-
@jaguar: Thinking of you lady and wondering what's going on???
-
@Mrs. Pajamas:
-
@Mrs. Pajamas: that must be a rough spot to be in too. I’m doubtful we will have that issue, but dh and I decided we would donate embryos for adoption should we have some left over when we are finished adding to our family, but I know the actual choosing would be hard
-
I just got a call about my blood work and it looks like my estrogen is only 48.81, and I think the nurse said they like it in the hundreds at this point (cd 5 and day 3 of stims). Any thoughts or experience with this?
I go for blood work and scan on friday -
@LAZB: Sometimes it just takes a few more days to take off! Hang in there
-
@jaguar: I hope that’s the case!
-
@LAZB: I could only find data on 3 of my cycles, by on day 5, my E2 levels were: 180,300,500. They look for E2 to be less than 50 during my baseline... so at 48, it seems they still haven't really started growing yet. Things usually took off after day 5 for me though, so maybe it's just a little slow to start and may take off soon. I'd give it till Friday to see what happens. Hopefully they start going soon!
-
@PurplePumps: thanks for going back and checking! I really hope they take off soon, I’m already super bloated, I thought I’d respond more normally for sure. Even when I take a low dose of clomid I usually have 1 or 2 follicles (one time I had three), so I wasn’t expecting to not respond at all yet
Hopefully Friday brings better news -
@LAZB: seems all my initial E2 levels happened on CD7, one after 5 days of stims and the other after 6 days of stims, so probably not a good comparison.
-
@LAZB: Yeah, with my stim cycles there was always crickets until BOOM. off it went. I hope Friday gives you some good news!
-
@Mrs. Pajamas: Had our IVF clinic follow up scan - meant to be 7 weeks, but baby measuring at 6w5d with heart rate of 145. Still signs of SCH in there (though not as scary looking as last week) but it's still just a day at a time. She did say my numbers from last week weren't ideal, but we're going to focus on the scan from now on and just hope baby grows.
-
@jaguar: this is great news!!!
@MrsPajamas: glad I’m not the only one whose DH needs some gentle reminders on even the big stuff.
-
@LAZB: Afraid I don't have the numbers on my estrogen, but I too thought I'd respond more to IVF meds than I did, especially because I'd been on clomid and femara prior and produced 2 follicles those times, so it just felt natural in my mind that I wouldn't have that issue. Looking back on it, it was my first round and perhaps my body needed a different med combo than I was getting and we just didn't know at that point. I do hope Friday brings you some good news and that, like the others said, your numbers start to take off from here!
@jaguar: Hoping your little bean takes off too!!
AFM, my dr mentioned yesterday that her preference with IVFers is to induce after the 39 weeks mark (so, between 39 and 40). In the moment, I had "I'm in a dr's office brain" and it just didn't occur to me to ask WHY, which I find really frustrating (toward myself) in hindsight. I'm 36.5w now. Anyway, I did some cursory Googling but didn't see much regarding inducing IVFers in particular at 39w (there was a study in 2018 that appears well received for inducing after 39w for women over 35 like me). I'm going to ask her about it next week, so I'll have answers, but I'm curious if any of you have heard reasons that might be why my dr prefers this other than just personal preference.
-
@jaguar: that sounds great to me! Keep growing little one!
@yellowbeach: hopefully we were just testing on the early side
@foodiebee: gosh, I hope I don’t need different meds, these were expensive enough lol. I don’t know about the 39 week thing, I’ve definitely had friends go over who did ivf, but it could just be your doctor’s preference. -
@foodiebee: that is bizarre to me re: induction. I've had 2 babies, both conceived via IVF, both times went into labor naturally past 40 weeks. DD1 was born at 40w6d and DD2 was born at 41w3d (yup still bitter about that!). For both pregnancies, we had discussed induction at 42weeks only. Be your own advocate and push for what works for you! Natural labor/birth was high priority to me so that's why I pushed for induction only at 42weeks. But if you have health concerns or schedulng issues, then by all means discuss induction earlier. From my research 42 weeks is when things get less than ideal for babies in utero.
-
@foodiebee: I think it's preference too. My office said that after the pregnancy is established, IVF pregnancy is just like any other "natural" one and doesnt need to be treated any differently.
-
@LAZB: @Mrs. Pajamas: @PurplePumps: Thank you for responding! I do have some other health considerations that are at play here, so I've always known induction was a consideration for me, but it was mentioned previously for once I hit 40w, not 39, so moving it up a week surprised me. I'll report back if I learn anything interesting after my next apt.
-
@PurplePumps: for sure. Although in my last pregnancy I had to do a fetal heart echo at 20ish weeks . I think I posted about that. There was a study about correlation between ivf pregnancies and heart defects that my doc read and so she recommended the echo.
-
Ugh, looks like only 3 follicles so far, and I go back Tuesday. The doc said it’s possible to have more later, but he didn’t look like he really thought that would happen
-
@LAZB: ugh I know that’s discouraging. Does he plan to change your protocol/doses at all? It’s still early so lots of time for catch up.
AFM, just got back from the RE. Our plan this cycle is to transfer 3 abnormal embryos that we think have the best likelihood of being false positives or least affected. Today’s meeting felt like the last step before the end of the road. Don’t know our transfer date yet, but it’ll likely be just a few days before we leave for Denmark.
-
@yellowbeach: nope, I was told to just keep going. Maybe I’m already maxed out on dosage? I’m taking 225 gonal f and 3 vials of menopur
-
@yellowbeach: and wow! How crazy and emotional this all is
-
Ugh, I’m just in such a pissy mood. I guess the pressure and meds are really messing with me.
