I suspect that he was referring to my specific situation. At the point where he'd said that I needed a frozen blast, I'd done two stim cycles and got quite bad OHSS with both. I'd had a total of 11 blasts frozen, but had a lot fail to thaw. Only 4 of those 11 blasts had been able to be transferred and from those 4 blasts I had three miscarriages. He'd decided that my body just liked to hyperstimulate and suggested that I just get used to getting very sick with each egg pick up and having all my embryos frozen. He also suggested that we had some chromosomal issues leading to the thaw failures and the miscarriages (one at 9 weeks the others very early) but when we asked about PGD he said it couldn't check enough chromosome pairs to be confident that it would fix the problem and that we should just rely on freezing and thawing to weed out a lot of our crap embryos and hope we eventually got one that would implant and go on to give us a successful pregnancy.
But in another appointment - the miscarriages and thaw problems were down to crap eggs which were crap because of the OHSS and that we needed to avoid OHSS and improve DH's sperm as much as possible (low count, poor motility and complete crap morphology)...
Personally - I suspect he had no idea at all and was just spinning theories to keep me happy. He did keep working towards avoiding OHSS or at the least trying to minimise it as much as possible, and we did eventually get there.
But I'd also consulted with a few other specialists - and David insisted that I stop metformin with a positive pregnancy test (but stopping metformin coincided with my first miscarriage) and that I didn't need aspirin (but we only had successful implantation when aspirin was added)... and that the prednisone I was taking for the arthritis was completely irrelevant to the conception situation (but if I reduced my prednisone dosage below 10mg while pregnant I would bleed).
Happy to have others take what they can from my experience, just glad that I can help. I honestly didn't believe the diet would work - but just did it in order to be able to tell him "told you so!", but to my complete surprise, it ended up being him telling me. However, I think the other meds had a role to play as well (I've got a few other health problems which make me a unique and complicated situation) and I never was brave enough to tell him that I was following another doctor's instructions in relating to them!
I hope you don't mind me asking but I seem to be in a somewhat similar situation, I have PCO but not the syndrome and don't have a weight problem, and I have trouble producing mature eggs. At my last 2 EPU's I have only had 1 mature egg (about 5 follicles both times) which failed to make it to day 5.
BW thankyou so much for mentioning the calorie king website, I have had a look into it but was wondering if you would be able to share some more info about how much protein you were meant to be eating each day. I'm really interested in changing my diet to see if it helps things as I often eat quite erratically and I know my sugar levels go up and down quite a lot when I skip meals.
Yeah I don't have the syndrome just a bit of PCO, so it is a bit weird to know what to research.
The % of where your energy comes is 20% fat, 30% protein and 50% carbs (from the brochure on the website as I have lost my bit of paper). A bit tricky to balance at times so practice makes perfect. Protein and fat tend to go up and down together so never eat a sausage just lean stuff, and always go for low fat dairy. The website doesn't reflect GI and your efforts there. So you might eat some nice low to mod gi nuts thinking you have carbs and protein sorted, then up goes your fat%.
It might we worth having a look through some of the patient information brochures on his site. The MedicaIVF site is not yet up and running, so you have to go in through the be healthy website or type in David Knight and Georgiana Tang.
Well I am off to see the Dietician at Designer Diets in Kogarah for alot more clarity.
Good luck
Last edited by Sophie Baby Makes 3; March 19th, 2010 at 12:04 PM.
: error
Hi Ladies,
I now know why my FS has put me on a diet! I am 10kg overweight. I do have a fats metabolic issue,eg High cholesterol. My FS just said, the weight loss/ would help my IVF chances. That was it. Obviously doesnt know about the Calorie King program. Balancing, Carbs/Sugars/Protein.
My insulin resistance is within range, but I think its on the higher end, and I have a mother/heriditary with Diabetes 2.
I overstimulate, and FS uses med to stop me loosing eggs before E/P. At ET I only get 1blastocyst to transfer. Ive had 6 stim cycles now and 2 Early miscarriages.
Its obvious my eggs are getting knocked around by the hyperstimulation too. My FS, firstly wants me to loose the weight before we do PGD for chromosomal issues.
Glad I found your discussion ladies, and if I follow the diet we may get some embryos to freeze. Obviously the Freeze cycles dont cause hyperstimulation.
I dont have PCOS, but an endocrinologist I seen, said I fit into that category.
Ive had mild endrometriosis, which is an oestrogen dominance. And my FS said, my oestrogen rises quickly... (HYPER OVARYS).
Its obvious Endo is a fats metabolic issue. And an Insulin resistance is a PCOS.
Do any of you the Big word EXERCISE? I dont, and thats been my problem too.
If any of you have any other suggestions of improving Egg Quality. I would love to know.
Lets get our eggs ready for EASTER BUNNY!!! HA AH.
Milly's mummy - looks like your question has been answered. That's what I get for being at work now! Thank you, Sophie.
Bub - exercise does make a huge difference. Not only to weight loss, but in keeping insulin and all the rest of it under control. I have issues with severe arthritis so it is difficult, but I do try to keep as active as possible. Even during IVF cycles - at least up until the enormous ovaries slow me down.
Thankyou so much for all the information!!! I really appreciate it. Sometimes I get so confused about what exactly I should and shouldn't be doing and it can be hard searching through all the info on the internet! Hopefully I can give my ovaries a helping hand by adjusting my diet along with the drugs next stim cycle!
As well as diet, I wanted to throw in the idea of fresh royal jelly to improve egg quality.
It's like honey (but certainly doesn't taste like that) and you can get it in health food shops.
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