Meredith: I'm greatful that I've done the injections before, so at least I know what to expect. The only thing I'm truly worried about with the FSH is OHSS, but I've been drinking at least three litres of water a day and have upped my protein intake, so unless there's any other advice I've not recieved I think I'm doing everything I can to avoid it. I've been lucky with the Synarel, too, with virtually no side effects apart from the blues the first week on it. I don't think it's the actual process that will get me, it's the waiting, though you'd think after four years that I'd be used to it. I'm actually quite frightened that we'll get no good embryos, and then I'm not sure what we would do.
Sara: My fingers are crossed for your three eggs. Acupuncture is the first thing that comes to my mind to increase your chance of one sticking. Good luck.
Buliej: Thank you, and so do I.
I'm sorry if anyone thinks that this is a rude question, but can I ask why everyone else is undergoing PGD? If it's not something you want to share with me please ignore my question. I have a paternally familial (from my father) balanced Robertsonian translocation between chromosomes 13 and 15, which basically means that I have 45 chromosomes instead of 46, putting us at risk of a child with Patau, Prader-Willi, or Angelman syndrome.
Hi Kel,
Welcome - and I hope your cycle goes well.
I used PGD to avoid passing on a potentially nasty bone disease, which I have in a moderate form but bub could have got in a much worse form.
This thread is a bit confusing at first because some people are having PGD to exclude specific genes, or to have a girl and hence avoid passing on a sex-linked disease. Others have had multiple miscarriages or long term unexplained infertility, and are using PGD to exclude for cell division problems and hence improve their chances of a successful pregnancy.
Kate
thansk for all your good wishes they have helped! Excellent news: we have three little embies growing - god bless DP swimmers, Menevit and lots of fruit juice seems to have done the trick: all three eggies have fertilised. Now they only need to divide and conquer .
Now off to Acupuncture......
Only very quick personals:
Kel: I am doing PGD because of a muscular dystrophie gen which is dominant so 50% of my embies will have it - send me a PM if you need more details.
You sound like you feel exactly like me, I've also had 2.5 to 3 litres of water each day and it seems to help - also you have a much smaller dose of Gonal that I have used and I am sure your clinic will closely monitor you so hopefully you should be okay with OHSS.
The fear not to have an embie to transfer is natural and very valid. I am thinking already getting to ECU is a great accomplishment and even if I have enothing to transfer my FS will heave learnt from this cycle which will give me a better chance next time. At which stage in your cycle are, you have you started FSH yet and had your first BT?
Thansk for the tip with Acupuncture, started that last year and it helps to keep be sane.
CP: I think the only thing you can do is to do what your heart tells you that will always be the right decision - good luck with the FET. i am also a strong believer in fate. If this doesn't work out for me I think it will be for a reason and if I have a happy life depends on me not on things going the way I want.
WTH: You are the research queen! Will have a read, unfortunately can't help with your question - have you started jabbing yet? How are you going with the new steriod drug - sorry for got the name of it - have you suffered any side effects? Was wondering do you have more info about the C10Q as I am thinking you're taking that as well. Think my doctor mentioned and aside that i they haven't researched if it's good once you're pregnant adn i am wondering if I should stop the extra dose of 50mg and change from the Pre-conception to the preganancy vitamins - for now will keep doing what I do as I more likely than not need to prepare for the next cycle.
Meredith: Good luck, hope AF comes promptly, really hope this is the one for you.
Buliej: Hope you're coming back rested from your holiday - what is the next step for you?
Knm: Nice to hear from you, hope you're well.
Still have some cramping but much better than yesterday also think that spotting has stopped - was pretty bad yesterday like about the fourth day of my period. Made the mistake to talk to my girlfriend who has been through this and told me exactly what was done to me yesterday and then looked it up in the IVF book - arrgh I'd much rather not have known, the things we do.....
Will have some pineapple and some sweet potatos today and for tomorrow night my doctor prescribed a massive does of Pregnyl.
Excellent news Sara, for the 3 strong embies...keep growing little ones. Glad the cramp has easied off. I normally just dosed up with panadols on first day, so my body is not stressed about the pain, 2nd day very much pain-killer free and not too bad. About pineapple, take is easy on that, WTH told me last cycle it could cause cramps, I know some research says it can help with implantation, but too much can also cause softened/open up cervix. I did find it gave me cramps...
