How many days were you on FSH?

My partner Kim is on CD9 at the moment in our IVF/ICSI cycle. She started Lucrin on CD1 and Gonal F 225 on CD4. We had a scan this morning half an hour after her 6th FSH shot and couldnt see much of anything. So I have to call at 11am to get her E2 levels and we will probably go in for another scan on Saturday which will be CD13. I think she will be on FSH for a while. Does anyone know if being on stims past day 14 or 15 is a bad sign? Hoping not. Kim was a bit upset she couldnt see any follicles yet... is this normal? How many days were people on FSH and if it was longer than 10 days or so, did they go on to have success?

;) ok ive just pulled out my bit of paper and it says i was on the injections for 12 days and that was 225 iui of gonal f
sometimes the follies start to grow as the e2 is being released i think ??
sorry i couldnt help much hun
hang in there i was just the same on my 1st cycle i only got 1 egg so i was so bummed out they should have cancelled me but didnt gee i was cut up too lo..

Hi TwoMums,

On one cycle, I was on 75iu of FSH for a total of 14 days. I had a scan at Day 8 of injections and all my follies were 8 mm or less. They upped my dose to 100 and I ended up being on injections for an extra two days to get them to the right size. So it took a little longer. On a subsequent cycle and due to Xmas holidays etc, I had an early scan on Day 5 of injections, there was nothing much to see at all. From past experience they didn't change the dose, and by my Day 12 scan they had all caught up to the right size.

In both instances I went on to have approx 13 eggs at EPU. I have read that it is not a problem to be on the stims a little longer, in fact they also do something called 'coasting' (ie they lower the dose for a few days) if it looks like E2 levels are too high (I think this is normally due to PCOS ie too many follies producing too much E2 but follies still too small for EPU) or something like that. So some are on the stims for quite a while.

I hope I haven't confused you. I don't know if this helps, and I hope your CD13 scan shows lots of lovely follies. Hugs

In total I was on Lucrin for 9 days before I started on 150 of Puregon.

Basically went like this:
Day 1 - started Oral Contraceptive Pill (My last natural period)
Day 15 - started Lucrin injections
Day 20 (or Day one of new cycle) - got my period dueto lucrin

Day 5 of new cycle - start 150 of puregon
Day 8 - E levels at 360
Day 12 - E levels at 430 - top up with another 50 of puregon
Day 13 - start puregon at 200 - E levels at 560
Day 16 - E levels at 2196
Day 18 - E levels at 2400+ - Trigger

Ended up with 12 follies in total
From that we got 6 eggs - one immature
4 of those fertilised
1 transferred (BFP)
3 frozen at Blastocyst, hatching blastocycst and expanding blastocyst stages.

Like my FS said - it's not how many eggs you get - it's the quality that counts.

Hope that helps.....

So in total you were on FSH for 13 days?? We are on CD9 (6 days of stims)today, I just rang the FS and his receptionist said that the E2 levels are very low and we need continue with the Lucrin and the Gonal F at the same dose of 225iu and go back for another scan and bloods on Saturday morning.

By then it will be CD 13 and 10 days of stims. He thought we would go for egg pick up by Monday but this morning he said we most likely wont be. He said it looks like we will be stimming for a bit longer than we (and he) originally thought. Oh why cant things just go to plan. I was upbeat before and now i am starting to panic....

Twomums,

I can totally understand where you are coming from and how hard it is. :hug:

My 1st cycle produced 6 follicles (5 eggs) from 187.5 of Gonal after 7 days. My 2nd cycle I was on 225, no follicles after 7 days, its was put up to 375 for another 5 days and produced 1 follicle. On my 3rd cycle I was on 450 for 7 days and produced 8 follicles with 4 eggs collected.

When you look at all that on paper, there is no logic to it.

Try not to stress too much. I know its easier said than done and when they find no follicles it is shattering. Everyone's body is different and responds differently to the meds. And as you can see from my results, my body is doing different things each time.

Hang in there and let us know how things go.

