Stress with work! Are there stages of IVF cycle that can be extended /delayed?

Hello ladies,

I'm on my first round of IVF, and mostly excited, but a bit stressed too..

I've read stories about telling "the boss" and like some others, I'm in a difficult position with some sexist male superiors (who, because of my age and management position, have already made several inappropriate comments asking me if I'm off the pill, or if I'm pregnant, in social settings at the office!! Or even how long its a good time to be married before starting a family..) So - needless to say, at the moment, I'm keeping the IVF to myself...

But I'm day 7 of lucrin, waiting for AF, and now have a huge project that's coming up requiring me to be in Sydney for 2 days at the end of the month, possibly right in the middle of collection and/or transfer!
:cry:

So - I suppose my questions are:

1. How long is AF usually delayed on lucrin?
2. How long after period starts do you start FSH?
3. Can you delay start of FSH to delay collection/transfer.

I'm really wound up about it - and feel a bit helpless, and would love to hear from anyone having gone through something similar?

Thanks for any insights, and best of luck to all the women out there.
-Gigi.
:wall:

Our story: TTC 18+ months, and after XX tests and the rest, and seemingly unexplained infertility, found out DH has issue with morphology (0%) so directly to IVF / ICSI.

hi gigi,

they are good questions you are asking. the best person to ask these questions of, as they are the one that is in a sense controlling your cycle/treatment, is your fertility specialist. they will have come across this before with other women too. i can understand you not wanting to tell work. you don't have to of course except if they are going to be difficult about time off for your medical procedures (ie you are totally justified in taking time off for these) but hopefully you can just give them general info not specifics that you are doing IVF.

technically the lucrin will have switched all your hormones off/down once AF arrives and technically you could extend the use of it out a bit. depending on how you respond to lucrin though, the longer you leave it there is a risk (at least in my own experience i had this happen but i haven't heard it happen to that many women) that you switch your hormones off so much that they then don't respond to the stims the way you hope or expect.

EPU and ET will also depend on how you respond to the stims. if you respond really well you may be on stims for a shorter period or vice versa. also ET may be anywhere between 2-5 days after EPU depending on how many embryos you get and how their growth progresses.

so no great solution as there are so many IFs in IVF. in my experience while it is great to pop IVF on top of your life, you also have to expect your life to be able to be flexible for IVF too. this will reduce the stress on you which i think is really important. it is sensitive medical treatment which sometimes daily changes to your treatment plan. it is good to be realisitic about it.

AF should turn up in a few days, you normally start the stims when you blood results after AF arrives show you have down regulated enough (something like 1-2 days after AF arrives depending on how full AF is).

Good luck with it all!