Kel, I think Kate very much answered the questions for us, I am in a long term Unexplained infertility boat, we had one m/c due to Chromoson 22, FS suggest PGD just trying to reduced the 'unnecessary guess work' given Im 37. But we ended up not to venture PGD path due to we only had 3 blasties...its more like a luxury for us if we have more we would do it....hope you will get a good number of embies so better chance of having them tested and coming out good...but remember at the end of the day, it only takes one!
Meredith, oh talking about 'control freak', so very me! I seriously think that God is trying to teach me somehow that 'you just can't always have things your way'. Whenever I get bitter, i just trying to count my blessing on all other things I do get my way , and it seems I have been pretty lucky, then I can just laugh about this 'very one thing I want it so much'....I truely hope this is your last time to take that damn pill and all the regrets will be replaced with joy and relief at the end of this cycle...Good luck with this stim cycle, I really have a good feeling about it!
Hi Kate, thanks for popping in to see us, you are always quietly there supporting us, great to have someone so knowledgeable and know what we've been through, I hope we all come out from the same exit like you!
Cuddlepie - Like you, everyday I try to hard to make sense of all this. One of the things I find hardest is that it really does seem to be out of my control. Yep, I'm a control-freak, too. And, I confess, a perfectionist. But, no matter what I do eat/don't eat, do drink/don't drink, BD/no-BD - whatever I do - I just can't seem to reach my goal. I feel so POWERLESS! On a brighter note, I am glad you have made up your mind about the FET
Kel - like Cuddlepie, I am trying to improve my odds of a bubba that will "stick". I have had two confirmed trisomies. We had advanced chromosonal testing performed throught the SIVF Miscarriage Investigation Program, but DH and I came up normal. We tried naturally last month because I had a cancelled and stim cycle in the months preceding it and the FS suggested I might have better egg quality from the extra stimulation. But we are back on the IVF with PGD bandwagon this month.
Sara - THREE BIG CHEERS for your THREE VERY CLEVER EMBRYOS . Congratulations, hun on your 100% fertilisiation rate The drug I am taking is called DHEA. It takes 3-4 months to follicle numbers/egg quality, so as I have only been on it for just a month (minus two days this week when I was temporarily UTD), it probably won't help this IVF cycle. Stay on the preconception vitamins til you get your BFP - they have good stuff in them for IMPLANTATION. About Co-Q10: it is thought to assist with mitochondria. This is the energy inside your eggies and it disappears as we age. It also takes a few months to kick in. The recommended dose used to be quite conservative, but now it is 150/day. There is 60 in the Blackmore's Conceive Well Gold, so I just take 100 on top of that. I was taking just an extra 50 until just recently. As Cuddlepie mentioned - the whole pineapple thingo has conflicting support. I read on the one hand it was good for implantation, but on the other, it can cause cramping. If I miraculously make it again to transfer this cycle I will take the safe route and not have it after this time...
Meredith - Good luck with your new stim cycle. When is AF due?
Kate:
Julie - Sounds like you have had a wonderful break and fresh start to the new year. Also interested in hearing about your next step...
AFM - AF has arrived and is in full swing. Happily, I have got the nod to start 375 units of Gonal F tonight. First BT on Tuesday. Yay, here we go...
Sara - great news about the 3 embryos - hopefully they will grow and all make it! I too think that seeing an acupuncturist who specializes in fertility is helpful (even if it's only helpful to my mind). Like others have said, given what we are spending on ivf, it is just a small drop in the bucket.
CP - I'm not religious at all - but I do agree that learning to accept that to a very large part this is out of our hands - to some extent it is in our FS' hands and in the hands of the labs...but I think mostly it's in the hands of nature. Being a member of the control freak group as well, this is a very hard thing for me to accept but I'm trying. I told my FS that I've never felt so helpless about something I care so much about. Usually, if I have a goal, I find a way to get there.
Meredith - we were in Noosa, flew back to Melb today. Our holiday was lovely - did lots of walks in the national park there in addition to the typical beach stuff. It was really relaxing and a great break.
