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Sara - quick note - I think you should ask your FS about the dosage just so you understand why they are picking that level. I don't know much about dosage except for my own experience first flare cycle - started at 350 gonal f - after first follicle scan she pushed up to 450...2nd flare cycle - she started me at 450 ...3rd cycle which I hope to begin in Jan and will be antagonist, script again says 450. It may be that if you get good results from lower dosage, they don't want to give you unnecessary hormones. However, it was my understanding that they start low so that you don't get OHSS (or whatever the acronym is over having too many follicles) but that this is not really a risk with older women.
WTH - the gonal f needles didn't bother me at all - found it very easy to do - didn't even feel the needle, when the medicine goes in it burns a tiny bit, but nothing too bad. I even thought I'd want my husband to do it, but ended up finding it easy to do myself. did you get a dvd from the chemist? it's handy to watch before you do the first shot. if not, the little pamphlet that they give you is helpful (if you didn't get that, I'm sure if you google gonal f along with the name of the drug manufacturer their website will have a copy of the pamphlet).
Hi to everyone else
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Hi all
over the moon BFP- makes it worthwhile for a healthy emby to be transferred. I will keep watching you all- and hope I dont need to return after 12 week BT and scan:dance:
Have a restful weekend
ishy
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ishy - that's fantastic - congrats
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Hi everyone. Hope you are all enjoying your weekends, thus far:
Buliej - thanks for the tips on Gonal-F. Is it not just like the Puregon Pen? I guess what I am most interested in is whether it actually IS stronger than Puregon. My response to Puregon was reasonable. According to my FS, trying Gonal-F could be for better or worse. Have you heard if Gonal-F is better? I have been told they are both FSH, but there are "more sugars" in Gonal-F, whatever that all means....
Sara - are you switching to Puregon? I am REALLY surprised by how much your FS is holding back on your next cycle. My first Puregon cycle, I started on 200, was upped to 300. Cancelled, and next cycle put on 375. It is true that you can have too much FSH and sacrifice egg quality. But it does seem very conservative. Any chance of a second opinion? Do you feel confident at perhaps questioning this?
Ishy - sorry for your sad loss and what you have had to endure, but..... :dance: CONGRATULATIONS :dance: on your BFP :clap: Some of the ladies here have had to make similar difficult decisions in the past so they understand what you have been through. Just like you, that is what brought them to PGD. You are the first official BFP on this thread and give us all such hope. Wishing you a happy and healthy pregnancy :D
BW - :hello:
Cuddlepie - hope everything went okay with the EPU and you are taking it very easy. I had to giggle when you referred to the way "normal" people make babies. Not overly confident with the idea and scared s%@tless in some respects. Trust me, it has been a while! Might help me work off a bit of pudge I have put on in the past two months of stims, if nothing else...
Meredith - thinking of you and your lovely little beans nestling into there new home :crossfingers:
Lisa - hope you are doing okay, hon ;)
AFM - I'm fine. Meeting with the clinic Tuesday to organise paperwork for NY cycle :D
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Hi everyone, I logged off early last night and wow there are a lot to catch up now...
Meredith, I am sorry to hear that there is no frostie and totally related to the 'safety blanket' thinking, a bit of battling here already and a bit scared of next few days to come really...focus on the two you have in your tummy right now, I sincerely hope that you don't need any frosties hun!
WTH and Sara, glad the new cycle is on horizon, something to looking forward to in the new year hey. I am sure the new year will bring some new energy for all of us.
Sara, I hope FS is monitoring you closely so if the respond is not as desired she can adjust straight away. To my understanding, no Lucrin this cycle right, so that's an factor could make the difference from the last cycle.
Ishy, so glad you had your BFP after a hard journey, you totally deserved this! Enjoy the excitement and hope this is the first one in this thread and Meredith will be the next.
Hi to BW and Buliej, thanks for thinking of me.
I feel relieved that the worst part of a stim cycle is over, at least physically. EPU this morning went really well we were back home before 11am, I have been drugged up to take the edge of the pain and had been sleeping a lot until now. I did saw some blood during the procedure, had one glimpse of the tube of fluid from my follicles and quickly moved my eyes away from them...I prefer to ignore them than freaked out. No bleeding afterward which is good. Pain relief worked well and I feel quite pain-free at the moment.
We've got 9 eggs, 2 immature, so 7 really as I predicted. Embryologist did say that they will still put all of them including the 2 immature ones for fertilization in hope that they will grow in the mean time. So we will hear what's the fert report tomorrow morning.
It will be interesting to see this cycle how many blasties we ended up with comparing to last two cycle. Assuming it was DH's sperm DNA affected past results, now with the improvement in this parameter, we are hoping to see some difference. I truly hope that this is just that little tweak does the trick. Thanks for all the support, I really can't do it without you guys..now the real torture of the mind begins...hehe
Enjoy the weekend everyone...
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Cuddlepie: well done! Lucky 7 - sending lots of good thoughts to your embies. Take it easy hon and try to relax as much as you can to recover.
Sara
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Cuddlepie - 7 sounds great! Just curious - where you not under anesthesia during the pick up ... it's sounds like you were fully awake - I've always been knocked out (they say light anesthesia - but I'm completely gone).
WTH - I've never used Puregon, only Gonal F - so can't speak as to the difference...I'm not sure if there is a "stronger" - my guess is that people respond differently to different drugs even if they are mostly similar drugs...just another one of those IVF things that seem so variable
Looks like there will be a few of us starting afresh in January - hopefully it will be a lucky month...I do hope AF arrives for me in the next 2 weeks - if it doesn't that will really throw me for a loop.
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Buliej & WtH - I am absolutely sure that January is a very lucky month!
You got me confused I always thought Gonal F is Puregon - but now checked in the fridge and it said Follitrophin alfa or similar.
