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hi all,
i've just started my first ivf cycle and have so many questions!
can anyone tell me is it normal to have no side effects from puregon? i expected to turn into a monster. i have high fsh so my doctor has started me on 300 units daily. ive been having the injections for 3 days now and have my first ultrasound and blood test tomorrow morning to check how its going. could this mean it isnt working? i know im probably overreacting but i expected so much different.
thanks for reading
Hi Leah-grace,
Just wanted to say goodl luck with your cycle, I personally never had any emotional side effects (other than the obvious stress of long term TTC), and usually didn't start feeling any ovarian twinges until about 6 days of injections, which slowly got strong, normally like a pulling sensation and tenderness, which did get uncomforatble the closer to EPU. My average number of follicles is around 15 - 20, so there was always plenty going on.
I is likely just too early for you, and there is no real way to know until you have your scan. Wishing you all the best.
Hi Leah-grace
Also sending :goodluck: with your cycle - same as BD I never had any side-effects with puregon, had one cycle with 300 units and the last one with 350 units - how high is your FSH? Hope your BT and ultrasound goes well.
Sara
hi everyone,
- babydreamtime & sarah69, thanks for your replies.
had my u/s today. my fsh is 12 so i wasnt expecting a lot of follicles but so far just 4 (measurable) and 4 others which are very small. being new to this i really dont understand this result. im getting very frustrated with our clinic, i understand they are very busy but their response is "thats good there is some there" and "we're not worried" but from my understanding this isnt a good response especially with me being on 300 units on purogen. its early i know but im just so worried they will cancel collection. im to continue purogen as normal and as of tomorrow i start orgalutran injections each night. they are thinking my pick up will be next friday :crossfingers: i asked the nurse about me not having any side effects and she seemed to expect that as there are not alot of follicles. does anyone know if this will be all that grows or can more appear? there are so many questions i think of after i leave. i have another scan monday morning to see whats happening. :pray:
im beginning to understand what they mean by "emotional rollercoaster" better. i always thought it was due to the hormones but for me its about the waiting game, just not knowing. im going nuts and its just begun!
how are you both going? wishing you both, and everyone, all the best with your cycles. please let me know how you are getting on. :hug:
Hi Leah-grace,
One of the hardest things is that it is very difficult to compare yourself to someone else. Every body reacts differently. Both my FSs have always indicated that a good number of follicles is around 12, so 6 each ovary, and assuming that they are all around a similar size and will all be mature at EPU and will all contain an egg. My FSH level was 12 on my first IVF cycle, and I was on 225 FSH injections, but I responded too well, had 25+ follies and this cycle was cancelled by day 9 of injections because for estrogen levels were off the chart (something like 25,000). I think they work out that at maturity each egg equates to approx 300-500 of estrogen. So despite having a moderately high FSH, I have been able to produce a good number of follicles on subsequent cycles (my FSH says I do have PCOS tendencies). I have found that it has taken quite a lot of trial and error to get the right FSH dose to get some good number and good quality embroys. My next cycle my FSH was reduced to 125, I still over responded, but went to EPU, and due to high estrogen levels again my embies were all crap quality, very slow growing and moderatly fragmented. I did 3 x day 3 FET with these, a waste? I don't know. I have however gone on to get lower numbers and better quality, but have done 3 subsequent blastocyst (day 5 transfers) and all BFN.
I would say that 4 + 4 follicles is an ok result, day 4 of injections is a very early scan, sometimes it is too early to tell. I have had day 5 scans where there has been lots of little follies around 5-8mm, which have all subsequently picked up and ended up mature. Ideally you want the majority of your follicles to be around the same size, so you might have a few larger and a few smaller, with the majority in the middle.
Each scan I write down how many follices, what size and also record the estrogen level. But I have been at this quite a while and feel more in control if I know what is going on.
The other thing I would mention, and I am sure you have hear it before, is that it is very much about quality and not quantity. I can't count the number of cycles I have done where I have had great follie numbers, and others have had much lower numbers, but they have ended up with the BFP not me. So please don't be disheartened. I know it is hard but you will just have to wait it out.
Also, I think in the majority of the case, from what I have seen those women that are doing IVF because of male factor, tend to get their BFP much earlier, which makes sense as IVF is overcoming this challenge.
I wish you all the luck and look forward to hearing how you go.
Leah-grace
The thing is that it doesn't really matter how many eggs you have collected, it very much depends on their quality. My first EPU was three eggs (FSH 9.7) and I got one blastie on day six, my second was only two ( FSH 15.7) with one fertilized but that grew to a blastie and I am now in the TWW.
If you have 8 follies that is not a bad response on FSH of 12 - as long as the four bigger ones are close together and contain eggs you should be okay. I don't want to make you afraid but I had actually a very good follie number in my second cycle where I only had 2 eggs - most of the follies did not contain eggs - my FS says it could have possibly be prevented by giving me a larger dosage (1000 instead of 250) of the trigger and using Pregnyl for the trigger.
Sara