Long Term Assisted Conception - 2009 #3

[dusty]

Welcome to Long Term Assisted Conception forum. This forum is for those that have been undergoing Assisted Conception for 12 months or more.

Your Moderating/Admin team for this forum are as follows:

Sarah_H Admin
Cailin Admin

Gargy Moderator
dusty Moderator

To contact any of the above, please see this post.

If you have any issues/problems with this forum feel free to email any of the above moderators who will be happy to assist you. All emails will be treated confidentially.

Just a reminder to all: all LTers love seeing a fellow LTer achieve that longed-for BFP, and we all find hope in one of our own having success in this difficult journey. But please remember that there are those who cycled with you who may not have received good news at the end of their cycle. Please do not post baby/child/pg tickers or pg related signatures (eg blinking BFP icons) etc in this forum out of respect for them.

As it's easy to forget to remove your ticker, please be advised that we will remove it for you if it's posted in here. Just easier, is all.

The last thread is HERE.

[Dutchie80]

Hi girls,
Just jumping aboard the new thread. Hope everyone is travelling along well.
Sending everyone lots of and and here's to lots more keep 'em coming ladies

[wouldloveabubba]

Im just poppin in to ... Syneral starts in the morning, so this will be my new cyber home for my next and hopefully last stim cycle.

Love and Light to all

[Dutchie80]

WLAB- Best of luck with this new cycle. Sending lots of and your way.

[wouldloveabubba]

Thank you for your prompt and sparkly message Dutchie - your lovely - wishing you the same for your 4th cycle as well xx

[Dutchie80]

No worries WLAB, may it be lucky #4 for both of us

[mummy2chloe]

hey ladies

just wondering if i could join? i am currently on the pill for my 2nd cycle of ivf, i start syneral in 5 days!

fingers crossed that this will be all of our last cycle, hopefully we can follow smithy and bdt bring on the BFP!!!!!

[Baby Dreamtime]

Hi my lovely ladies,

Thanks so much for all of your well wishes.

Mollygirl, thanks so much for your beautiful post, it made me cry, I am praying so much for you, it is now my wish that all of you will get what you so long for.

Saph, so glad to see your numbers rising nicely, congratulations again, you and DH must be over the moon.

Samandpoppy, welcome back, GL with you new FS and I hope the Colorado Protocol does the trick.

Melbel, congratulations again!

Cuddlepie, I am so glad to hear your op went well and you are feeling good. Wishing you all the best for your coming cycle.

Dutchie, GL with your appointment tomorrow and I hope the tests give you some answers. Look forward to hearing your news.

Tigger, if you are reading, I hope you have great fert results and all the best for ET.

WLAB, hope your sniffing is going well, my best wishes for your coming cycle.

M2C, sending you lots of luck for your next cycle.

Infinity, Sara, Dusty, Possums, Lulu, JBM, Smithy and Loula, my thoughts are with you all and thank you so much for your support.

AFM, just quietly, my second BT yesterday 19dpo showed hcg 1526, I have started to relax a little and think positive. I have a scan on Thur to check sac location and am praying all is good. I am a little scared to leave this thread, it is so early and I don't want to jinx myself with being too optimistic .

Love and best wishes to all. xx

[Loula]

BDT wonderful news with your numbers i am very pleased for you that you are starting to feel a little more relaxed.

Mel - did you get my message so good to hear that you have had success with this IUI cycle. praying that you will soon have your bubs safe in your arms

Saph - congrats to you and yours! watching as we follow you into parenthood. xx

M2C welcome back in here (i know of other places you would rather be!) hoping that this cycle gives your the result that you are longing for

CP glad that you are on the road to recovery.

i have another appointmnet with the professor on Thursday so will updte as to wether we do another cycles or go straight to surrogracy! wish me luck.

hello to everyone and i will be popping in and out again soon xx

[Loula]

BDT wonderful news with your numbers i am very pleased for you that you are starting to feel a little more relaxed.

