Pg after LT TTC - What did you do differently?

[JustOneMore]

Hello lovely ladies,

Firstly, I don't know if this is the right thread to be in, so if its in the wrong spot can the moderators please move it.

I am not Pregnant (I wish) but have been trying to conceive now for well over 12 month.

I would like to ask A question Please:

I was wondering, what did you ladies do to get your BFP !
Was there something different that you did that month that you didn't do before.
Example: acupuncture, took special herb medicines, went on a long holiday, a round of golf perhaps, went on a roller coaster ride or hung upside down or was it just the right little Embryo ?

My sisters friend had been trying for 10 years, they decided that after this last IVF cycle if it didn't work then they would quit. Well on her very last FET she fell pregnant.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you

[Mummy-Lani]

Hi Danyelle,
Well for me to get my it took just over 3yrs and my little one is 1mth old tomorrow. I had acupuncture with my last FET which gave me my long awaited BFP.
It is worth a try. Wishing u all the very best I hope your BFP is not too far off for u. Wishing u all the very best.

[JustOneMore]

Laniwantsababy, thank you for your quick response.

Re: I had acupuncture with my last FET which gave me my long awaited BFP.

What was the technique that they used ????

As I have been reading a lot about women doing acupuncture before and after transfer.

[TaRhLi.]

Hi Danyelle

With my 3rd FET (which resulted in my DD) I basically went into it with no expectations after having high hopes with my fresh transfer and subsequent FET's (which resulted in a chemical pg, a BFN and an ectopic pg). I decided that if that cycle didn't work I was going to take a 6mth break and what do you know it was successful.

I did however at the time of the last FET have other things on my mind, we had just settled on our new house and were moving and I just got a new job as well so lots of destraction. Surprising enough I got a positive POAS 6 days post transfer and my DD is now just over 3 months old.

Good luck and I hope you get your BFP very soon.

[Loula]

As you can see in my sig we have done 15 cycles in total. for many of them i saw a np and had ap, including this one. i guess the only thing we did different this time was i took royal jelly during stim and my dh took melevit or however its spelt! but everthing else was the same for the last 4/5 cycles

This too was our last cycle as we were now looking at adoption and using a surro (known) we were very shocked to see a flutter on the us and with my current bleeding do not feel too hopeful, but this is the furest we have been in 7 years so for now i am living with that hope. we still have a long way to go till we meet our baby. (but i pray this happens)

Np is natropath (sp)

[JustOneMore]

Thank you Laniwantsababy, KellyD and Loula for answering my question.
If anyone else wants to add on please do, it would be greatly appreciated.

I have been on the 2ww thread for well over a year now. I have seen familiar names and also new ladies come and go when they get their BFP and Its always been lurking in the back of my mind, what did they do to get there BFP.

So I surpose I am asking this question for all of us on the 2ww, in hope to get some answers.

***********

Loula congratulations on your BFP, sending you lots of & will thinking of you over the coming months.
Could you please tell me what sap a np means unabreviated.
And also what is Royal Jelly ?????

KellyD - I too had very high hopes with both my fresh IVF cycles (which ended in Bio Chemicals pregnancy) and also my 3 FET's and have fallen very hard when I received my BFN. So for my next cycle which I have just started, I have decided to look at things differently, I am going into it with no expectations at all. If it works it works and if it doesn't then there always the next cycle. And when I run out of little embryo's and nothing comes of it. I am looking at the fact its just not ment to be and its Gods way of tell me so.


Thanks again ladies

[CeCe]

I've currently 9wks pregnant after 4 stim cycles and 7 treansfsrs all up. For this cycle I did quite a few things differently.
1. Early last year we changed FS to one who was willing to try new things with us. The last FET had me on clexane to thin the blood and increase flow to the uterus. I am also on low dose of prednisone. This stops the natural cleanup cells in the uterus which may effect implantation (as I understand it).
2. I've been doing accupuncture for most cycles. My practitioner had me on warm foods as she diagnosed a cool uterus, and this time suggested it may be damp which would make it slippery increasing difficulty of implanting. To combat this I was taking herbs and regularly exercising to increase warmth and dryness. I guess typing it out, it does sound odd, but I do believe it was this that really helped.
3. Not sure how much this influenced things but I was relaxed. I figured I was doing all I could do this cycle to make things work.

I hope you find what does it for you really soon.

[dusty]

Hi Danyelle
I could have written CeCe's post! I too changed clinics (same clinic as Ce), & used clexane this cycle (but not Prednisilone). I saw same AP as Ce for about 10 months leading up to our last cycle & she had me on warming herbs eating warming foods.
I was so relaxed in TWW as I was enjoying life regardless of LTTTC.
Another change was the for my last 2 cycles I DTD on 6 DP EPU. I had heard it can help implantation & it seems to have worked both times.
This cycle we did ET with a day 2 embryo as both my own cycles & my sister's did not result in strong or any blastocysts so we all decided they were better off growing in me than a petri dish.
Like Ce it was my 7th transfer (all mine were fresh transfers) so sometimes it's just persistence & the tweaking of treatment over time that works. IVF is a numbers game & the more attempts increases your odds. That can be hard for many LTers but nature is fickle so have faith & help your body & mind is the best I can offer.
Wishing you the very best outcome soon sweetie.
Xx

[JustOneMore]

Thank you, Dusty and CeCe for all your information.