Take care,

Tania

Yup - 14 days actually. I was pretty disappointed with the numbers, especially when you are logging into Belly Belly and seeing women going through pick up and getting over 10 mature eggs. But in the end it all worked out - try not to stress over things that you can;t control. I know, easier said than done, but you can't will those little follies into growing bigger - you'll just have to wait and see.

I too was estimated for a pick up on a Monday and ended up actually having the eggs picked up on the following Saturday. Every woman is different and the body is a marvellously complex thing. My FS was taking is easy with the stim meds as it was our first round of ICSI and I think he didn't want to over stim me. But as time went on (day 9 of stims) he upped the dose when it was clear that I wasn't reacting as strongly as required.

Between days 5 - 18: I had 5 blood tests and 3 ultrasounds. I don't think we saw anything major on the ultrasound until much later in the stim cycle. I thought my cycle was going to be cancelled due to low repsonse.

Well i feel so much better now you guys... guess we will just have to wait and see. I read somewhere the longer you are on FSH the worse the quality of the eggs, but my FS said that the follicles that grow too fast usually dont have a mature egg in them. Have you heard/ or read anything about this before?

That is pretty much what my FS said to me - and it seems logical as well - not just something they would say to shut you up.

We only got 4 eggs in the end in our first cycle, but we also got a BFP in our first cycle. So, don't be disheartened - as cliched as it sounds....it only takes one. As nice as it would be to have the reassurance of 15 on ice....just in case. I can't help but think everyday how lucky I have been and thanking my lucky stars that we managed to get the BFP first go even after a bit of a shakey start and that we have 3 on ice waiting to become BFP's as well.

know what you mean about logging onto Belly Belly and seeing women get 10 or 15 eggs at pick up. Even worse logging on and seeing women younger than us getting only 3 eggs or some low number. I forgot how much IVF freaks you out. Much more than OI/IUI. It was pretty much a certainty that we'd have at least one follicle but IVF seems to up the ante a bit huh?

Also it bums you out to log on and see that women have 7 or more follies after only 6 days of stims, we have none!

Is this your partners first ever cycle of stims?

Hi TwoMums,
I agree with Nixon, every woman is different, please don't be disheartened, and think of the fact it is better to have quality not quantity. My first EPU I got 19 eggs, 15 fertilised, but they were all crap quality. I did 3 FETs (day 3 transfers) with these embroys, they were all slow growing and fragmented, about 5 or 6 cells by day 3. All BFN. So numbers don't mean anything.

I hope Kim's next scan show more going on and her E2 levels pick up, and hope you go on to get some great embies. Best of luck

Nixon - No unfortunately. Kim did a cycle of stims to become an egg donor to me in 2006. She was on 150iu Gonal F for about 5 days and she had about 5 follicles. By day 11she had 7 follicles. Then by EPU she had already ovulated (Synarel did not work on her, hence why we are using Lucrin this time) and we only got 3 immature eggs.

Since then she has had about 10 cycles of IUI using either Clomid or Clomid plus Puregon. She usually responds well! Thats why we cannot understand why she didnt have any follicles by day 6 of stims this time. Especially seen as how she is on 225iu of Gonal F this time around.

Our next ultrasound is tomorrow morning, so not long to wait to find out if this cycle is going ahead or not.:pray:

Two mums,

Good luck with your scan tomorrow. Lets hope there are some good sized follicles there :D

Kim's results sound very similar to my 2nd stim cycle. I too didnt respond well after being on 225 iui of gonal even though I responded well the 1st time on 187.5 It all doesnt make sense unfortunately and it hard to understand.

:crossfingers: for you both.

Take care,

Tania

Well we went for our scan and she has 3 on one side and 2 and a couple of smaller ones on the other side. Still need to take the gonal f and lucrin until the next scan on tuesday and he has upped the dose to 300iu. He said we wont get any more follies than what we have now. So we have 5 plus a couple of maybe's at this stage. Hopefully it will be quality over quantity hey girls! He will call us with our E2 levels at lunch time, so will come back with those shortly.

Ok her E2 levels are 450, is this bad?