I’m sure it’s been asked before, but does anyone have a glass of wine while on the shots? I haven’t had anything, but a little glass with dinner tonight sounds REALLY good. -
@LAZB: I am so late (damn time zones) but I say YES to the vino. xx
@yellowbeach: I'm not too clued up on PGD embies, so does abnormal mean anything in particular? Or is it not a guarantee there is anything wrong with them?
-
@LAZB: Drink Till It's Pink!
IVF meds REALLY messed with my moods. (Serious note: I'm so sorry about the follicle count. It's crushing to feel like your body isn't cooperating with something so important, not to mention expensive. I was beating myself up every moment during this process. It was not fun in any way and really hard on me emotionally. Sending you hugs.)@yellowbeach: Same question as @jaguar!
-
@jaguar: @foodiebee: Thanks y’all, I’m usually of the opinion to drink until it’s pink as well, but I saw one study suggested that even one glass of wine a day during shots could decrease the amount of follicles Retrieved by 13%, and if I only have three, that’s no good. I did end up having just a couple sips of my husband’s wine last night, it made me slightly less angry LOL
-
@foodiebee: I’m pretty shocked by how much these meds are messing with me. Clomid doesn’t really change me at all, so I wasn’t expecting a huge shift, but I have all of the symptoms. Mood swings, hot flashes, bad headaches, you name it
-
@jaguar: @foodiebee: Abnormal does mean that the cells that were biopsied were abnormal, but there have been cases where abnormals can self correct and result in a perfectly healthy baby. Not sure if abnormals also cover mosaics for yellowbeach, but mosiacs is when some of the cells are normal, and some are not, and people have had healthy babies with mosiacs too. PGS is only done with 5 or 6 cells I believe out of the 100+ now of the embryo, so while chances are small, it's possible that maybe they got all abnormals, and there are still enough normals to create a healthy baby. I think the cells that are actually taken are also the cells that become the placenta, and not the fetus. While most believe it's fairly accurate, it's still not 100%.
-
@PurplePumps: That’s my understanding too. And yes, they take the cells from what will be the placenta
-
@PurplePumps: Very helpful, thank you!
@LAZB: Wow, I haven’t heard of that but totally understand. I never ended up drinking during this time just because I felt so crappy...
I think I’ve talked about it previously, but I was shocked by how much IVF shots messed with me versus almost no symptoms with clomid or femara, and none that were emotional. My dr and I now believe the PIO shots gave me prenatal/antenatal anxiety. I also had painful bloating, hair loss!, headaches and mood swings. I was unprepared for this because I hadn’t had issues with prior meds or with anxiety before this. DH has talked now about how surprised he was too and how difficult it was for him during this time. He felt huge guilt, as if he was risking our marriage to be a father or something!
and just overall how hard it was for him to watch me go through this. It’s a major reason, other than financial, that we won’t do it again and would opt to grow our family in other ways instead. All that to say: I get it, you aren’t alone, and it will get better. -
@LAZB: Hang in there. The emotions are strong!
@PurplePumps: This is super helpful - thank you! We could never afford the testing, so I never researched into how it worked.
-
Ok, here’s my update:
Cd12, estrogen up to 497
Six follicles seen today (17, 14, 11, 11, 10, 8) so they will have me continue meds and go back for another check in two days. We will likely sacrifice the larger one to let the others catch up. I think one of the 11s is a bust because it really hasn’t grown since Friday, so realistically we are looking at maybe 4. Hopefully retrieval Saturday or Sunday 🤞 -
@LAZB: Come on follies, do your thannnnng!
-
@jaguar: giving them a pep talk now!
-
@LAZB: I had one of those pesky leading follicles on ER#2 too. We did the same thing - extended meds by a day and just let that one go. Good thing is everyone else seems in line along the same size. I think when you really get into trouble is of the follicles all stair-step down a millimeter each then there's never a big batch of one size range. Doesn't look like you though based on your numbers.
-
@yellowbeach: tomorrow should definitely be telling. It’s interesting, all three of the new follicles are on the left side, so I guess that ovary is just waking up
-
Ugh, I don’t even know what’s happening anymore. I still have the lead follicle (21), but the others are growing as quickly. I had some more pop up, but they are all small. I’m just over it already, I feel like this cycle was a bust.
Now I’ll wait to hear from my doc for our plan. -
Ok, est is up to 876, so they are having me continue meds and check again in two days. Trigger probably sat or sun so retrieval Monday or Tuesday. This is dragging on forever. Also, continually paying for meds SUCKS
-
@LAZB: yep. The moving target of a retrieval date is always a huge source of stress for me no matter how well I clear our my schedule to try and predict when I need to be off, I inevitably end up scrambling for coverage. Glad your E2 is up!
-
@LAZB: Yep, what Yellowbeach said. Our retrieval date was bumped a number of times as we tried to give my slow follicles time to grow. We had to order more meds rush delivery so that we'd know we had enough. I was not sharing IVF with my work and was extremely stressed about having to spring a surprise vacation day on them so that I could suddenly do the retrieval. And then once that's done, you'll have the stress of updates on how things are growing. It's a grueling process.
IVF meds REALLY messed with my moods. (Serious note: I'm so sorry about the follicle count. It's crushing to feel like your body isn't cooperating with something so important, not to mention expensive. I was beating myself up every moment during this process. It was not fun in any way and really hard on me emotionally. Sending you hugs.)
and just overall how hard it was for him to watch me go through this. It’s a major reason, other than financial, that we won’t do it again and would opt to grow our family in other ways instead. All that to say: I get it, you aren’t alone, and it will get better. 
- Google Plus
- Stumbleupon
- Twitter
- Facebook
- Pinterest
- Favorite0
2514 comments