LTTTC - Success Stories

[briggsy's girl]

Been meaning to post in here for a while but keep forgetting! this has been taken from my birth story - cos i just can't seem to find the time to type it all up again!

DH and I started trying for a baby in February 2005 - it wasn't a conscious decision as such, just something that happened. kinda a "trying without trying" thing. On April 25 2005, we found out we were pregnant for the first time. we weren't honestly expecting it, and it was something of a shock - but in a good way! unfortunately we lost that angel baby only four days later. it was so very hard ringing DH and telling him on the phone while he was working away - but it was after this loss that we realised we really did want a family.

we got engaged a few months later and were planning our wedding, so trying for a baby just didn't enter the equation. i didn't have a regular cycle, so it's not like we were actively trying or avoiding anything. On December 3rd, 2005 i went shopping in Melbourne for a "mother of the bride" outfit for my mum, and to get some extra stuff we needed for the wedding - we'd barely made it to the shops when i started to bleed heavily. it was bizarre - i'd had nothing since the loss earlier in the year, and hadn't even suspected a pregnancy. DH had lost his brother only days after we'd become engaged, i had changed jobs, DH had changed jobs - everything was so up in the air... i began to think something wasn't right, but had my kitchen tea that night so just got on with everything for the day. the next day we had it confirmed that i'd lost another angel at about 9 weeks - we're not sure exactly how far along we were, but it was damn hard. i laboured and had to deliver the fetus which was scary as all get up and painful physically and emotionally.

after this second loss, we decided that we did want to actively try for a baby, and early January 2006 we went to a GP for immunology testing to make sure all was ok (rubella immunity etc) and the GP decided to check for hormonal issues due to lack of cycle - i was confirmed as having PCOS. over the next few months, we had so many tests and scans, and were eventually referred to a gyne for more investigation. ovarian golf balling surgery, and metformin/clomid didn't force me to ovulate over the coming months so in December 2006 i had my first visit with the fertility specialist

January 2007 we started ovulation induction for IUI - two cycles cancelled due to failure to respond to the meds, then a change to protocol and we started to respond. it took a couple of attempts before we had success in August 2007 and unfortunately we lost that angel as well. In November 2007 we moved to full IVF - our EPU resulted in 22 eggs, but only half were mature enough for attempt to fertilise, and from that, only five fertilised. one transferred, and four frozen. we had no success until our last FET in May of 2008 when the last two embryo's were transferred. we got the news we'd been hoping for on my birthday, but lost the baby only days later, on Mothers Day. we couldn't do another full IVF cycle for a few months due to finances and room in the local clinic so we booked that for November 2008 but decided to throw in a couple of IUI's in between to feel like we were achieving something - July 2008 we got good news again but unfortunately angel number five was taken only days later

August/September 2008 we decided on one last ditch IUI before our next IVF attempt. this time we decided to add some accupuncture into the mix and on September 19 2008 we got confirmation of what we'd known for a few days - i was pregnant again. even though the HCG numbers were low to start with, something just felt right - maybe it was the morning sickness that kicked in straight away. i dunno but i was confident. a series of follow up blood tests and then our first viability scan and suddenly it was all very real, our little Gremlin was on it's way

After a very loooooong and not so fun pregnancy (m/s the whole way, pre-eclampsia etc) our beautiful little girl arrived 12 weeks ago, May 29, 2009.

she is perfect - and more than worth the long journey to get her here!

BG

[grub17]

On December 18, 2009 we welcomed Ashton to this world... here is the story on how he got here.

DH and I married in 2006 and started trying for a family on our honeymoon. We were 25 years old and never considered we wouldn't just fall pregnant like all my friends had. But that was not to be our path.

In July 2007 my GP detected a large 'something' in my belly. Further investigation discovered a dermoid tumour the size of a large orange growing on my right ovary. I was immediately sent to a specialist, who happened to be linked to the local ivf clinic, who removed the dermoid, saving my ovary, and draining a heap of cysts.

