LTTTC - Success Stories

[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!

[butterfly_warrior]

19 months later - about time I get my act together!

We had always planned to have children sometime between when I was 25 and 30. It was all meant to be over and done with by the time I was 30 years old. Unfortunately, at age 25 the start of some quite serious health issues hit. I was diagnosed with a weird mosquito-borne virus (Barmah Forest Virus - similar to Ross River Fever), this became post-viral syndrome which eventually become chronic fatigue syndrome, which was eventually changed to serum-negative rheumatoid arthritis. My immune system had been kicked into over-drive and now couldn't switch off and was attacking my joints causing severe pain. Throw in a car accident and an injury to my right hand which took months to recover, then severe headaches where we went through all kinds of testing (eyes, CT scan, MRI) and eventually ended up at a neurologist who diagnosed stress and started me on medication for it... I was now a few months off turning 31 and had spent five years simply managing all the health issues that my body had thrown at me.

In December of 2005 it was quite accidental. The medication I had started on basically knocked me out and made me sleepy very quickly. I was on the pill which at that stage I took at night before bed. It was during the week of my period and I'd take the anxiety medication and fall asleep without taking the pill... and I continued that pattern into the next week without realising. A couple of weeks later when I finally had the guts to tell DH that I'd completely forgotten about taking the pill we decided that I was finally well enough to contemplate having children and we began trying in earnest.

I still remember the length of that first cycle - 35 days. I was quite devestated as I came from a family with a long history of falling pregnant the first time they tried. And on the first day of my period I got an email from a friend telling me that she had just conceived the first time they tried... I became quite used to that feeling.

In February of 2006 I got a positive pregnancy test. They say false positives on pee sticks are impossible - but I now know that they are NOT. A blood test with my GP came back negative, a follow up home test I'd done was also negative. But no AF. My GP sent me for a scan which showed PCOS, and sent me for blood tests which showed slightly elevated male hormones and confirmed the diagnosis. In April of 2006 I started on metformin. I began acupuncture not long after, which continued throughout my treatment. In September I was given a script to start clomid. In October I begged a script for provera from a Dr friend of mine so that I could actually have a period and start clomid. During that time my DH had been sent for a semen analysis and we were told even more devestating news. Low count, bad motility, poor morphology. DH had mutant sperm that couldn't swim and not very many of them at that! The gyno that I have since refused to ever see again gave me the news that clomid had not made me ovulate while I was walking along the main street of Rozelle towards acupuncture. He dropped the news on me that IVF was our only hope during that same phone call. Fantastic bed side manner, NOT!

It was discovered that DH's poor sperm was down to a varicocele. Our GP gave us a referral to an IVF specialist, but also suggested that DH consult a urologist. The FS was against having the varicocele repaired so we left it for a bit. In December of 2006 we walked through the door of the IVF clinic for the first time.

In January we returned for the results of more tests. My PCOS was way worse than anyone ever suspected and my dosage of metformin was increased and I was put onto a special diet for four weeks and at the same time was put on the pill for four weeks in preparation to start IVF. It was the same one I'd used for 13 years, so didn't expect any problems. Unfortunately when I began taking it I began to bleed... and bleed... and bleed... I ended up in an after hours GP clinic over the Australia Day long weekend demanding s prescription that the doctor I'd never seen before had never heard of and couldn't find in MIMS because it was spelled strangely. Fun times. But I was soaking through a super tampon and a pad in less than an hour and was close to passing out most of the time.

In early March it all began - synarel. Failed to respond. Attend clinic for a scan which discovered a large follicle - while taking clomid I had failed to ovulate, but while taking synarel I'd grown a lovely follicle. Strange body. I was given a trigger shot which didn't lift my hormones enough so I then had to take primolut for a short period of time to induce a bleed and then finally we began with lucrin this time. I got to start hormone injections over a weekend trip to Tamworth with my church. After 5 days of puregon injections I had again failed to respond. My dose was doubled and after four days I was brought in for another blood test. Too much response! I then had 9 days of daily blood tests and reducing the dose of puregon until I finally got in for EPU where 26 eggs were collected. I had developed a nasty case of OHSS so there was no transfer booked. Of those 26 eggs, 20 were mature, 15 fertilised and 4 grew to blast and were frozen. We thought we would never have to go through another stim cycle again!

