1st time IVF in Jan12 and looking for sme +ve experiences & advice on what to expect

[Pholi]

Thanks, Mia and liseyt.

Mia, Synarel is a nasal spray... I got mild headaches from that for the first week or two. Then from Gonal F injections I was a bit emotional, but who knows how much of that is directly due to the drug and how much is because I was going through a hig stress/high emotion process. For me the real side effects didn't start until a few days after transfer - then I got bloating, nausea, gassy, tired, etc, all of which can be put down to the hcg boosters and progesterone support (but can also be pg symptoms!)

I had 2 t/f'd on day3. I fully intended to have one 5day embryo transferred, but we only got three eggs, and although they all fertilised, one looked a bit dodgy from the start. At day three, there was still one looking good, and the second best was a bit behind, too, and so they strongly recommended a three day transfer of the better 2 embryos, which would give me the best chance of a pg. The whole point of waiting til day 5 is to be able to choose the strongest of a bunch, and if there's only 2, there's no advantage in that. There are no guarentees in these choices, and we decided to go with the FS's and embryologist's combined gut feeling.

Re telling your boss, keep it minimal! I'd just say at most that you've got a short series of medical investigations and procedures that 'they' want you to have, and there might not be much warning for time off becuse the timing depends on test results. It adds a lot of pressure if people know it's IVF/fertility related, and like Maruschke said, many clinics do very early BT/scan appointments, and even transfers, so you may just need a couple of days off for the EPU anyway.

Re ICSI, in our case our problem was purely MFI (DP has almost blocked ducts, so very few swimmers make it through) so were were told ICSI was the only option right from the start. It seems that for non-MFI problems, most people have IVF, and on future cycles they sometimes try ICSI if the fertilisation rate wasn't very good with IVF. Good luck for your appointment today.

liseyt, how frustrating to have the cycle cancelled! At least they know what needs correcting this time. I found the injections surprisingly easy to give myself, and relatively painless most of the time, too. Best of luck with cycle #2.