I was diagnosed with polycyctic ovaries and placed on metformin. My doctor also encouraged DH to get his boys checked out and we discovered they are mishapen, lazy, and swimming in the wrong direction. We were given a very low chance of ever having a child through natural conception and referred to the IVF clinic.

This news was just devastating news and we decided to take a year to digest the "you can't have kids'' thing as well as save money. I started running and did some 10km races, we went away for weekends, camping and had a great time generally. It took a good 6 months for me to accept the diagnosis fully and be okay with it. I really found it was one of those things that took a long time to work through and digest. It broke my heart and I got quite upset a lot in the first few months.

We were waiting for Jan 2009 to start (mainly for the medicare threshold) but decided we would 'fly under the radar' and start in Oct 08. What i mean by that is we had told our family and friends about our diagnosis and the path ahead for us. But this generated "when are you starting" questions constantly and I started to feel pressure, particularly from my mum.

So we decided we'd do a cycle and not tell a soul. we'd do it pressure-free and just keep saying to people "oh, we are still saving up for it". This worked a treat

Our FS didn't hold back. He went straight for the jugular to get us a baby. We went straight onto an IVF ICSI cycle in Oct 08. it was a full stim cycle and as with most first cycles was unsuccessful. We had one fresh blasto transferred and one embryo frozen. The drugs hit me for six. I could barely get out of bed most days and was very emotional. I would say i was barely functioning. It took me quite a few goes to get the pen needle technique and the guts to poke the needle into myself. I felt stripped bare and vulnerable. I stopped running and DH took over doing everything for me. it was a hopeless matter.

After getting the news our fresh transfer had not worked, I was beside myself. It was so upsetting to have endured so much and not get a result. We did not have time to fit in a transfer or full cycle that year so went away for Christmas and lived it up.

We were so shattered by our lack of success. I'd really convinced myself we would be one of the lucky ones who get preg on their first cycle but it was not to be. That month off over christmas was much needed and really healing as we went away and spent time with friends. We still didn't tell anyone what we were doing.

On our return home in 2009 we had our frozen embryo transferred without success. In February we started our second full stim cycle.

But this cycle I decided i'd try and pull myself out of my fog and bed and not let it interfere as much with our life. I kept running and this became a real lifeline for me. Even when i was exhausted i'd still log 8km runs and feel great afterwards. I'd also become more accepting of our situation and DH and I agreed after this cycle we'd do one more and then call it quits.

I was also mentally protecting myself by looking ahead to our life without children. I did actually start to see an alternative existence and we decided we'd buy a house, upgrade our cars and travel more if kids were not to be part of our life.

On March 23 we had our EPU and I got in a nice long 10km a few days later just before our transfer. This cycle had resulted in 3 excellent quality blasties. I strongly believe my running and better frame of mind really helped the quality of the eggs. We had one transfered and two frozen.

In early April we got the news that finally, for the first time in my life I was pregnant! I could hardly believe it... in fact it took me a good 9 months to believe it was happening... right about the time the midwife yelled 'push' lol.

I had a pretty good pregnancy (although i am not a fan of being pregnant ugh specially in summer) and on Dec 18 Ashton arrived, four days overdue I had a vaginal birth, no tears, just a bit of gas and used a tens machine (and my lovely wonderful DH) and Ash arrived perfect. Not a blemish, spot, squished or mishapen anything.

He is nearly 9 weeks old. Laying in his cot squeaking, means he'll be awake soon. I fall in love a little more everyday and can't wait to transfer our other 2 embies, which hopefully become Ash's siblings.

We probably won't do another full cycle once we've used our 2 embies and part of us hope for a natural wonder to occur. But we feel so blessed to have Ash and can't believe it worked! lol.

I hope that helps given someone starting out on this path some hope.

[AliB]

Hi Grub

I really enjoyed reading your story! Congrats on your success and I do hope that a natural miracle sneaks in before you try your frosties - 3 of my friends who've done IVF have had that happen to them so I have the same little hope for myself.