My FS used letrozole to induce ovulation for a natural FET cycle. In early June I had a transfer of my first blastocyst. Morning sickness kicked in three days later and my blood test was positive. We had achieved a pregnancy and were absolutely ecstatic! It all seemed too easy. Just over two weeks later our scan showed everything as it should be... but two weeks after that I was back in the IVF clinic for an emergency scan after some scary bleeding over the weekend. It was the first day of term and I'd called in sick that morning so we could have the scan. I walked in convinced that we would be walking out feeling silly for panicking with a few more pictures of our growing baby. We walked out devestated. My baby had stopped growing and I was booked for a D&C that night. I later connected the time my baby had died with the time my GP had suggested I reduce the dosage of metformin to help me cope with morning sickness.

I spent several months on a break from IVF. I had terrible problems with depression after the miscarriage and spent some time in counselling. We consulted with another FS who confirmed that I did have auto-immune problems leading to miscarriage. I had too many natural killer cells in my blood. They are an essential part of the immune system, but with too many of them they can attack and kill babies in utero. I'd been on 10mg of prednisone for my arthritis and was told that regardless of what happened with the arthritis I had to stay on 10mg at all times while undergoing IVF and increase to 20mg with each transfer.

We eventually went back to our original FS and had another transfer. Unfortunately this was the last of our frozen embryos. One was used for our first transfer and then two had failed to thaw for this one and so our last one was put back. A few days later morning sickness kicked in and I was confident that we were back on track. Unfortunately, AF arrived on the due date and I was confused and devestated. At our final blood test we had a very low HCG level - My embryo had tried, but failed. October of 2007 saw our second miscarriage.

We began another stim cycle - this time terrified as I knew just how bad OHSS could be. But we had a new plan and my FS was confident we could avoid it. Unfortunately my first blood test showed that we were in trouble. I went off work on sick leave because I was too stressed to cope. I ended up missing the last month of the school year as I was admitted to hospital for a week with bad OHSS. This time we had 32 eggs collected. 30 of them were mature, 20 fertilised and 7 grew to blast. This time we had used polscope with ICSI instead of just straight ICSI. With 7 embryos in the freezer we again thought that we would never have to do another stim cycle.

January of 2008 saw our third transfer. Two embryos had failed to thaw, but number three was fine. Unfortunately it all happened the same way as in October and we lost our third baby just before the school year of 2008 resumed. We booked in for a fourth transfer - we had some more thaw failures but one looked ok. We arrived on the morning of our transfer to be told that our embryo had stopped progressing over night but they had thawed another one that morning and it looked fine. After three previous miscarriages it was almost a relief to hear the final result of HCG zero at our blood test. Another FET was booked - We had two embryos left and I was very nervous about whether we would actually get to transfer. The day before I got the phone call - one had failed but the other was fine. I was excited but still very worried after our last experience. Unfortunately, while I was getting dressed to head in for transfer number 5 the phone rang - our very last embryo had failed over night and with nothing left it was back to the drawing board. I stopped getting dressed and put my PJs back on and went back to bed.

Our third stim cycle. I was PETRIFIED. We couldn't wait to time it well enough to have things happen with holiday time to recover. I was on notice from school after having had so much sick leave the year before - if I had another long period of time off work I would lose my good year 12 class and never get another. I began puregon injections at the start of the term one holidays and had egg collection on ANZAC day. This time we'd had a lower start, another drug was introduced to help prevent the OHSS from developing and I'd been put back on the horrific diet. I still had daily blood tests, I still had my dosage of puregon reduced constantly, but when I went for EPU they were confident that I would get to transfer. Things got a little shakey at the end as one blow out of the diet nearly threw everything out and I only narrowly avoided OHSS that time.

Our hopes were very much up and down with this cycle. 20 eggs were collected. Unfortunately only 12 of them were mature and only 3 of those fertilised. We elected to have a day three transfer instead of growing to blast with so few embryos. Repeating some blood tests had shown a possible issue with blood clotting in pregnancy - lupus anticoagulants, so aspirin had been added to the combination of metformin and prednisone. It was our first fresh transfer so I really didn't know what to expect. I certainly didn't expect to start having issues with morning sickness around a week before my blood test! I think I wrote everything off as down to the pessaries so I was actually genuinely surprised when the pee stick the night before my blood test was positive!

My numbers at the official blood test were quite high - they had refused to tell me as they just wanted me to focus on enjoying (ha!) pregnancy. Our scan at 6 weeks and 3 days showed everything to be perfect. We had our first OB appointment booked for 8 weeks and 6 days, which was a day after our first miscarriage. Everything fine. More scans at 10 weeks - fine. 12 weeks - fine. 18 weeks and a single umbilical artery was diagnosed. I was initially freaked, but was then told that it would simply mean more scans. At 18 weeks they were worried the baby would be small. At 24 weeks everything was again fine and he was perfect size for dates. At 32 weeks everything was still fine but they started to worry that the baby was too big.

