/32/dt/-3/k/035a/ttc.png[/img]
Me: 29 DH: 31
TTC: 4 yrs.
Problem: Blocked tubes & pelvic adhesions
1st IVF: Dec.- cancelled due to cysts
2nd IVF: Jan-BFN
FET-April
[img]http://tickers.TickerFactory.com/ezt/d/0;1;10719;19/st/20070116/l/32/dt/-3/k/035a/ttc.png[/img]
awwwww Hollie, thanks! 
Glad we'll transfer not too much apart from each other! Good luck for your FET and may it bring you a healthy baby... or two! As for your comment, thanks! Always reassuring that my rants are useful to a couple of people! 
Take care,
Sophie
Glad we'll transfer not too much apart from each other! Good luck for your FET and may it bring you a healthy baby... or two! As for your comment, thanks! Always reassuring that my rants are useful to a couple of people! Take care,
Sophie
1st and 2nd IVF = BFN 1st FET BFP! m/c at 7 weeks. 2nd FET BFP! 3rd FET BFN
Now let's spend the rest of our lives having fun together!
Now let's spend the rest of our lives having fun together!