IVF with PGD

Gotta be quick - thunderstorm outside. I know I have been offline the past few days, but I have been popping in. Just wanted to have something more firm to post...

Sara - the HCG booster also gives your follies quite a boost, so that 14mm one, for example, is a very good contender. Also, at SIVF in Kent St they drained ALL my follies, regardless of size. Cuddlepie is right - you stand in good stead of having more than three :D

Kel - :hello: of course you are welcome here. I look forward to getting to know you and sharing support.

Cuddlepie and Meredith - hiya my lovelies.

AFM - ok, saga in a nutshell. On New Year's Day I spotted and rang the clinic to let them know AF was on it's way. But I felt BLAH (not alcohol induced). POAS = faint 2nd line after time frame. Next day (Friday) same again. Wondered if it might be a cyst?... Saturday 2nd line in 3 mins :dance:, but Monday, line not any darker. Rang clinic to inform of BFP. But BT = HCG 30 and lowish P4. Head was swimming. I felt quite ill. Could it be eptopic? Requested 2nd test today and it confirmed my numbers were indeed dropping (HCG 18). AF is just around the corner. Have been assured should be able to start my IVF cycle any day. So I have just had my first official chemical PG/bad implantation/who knows? It should not be an autoimmune response as I have been tested pretty thoroughly. I knew from Monday's numbers things were not looking great, (but for my temping) we did not know exactly where we were in this messed-up post-IVF cycle. But having lost babies between 9 and almost 14 weeks I would much rather lose the baby now. So, yes, I am/was UTD for 5 minutes. Bit of a crap way to start the year, though. Just wanna start jabbing...

WTH - Oh darl, what a horrible start to 2009. The joy so quickly crushed- I know the feeling all to well and its just horrible.I am so, so sorry. I agree with you that it is at least better to lose your precious bubba now. I know we have both lost most of ours after seeing HBs so this may be at least a touch less heartbreaking. Also, at least you can start your PGD cycle straight away - hopefully that brings some renewed hope. I still can't get over how "random" and complex the whole pg thing is. You transfered a perfect litle blastie last cycle and not even a hint of HCG, yet a probably "not so great" embie has managed to partially get going this time. I don't know if this frustrates you but I find it all so irrational for all of us going through similar events.
Anyway, big hugs to you at this sad time and I hope AF can at least come and go soon.

Sara - Hugs to you too. I can understand your concerns but please don't los hope. Firstly, YOu only need one of those eggies to make a good embie. Plus, if you have a follie or 2 at 14mm then they could defnitely be mature enough by egg collection. At my last scan ( last cycle), I only had about 6 or 7 follies above 15mm, most were below 13mm. 2 days later at EPU, they collected 21 eggs and I managed 14embies so they must have all matured very quickly.

CP - So for your FET, do they just track your cycle once you get AF? Nice not to have to take any meds and seems a more natural way of you body accepting a little one. Hopefully your future child is just passing time in his/her frozen home - ready to grow, grow, grow!

Kel - welcome to our lovely little group. You are certainly most welcome and I hope we can help you along your journey. I am so sorry that you have lost so many along the way. I think we have all had more than our fair share of losses so we understand how tough this baby making business really is.

AFM - Feeing a touch more positive today as the new cycle draws closer. Have ordered some medication from compounding pharmacy and spoke with my nurse today to arrange picking up meds etc. Should be jabbing again by next Thurs... yay!!!

Hi Kel and welcome
I noticed that you are in Brisbane, which clinic do you go to?
Like the other girls have mentioned you are always welcome here although hopefully you won't need to stay long:crossfingers:
I can't even imagine what it must be like to have lost so many little angels but i have certainly had my fair share of heartbreak in not being able to fall pregnant - i may just have one of the most depressing signatures out there!
Anyway look forward to getting to know you and good luck with everything.

WTH, oh hun I am sorry for the little up and down. I know at any stage losing a baby is devastating but I agree with you and Meredith, if it is not going to go all the way, its better to be this early. :Hug: take care and I hope the new cycle will renew your hope.