I was put on Clexane for my last FET cycle. Boy those needles hurt.

CeCe, did you do the NK Antibodies test & tested Positive ? or did your Clinic just decide to put you on Prednisone ??? Was this BFP cycle the first time you did Prednisone ?
You mentioned the low dosage, may I please ask what your dosage was and how many times a day you took it ?

My sister has been doing IVF for 6 years now with nothing to show for it.
But Back in August 2009 she did the NK Test and her test result came back as High for NK so she is doing Prednisone as well.

Thanks again ladies, all this information is greatly appreciated.
If anyone else wants to add onto this thread please do, as all information is helpful.

[xx Rob xx]

What I did differently ...

Went in to the cycle with the attitude its a step by step process and every step is an achievement. No expectations. This really helped me maintain a positive attitude as well.

I actually had an awesome relationship with my FS. It just so happened that I had to re-sign consents on the day but she was so supportive I am sure seing her on the day of the transfer definitely helped.

I absolutely rested after my transfer. No excuses. Not anything that I could think "did this make a diiference?" for the first 5 days. I literally stayed in bed or in an arm chair. I only moved between the two of them and the bathroom thats it.

I had no baths. I have heard it can increase your body temp too much and as a result your body may reject the baby. I only had showers. Just warm and very quick.

I did bowen therapy. Very relaxing.

And finally we too had decided that after only 12 months that with the increased costs and the drought being farmers that these last 3 embies were our shot. People have suggested its because we have children, but more because I am so practical. We have used ATR before just not IVF. I have had a history of cervical cancer and abnormal smears and so I have been very practical ever since going through that. I accepted that whats meant to be is meant to be and its all for a reason.

This will be our very last pregnancy as well regardless of the outcome. I hope some of this helps I am happy to support any of you in any way that I can. I have posted the steps process somewhere and its really important to remember that every step is important. Just getting AF, just getting the sperm, thses are all important steps.

Most of all my biggest tip, take time for yourself. There is an awesome book called "Nurturing yourself through IVF" it's a godsend.

[CeCe]

I had tests with my previous FS as I constantly failed to implant. Nothing of note came up on my tests. My new FS prescribed the prednisone and clexane as she had success with a few other ladies in a similar situation to me and thought I may be in the same 'weird' group as them - meaning there is no real explaination as to why it would work.

I was prescribed clexane 40mg which if I recall correctly I started the day after ovulation, and prednisone 10mg. I think I started this earlier but can't really recall. Both of these were taken at night.

This was the first transfer I had used either of these drugs. So it would appear the leap made by my FS was worth it. My accupuncturtist wasn't too keen on the prednisone as that has a cooling effect which was something we were trying to overcome, so I just had to be vigilant in exercising to counteract the effect. I was exercising previoulsy, just not as regularly.

Oh, and as Dusty reminded me, we also DTD regularly up to transfer. It was also the first FET of a blastocyst. All my other transfers from my previous FS were day 3's or earlier.

[Megan]

I had done 6 IVF cycles and TTC for 3.5 years and was on a break when we conceived. For around 4 months I saw a Naturopath instead of doing IVF. We spent the first two months seeing her taking vitamins and making changes to my diet. The next 2 months we charted my cycle and she started me on a herbal tonic that I had to take twice per day. On the second month we conceived. I was waiting on AF to arrive so I could call my clinic to make a start on my next cycle. When I was already a week late, I did a HPT and it came up with a BFP. To say I was in shock would be an understatement!

[Caramello]

I have done 3 IUI cycles and 2 IVF cycles. We officially started cycling 5 years ago, but before this we were sorting out other issues as we are using a donor (which took some time from a psychological perspective).

The last cycle was an antagonist cycle and I think this made all the difference as I am now pregnant.

The only side effect was a mild case of OHSS.

I was using vitamins but that was about it.

[littlemissmoo]

Hi all,

Well, we had been ttc naturally for nearly 5 years before we started fertility treatment. we got our BFP on our 4th cycle & there was a couple of things we done differently. A family friend is a chiropractor & he told us that he had quite a lot of success with TTC based on chiropractic work. I saw him for about 8 weeks prior to our BFP & he said that I was one of the most 'un-alligned' he had seen in ages!! i had never related chiropractic work to TTC but after seeing him & googling there is a lot of info out there. He advised (warning TMI) that once I got 'aligned' I would have a period that was quite 'clotty' & that this was a good thing as it meant that things were working. I had this 'clotty' menstrual cycle prior to doing IVF which we achieved our BFP. The other thing, though I can't remember where reading was to take vitamin B. Hope this helps & good luck to you all

[Loula]

I had tests with my previous FS as I constantly failed to implant. Nothing of note came up on my tests. My new FS prescribed the prednisone and clexane as she had success with a few other ladies in a similar situation to me and thought I may be in the same 'weird' group as them - meaning there is no real explaination as to why it would work.

