Long Term TTC & Assisted Conception - February/March 2009

[Loops12]

Hi girls,

New to this just wondering if anyone here is going thru Monash IVF Gippsland and if they could tell me about their experiences??

Thanks

Ellasmum

[Loops12]

Hi
Yes I am going through Monash IVF Gippsland. Through Dr Talbot and he is fantastic as is the nurse I am seeing down at Sale for all our IUI. Not pregnant yet but I am very confident they will get me there. And they are just so comfortable and lovely to deal with. I have not had any problems at all.
Hope that helps. Goodluck

[toby]

loops21 - i also see dr T in melb at the Mercy he is good and straight to the point - no mucking around

Good luck everyone
postive thourghts become things!

[Bengal]

Oh girls Mac Talbert was the first FS I ever saw, and should of stuck with , he is gorgeous, and I will be going to see him again if my next cyle does not work.

[Bengal]

True Blue : Ralph Kuhn is at MIVF - I havent seen him/her, let us know how you go

Hugs

[Sara69]

Hi Girls,

Sorry for no personals but need some urgent help.

Went for BT this morning and my FSH came back with 13, my doctors says she thinks I should wait a month and see if it gets better but it seems that I can go ahead with the antagonist cycle if I want to.

Last time my FSH was 9.8 which they considered borderline but advised to go ahead, it turned out I had three eggs, one blastie, the blastie was affected and I didn't get to ET.

I am wondering if I should go ahead anyway as I am afreaid the FSH might come back even worse next month? Was thinking that as soon as I have the first ultrasound we'll see anyway what the situation is and can cancel then if it's bad?

Please let me know what you think, also has any of you a tip on how to influence the FSH so that it goes down? I think I might have heard something oabout Sharkey's herb somewhere but don't know anything about this - does any of you take it?

I'll turn 40 in June and don't feel I have can loose any more time.

Hope you all have a good weekend and thanks for letting me know your thoughts.

Sara

[TwoMums]

When do you know you are getting into the "Long Term TTC" Category? When you have to do up an Excel Spreadsheet to remember how many attempts you've had and how many follicles and what drugs you took etc etc. Well i started a spreadsheet. Here are the results.

TTC Since June 2006

15x attempts using same donor (now reached family limit)

4x Megan; 11x Kim

2x IVF; 13x IUI

1x Natural/IUI; 1x FSH/IUI; 8x Clomid/IUI; 3x Clomid/FSH/IUI

1x1 follicle; 6x2 follicles; 3x3 follicles; 2x4 follicles; 1x7 follicles; 1x8 follicles

1x Poor response to FSH (Megan's 1st IVF Converted to IUI)

1x Low fertilisation rate (Megan's 2nd IVF 2 out of 8 eggs fertilise)

2x Slow growing embryo's (Megan's 2nd IVF Day 3 Transfer 1x 4 cell 1 x 5 cell)

1x Early Ovulation prior to Egg Pick Up (Kim's 1st IVF -3 immature eggs retrieved)

1x Zero embryos to transfer ( Ki'm's 1st IVF -1 arrested and 2 triploid embryos)

1x BFP (Kim's 2nd IUI/Singleton/50mg Clomid/2 follicle/7th attempt)

1x Miscarriage at 7.5 weeks (due to a Subchorionic Hematoma)

0x Baby in our arms (One little girl in our hearts - Chromasomal testing came back normal 46XX)

Still we go on. I think we may go on until there is 1 or 2 babies in our arms. Maybe we should have not had so many attempts with IUI. But we really didnt have the money to do IVF again until now. We didnt have another choice.

We are just waiting for Kim to start CD1 (CD 28 today) to start our next IVF cycle. We haven't done an IVF cycle since Sept 2006, only IUI's and our last IUI was in August last year. So we had a break from TTC and now we have the money for IVF AND private health insurance (we've done the 12 month wait). Oh and we picked a new aussie donor. Our old donor reached his family limit.

We are going to put our names down for the donor embryo program after this IVF attempt. Even if this attempt is sucessful. I am turning 37 this year and my fertility was questionable when i was 33, hell even when i was 20. I think that will be the path that we go down to achieve a pregnancy for me. Unless by some miracle Kim makes heaps of eggs and we get some good frozen embryos that i can try to fall pregnant with after Kim. Peoples.... wouldn't that be some kind of wonderful!! Can't wait to get to know you all again!

[Loula]

Hey Megan and Kim!

I remember you! so many familiar faces coming back onto this journey now. wishing you all the very best x

so sorry for your loss, i didnt know, sorry and GL with upcoming events

[Loops12]

Thanks girls for letting me that you like Dr Talbot, great to know other people like him.

Two mums - so sorry to learn of your hardships, good luck in the future, hope you get a precious child or two soon.