Meredith, glad to know you are feeling a bit positive today. The best way to get motivated is to start another cycle I guess. I hope all will go to plan.

AFM, FS called at 730pm tonight unexpectedly, god bless him still working on these follow up calls...Basically he said he is pleased to see the improvement from D3 to D5 but yet not completely happy on the embyros performance on Day 3 for our last cycle. So he thinks he might change my stimulate plan when I am ready given I've been on lucrin for the last 3 stim cycle. I am not sure what he propose to use but kind of glad he is up to make some changes to make it work better.

Regarding next step, he said we can either do FET next since we still have 1 blasties, or we can do another stim cycle straight away, all depends on how many children we plan to have. If I plan to have more than 1, he would suggest to have stim cycle straight away, so at least we have frozen embies for No.2. Very interesting theory but does make sense and I like his confidence too...

Afterwards, DH & I had a discussion, of course we would love to have more than one child but we think it will be too greedy and too far away to even think of anything until we achieve the very first goal - to have our very first baby in our arms. So we decide to go with FET and hope this is it and worry about No.2 next year! Also from the cost-effective point of view!

Meredith, yeah, I will be doing natural FET in Feb, so no meds just monitoring and then transfer... it will be so much relaxing comparing to stim cycle that's another reason I just can't face another stim cycle straight away...let's try our luck on this one first...

Sara, have you done your trigger tonight? Hope all went well and EPU is on Friday!

Have a nice evening everyone, here is so unbelievably hot! I hope the storm will hit soon...

WTH, while reading your chemical pregnancy, I just want to let out something also bugs me in the last couple of weeks.

After my failed stim cycle, AF was really painful and heavy and lasted about 10 days during Xmas time (usually only 5-6 days), to the point that I get really worried. But on D10, its gone. And I found that I am O late this month too, normally I ovulate on D14 and this month I don't think I did until D16/17...I have been wondering if I had a chemical pregnancy last cycle as well....because I was so so sure I was/felt pregnant! Anyway, its all past and doesn't matter much now, just have to let it out and this is the only place I can do this! Thanks for listening my rambling! :redface:

Hi Girls,

Also waiting for the storm, it's 29C in my bedroom! Thank you all for encouraging me, I am feeling much more positive. Did the trigger at 8.45 and now no more injections until Friday at least.

WTH: I am so so sorry, that must have been a terrible up and down. :hug:
Hope you can start jabbing soon and the year will get better day by day.

Meredith: Happy to see that you're sounding more positive, sending you lots of good vibes for your next cycle.

CP: Really astonished about your FS, he seems to really care, that is a really good thing. Also really like that he is thinkign about how to make your cycle work even better.

I'll very much support your decision, just wondering - you know from the position I am in I'd love to have the time back again to be able to do a stimulated cycle with better egg numbers and have some frozen embies in reserve just in case I wanted to have a second child. Don't think that you would be greedy at all to think that way. From the financial point of view it may also be better to do it now with a better possibly a better result than in a few years. Sorry just playing devil's advocate please don't be angry and ignore what i've said. Sending you hugs and lots of luck with FET in February.:goodluck:

Have a good night everyone,

Sara

CP, oh hun, sending you hugs, it has been a hard year for you. :hug:

Sara

Interesting point of view Sara, I really appreciated it. Now you make me think twice...:think: I'd hate in a year or so time that I am kicking myself though...

What should I do? I will give it a few more days then to decide...