Kel - I'm still not sure if I'm going to do PGD. I had a missed miscarriage due to a trisomy. DH and I were tested and learned it was "spontaneous" which means it is not genetic. To avoid future miscarriages, we may decide to do PGD to increase our chances of avoiding another miscarriage but only if we get a decent number of embryos which hasn't been the case to date.
WTH - I have to read those articles next week once I catch up with work (I'm too lazy to read them now).
AFM - I'm not clear on our next steps. I need to see exactly when AF begins as I have a very busy and stressful next few weeks at work and am not sure if it makes sense to do my next cycle during this time. Esp. since I know Feb will be somewhat better in terms of work.
Hope I didn't miss anyone - it's hard to catch-up...
Julie
Kate/CP/WTH/Julie/Sara: Thank you for sharing with me.
Sara: I start FSH on Monday morning (112.5 IU), so, by my rough calculations, I think that EPU should be on or just before Australia Day and ET about the 31st, maybe a few days earlier. What are the sweet potatoes for?
AFM, just anxiously awaiting Monday. I can't believe that it's finally so close. I just pray that it actually works.
Kelly: Good luck for Monday, hope this cycle goes well for you.
Don't worry about the sweet potatos, just trying to get my body in prime condition if ET happens. Someone on BB told me they would help, since I like them and had some here I've made a soup with them and some vegies from my garden, was very yummy
Sara - replied to you in another thread but congrats again on your 3 embies. Just one... crossing fingers for just one to make it all the way
WTH - I am happy and sad for you that AF is here. At least you can roll on into another cycle. I won't be far behind with AF due Tues ( hopefully).
CP - When do you start tracking your cycle?
Kel - I am in the same boat as WTH. Have had a total of 4 m/c's. two last year were with twins both times. We have only had one comfirmed trisomy but did PGD last cycle to try and reduce the chance of more heartache. Not sure about the whole process anymore as it probably brought me an equal amount of heartbreak but we did learn that despite the age factor, oour embies seemed pretty reasonable or at least genetically. Just didn't get pg and none were suitable for freezing.
So this cycle, we are trying without the PGD and praying not to lose anymore.
AFM - last provera was this morning so come on down AF!! I truly can't wait to start back on all the drugs.
Quick update from me, doesn't look too good: one on track (6 cells) and a maybe (4 cells) my third one didn't do anything so far. Please, please keep fingers crossed that at least one makes it until Wednesday, then we have to wait for the biopsy. It's such a number game, really stressed about it.
I'm actually quite frightened that we'll get no good embryos, and then I'm not sure what we would do.
.
for the 3 strong embies...keep growing little ones. Glad the cramp has easied off. I normally just dosed up with panadols on first day, so my body is not stressed about the pain, 2nd day very much pain-killer free and not too bad. About pineapple, take is easy on that, WTH told me last cycle it could cause cramps, I know some research says it can help with implantation, but too much can also cause softened/open up cervix. I did find it gave me cramps...
, and it seems I have been pretty lucky, then I can just laugh about this 'very one thing I want it so much'....I truely hope this is your last time to take that damn pill and all the regrets will be replaced with joy and relief at the end of this cycle...Good luck with this stim cycle, I really have a good feeling about it!
The drug I am taking is called DHEA. It takes 3-4 months to follicle numbers/egg quality, so as I have only been on it for just a month (minus two days this week when I was temporarily UTD), it probably won't help this IVF cycle. Stay on the preconception vitamins til you get your BFP - they have good stuff in them for IMPLANTATION. About Co-Q10: it is thought to assist with mitochondria. This is the energy inside your eggies and it disappears as we age. It also takes a few months to kick in. The recommended dose used to be quite conservative, but now it is 150/day. There is 60 in the Blackmore's Conceive Well Gold, so I just take 100 on top of that. I was taking just an extra 50 until just recently. As Cuddlepie mentioned - the whole pineapple thingo has conflicting support. I read on the one hand it was good for implantation, but on the other, it can cause cramping. If I miraculously make it again to transfer this cycle I will take the safe route and not have it after this time...
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