I really identified with something in particular - I look forward to hearing the midwife yell 'push' to me in the next week or two, then maybe I'll finally believe I'm having a baby too!!

xo

[grub17]

thanks Ali. and i still pinch myself! It's funny how used you become to being the ones without kids and the people it never works for. by your ticker you should have a little bubba about now. ENJOY! ox

[farmgirl77]

Here is our story - it is partly taken from my birth story, but have added some bits in. Sorry for the lenght!

On my 29th birthday, I blurted out to DH (a little drunkly at the time) that I thought I was pg. This was a shock as neither of us had really planned on kids. In 48 hrs we confirmed a BFP with a POAS and were planning which room the baby would sleep in and had considered names…what a turn around! 24 hrs later, a trip to the GP to confirm, and it was a BFN. Don’t know what happened but seems don’t always trust a POAS! After this we decided that having a baby was not such a bad idea so we would stop the pill and ‘see what happened’…

I’m not the kind to let things just ‘happen’ I plan, and then they happen. I looked into natural fertility, charted, and after 10 months decided that this was not ‘just happening’ and that my cycle was irregular, and we needed help. My GP referred me to a gyno, I had some blood taken, and at the same time DH needed to have his swimmers counted just to be on the safe side…happy DH…not. But he did it – fully believing that it was problems with me that were holding up our baby plans – not him!

So in Dec, I went to the gyno, who had DH’s results in front of him. He looked at me, said I was fine (no examination etc) but we needed IVF to have a baby, and gave me a referral to a FS…but no he could not tell me why we needed IVF as DH was not with me. I read upside down the notes which said low numbers and motility. That night I had to tell DH that we needed IVF because of his sperm…prob not the way to do it, but DH was about to be deployed to fires and was not going to be going to a GP to get the results any time soon. We were both in shock!

Due to some family issues, it was not for about three months (Feb) or so that we finally went to see FS for first time. At that appointment it was confirmed that we needed to have IVF, plus we needed ICSI. We had approx a 1 in 1million chance of falling pg naturally. We decide to not do anything until our new house, 3 hrs from where we were living, was built and we had moved.

At this stage my drive to have a baby was much greater than DH’s. He would have been happy not to start IVF, and to just be us, without a baby. In contrast, I was obsessed – I really wanted our baby and I wanted to get on with the IVF. This caused a lot of stress on our relationship and I can only new look back and be amazed at how wonderful my DH was at this time – I put him through hell!

In August, we moved from Melb to our new house in the country. That Dec, we start IVF in Melb – we tie appointments in with my work which involves frequent travel to Melb. Neither of us want to find new FS where we live. FS tells us we have a ‘good chance’ of falling pg from the embies from our first pick up. At this stage, DH says that he is prepared to only do 1 cycle of IVF.

From our first stim cycle, we collect 8 eggs, of which 4 fertilise. We get a BFN from the fresh transfer. We go for a frozen transfer and lose one egg in the thaw and put one back. We now only have one frostie on ice. We get a BFN from our frozen transfer and go into another natural cycle. On the day we are waiting to hear what time our transfer will be the next day, we are both in Melb for meetings – me in the city and DH in the suburbs. I am in a meeting when the phone rings and my FS is on the other end of the line. I go into a little meeting room and burst into tears – I know that as it is the FS calling and not the nurse, that our last embie has not made the thaw and we now have no embies left from our first stim cycle. My heart is breaking. I call DH in tears and say that I am on the way out to him and that I want to go home. I go into the meeting room where I had left my work stuff – pick it up and just leave. I have tears streaming down my face and I don’t care who sees me or what they think – my world has just fallen apart. I pick up DH and we drive the 3hrs home in silence.


