March 2024

[Claire_A]

Ahh Lucy sounds like you have had a bit of a rubbish couple of days. Sending positive thoughts your way.

I’ve not had any positives before but this time we have gone down the sperm donor route. We still only ended up with one embryo so really trying to keep positive.

ZLC, I’m actually on the south coast. I used to live in Kent but stayed with the clinic after we moved. It’s an hour away so not too bad.

[CharlyF123]

Morning everyone,

Sorry that you’re suffering so much Lucy, are you feeling any better this morning?

ZLC congratulations, did you say when your scan booked in for?

Claire, congratulations on your transfer! Got my fingers crossed for everyone!

I’m 6 week and 1 day today but still no symptoms! 9 days until my scan xx

[LucyAvalon]

Hi ladies,

ZLC - I felt like the Dr didn’t know much about OHSS, or IVF for that matter! He didn’t mention any risk to the embryo and I’ve seen lots of posts online of people who have gotten a BFP whilst having OHSS but it’s hard to imagine that it is creating the best environment for it.

Claire - got everything crossed for you. As they say, it only needs to be one good embryo! I’m sure it’s been a big journey to get to the point of using a donor, hopefully it will be the change that makes it work.

Charly - not long until the scan! I think many people don’t have symptoms that early, some never get any at all (lucky ladies!)but I know that sometimes feeling unwell is a bit of a comfort Hope you’re managing to take it easy.

The codine seems to be helping my pain but I’ve been mainly in bed / on the sofa. Bit nervous to be up and about too much but will have to try it soon.

[ZLC]

Claire- an hour isn’t too far to get here, hopefully you won’t need to come back too many more times!
I have everything crossed for you, as Lucy says you really must have been on a journey so let’s hope this is the one

Charly- ah that’s not long now! Although every day seems to last forever waiting on this scan! Mine is on the 25th.
I keep going back through notes to see what symptoms I had last time as I’m panicking I don’t feel sick yet but I’m only 5 weeks 2 days. All I have at the moment is sore and swollen boobs and I’m quite tired but otherwise normal. I had a small bit of implantation bleeding, last time I had loads. As Lucy said, some people have no symptoms whatsoever and every pregnancy is different (so I keep getting told!)

Lucy- I’m so sorry to hear your doctor wasn’t very helpful but it’s good to read that people have had positive tests with it. I believe my best friend had that during the ivf process and she now has a very healthy baby girl! Definitely rest up and stay on that sofa as long as you need. Your body will be working hard at the moment so you need rest.

X

[KMor]

Hi ladies - just catching up.. again! Haha

ZLC - I think we are exactly the same. I’m also 5 weeks 2 days but my scan is on 23rd April. Still feels v long away! I’ve also sadly had a missed miscarriage and 2 other miscarriages before that. Every IVF transfer has resulted in miscarriage so far so definitely know the anxiety associated. Hope you’re doing ok

Charly - not long for you now!! And don’t worry re symptoms - I feel like so many are masked by the meds anyway and I think it’s maybe too early to have any proper symptoms. I just have sore boobs which is most likely the progesterone!

Lucy - I really hope your pain is subsiding. If it’s any consolation, one of my friends got v bad OHSS following her fresh transfer and has a beautiful baby boy now. I would ring care though and see if they need to give you anything to help and / or monitor it for you

Xx

[LucyAvalon]

Thanks Ladies, so nice to be able to speak to some people who have some knowledge of this process!
I called the clinic this morning and they said hopefully the pain might have been caused due to a surge in hormones from implantation - fingers crossed! Lots of rest needed and keeping hydrated so I’m taking it pretty easy today - luckily a fairly quiet week at work!

Hope you are all feeling well - sounds like a mix of symptoms, hopefully all good!

Xx

[ZLC]

Hi KMor, oh wow you have really been through it. Let’s hope this is the one for you. My hairdresser had 3 miscarriages and is now 5 months pregnant so that gives some hope.
It’s such an anxious time, I think I just hadn’t prepared myself for a missed miscarriage- I don’t think I had heard of it before. I was prepared for a negative test but when it was positive and all the symptoms so strong I was in complete shock when she said those words “I’m really sorry but I can’t find a heartbeat” I just froze and my world crashed. Sounds dramatic I know but it was the worst thing I’ve been through. Had to have the operation on my birthday too, was one I will never forget for all the wrong reasons.
Let’s hope this is our time
I got my dates one out- I’m 5 weeks 2 today but my scan is after yours.


