Pg after LT TTC - What did you do differently?

[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

[grub17]

hi hope this helps you:

I'm very fit and was regularly running 8 to 10kms a day.

Our first cycle the drugs made me sooo tired that i spent the whole time sleeping and didn't exercise. It was BFN - but that's pretty common on the first go as they are just sorting out your body's response to the drugs. we had high expectations and were shattered when it ended in nothing. We got 1 fresh and 1 frozen egg that cycle.

our FET was also unsuccessful a few months later, again got over excited and kept ''feeling'' all sorts of things i thought were a pregnancy. nope!

our second full cycle - i was determined to get on with life as normal and not spend so much time thinking about it all. I kept up my running, in fact increased the mileage, right up to the collection date and then another long on the monring of the transfer.

I firmly believe all this lovely oxygenated blood going through my system helped me get better eggs and more of them than before. We got 3 eggs (blasties) this cycle and the first one (fresh transfer) is now all snuggled up asleep in his basinette (and he's perfect by the way).

I also took a more positive approach - a what will be will be. kept saying: "i can't change anything'' so need to accept its out of my control.

hOpe that helps you and i hope your dream of a baby comes true.

ox

[Persephone1]

It was no "one" thing for us, (at least not one thing I can point to) but we did do:

1. weekly acupuncture for 4 months leading up to the BFP, including treatments on the day or around the time of the transfer; and
2. We'd had 6 single, day 2 embryo transfers and all were BFNs. On this cycle we transferred 2, 5-day embryos. Only one embryo stuck.

We had never tried transferring blasts, and I barely thought much of it, except that a friend of mine had done some research and told me that blasts are more successful because they are transferred into the uterus at the time that a 'naturally conceived' embryo would have arrived in the uterus. Day 2 embryos are transferred into the uterus, but 'naturally conceived' Day 2 embryos are still somewhere in the fallopian tube, so the environment in the uterus can sometimes not be "ready" for an embryo. Hope that made sense.

We were treated for male-factor infertility only, although I have polycystic ovaries (the polycysts, not the syndrome). Day 5 embryos were a good try for us because it's after Day 3 that the spermies really start to work hard - Day 2 embryos might look good, but the sperm hasn't started doing it's job yet. If an embryo lasts after Day 3 then they can tell that the sperm seems to be doing okay.

Good luck.

[xx Rob xx]

I forgot the one clinical thing that was different. I will apologise for TMI straight up.

The first cycle we used DH sperm that he had ejeculated. We tranferred 1 and froze 5. When we thawed the 5 none survived the thaw.

The second cycle we used TESA/PESA as in a neddle to get the sperm. We transffered 2 that didn't work, although I did had mild OHS. We later did an FET and thawed 2 and they both survived thus we transferred two resulting in a BFP.

[tammaspice]

Hello,

I was pregnant last year on my first FET but sadly had a missed miscarriage. That cycle I did acupuncture for a few weeks before the transfer, then on the morning off the transfer then not for 2wks as my acupuncture guy was away and we got a BFP... sadly it wasn't meant to be.

The next 3 FET cycles I did the acupuncture before on the morning of the transfer then a few days later and got a BFN.

Last cycle I thought I'd try something different and did the acup****ure as usual for a few weeks before then on the morning off then thought as it worked first pregnancy didnt do it again for 2wks and we a a BFP!

However I did also take 5 brazil nuts a day from day before transfer to day 5 after transfer (generally in the arvo) and bought a pineapple and cut 1/5 off it each day over 5 days and ate it all (the core wasn't the easiest and had to be spat out a few times) at night for dessert and I also had 100% Sunraysia pineapple juice - 1 glass in the morning. Not sure if this was the clencher for getting a positive but I'm 8wks today and was told last week I had a strong u/sound so here's hoping it continues to stick...

The brazil nuts and pineapple juice assist in getting a strong implantation I've heard so figured I'd try it and the one cycle we did it worked!!! Don't do it earlier than 1 day before embryo transfer or more than 5 days later as it can then turn your lining too acidic which is bad for the embryo...

Oh and I took 2mths off work to destress from my stressful job and hope that helps. Certainly not something everyone can do and it did stuff our finances around but I found after 3wks that I was totally relaxed and by the time the FET happened I was work? what work? ha ha. I have a very stressful job so I think going stress free for a while certainly helped me out. Now to remain stressfree as possible now back at work so I don't miscarry again... lots of prayers happening here and taking it as easy as I can do!

Hope it all works out for you and your friend's sister.

Tammaspice xo

[JustOneMore]

CeCe and Loula,

Re: Prednisilone and Clexane

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

Do you remember when you first started taking Prednisilone ?
How long are you on Prednisilone for ?
When do you stop taken it or do you stay on it through the entire pregnancy.
Did you have any side effects ?
CeCe you mentioned you are on 10mg a day, Loula what was your dosage a day ?
Did you ladies have to increase your dosage or did you stay on the same dosage ?

Thanks again ladies.