Mel - did you get my message so good to hear that you have had success with this IUI cycle. praying that you will soon have your bubs safe in your arms

Saph - congrats to you and yours! watching as we follow you into parenthood. xx

M2C welcome back in here (i know of other places you would rather be!) hoping that this cycle gives your the result that you are longing for

CP glad that you are on the road to recovery.

i have another appointmnet with the professor on Thursday so will updte as to wether we do another cycles or go straight to surrogracy! wish me luck.

hello to everyone and i will be popping in and out again soon xx

[Bridget]

Hi BDT

Awesome news. I saw in one of your other posts that you were "self medicating". Is that right? Was it prednisolone? can you tell me? I'm so desperate

[mollygirl1977]

Hello everyone

Just popping my head in again to wish everyone luck and send some out to anyone who is currently cycling. I have been so slack and still haven't cought up on where you are all at but will do so hopefully on the weekend.

I am going on a much deserved holiday next week - 2 week cruise - then when we return I think I will be ready to do a FET (2 frozen blasties ready to go). My only concern is that my body is not playing nicely at the moment and i haven't had AF for 8 weeks now - god only knows what's going on now!!!! So looks like i would probably need to take provera again but i had really hoped that the last 4 months of acupunture might have helped my cycle.........aagh the frustration!!!!

Anyway take care all you lovely ladies xxx

[Loula]

Have a lovely holiday Molly, I hope af plays nicely and either has come and gone by the time you go away or will arrive after you return!

I am hoping that she is holding out a few more weeks for me until i get all my results back from the Professor! although i am CD 35 today! i am known to go past CD40 on a good months so who knows

Have a fab time

[Dutchie80]

hi girls,


BDT- fab news on your great numbers, rising nicely! really happy for you. live it up and enjoy yourself over the next 8 months. Best of luck for your upcoming scan.

Loula- wishing you the best of luck at your next appt on thursday

Mollygirl- enjoy your cruise hun, sounds lovely.

M2C- great to see you here.

to everyone. Best of luck with the stages your all up to.

[Baby Dreamtime]

Hi everyone,
This post is for Bridget, so sorry to everyone to put all of this in here, but I can't PM Bridget. Here is my history and what I did:

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 a nice hatching blast.

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

[infinity]

Hello

Wouldloveabubba - i hope syneral is going well with no nasty side effects. Hoping that #4 will be the one for you.

Dutchie - thanks for the babydust and sticky vibes - we need it in here! Hope #4 is the one for you too.

mummy2chloe - hello happy sniffing and good luck with this cycle.

Samand poppy - I know someone who just had success with the Colorado Protocol and am hearing good things. Hoping it's just what you need to get your BFP.

Mollygirl - I am so jealous right now - have a blast on your cruise. Hope your body decides to play nice in the meantime.

Cuddlepie - for your upcoming cycle.

Loula - wishing you luck with your appointment tomorrow. I hope you hear news that will soon bring you your BFP. Will be thinking of you, let us know how you go?

Hi to everyone else, there are a few of us right now on breaks or waiting, extra hugs to us, it's hard when nothing is happening.

AFM - no TTC right now, which is strange for me, not sure how I'm feeling. I think I need this break though. Will meet with our FS sometime soon to talk about where we go from here and hopefully get a plan. Will probably hop back on the rollercoaster in about 2 months time. Will send DH to my chinese medicine man in the break - he thinks he can help us so we'll give it a good try. quietly chuffed that DH will have to drink foul tasting herbs instead of me for a change!

[Cuddlepie]

That's a great summary post BDT and thanks for puting it together, also good for the rest of us...

Just out of curiosity, how do you get the Presidison and Clexane? Does your FS prescribe it for you then you get it from chemist? How often does she have to issue the prescrition? Are they expensive? Thanks hun!

[Baby Dreamtime]

Hi CP, yes, my FS wrote the script for each, normally at the start of each cycle or when I had run out, and I would just fill it at the chemist (most have Clexane as a rule so no trouble getting it). The Prednisone was something like $20 for 25 tablets, which lasted quite a while they way I was doing it. For the Clexane I was on 20iu, it comes in boxes of 10 syringes and costs $32. Normally FS would write me 2 repeats (20 syringes) which would obviously get me past BT day.

xx