Sara - HOORAY for the trigger :clap: and no more jabbing :dance: With up to three a day I am sure you are ready to kick back and watch all your little spotties on your tum disappear. I actually got bruises - from the accupuncture. Still had them 3 weeks later! I really wish you well with EPU. Like Meredith said, the follies continue to mature. While SIVF talk about wanting follies over 18mm, I was also told anything over 14 can be mature. You're looking great, hun. Also, my BB cyberfriend Mollycat had just one eggie at EPU. She did not do PGD, but is now 10 weeks, and she is our age. A sweet reminder that it only takes one :D

Meredith - my goodness you and I are on the same page! My thoughts exactly. Why am I so brilliant at implanting dud embies :wall: Yet I knock back the good uns ?! But yes, it is my first loss without a HB. Technically, it has only delayed my IVF cycle by a few days (though this past week has felt like a month). Glad to hear you are sounding so upbeat. Looks like we are gonna be jabbing-buddies :D

Cuddlepie - my cycle was SUPER screwed up this cycle. I had quite a heavy period. I normally O on Day 15 but this month I was temping and FF said it was Day 20. You may also recall I also had a four day LH surge (definite darker positives), which I have never had before. My clinic warned this cycle might be late. Were it not for the PG my AF was due on Day 35 (normally 29 day cycle). Just adds to the darned waiting... On the FET discussion, I humbly feel like the Devil's advocate, too. I think it is interesting that your FS rang and was enthusiastically discussing a change in protocol to improve quality. I do not think it is greedy at all to do a stim cycle right now. Fresh cycles have better implantation rates, and it is hard to hinge so much on your one frostie. I guess for me the age factor is my greatest motivator. I really don't want to confuse you, Cuddlepie. But definitely worth thinking about, especially if you can afford the $$ right now ;)

AFM - emailed my OB who took me through the Miscarriage Investigation Program to see if I should maybe have an NK cell biopsy before AF arrives (normally performed about this time). I actually skipped this test during the program because I was so darned eager to do IVF. But it just seems strange that I felt so sick before and after my BFP. I really felt like I was fighting something off! I did get an NK cell BT last year, but it was mis-timed due to a miscalculation in the time of my cycle (post-miscarriage). Despite being at the wrong time I still managed a "borderline" result. So, will see what comes of my email.

Just found these articles sourced from Oxford University and Colorado Centre for Reproductive Medicine and dated November 2008. Links:

BBC NEWS | Health | IVF screen 'boosts baby chances'

Medical News: ASRM: New Embryo Screening Technique Boosts IVF Pregnancy Rates - in Meeting Coverage, ASRM from MedPage Today

They are talking about a new IVF embryo screening procedure with a HUGE pregnancy success rate. Test subjects were average 37 or 38 years old (depending on which article you go by). 18/23 pregnancies, plus 2 MC's. Here they test all the chromosones, not just up to 10 (the limit of IVF with PGD). Apparently it takes a while to get the results, so the blasts have to be frozen.

I posted links to two separate articles as they had some extra info in each of them.

luv your obsessive Googler, WTH

Sara/CP/WTH/Meredith: Thanks for the warm welcome! It's slim pickings (as you would all know) for forums relating to PGD. I've been posting with FF for about four years now, but was only Dx with the BRT in September 2007 (after almost three years TTC #1); there's a great bunch of women there with chromosomal translations/inversions, too, but none are actually doing IVF/PGD, or are in Australia.

Mollygirl: I'm seeing Dr. Molloy at QFG in Brisbane. The short version is that I was seeing Dr. Ng at Monash IVF (then ACA when he transferred) for 18 months, but found a new FS after a few things left me with a foul taste.

AFM: I've finished down regulating now (04Jan09 was last OCP) and have been on Synarel since 30Dec08. AF turned up on Tuesday, and I'm starting injections (112.5 IU of Gonal-F) on Monday coming. Is there anyone else about to start stimming in the next week or so?

Hi Kel.

Just a little update (stand to be corrected). Sara is due for EPU tomorrow, I am starting FSH in the next few days (short cycle) and Meredith is due to start jabbing next week. Cuddlepie is either doing an FET or new stim cycle in Feb.

None of us plan to be here after that ;)

WTH: Thank you for that. What's deemed a "short cycle"?

Meredith: Looks like you and I are going to be cycling together. And I didn't even have to buy you a drink first... ;) :lol:

Sara: Good luck with your EPU tomorrow.

Kel - it is my slack way of saying I am not down-regging, ie, doing the pill and Lucrin in the lead-up to FSH. I tried this in my first cycle and had a bad response (though my FSH dose was also probably too low that time).

