Pg after LT TTC - What did you do differently?

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

Hi Danyelle,
Well for me to get my :bfp: 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.

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.

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.

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)

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 :pray: & :stickyvibesgirl::stickyvibesboy: 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 :)

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

:

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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.

.

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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

Hi Danyelle,

What a great idea :clap:!

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 :D.

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 :goodluck: to those still trying to achieve their long awaited BFP and :pray:'ing that this is your year! Dreams do come true as I really thought I would never get my BFP!

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

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 :pray:

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

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.

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.

:bump:

CeCe and Loula,

Re: Prednisilone and Clexane

:

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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.

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:

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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

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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.

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.

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

:hello:

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.

:wiggle:

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 :redface:

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 :rolleyes:)

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 :doh:

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!

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.

Hi,
For us, it was being tested for reasons for implantation failure and finding out that I had antinuclear antibodies (ANA) which was stopping our little embies from sticking. As we were only a week out from a FET when we found out, I started aspirin straight away and then heparin injections from the day of transfer. We got our BFP from that FET after two failed cycles/fresh transfers and 3 FET's.

Good luck.
FG

Hi Danyelle, thanks for your PM, here are my details:

In total, 10 cycles, 7 transfers and 1 IUI to get a BFP.

Unexplained infertility
Oct 07 BTs Day 2 FSH level 12.
Nov 07 Cycle #1 IVF down reg FSH 225, overstimmed, 20+ follies, cycle cancelled at day 8 as E2 levels were 25,000
Feb 08 Cycle #2 IVF down reg FSH 125, overstimmed, 20 + follies, EPU only, E2 at day 12 was 22,000, 19 eggs retrieved, 15 fertilised all frozen Day 1
May 08 Cycle #3 FET HRT, 1 x Day 3, 6 cell embie with moderate fragmentation. BFN
Jun 08 Cycle #4 FET HRT, 2 x Day 3, 5 and 6 cell embies with moderate fragmentation. BFN
Jul/Aug 08 Cycle #5 FET HRT, 2 x Day 5, 7 cell embies with moderate fragmentation. BFN. Out of frosties, they all seemed to be slow growing with fragmentation, maybe crappy due to high E2 levels at EPU?
Sep/Oct 08 Cycle #6 IVF down reg FSH 75, upped to FSH 100, 19 follies, 12 eggs, 9 fertilised, 3 blasts, 2 transferred, 1 frozen. BFN
FS ordered implantation failure and immunological blood tests, all clear. Decided to try Colorado Protocol anyway.
Dec 08/Jan 09 Cycle #7 IVF down reg Colorado Protocol (Prednisone and Augmentin for 5 days from trigger) FSH 100, 20 follies, 16 eggs, 7 fertilised, 4 blasts, 2 transferred, 2 frozen. BFN
FS referred me to Dr Julie Lindstrom at City Fertility Brisbane as he felt he had done all he could for me.
Jan 09 Met Julie, some implantation failure blood tests missing, new tests done, tested positive for MTHFR. Now on low dose aspirin daily for life, mega folate (5mg) daily for life and high dose B6 and B12. Recommended Clexane from ET or from postive BT (I pushed Julie for Clexane from ET as I had never gotten to BFP before). Continued to take Prednisone while not cycling at 6.25mg per day (quarter tablet) in case of NK Cells (though tested neg on BT, I never did a biopsy but Julie was happy for me to continue). Also tested thyroid levels, TSH, T3 and T4, they were a little off so took thyroid support.
Mar 09 Cycle #8 FET natural, 2 x average blasts transferred, Clexane from ET. BFN
Apr 09 Cycle #9 IVF antagonist cycle FSH 75, too low, 3 lead follies, converted to IUI. BFN but low hcg 9 and prog levels high, possible chemical pregnancy. I had sneakily done Clexane every second day from O day, I think this might have made a difference. Julie hadn't recommeded Clexane as it was not an ET.
May/Jun 09 Cycle #10 IVF antagonist cycle FSH 100, 20+ follies, 23 eggs, 14 fertilised with assisted hatching, 3 blasts, 2 transferred (1 hatching blast rated 10/10, 1 early blast rated 7/10), 1 frozen. Clexane from night of EPU. BFP.

What did I do differently?
Low dose aspirin, mega folate, B6 and B12 for MTHFR
Clexane from night of EPU (my thought was that by a Day 5 ET, it was a little too late).
Prednisone - I had 25mg tablets, CD1 to trigger quarter tablet (6.25mg), from trigger for 5 days (full tablet 25mg), then from there half tablet (12.5mg - in previous cycles I had dropped back to 6.25mg) - I had been on Prednisone since Jan 09.
I did assisted hatching for the first time, I had previously never had a hatching blastie.
This was the only cycle that I did NOT use Embryo Glue
This was the only cycle that I did NOT do acupuncture the day of ET, I had 1 treatment the afternoon of the day after (weekly treatments in the lead up).
I stopped taking Sharkey's herbs in Feb 09 after being on them for two years.
And the only cycle I had no caffeine at all from from CD1

I think it was a combination of treating MTHFR for a few months, being on Prednisone for a while, starting Clexane from night of EPU (my FS had said day after EPU), low dose aspirin, getting my TSH levels right, and nice hatching blasts.