Lucy that’s so positive, pleased you spoke to Care and hopefully you get lots of rest this week!

X

[LucyAvalon]

Hi ladies, how is everyone doing?

I did a stupid thing a tested at 7 days post 5 day transfer - BFN. I had been managing my anxiety so well but my sister kept messaging saying the OHSS flare must have been implantation and when could I test etc and it got in to my head and I caved. I really wish I hadn’t part of me thinks it was far to early to test and part of me thinks we are out because you see so many people on forums getting BFP at 5/6/7 days post transfer.
I had had hormone headaches Mon & Tue which i’d had with previous pregnancies so was getting my hopes up but today I feel nothing other than very emotional (period incoming?!). I’m very annoyed with myself and sad!
x

[CharlyF123]

Hi everyone,

How is everyone doing? And where is everyone up to now?

Lucy, don’t count yourself out! 7 days post transfer I would say is too early to tell! Following my first transfer, I didn’t test until day 10 and at day 10 it was the lightest positive ever, it got darker after by test day but on day 10 it was so light, I bet it if I’d have tested earlier than that it would have been negative! Stay positive and wait longer xx

[LucyAvalon]

Thanks Charly, really don’t know why I did it - would never consider testing that early normally. A bad decision!
How are you feeling? x

[CharlyF123]

Bless you, don’t beat yourself up about it!

And I’m still feeling normal, I don’t feel pregnant! Scan in 5 days now we shall see what they have to say, fingers crossed everything is fine! xx

[ZLC]

Ah Lucy as Charly said don’t right it off… everyone is different and they say the test date for a reason.
When is your test date again?

Good luck with your scan Charly, I’m sure everything will be just fine.

I have two whole weeks left to wait today which seems a lifetime! Had some spotting yesterday and started to panic but it was very light and brown not red, nothing today so hopefully it wasn’t anything serious.

X

[LucyAvalon]

Hey, my test date is 11 dpt which is Sunday. However, I typically have a shorter luteal phase than 14 days so last transfer my period started 9 dpt which would be tomorrow. So will see what the day brings! I have had a lot of back pain today and some stomach cramps but could easily be from good or bad news

Sorry to hear you had some spotting but certainly sounds like old blood. I had spotting from 5-8 weeks when I was pregnant with my son and it just eventually went away! Let’s hope you don’t have any more x

[LucyAvalon]

Hi ladies, did a test this morning which was negative and as expected, have started to bleed!
I called care and they said it certainly sounds like it’s not worked for us this time. They asked me to still test on Sunday but have booked us in for a review with the consultant on Wed next week, so unless he wants to do any further testing we will hopefully do a frozen transfer asap.
I’m very disappointed but feel like I just need to focus on next steps and hope that one day it will work!
x

[KMor]

Lucy - I am so sorry, I hope you’re doing ok IVF is so tough as you sort of go into it thinking it’ll work first time but it’s just a case of getting the right protocol to get that little miracle .. and it’s so hard mentally! I’m glad you’ve managed to get a follow up with your consultant so quickly and see what they suggest… and I hope you’ve got some weekend plans to try distract you.

If they do suggest additional testing and you need any advice, feel free to ask any questions. I’ve had quite a lot of testing done and managed to get some of it done via the NHS, which saved us a lot of £s , so always happy to try help if I can xx

[KMor]

Bless you, don’t beat yourself up about it!

And I’m still feeling normal, I don’t feel pregnant! Scan in 5 days now we shall see what they have to say, fingers crossed everything is fine! xx

Hi Charly. How are you doing? I can’t believe your scan is so soon! Try not to worry about lack of symptoms, apparently it can be totally normal. I can’t say I’ve had many either - just feel tired, sore boobs and v minor nausea (but not even sure if I do feel sick of whether it’s just because I keep wondering if I do haha) xx

[CharlyF123]

Hi everyone,

Really sorry about your negative result Lucy but I’m glad they’ve managed to get your review appointment in so soon so you can get on with your next round!