DH agrees to second cycle. I make a pact to myself that if I fall pg I will not complain, and will not circulate pictures of my baby to ‘everyone’ on email as I find it hard to handle when LTTTC and undergoing IVF. We only tell some family we are doing IVF once we are well into our journey. My family is no support, and DHs family support is limited.

I obsess over stats and become convinced that there is something else not ‘right’. We get a few more eggs and embies on our second cycle, and decide to have 2 embies transferred each go to speed up our chances of a BFP. I dream of having twins. We get a BFP but have low HCG (chem pg) from our fresh transfer, but the pg does not progress and we end up with an angle baby. I am devastated and just want to curl up in a ball and rock.

As soon as we can, we decide to have a FET. At the time I go into see the FS, I ask for additional blood tests to id reasons for implantation failure. I had been doing much research and am convinced that something is not right with me. One week before our ET, when going in for a routine scan, am told that I have tested positive to antinuclear antibodies (ANA’s) – these prevent implantation. I grieve for all the embies I have lost because my bodies inability to hold them – I feel that I have harmed all these little ones, but no one understands my loss. Am put on aspirin and heparin, after being told I have antiphosphlipid syndrome (APLS) although I have not tested positive to another antibody that usually makes up this diagnosis. We finally get out BFP! Six weeks later we see our DS heartbeat for the first time – not twins – we have lost one, but we have a baby. The next 37 weeks are stressful although the pg is relatively normal; it is classed as high risk due to the APLS. Our beautiful DS is born by emergency c section on the 29th July 2009, to parents that love him with all their hearts.

Useful info on failure to implant that people may be interested in...
https://www.bellybelly.com.au/forums...formation.html
https://www.bellybelly.com.au/forums...y-testing.html
https://www.bellybelly.com.au/forums...g-implant.html

[Loveinamist]

Just thought it was time I posted in here!

DH and I have been together since 1997. I always wanted children but DH was a little less keen. We relocated to London a year later and spent time travelling and being generally responsibility free until we decided to buy a house (2001) and get married (2002). Around the time we got married DH was less resistant to the idea of children. We had a lovely family home and good jobs etc etc. We started doing that type of TTC where the woman is actively TTC and the man is just sort of not doing anything to stop it!! I knew we would have problems because I had never had a regular cycle. I had been diagnosed with PCOS at 15 and was told it would take time to conceive. This sort of made me a little more insistent about actively TTCing to DH as I knew he didn't have the luxury of me just accidently getting pregnant and then him getting used to the idea, which seems to be how men like to approach TTC!
So anyway I had been to see a TCM doctor about regulating my periods but still no success. I started to get some periods but still no pregnancy. I didn't use HPTs but relied on symptoms. Unfortunately my PCOS sometimes causes symptoms that are exactly the same as pregnancy symptoms, so I had many false alarms. Once I had all the symptoms even the metallic taste and got my hopes up. I then got the worst period of my life. I needed to be injected with a painkiller in A&E because the cramps were sooo bad. (Actually looking back on it since having given birth they were exactly like labour pains) I sort of think it may have been an early miscarriage. They couldn't confirm a pregnancy at the hospital but I had been having heavy bleeding for two days before admission so perhaps there wasn't any HCG left.
So fast forward to 2004 when we decided to sell the house and move back to Australia. We travelled around Italy and Japan on our way back and I spent the whole time thinking I was pregnant because the symptoms were back. We arrived in Australia and those hopes came crashing down again with a visit to the doctors. I had got to a stage where I was hoping for that movie type scene in the docs surgery. You go in for something else, they do tests and shock you with the news that you don't have gastro but are in fact pregnant!! I walked out of a few doctor's surgeries in tears because I thought that time it would happen. Silly.

Anyway now TTC became serious. I was buying HPTs by the dozen and finally starting buying the cheapies online. Never ever saw a second line even on the OPKs. DH was on board fully and we were advised to try metformin and clomid with the GP. Three goes didn't make me ovulate at all. Decided to go to an FS. We have moved to North Queensland by then. Went with QFG. Found DH had morphology issues. Can't remember why but we abandoned TTC and moved back to Brisbane in 2006. Still did the HPTs though.