Instead, I just go straight onto FSH injections around Day 2 of AF and some days in use Orgalutron to suppress the LH surge and prematurely ovulate. In November I did Puregon injections for FSH. This time I am trying Gonal-F to see if the different brand of FSH improves egg quality.

For me, it all kicks off in the next day or two (just waiting for AF) so it looks like I will be cycling with you and Meredith :D

WTH: Sounds like the start of an IUI cycle. I've done two courses of Puregon for IUI before, one on 50 IU and got one follicle, and one on 75 IU where I got more than 20 follicles and it was cancelled. I'll be on 112.5 IU of Gonal-F this time, so I'm interested (if a little apprehensive) to see how many follicles grow and eggs are retrieved. The PCOS generally means that I respond ridiculously well to FSH (hence the 20+ on 75 IU). I am cautiously optimistic that this will work.

Kel - I guess my shorter is similar to the start of an IUI cycle, only I continue on to IVF and PGD. That is incredible how the small increase in your Puregon doses gave you such immensly different results!

EVERYONE - I have just been reading up on something called L-Arginine - something which is not only good for DH/DP's swimmers, but also is said to be good for improving poor ovarian response in IVF'ers. Anyone here taking it or can help me with the dose?? I know about seeing a naturopath (la la la :tmi:) but you know how impatient I am. Is there a safe dose that anyone knows of? I checked my BM conceive well and it is not in it.

:

---

Hi Kel.

None of us plan to be here after that ;)

---

:rofl:

Well said WTH, I love it! ;)

Seems you have been busy today hun, I just caught up on the two articles you posted it and now this L-Arginine, you are such a little researcher...well, share with us once you know more, can't help you on that sweetie!

WTH: Enough L-arginine is usually produced by the body (a blood test will tell you if you have the right amount). If you have PCOS or other insulin related disorders like diabetes you shouldn't take it because it increases blood sugar, as well as sometimes causing heartburn and ulcers. You might find this helpful: L-Arginine - What You Need to Know About L-Arginine

WTH - wow, you have been a busy little bee. Haven't had a chance to read those articles yet but does sound very ineresting. Just goes to show that there can be plenty more things wrong with embies than the standard 8-10 chromosomes they routinely test for in PGD. Having to freeze all does sound a touch scary to me - you would have to have plenty to start with

Oops gotta go - DS just not sleeping past few days!

Ok, back.

Sara - wishing you all te best for tomorrow and praying you get lots of lovely eggies

CP - its a tough decision for sure. I must admit, I do tend to agree with the other girls in that there is defnitely no shame in thinking ahead to no 2. 3 yrs ago, I was doing IUI to TTC #1 and was fortunate to eventually get a sticker but I do occsionally think maybe it wold have been better if we'd done iVF and perhaps had some in the freezer from the days when I had 34yr old eggies!
On the flipside, however, you really do need to focus on getting that one precious baby. There is no guarantee that even if you did another sim cycle and had 1 or 2 left over in the freezer, that any would actually produce another live child. Do what feels best for you. Your body may well have a better chance at pg without all the drugs and I can totally understand the desire to be pg ASAP.

Kel - Looks like it will be you, WTH and I all starting FSH within a few days of each other. i am doing short cycle like WTH so no down reg for me either. I have just been on provera to bring on AF as I don't cycle naturally. I don't have true PCOS but my ovaries seem to react a bit like it. I will only be on 125iu of puregon next cycle. Was on 200iu last time and had 50 follies with 21 eggs collected. There is some thought that the overstimulation may have led to poorer quality embies plus non "ideal" uterine enviroment ...hence the BFN.
Hopefully we will both get enough good ones this time around

Thanks for your thoughts Meredith, to be honest, the more I think about it, the harder it gets. So I thought I will go with our first instinct, quick and painless, just rub this bandit off....:p Thanks girls for your input in this, but Feb FET, here we come...wish us luck! :p

I am excited to see you guys start another cycle, I have so much hope for you! Have fun with jabbing! Meredith, will you be doing just a stim cycle or with PGD this time?