I ended up going to the early pregnancy assessment unit at my local hospital on Thursday as I had some light bleeding, more like diluted blood than fresh blood and it was only on wiping! They were really good when I rang them and said if I could get there in 20 minutes they’d scan me which I did and everything was fine they said, even got to see a heartbeat. The nurse said the bleed was most likely caused by the progesterone pessaries! We shall we see if everything is still ok in 3 days now!

ZLC what date is your scan? Keep counting down the days, it will end up coming round quickly!


And Kmor, how long until your scan now? xx

[ZLC]

Lucy I’m so sorry, it’s such a hard process. I hope you don’t have long to wait before the next cycle.

Charly I’m so happy for you, that’s brilliant news! I hope everything goes smoothly for you from now on

My scan is on 25th. Had spotting on and off the last few days but barely anything so hopefully it’s ok.

X

[LucyAvalon]

Hey,


KMor - thanks for the offer of advice in any testing, I may take you up on that!

Charly - sorry to hear about the bleeding but great news that the scan looked good and nice to have another one so soon!

ZLC - sorry to hear about a little bit of spotting but hopefully it’s stopped and is nothing to worry about.

A question for you all please, when you had your embryo transfers did the consultant use an ultrasound to guide the catheter? I can’t remember what happened on my first transfer but on the most recent they didn’t use any ultrasound and I have seen that usually it is used so was interested in others experiences!

[ZLC]

Hi Lucy

I had one in October last year where they definitely did. He took his time and showed me everything.

Then this one was a different doctor. She said she would do a smear test (at least that’s what we think she said, she spoke so quickly neither of us were 100%!)
She fiddled around- guessing she did smear and put tube in- then suddenly asked for the embryo which surprised me as the previous doctor had been talking me through each stage so thoroughly I hadn’t realised she had got that far! She then asked the nurse to take an image on the screen and told me it was done. So I guess she did use it but it was certainly a much less inclusive experience and more uncomfortable than the first. She didn’t show me the screen once.

X

[CharlyF123]

Hi Lucy,

Yes I definitely had an ultrasound for both of my transfers, there was an assistant scanning and the dr did the transfer! That’s odd that they didn’t do one for you, I would definitely request that they do for your next one

[LucyAvalon]

Thanks ZLC and Charly, that’s really interesting. They may have used ultrasound for my first transfer (I’ll ask) but they did not use it at all in the second one so I’m def going to ask that they do use it in future!

ZLC - could they have said swab rather than smear? On both of mine they said they were going to swab which basically meant clean the cervix with a ball of cotton wool. It was a bit uncomfortable!

For anyone who had a FET - did you use embryoscope/ caremaps and if so was the embryo you had transferred selected based on its visual grading or Caremap score? Of our 4 embryos we had 2 x 2:2 which scored 6 and 7 on caremaps. Also have a 2:1 and a 1:2 which both scored 3 on caremaps. So I’m intrigued as to which one they will transfer as if we’d not done care maps they would presumably have chosen one of the 3s.

[ZLC]

Hi Lucy,

This is an interesting question. I’ve just gone through my portal to find my embryo results and I can’t see it.
I don't think we did Caremaps- I’m not sure what this is so will look it up in a minute. For some reason I thought they were graded 1-10 but I don’t remember.

X

[ZLC]

Just for clarification both of mine were FET

[KMor]

Hi ladies. Just playing catch up again.

Charly - so sorry you had a scare but amazing news that you had such a positive scan and that you get to see little bean again tomorrow. My scan is a week tomorrow which can’t come soon enough! Haha

Lucy - I’ve had guided ultrasound for all 4 of my transfers. I also had the embryo scope but not Caremaps, as don’t think that was available when we did our collection in nov ‘22. I have never been told the grading on any of our embryos but then I’ve never actually asked. They just said we had 4 excellent quality and 2 good, whatever that means!

ZLC - how are you doing?
Xx