We had what turned out to be our last OB appointment at 35 weeks and 6 days, it was a Thursday. Our OB was now worried that the baby was quite large and booked us in for a scan on Monday in case they needed to talk about inducing me at 39 weeks. I had the GBS swab done and was told to go home, rest, put my feet in support stockings and keep them elevated... never doing that again!

One thing I found out later is that prednisone not only makes you fat in high doses, but it also generally increases fluid levels in the body. When the support stockings forced the fluid out of my feet... There wasn't too many places it could go. My waters broke around 4am on the 19th of December 2008. I was only 36 weeks! Contractions started around 6am and at 7:30am when we arrived at the hospital they were only 3-4 minutes apart. I was a little scared that things were progressing so quickly and that we were so early! But a friend had given birth at exactly 36 weeks in early 2007 so I had a fair idea of what we were in for and that things would ultimately be ok. I was also concerned that my baby had flipped to be posterior when he hadn't been that way the entire pregnancy! When the back pain became too much I asked to be helped into a different position to see if that helped before we tried pethidine or an epidural. At the same time a scalp clip was put on as I had to be monitored constantly due to being pre-term and every time I moved with a contraction the monitor would lose the baby's heartbeat and freak me out. I was at 5cm when I was put on my knees leaning up over a beanbag... The baby flipped around at the same time and I went from 5cm to pushing in the space of two contractions. All this time and we'd only been using gas. By the time I decided I wanted more it was too late.

I won't go into the full details of our birth story as they were (for me) quite traumatic and are posted elsewhere on BB. But our son, Samuel Angus was born at 12:48pm on the 19th of December 2008 at exactly 36 weeks gestation. He was 2480g, 48cm long and had a head circumference of 33cm. No monster baby at all - just a very long and skinny one. We spent 10 days in special care nursery attempting to establish breastfeeding, but it never worked out. Our first Christmas as a family was spent in hospital - which was unexpected, surreal, but also perfect and beautiful at the same time. Samuel is now 19 months old - if we add the time of to how old he is now we still don't even reach the length of time that we spent trying to get him, so even now it still feels a little odd to be parents - but at the same time it also feels like it has been forever and I couldn't imagine life being any other way.

BW

[lise]

To anyone reading this looking for hope - don't give up! As you can see there are lots of success stories - here's ours...

I'd been on Depo Provera for about 3 years when DH and I decided it was time for a baby. I had my last depo shot in July 2007 and was due for one October 2007 which I didn't have, and AF arrived in December. For 18 months we tried to conceive naturally and I even tried Maybe Baby to help with timing. Finally mentioned to my GP that we were trying and she suggested some tests. I had mine and they were all fine so DH went in for his. The GP thought his were okay also but referred us to a FS who redid all our tests. Our second appointment with him he quite bluntly told us that DH had low sperm count, and poor morphology and motility and that IVF/ICSI was really our only hope. He did say it wasn't impossible for us to get pregnant without it but that it could take years and years and we didn't really have that. So we started straight away on an antagonist cycle - I injected myself with hormones, and then to stop myself from ovulating. Although I was quite worried about the injections beforehand I found them very easy once I was used to them. First cycle I had 5 eggs at the epu which I was a little disappointed with but the FS said was fine. The day of our transfer I had a phonecall from the FS saying that of the 5 eggs, 3 had fertilised but had all developed multiple nuclei and they don't transfer those as they mostly end up with bad outcomes. To say we were devastated was an understatement - we had been out shopping and both DH and I cried all the way home. We saw FS the next week and he said we could go straight into another stim cycle but it was up to us if we were emotionally ready for that. I knew i'd be worse if we waiting to so we launched straight into it. We upped my dosage of Gonal-F this time but I still only had 7 eggs at the epu, 6 fertilised and 3 of those again developed multitple nuclei leaving us with 3 eggs. We transferred 2 and the dreaded 2WW began. I have a short cycle so I was pretty sure i'd know before the blood test if it had worked, and sure enough the Sunday before our Wednesday bt I POAS and it was a BFP! DH didn't quite believe it though I did the test daily, until we had the official test and the official phone call. I had a fabulous pregnancy with no symptoms (I HIGHLY recommend acupuncture, I did it throughout my pregnancy) and at 41w2d my gorgeous little boy was born. He's now just over 7 weeks and we fall more in love with him every day.

Though ours wasn't a terribly long ART journey, it was still a huge journey for us. I found this site to be an absolute life saviour throughout the process and couldn't have survived without the support of the wonderful ladies I met here.

So wishing everyone all the very best of luck and may you be posting here yourself soon xx