WTH I think it might be a good idea for me to use the other drug instead since I didn't react at all on Gonal F - it's probably different from person to person. I thought there was nothing wrong with your reaction on the other drug in the second cycle. But I think in these things we may just have to trust our FS, I have decided to go with what she says for the start but to insist on an early BT/US if they don't plan that anyway and if my FSH is not up to scratch to question if my dosage shouldn't be increased straight away.
Buliej: My nurse told me if AF doesn't come as expected to come in for a BT as they would be able to tell me where I am up - if you're nervous about AF, maybe check if you could do a BT, it might give you some more security. I've decided to go shortly before Christmas or in between the Years just to see how I am going as my clinic will be closed on Christmas Day and New Years Day and we want to go to the mountains for two nights over New Years Eve, would be a real pain if AF decided to come on one of those days.
Cuddlepie: yes there won't be any Lucrin and I am not on the pill so should be start with my normal hormones which hopefully makes all the difference. Hope you're still relaxing and enjoy having DH around - he may have to make fruit juices for you ;)
Do you have a few days off (I thought you said that you did with your other cycles) or is it straight back to work on Monday?
Ishy: Congratulations, that's really wonderful! Thanks for letting us know we need a few BFP here. :cheer: :bfp: :bluecheer:
Meredith: Hope you feeling better.
Lisa: Hope you're okay.
A nice Sunday to everyone
Sara
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Sara, puregon and gonal F are essentially the same drug, just made my two different companies. There may be slight differences because some people respond better to one than the other, but they essentially serve the same purpose.
BW
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Thank you BW. It's great to have you here. Hope you're going okay, a bit worried by your "in pain "status. It must be getting close for you.
Sara
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6 weeks left... dealing with the joys of back pain and sore and swollen feet. It's all good though, I get to meet the little fella causing all of this very soon!
BW
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Just a quick one, my ladies...
Fertilization report this morning showing that 6 of our eggs are fertilized. So out of 7 mature eggs, I think that's right on par with our fert stat (80%) :D the crunching time will be from Day3-5 though, fingers crossed. I am praying so hard that we will get more blasties than before....
Buliej, Im with SIVF, they do sedation first and then local anesthetic, so yes, I am awake the whole time, just feeling dizzy in the head like you are drunk, it was actually really good. I can look at the screen to see the needle going in to suck all the fluid out and then can see the eggs showing on the screen, its pretty cool. And doesn't take me long to recover afterwards. I think this is general practice in SIVF unless you ask for a general....
Sara, I am hoping to go back to work tomorrow. I was on painkillers yesterday but none today and feeling ok. I thinking going back to work just make time go faster IYKWIM...
BW, 6 weeks to go, good luck hun!
Big hello to Meredith, WTH, Lisa and Ishy.
Hope everyone is having a good Sunday.
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You're doing fantastically, Cuddlepie! Well done! Here's to all 6 embryos growing well over the next few days and a trouble-free transfer.
BW
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cuddlepie - those numbers sound really good - fingers crossed that they keep going and get A+'s on their tests! I may ask about the light sedation - I hate the time they make you spend in recovery after anesthesia - I'd like to avoid that and also wouldn't mind seeing what is going on.
Butterfly Warrior - so exciting for you.
Good idea Sara - if no AF by say the 18th - I may ask for a test to make sure my pregnancy hormones are back to 0 as they should be.
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Cuddlepie: that's fantastic. Keeping fingers crossed the little embies keep growing.
BW: a summer baby, lucky you, hope your last six weeks just fly by. My sister ate lots of asparagus in in the last few weeks, her theory was that it helps release the water from the feet.
Sara
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You guys have been really chatting this w/e. Haven't had any time to pop in until now.
CP - great job on getting 6 lovely embies. Praying you get at least half that in good blasties. I was right out for my EPU to but would find it really interesting to see what goes on.
Ishy - A BFP, thats fabulous news. Hoping you have a trouble free pregnancy!
Sara - I would say that your FS put you on a conservative dose because you are doing antagonist cycle so no supression at all. And as BW has said, Gonal F and Puregon are both exactly the same thing (FSH) just different makers. The general theory is that you should really respond to both just the same but it does seem different in certain individuals, Interestingly, my clinic told me that puregon is actually slightly "stronger" than gonalF. I was written up for 225iu of GonalF but since I'd used Puregon every other IUI cycle, they just changed to puregon but dropped dose to 200.
WTH - You might be interested in what I just wrote to sara about GonalF vs Puregon. Is just what my clinic told me but who knows? I really hope you have some "fun" over xmas and don't need your next PGD cycle
BW - wow, only 6 weeks to go. Counting down the days yet? I bet you can't wait to meet your precious little bundle
AFM - still feeling a bit disheartened by this whole thing although trying to have hope. I truly don't know what we will do if I don't fall pg. Not sure if DH will let us part with the $$$ for another PGD cycle but I am a touch scared about going back to "blind" OI/IUI's. Only 1 more week to go until BT. This part of the TWW really, really drags!
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Just want to send you some hugs Meredith, i know this part of TWW is torture. Hope you are able to stay positive.
Hi to everyone on a Monday, I am on low key ATM...:rolleyes:
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Cuddlepie & Meredith. Some hugs to both of you, the waiting game is terrible. :grouphug:
We're all here to support you and cheer on those Christmas BFPs :pray:
Meredith: thanks for the tips on Puregon - my FS doesnt' seem to give any instrutions to the nurses about which of them I am using, so may ask about Puregon next time, especially as a had a bad headache with the higher dosage of the Gonal F.
AFM: Probably still really innocent in this whole experience. Just really realised this weekend how stressful cycling is, really felt like my energy was coming back and that things that were in the too hard basket when I was jabbing are easy now.
Sara
