Long Term Assisted Conception Oct/Nov 2007

**Carla MP** · October 29th, 2007, 03:04 PM

Hey Odette
THanks for that info. Just now waitingfor AF which should be 2nd week of November I HOPE!!!
Then take it from there. I am just worried that I only have 3 embies left....dont want them all to be wasted as I really dont want to go through the EPU again......
I pray for all good news for you sweetie.......
They should be well and truely cooked by then!!! Yippeeeee
Im kind of enjoying the break but amstill anxious to get back on board and transfer another embie to have a nice Xmas suprise.....
I just wish I had a reasonto be fat!!!

**butterfly_warrior** · October 29th, 2007, 04:01 PM

Odette, seems like your transfer is coming up really fast! I think you're the only one lucky enough to be going with a FET - the rest of us appear to be facing up to a stim cycle. Although, I think Lou might be FETing as well?

Strange how things come back to bite you - I remember when going into our first FET, I commented that I sort of missed the injections. Guess that comment came back to bite me big time. I appear to be really, really lucky with all the IVF drugs - I haven't gained weight with them yet! But I have with the post-miscarriage chocolate consumption! Even with the OHSS, I had 5kg pile on over night, and when it eventually all disappeared, it took a friend with it. I've found that extra kg again. I'm starting back on the low-carb, low-GI eating plan David put me on before, not as obsessively, but I'm finding that I'm feeling really good with just making a little extra effort to exercise more.

Only two more days and it's appointment day! Kinda excited, kinda scared...

BW

**diva det** · October 29th, 2007, 07:19 PM

yeah it feels a bit too easy doing a FET, but i reckon i have done enough stim cycles to last me!!
This is only my 3rd FET and done four stims - i think off the top of my head!!!
so this lucky 7!!!!!

Carla- three embies is great to have in the freezer- i only get small numbers this will be the 3rd time i have only had one to put back. It only takes one!!! This cycle is my last Frostie so hoping it survives thaw!!!!

take care
odette

slyder · October 29th, 2007, 08:00 PM

Odette, what about the price of the FET drugs though? Pessaries and the other tablets (if you're on them). It's been a real eye opener seeing as this was supposed to be the cheaper part of the process! Not happy.

Sorry, not my thread I know, but I still read

**butterfly_warrior** · October 29th, 2007, 08:15 PM

Ok, now I'm really appreciating the fact that my FS has us do natural FETs! One pack of letrozole does three cycles. Then it's just the $995 to the clinic, and petrol for driving into the blood tests... Dreading another stim cycle with the lucrin on top - $150 or so, and I'll need two vials!

Perhaps it's better not to think about the numbers...

ETA: Rols, I'm really loving the fact that you read and follow up on us! Don't feel like you're intruding, please.

BW

**Loula** · October 29th, 2007, 08:34 PM

Slyder - its great to see you in here! I can understand where you are coming from with regards to the coat of drugs for a FET, for me the only good thing to come out of the last stim cycle being canciled was the fact that i still have two boxes of the gel P4 which i perfer anyway! i usually get the P4 pessaries though as they are cheaper and work just as well although you may have to insert then twice a day.

Bw - i think you need to remember that letrozole is not available to all fertility paitents, in aus and you are able to get a drug that isn't widely available.

**diva det** · October 29th, 2007, 08:57 PM

i must be lucky as its a natural FET so no drugs whatsoever! it is a dream cycle in that instance - plus if the drugs are on the PBS i get cheap as i have a HCC, and i get $160 off my FET for having a HCC as well.

The only drug or thing that i have ever had to pay for separately doing IVF has been Synerol and my private health insurance gave me 30% of the cost of it back. They give me all my meds, creams and testing kits all inclusive,as well as all my docs appointments, pickups and transfers.

So my FET is $875 and i get 80% back as reached my threshold! So all up at the end i should be only under $200 out of pocket!! I love the threshold!!!!

What about you guys- whats the costs?
take care
odette

**Loula** · October 29th, 2007, 09:11 PM

for me the gel is usuall $190 or the pessaries are $60 hence why i choose the pessaries !!

i usually have to go on some kind of HRT (not fun) usually about $60 for one cycle

Than the cycle itself FET $800

driving to and fro - parking in the city ect, but i too have gone way over our there, thats not including all the natural herbs that i take too.