[barney]

hello girls hope you all going ok ,hang in there all of you were all gonna get there..
thinking of you all see you soon when i start my fet

[Dutchie80]

Please let me know what you think, also has any of you a tip on how to influence the FSH so that it goes down? I think I might have heard something oabout Sharkey's herb somewhere but don't know anything about this - does any of you take it?


Hi Sara69
I reckon thats an age old question for us high fshers, I havent been able to get a definitive answer from any of my doctors so went on the search for my own answers. In Jan. my fsh too came back at 13 and the clinic would not let me cycle preferring it to be <10. My fs did say to me that it would come down, I might just have to spend a couple of months waiting for it to come down. I started to go to acupuncture weekly and in feb when I wanted to start again it was 8.1. Its mine (& my partners & acupuncturists) belief that fsh is greatly influenced by stress and this was the primary reason I started ap - to help keep stress levels under control. For me, it helps tremendously. I have read a lot about women using wheatgrass to lower fsh, some with success, some without. DHEA seems to be another thing that pops up a lot. I would do your own research on the wheatgrass and the DHEA and decide based on what you find but I would definitely recommend acupuncture. I havent really read a lot about Sharkey's herbs just that some women do like them. Not sure if any of this is of use to you but I hope so.

Also, I have just changed fs, my new one is more experienced with high fsh and poor response & I think this will make all the difference. I think all high fshers need a fs who has atleast some experience treating high fsh because we just need a bit more aggresive treatment. I believe it can be overcome. Sorry to ramble. HTH

[Dutchie80]

BTW- You guys are all fantastic!!! Your support is amazing

[Sara69]

Dutchie, thanks so much it's really encouraging to hear that the high FSH can get better when you treat it. Have a phone appointment with my FS tomorrow and will then decide if I start or not. She would allow me to start with 13 but we're both probably expecting the cycle to get cancelled. I am just afraid it might even get higher next month.

Sara

[MissMagpie]

Hi girls,

Hope you all had a good weekend

Sara - sorry cant offer you any advice but I hope you phone call goes well today and your able to make a decision. Good luck


Toby - I too have endo and it was severe. I had a 10cm cyst on my left ovary which in turn squashed my uretha and I had cysts on my bowel too. I had an emergency laparotomy in Feb last year due to severe pain in which they chopped the top of the cyst only hoping it would go away but it didnt. I then went to Endo Care Assoc Aust and the dr there was terrific. After many scans he advised another laparotomy to remove my ovary with the cyst on it, I then had a stent put into my uretha by a urologist and had a bowel surgeon remove the cysts on my bowel. The op took just over 5 hrs with 3 surgeons working on me. I am feeling lots better now (pain free!!!) and my dr fixed my anatomy ready for IVF. He told me before the op that IVF just wouldnt work so had to have the surgery first. I hope this has helped. If you need any more info, just message me. Good luck.

Hello to everyone else.

AFM, went for my scan this morning. They found 8 follies but only 2 of a good size. There is 1 at 12mm which they are HOPING may grow before EPU. I trigger tomorrow night with EPU on Thursday. I was hoping for a better result as I am on such a high doseage of Gonal. Does anyone know what the highest doseage is???? Im on 450. Work isnt being very supportive partically my boss so am feeling quite low. When I told him I was going into hospital on Thursday, he was like "just the morning"? I was like nooooooo, I need the whole day off. Mind you this will be my 3rd EPU so have told him before that they put me under. I hate his ignorance and I feel even more alone than ever. If it wasnt for this site and you girls, I dont know how I would cope. Thank-you. Sorry to vent but Im just angry with my boss at his lack of understanding.

Take care,

Tania

[Sara69]

Hi Tania,

Think 450 might be the highest dosage for Gonal F. Did you ask if they can wait a bit longer with EPU just wondering since they normally want the follicles to be at least 18mm and they usually grow only 2mm per day. That said they usually grow better once you've done the trigger as that gives them some extra power.

Sara

[MissMagpie]

Hi Sara,

I have 2 ready to go, one at 22mm and the other at 17mm so they cant delay trigger unfortunately. I have 2 at 10mm and 3 at 9mm so they have no hope but hoping the
12mm grows some more. Going by your stats, it should grow to about 18mm by Thursday fingers crossed! Im having another injection tonight so hope that helps too.

I thought 450 would be the highest doseage. That doesnt give me much comfort.

Thanks for your reply

Take care,

Tania

[MissMagpie]

P.S. How'd you go with your FS today and are you going ahead?

[Sara69]

Hi Tania, that sounds much better, looks like you should have at least the three, keeping fingers crossed for you.

My FS just called and we've decided to wait another month, instead I'll be starting with DHEA. Feeling reliefed and planning to do lots of nice and relaxing things in between.

Sara