I did self medicate by staying on the Prednisone between my Dec/Jan cycle and meeting Julie, she was of the opinion that I could test for NK cells via biopsy, if positive would then be treated with Prednisone, as I had very little reaction to taking it, she was happy for me to continue regardless. I did sneakily do Clexane injections earlier than Julie recommended a couple of times , and I stayed on low dose aspirin for pretty much the entire time except for a few days before EPU.

I hope this helps, sorry for the long post, please note I don't recommend self medicating, but I was willing to push the boundaries a bit because of my history. There are risks with doing this. But if I have to do this again I will push for the exact same cycle. I wish you all the best. xx

Hi there everyone

My infertility was also "unexplained" to some degree although I did also have endometriosis and submucosal fibroids (removed about 9 months before I conceived).

What did I do differently with transfer no 10 (embryo no 12 and 13)? I certainly don't think it was anything in my mind that made a difference, I'd had cycles where I was relaxed and positive and cycles where I wasn't and it didnt' seem to make any difference. I had given up on acupuncture (it costs a lot). I didn't have any more rest than other cycles.

I took a bit of a scatter gun approach and kept trying new things like different cylces and pushing for things (it was me who pushed for a laparoscopy the year before during which they found the endo and fibroids).

The cycle that worked I did 3 key medical things. Firstly, the month before I had an injection of B12 from a GP (I managed to convince the GP I might be low because I have some funny blood test results and it wasn't any harm because your body gets rid of any excess anyway).

Secondly, I took prednisolone and clexane. It was the first cycle that I had done that. The clexane was 40g (mg?) and the prednisolone was 20mg per day. I stopped the clexane at about 9 weeks preggas due to some bleeding and I weaned off the prednisolone at 13 weeks. The only side effects I had from the prednisolone were good ones (my ezcema cleared, my asthma was better, my sinuses cleard -I could smell for the first time in years).

Thirdly, I looked back through various test results and found I was positive for something called ureaplasma urealyticum. I asked my FS to treat it with antibiotics. Most FS don't believe it causes infertility but I found some google articles linking it. My FS only agreed to treat because it can cause preterm labour if you do get pregnant.

See - I told you it was a scatter gun approach, not sure which of these things helped but my gut says it was the prednisolone. It took me a long time to convince my FS to try prednisolone. Also, I do want to say that of all my egg collections, this one was probably the worst. All but two embryos keeled over before day 2 and one of those wasn't very good so we put back both on day 2 (compared to other cycles where I'd had 4 or 5 blastocysts). Just goes to show, only takes one.

Hi Danyelle,

I got my very first BFP yesterday morning. It's my 43rd cycle, we started trying in Jan 2007, so I share your pain.

Because we live in a remote area, I resisted IVF etc after being assured by GPs that I was physically healthy and that my partner was physically healthy. We decided to just focus on a healthy, non-toxic lifestyle and keep trying. In December I finally gave in and went to a fertility clinic, expecting to be told to start IVF or that something was drastically wrong. I was diagnosed with PCOS and put on Clomid to encourage egg production. My acupuncturist supported this by supplying me with herbs, supplements and dietary guidelines for PCOS. I have to stress, I could not have done this without my acupuncturist. I was eating so many things that antagonise PCOS, and I had no idea. Without her expert help, I would have sabotaged the Clomid each cycle by eating and drinking all the myriad things that aggravate PCOS.

This month is the 5th month I've followed a fairly strict diet of low gluten, zero soy, low dairy and zero processed foods. Previously I'd been allowing myself 3-4 alcoholic drinks in the week of my AF, sometimes in the week before ovulation, just to reward myself and stay sane, but this time I avoided all alcohol until the night before I ovulated, when I had one glass of champagne. I did this in homage to my many girlfriends who got knocked up after a big night out on the booze. I figured every little bit of luck helps!

I had acupuncture three days before I ovulated and again two days after. I was given chinese herbs that help with implantation, which I took every second day instead of every day after ovulation, which is what I was instructed to do. I know it's bad to experiment like that, but I was following a gut instinct. I also walked regularly during the week prior and during ovulation - I had endess amounts of energy and felt a strong urge to do this (I don't exercise regularly), so I'm wondering if my body was taking charge to otimise blood flow. One thing I noticed this cycle is that my body was really talking to me - everything was functioning well and I was getting very clear signals and urges to walk faster and longer or eat more spinach or don't take that herb. It was very weird.

This time my DH and I did not BD everyday for 5 days before ovulation. This time we BD'd 5 days before, then three days before, then twice on the day of ovulation. Each time I kept my hips in the air for a minimum of thirty minutes, and made sure I ogs'd only after my DH had ej'd, which is something we were not religious on before this.

Other than those minor changes, I obsessed and worried and stressed and thought negative thoughts just as much as I did the other 42 times - I don't buy into "relaxing" as the reason for finally falling pregnant, and it's the number one thing that irritates me when family or friends say, 'stop thinking about it and it will happen'. Honestly, I think any LT TTCer is fibbing just a little bit when they say they weren't thinking about possibly maybe perhaps falling pregnant! :D

Good luck with your own journey Danyelle, I hope the stork finds your house soon. xox

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