Went with QFG in Brisbane. Tried FSH injections and I produced no eggs. Tried again on a higher dose and produced too many follicles for a natural at home 'insemination' FS suggested IVF right there and then as he said we had the right amount for IVF. Next minute we are talking to a nurse about the cost. DH and I have a tearful session at the coffee shop downstairs. DH convinces me that we cannot afford it and we should start private medical cover and come back in a year. I feel sooo frustrated that for the first time in my life I have eggs ready to fertilise and I can't!!!

Roll on 2007 and we go to a naturopath, lose weight and get healthy. We decide Australia is not for us (job issues family etc etc) So in the month that I would have been starting IVF, I am on a plane to the UK. I go straight to a doc here. She says I have waited too long and refers me for IVF and ovarian drilling ASAP (all free on National Health Service!!) 6 months later I have the drilling. I start to get periods. Every 40 days but they are regular!!! I have tons of scans on day 12 which really pees me off as I know I do not ovulate on day 14 but about day 25!!! But they won't listen. I am determined that I will get pregnant if I give this drilling success a chance. A letter arrives from Guys Hospital asking me to start IVF. I send back a 'please delay' letter saying I need more time to see if the drilling will work. Another letter arrives, I delay again. Finally after 6 months (and a couple more IVF letters) my FS is getting impatient with me. He tells me that if the drilling was going to work it would have worked by now. I still refuse to believe him and want to give the drilling more time.
Well the next IVF letter arrives. I grit my teeth and say to myself 'I am going to have to get this bloody IVF cycle out of the way so I can get back to concentrating on getting pregnant!'

So we do the IVF and have all sorts of calamities with snow delaying consultations and wrong deliveries of drugs etc but everything seems to go smoothly. On the day of transfer I got this funny feeling and started crying in the waiting room. DH asked me what was wrong. I told him that I just knew our little baby was in another room around the corner. For the first time in 7 or so years I could actually visualise us having a baby and I knew he was soooooo close. Just up the corridor and around the corner, waiting to go home with his mummy and daddy and he was. For the first time in my life, two weeks later I had two lines on an HPT. DH said to do another test. I just said 'no that is enough'

Anyway got to go...my little one is waking up wanting a feed!

Good luck ladies!!!

[Persephone1]

You can read the Birth Story for some more information, but here's the gist of our TTC (in a nutshell!):

I went off the Pill in June 2006. We actively TTC'd for about 12 months, and had tests done in June-August 2007. DH's sperm count was bad, with poor morphology, low count and poor mobility (trifector!). I was told I had polycysts on my ovaries, but not PCOS.

We saw a naturopath, had acupuncture and CHM, and saw the FS in December 2007. He recommended ICSI, but we decided to hold off for awhile and keep TTC with some natural interventions. By the time we were ready to try IVF, it was December 2008. I did the Down-Reg stim cycle with gonal-f, synarel, etc, and had an EPU in January 2009. We collected 18 eggs, 15 of which were fertilised. We froze 14 of them at Day 2.

We had a total of 7 transfers. The first six were Day 2 single-transfer embryos. The third transfer resulted in a chemical pregnancy. By the time we reached our 7th transfer, we only had 6 Day 2 embryos left in the freezer (we lost some in the thaw process). We decided to thaw the remaining 6 embryos to Day 5 - and out of that we had 2 left, which we transferred. We got a after our 7th transfer, in September 2009. We have no frozen embryos left, so if we decided to TTC#2, we'll have to go back for another stim cycle.

Archie, our little ICSI man, was born in June 2010, 4 years after we started TTC. IVF and LTTTC was a hell of a ride, but it now makes up part of who I am, who we are as a couple, and I suppose that's the road we had to travel.

When beginning IVF, there are always lots of questions and emotions - don't hesitate to ask, vent, cry, and seek support and information. And good luck!