Still it'all be all worth it

**Ellie** · October 30th, 2007, 07:54 AM

Hi everyone...sorry been a bit quiet...so much going on here I don't know where to start....
In a nut shell...DH has landed the dream job prospect in a small country town about 4 hours from where we are now...so I'm busily applying for work and looking at houses etc...have appointments with accountatm and finance guy in the next week...so BIG life changing stuff. Think I have someone lined up to rent our house so at least that's taken care off...the downer...all this change is going to happen in the next 2 months...so forking out $4500 for a stim cycle is starting to look like a no go...if we could get the money back from medicare straight away it would be ok but in the past I've found it takes months...just don't know if it's even worth spending the money with all the stress of relocating...maybe I'm just looking for excuses...this oportunity is DH's dream and we can't not do it...so....I'll keep you posted!!! Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated...oh...and for the first time ever CM CD14 and heaps of ovary pain...I'm convinced I've ovulated...so guess what we've been doing?????...LOL....

slyder · October 30th, 2007, 08:39 AM

I dunno Ellie, what have you been doing? Knitting scarves?

Well done to DH on his new job. You certainly deserve some luck and living in a small country town is awesome in my opinion, and probably BG's as well. As for your stim cycle, it just depends on whether you think you can juggle all the balls at once. It certainly wont be the end of the world if you delay it by a couple of months until you're settled. Depends how anxious you are to get on with it, but by the sound of your post and some of the other things we've all discussed before, it doesn't sound like you feel the burning need to do it immediately IYKWIM? The other thing to consider is the logistics of where you live in relation to your clinic, but I'm sure you've already thought of that.

BW/Lou, thanks for the welcome, I wont hang about obviously, but like being able to comment! To answer your question Odette, the pessaries are about $5 each so when DW is using 3 a day it adds up. Plus these other pills they're making her take are about $50 but you get a fair few in the jar. Just the other day we had to buy another $180 of pessaries to give us about a fortnight's worth. It really irks me because DW isn't the one with the issue and it is wrong, I think, that she should be taking drugs just so it makes timetabling and logistics easier for the clinic (and us).

If this cycle doesn't work then I'm really going to be pushing the point next time. As for the actual cycle cost, it should cost about $300 out of pocket once we get our rebate. We were also able to claim about 50% of the pessaries from PHI in the first instance, but bugger all for the second lot because they will only cover up to a certain $$ figure per receipt. So if we'd bought them on two receipts, we would've got twice the amount back! It's not the end of the world, but it's cost a few hundred more than you are led to believe. Oh, and plus the $200 hospital admission excess.

**sushee** · October 30th, 2007, 09:26 AM

Rols,

I am the one in my relationship that has the fertility issue, and I know what it's like to feel guilt about what the other person has to undergo in this IVF caper, but I thought I'd urge you to not let the guilt influence your treatment. Yes, the drugs is more for the timing for the clinic's convenience, and the pessaries are probably unnecessary, but even though I'd carried 3 children to term previously and had absolutely no luteal phase issues, I was still required to take pessaries, simply because they usually want to take all the guesswork out of the cycle. Something I read called it the 'hamburger with the works', where they throw at you all the medications required to rule out any possible thing that may go wrong. Even the most fertile woman can have the odd anovulatory cycle.

And with clinics that don't open 7 days a week (mine did) they want to make sure you don't O on a day that will make transfer happen when they're closed.

I'm at my mum so I shouldn't even be on the puter :P, but wanted to just add my two cents worth, Rols hun. You can ignore me if you like though.

slyder · October 30th, 2007, 09:34 AM

Rols? Who is Rols? Oh you mean me!

God, I'm so funny.

Seriously, thanks. That's the best explanation I've received and helps makes things a lot clearer and makes me heaps more comfortable about the whole thing. The explanation DW got from the clinic was a bit vague. You're a legend.

**sushee** · October 30th, 2007, 12:17 PM

Bloody hell! I meant 'slyder'! D'oh! Lol!

I bet if I changed my username to something else you'd all still call me sushee too!

**briggsy's girl** · October 30th, 2007, 01:35 PM

i could be having a face to face conversation with you, and you'd still be sushee (do you even HAVE a real name??)

Ellie - woo hoo on hubby's new job - living in a small town has it's ups and downs (especially when you live across the road from the town gossip

) but i'd never give it up to live in the city - or even a bigger town to be honest! we have about 1300 people under our postcode (according to the ABS after census night) and more than half of those live out of town - so it's nice and cosy - and i love it! i can' understand your thoughts on holding off on the stim cycle a while - medicare are notorious for taking months to get money back to you so it's a tough call - to be honest, i'd be waiting it out, dealing with the upheaval of moving and resettling yourself first - and making the most of the O pains you've been getting! good luck hunny

as for the costs for my cycles - i think i'll have to pretty much say "ditto" to Lou's comments re FET costs (if we get to that point) - seeing she is through Monash as well - although i'll be on a medicated cycle (i don't O at all) so there will be the added expense of an iui-type "mini-stim" i would assume (but i don't know at this stage) which would probably add a couple hundred to the mix!