[CeCe]

Do you remember when you first started taking Prednisilone ? No sorry, and I can't find the piece of paper it was written on, but I think it was shortly after ovulation.
How long are you on Prednisilone for ? I was 11 weeks on Friday and starting to wean of the pred from Monday. From Monday I take 5mg daily, the following week I take 2.5mg daily and the following I take 2.5mg every second day and stop after a week.
Did you have any side effects ? I didn't have any side effects that I noticed.
Did you ladies have to increase your dosage or did you stay on the same dosage ? I stayed on the same dose I started on, until Monday when I start to decrease.

HTH.

[Loula]

Do you remember when you first started taking Prednisilone ?
I started day after EPU along with antibiotics
How long are you on Prednisilone for ?
starting to wean at 13 weeks
When do you stop taken it or do you stay on it through the entire pregnancy.
see above
Did you have any side effects ?
hunger! lol
Loula what was your dosage a day ?
20 mg and 40 mg clexane recently reduced to 20mg due to bleeding
Did you ladies have to increase your dosage or did you stay on the same dosage
? i think ive answered this one

[JustOneMore]

Just wanted to thank you, CeCe and Loula for answering my question regarding Prednisilone, I appreciate it heaps.

I noticed that this thread has had over 500 views which is great and I hope all this information will help someone some day.

[Hollybolly]

Hi Danyelle,

I know you sent me a PM a little while ago with a link to this thread, so I apologise for taking so long to reply

My issues were a little different to most, so what helped me may not have anything to do with helping someone else with different issues to mine - but I'll post what I think is relevant

Basically we did 6 IVF stim cycles... we always had embies that grew to blast but only ever enough to put 2 good ones back, and the rest were never good enough to freeze.

Cycle #1 - 4 - Were done with a local clinic & FS that really didn't look into any issues as major problems (everything had the 'oh you'll be fine, you've already had a son naturally' attitude).
After 4 failed stim cycles & no glimmer of any changes, I did a stack of research on FS (especially those that dealt with recurring implantation failure) - found one & made an appointment.
He diagnosed what he thought was the issues straight away (my tubes were ruined- which I knew, but he believed they were dripping toxin in to my uterus, therefore expelling any embryos before they had a chance to implant).
So he advised to remove the tubes - I had that done about 10 days after my appointment with him (Dec 2008).
Did our first stim cycle with him in June 2009 - great results although I started bleeding way too early - had my progesterone checked & it was ridiculously low... too low for the embies to have had a chance to implant. (This was an issue in previous cycles, but my last clinic had failed to put it in my file )

SO - stim cycle #6 August 2009 (the current pregnancy), what we did;

* Antagonist cycle - had pregnyl boosters throughout to help with the progesterone level, along with double the usual pessaries, twice a day.
We also used the drug Luveris to help with egg quality.
For the first time in any of my cycles, I asked to have a day 2 transfer - I've only ever had day 5-6 blasts.
FS was hesitant, but I was persistant - so to compromise, we put two back in at day 2 & grew the rest to blast.
The others all grew to blast but had a little too much fragmentation to freeze - from the 2 put back, one took & my little IVF miracle baby boy is currently 23 weeks growing.

* Along with the medicated cycle, I had weekly acupuncture sessions & had all of my levels checked (iron, iodine, etc etc) - and was on a heap of vitamins depending on what the naturopath said my body was needing. (Along with Blackmores conception tablets).
I also took fresh royal jelly from the beginning of the cycle until I got my BFP & levels had risen enough to get to the first scan (6 weeks).
DH took royal jelly tablets, as I knew he wouldn't take the fresh stuff... it doesn't taste that fabulous
He also took whatever vitamins the naturopath prescribed... along with menevit from about 3 months beforehand until the day of our BFP.
I also had acupuncture immediately after EPU & then both immediately before & immediately after transfer.

I think thats about it - my issue was mostly with an undiagnosed issue with my tubes, so I'd like to believe it would have happened before a 6th cycle had I been seeing a decent FS previously

The only thing differently I'll do for next time is to ask for all embies to be frozen at day 2 instead of growing to blast - but everything else I'll do the same as cycle #6.

Good luck, and sorry this post is sooo long!

[barney]

hi danyelle,
i to apolagize for taking so long to get back to you hunny,
we have done 3 full stim cycles 2 ended in ectopics,with our ivf # 3 we had enough embies to do a second FET so we had a day 3 ..3 CELL EMBIE AND A 4 CELL BADLY FRAGMENTED EMBIE PUT BACK low and behold we ended up getting a bfp i did not do one thing different this time ,still just took my vitamins and also took beroca once a day i promised my self this time i wasnt going to wrap myself in cotton wool and did everything as i normally would in fact i worked very hard at my mums pool and aquatic centre cleaning tiolets,vacuming floors anyway worked like a dog this led to my bfp.
one thing i did do though was talk to myself in my own head saying "I CAN DO THIS" evey time i though bad thoughts id say " NAH NAH NAH NAH in my head lol..
so maybe being a bit more positive can help .
i wish you all the luk in the world sweety,one thing i would say is please never give up,this journey is so dam hard sometimes there was many times i would just cry and say i cant do this any more BUT we never stopped trying just remeber hun GOOD THINGS COME TO THOSES WHO WAIT ... hang in there and just keep trying.
ill be lurking on you from now on to see how things go ok take care and again dont give up hunny.