I was prescribed clexane 40mg which if I recall correctly I started the day after ovulation, and prednisone 10mg. I think I started this earlier but can't really recall. Both of these were taken at night.

.

same all my test returned normal but due to so many losses and so many cycles my FS put me on both these drugs for the last 4 cycles and i got a BFP with them all but MC. the last cycle my clexane was increased to 40 mg from 20mg but i have had to reduce again due to bleeding

[Coral73]

Hi Danyelle,

What a great idea !

Personal History -

DH: Low Count (2 million), Poor Morphology and Motility.

ME: Laparoscopy, Cystoscopy and Endoscopy all came back clear. FS said I was a picture of health and he had only removed one tiny cyst from one of my ovaries.



Here is a list of the things that we did differently from the start of our 2nd stim cycle...

DH:

- Weekly Acupuncture leading up to the EPU
- 2 x Chinese Herbal Tablets p/day purchased from Acupuncturist
- A handful of pumpkin seeds p/day
- 1 x Menevit Tablet p/day
- Drank a glass of orange juice a day
- No alcohol
- No softdrinks (unless sugarfree)
- No caffeine
- Drank more water (he never used to drink any!)
- Cut out all refined sugars (no choc, lollies or pies etc)
- Ate more vegies


We did see a better quality in his motility (or it could have been the morphology) from 45% to 75%. His sperm count did not increase at all and stayed at 2million. We also had a better result in getting our embies to blasty on this 2nd stim cycle as we transferred 2 and were able to get 5 snowbabies out of it. Our 1st stim cycle, we only transferred 1, froze 2, with one emby not surviving the thaw.

FS said that the sperm usually takes over the fertilization process from about day 4 of fertilization, whereas the egg does all the work in the first 4 days. On our 1st stim cycle, we lost about 7 embies from day 4-5 as they stopped dividing. We definatlely had stronger/ better quality sperm on our 2nd stim cycle to get 5 snowbabies .

ME:

- Weekly Acupuncture leading up to the EPU
- Acupuncture before and after transfer
- No alcohol
- No caffeine (no coffee/ tea or chocolate or coke etc) - decaf ok
- Cut out all refined sugars (no choc, lollies or pies etc) - carob ok
- Ate more vegies
- Ate an orange a day as well as honey on cereal
- Ate nuts everyday
- Weekly counselling appointment to help keep stress levels down
- DTD the night before the transfer
- Ate full fat diary products instead of low fat (this is good for ovary health)
- Transferred 2 x 5 day blastocysts apposed to 1 x 5 day blastocyst

* We did this routine from the begining of my stim cycle (from when I started taking the pill).


I am not sure if doing any of the above contributed to the BFP in anyway, but you just never know (personally, I think it did!)......, Coral.

Please feel free to PM me if you have any questions or would like further information about any of the above .

I would also like to say a Good Luck to those still trying to achieve their long awaited BFP and 'ing that this is your year! Dreams do come true as I really thought I would never get my BFP!

[Ltl Panda]

After my last miscarry, DH and I gave up on the idea of having another baby, obviously this is something you do not think about if you have no other children, but after so many IVF cycles and failed pregnancies we just gave up and made plans for a family of 3.
I started bikram yoga (yoga in 40 degree heat), attended my usual boot camp session and was totally free of any baby thoughts. Bang.....all of a sudden I had implantation pains, heart burn and failed miserably at boot camp in the second month, than whala, nausea. I confirmed my pregnancy thoughts at 6 weeks purely as it was no longer just a thought but I was feeling pregnant and I could not deny these symptoms anymore. I had ovulated 2 weeks after my miscarry, It was the first time I did in 7.5 years, so anything can happen at any one point in time. I am a true believer of when your body is ready your body is ready.

DS Anton – IVF #1 born 23 Feb o8
IVF#2 – early misscary
FET#1 – early misscary
22 weeks pregnant - natural conception

[LondonMiss]

Hey - I was on the LTTTC group just after Coral and nicked many of her ideas. I think my list was on there, if you have time to go back and see the full list, try there.

But the highlights:
1. I did less, and relaxed more. I felt like it was my month from the beginning, I don't know why, but it was something more than imagined positive thinking. My motto from the beginning was "have faith" from the start.
2. I ate better. More proteins, more full fat milk, more calcium etc.
3. I drank no caffeine at all (and am not now, unless I'm in a cafe)
4. I ate a lot more fruit. I'm vegetarian anyway, so my diet is quite good anyway, but I tidied it up a bit.
5. No swimming, but had massages and reflexology and saw a naturopath.

I really hope this helps, ltttc is a cruel thing that cleaves you in two every single time that damn witch turns up. I hope we can see everyone reading/ stalking this thread can jump onto the Pregnancy after LTTTC thread soon