Sara, good luck with EPU today, I hope you get lots of good quality eggs.

Sara - thinking of you today. Hope it all goes to plan (even better than you hoped for) and that you are not too uncomfortable afterwards :D

Hi Everyone

I'm still on holiday (another 24 hours) but the weather is so-so today, so I'm at an internet cafe while DH is getting massaged --- FOR THE 3RD TIME THIS WEEK!!!

Sara -hope the pick-up goes well - please keep us posted.

Kel - Welcome - I hope your stay in here is short

WTH - sorry for the crappy start to your year - things will improve!

CP - I was faced with the same decision for my last IVF cycle. I ended up doing back-to-back cycles because I wanted some embryo's on ice. However, just as FS predicted, my body didn't produce any good eggs during the back-to-back cycle - she said that our bodies don't like the drugs 2 cycles in a row. So all that jabbing was for nothing...and I ended up using my 1 frostie...which resulted in a BFP...if it wasn't for the trisomy issue, I would have been on my way to a H&H...and it would have been great, even if it would have been just 1 (and we too would like 2 in a perfect world, but as we all have learned the hard way..this is so not a perfect world).

Meredith - fingers-crossed for you.

Hi to everyone else....

Julie

Hi girls,

Thanks for all your good wishes. No personals today will catch up later, still very exhausted from EPU. As expected there were three mature eggs, so please keep fingers crossed for good fertilisation and growing so that I get an ET.

Meanwhile was wondering if you have any tips about things I can do to raise my chances of the little embie to stick in case I am really lucky and have a transfer.

Lots of sticky vibes and babydust to all of you.

Sara

Thanks Julie, what you said makes me feel better about the decision. But again, all in all this is totally in God's hand, nobody can predict what result is gonna be. So I guess we just have to go with what feels comfortable at the time.

I don't know if it is just me, but as this TTC game continue, I more and more believe 'its just God's will, if it is meant to happen, it will.'...I mean we still try to control our destiny by doing whatever we can, but there are so many parameters and factors that FS can't even fully explain in this process, we can only do what we can...

Sara, glad you are recovering from the procedure, I hope this whole thing is not too uncomfortable for you given its your first time. Will be praying hard that 3 eggs will all be fertilized and going strong. Rest up hun!

Sara - praying those 3 little eggies are having a great date with DH's swimmers and you will have good result by morning. I know the next 5 days are going to be very stressful for you. Hope you can find something relaxing to do

CP - I agree that the outcome of TTC is mostly out of our control. Very tough for a "control freak" like me! Wish I could find comfort in some sort of devine destiny but I am not religous so really just see it all as cruel twists of nature.Would love to see all the suffering we go through as having a "purpose" but how can it? `The only "lesson" I have learnt from all this is that life can be extremely cruel and that I should have pushed DH harder to have kids when I wanted them 10 yrs ago. Regret is such a horrible emotion.

BTW Just a straight IVF stim cycle this time around for me. GOing by our last PGD results, it would not really be worth the extra money and possible embie damage to do it again. Part of me would still really like that PGD safety net so I don't worry so much about m/c etc but guess we'll see how this cycle pans out

Buliej - nice to see you. Hope you are having great holiday. Where are you?
Will we be seeing back the rollercoaster soon?

Only one more day of Provera for me. This has to be the last time... please, please!

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

Hi Girls,

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 :D.

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.

Sara

Excellent news Sara, :clap: 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 :lol:, 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! :hug:

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 :D

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 :clap:. Congratulations, hun on your 100% fertilisiation rate :dance: 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: :hello:

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...

WTH: Just a quick good luck for start of jabbing tonight. Hope this cycle will be it for you.
:hug:

Sara

Hi Everyone...

Let's see...

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. :pray:

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

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.

Hi,

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.

Sara

Hi ladies
A new year and a new thread for you.
Wishing you all the best with your cycles.

Your new thread is HERE.