[socaintexas]

Hi ladies, I hope you all are doing well. I know some of you from prior cycles, so I pop in to check up from time to time. I hope that is ok!

I just wanted to clarify that DHEA and DHA are not the same thing. DHEA is a precursor to a sex hormone that can supposedly help some women, but may make things worse for some women with PCOS or advanced maternal age (like me!), who have too much testosterone already. Also, you do not want to take DHEA if you get pregnant, as it can potentially be harmful to the fetus. I stopped the RJ and DHEA at egg retrieval. I took both royal jelly/bee propolis and DHEA and our second IVF worked!

DHA is an omega three fatty acid that is good for a variety of things. They put it in some prenatal vitamins because it is supposed to help with brain development. It is safe to take during pregnancy.

Sorry to pop in uninvited, but I just did not want to see anyone do something potentially harmful to their baby that I am sure all of you are going to be blessed with shortly. I am pulling for you all!!! Good luck!

[JustOneMore]

Hi Shiela! So great to hear from you! I am sure everyone appreciates the clarification. How is your pregnancy going? Its lovely to be reminded of the success stories! You are more than welcome here!!

Originally Posted by socaintexas

Hi ladies, I hope you all are doing well. I know some of you from prior cycles, so I pop in to check up from time to time. I hope that is ok!

I just wanted to clarify that DHEA and DHA are not the same thing. DHEA is a precursor to a sex hormone that can supposedly help some women, but may make things worse for some women with PCOS or advanced maternal age (like me!), who have too much testosterone already. Also, you do not want to take DHEA if you get pregnant, as it can potentially be harmful to the fetus. I stopped the RJ and DHEA at egg retrieval. I took both royal jelly/bee propolis and DHEA and our second IVF worked!

DHA is an omega three fatty acid that is good for a variety of things. They put it in some prenatal vitamins because it is supposed to help with brain development. It is safe to take during pregnancy.

Sorry to pop in uninvited, but I just did not want to see anyone do something potentially harmful to their baby that I am sure all of you are going to be blessed with shortly. I am pulling for you all!!! Good luck!

[MaggieMay75]

Mouse - You are a brave woman to venture in to BRU while you are going through IF treatments. What a great, positive attitude you have! We have one frozen blast from our last IVF and if we had had two, I would be doing an FET this time too instead of a fresh cycle. I am so hopeful for you but understand that it must be additionally stressful worrying about whether or not they will survive the thaw. If it is any help, my good friend also had a failed fresh cycle, but then her FET worked and she now has a 17mo little boy!

I took my first heaping spoonful of RJ today. EWW. I am not a huge honey fan and so this was really torturous. It's so dense! What do you all chase it with? Water? I had really cold water which then only seemed to make it coagulate and stick around longer in my mouth. Oh well, right? I suppose if I'm willing to inject myself all night and day and take all these hormones, a little honey should be easy.

SoCa- Thank you for the clarification and congrats on your twinkies!

JustOne - I am with you on the belly weight gain, though I have actual weight gain according to the scale. The things we endure! Oh well, will all be worth it as we are making a nice, cushy home for our embies!

Samantha - I am curious to see if the RJ changes anyone's quality either?


Putting a question out there. So, my egg quality tends to be OK, but my embryos typically do not do well after day three and i have incredibly difficult retrievals. THe last two times, I have had 18-20 mature follies, but my RE has only been able to retrieve 8-12 and that is with almost brute force. I have really sticky eggs or something? Has anyone ever heard of anything similar?

Happy Sunday. Suppression check is on Thursday. Getting nervous that my cyst has grown which means no stimming for me. So many hurdles to overcome!

[justone]

us/bw this am. at least 10 follies, about 4 at 14, estrogen levels look good. they still want me to do injections for two more nights and then us/bw on tues. I'm progressing much slower than last time...did that happen to anyone else? I'm getting so nervous. In the car today, I was thinking of baby names. ughhh, i don't know why I do that to myself??? I talked to RE and they said royal jelly is fine. I bought capsules instead of the honey like stuff. Didn't take it though yet b/c I got stung by a stupid bee and my whole lower leg is swollen. i know I'm not allergic to bees but just want to check with RE and make sure I'm not to sensitive to bees to take this. just to be on safe side.

Mouse -I hope both those embies thaw and become wicked sticky

maggie- Forgive me, but I know nothing about cysts. Can you stim if it hasn't grown?

My last baby shower was 2 years ago for my friend who had her first baby with IVF. I'm really glad I went b/c I knew how it important it was and the struggle that my friend had. And get this, last year 4 people who work very closely with me were pregnant, and all due within 1 month. As was my next door neighbor. What are the freakin' odds on that happening!! it killed me!!!There were days that I couldn't talk to them because I was so mad and so green with envy. I was asked to collect $ for gifts from BRU and I couldn't. I admire your strength, mouse.
Cheers for all good news this week!!!

[SouthhamptonS]

Justone - Grow Follies Grow. Way to go. I wouldn't worry too much about the growth rate. You have a great amount. That is the most exciting part!

Justonemore - When is your next check?

AFM - So sad no sign of . So strange . I don't know if that will change my dates.

I hope everyone had a nice weekend.

Samantha

[schumachm]

Hello Ladies,

I know some of you from another cycle and was just checking on the new cycles. I wish everyone the best of luck. I wanted to offer you some rj/bp tips. I researched this stuff to death, and found out the ground up version in caps is a lot less effective than the kind in honey. RJ is much more stable in honey, and activates better in that state. I swear by the stuff. I hate the taste of the stuff so I would put it into a syringe and I got empty caps from health food store. I would make my own caps twice a day, and down the hatch. It really helps with egg quality, but not quantity according to my research. After taking it for almost three months my fsh went down tremendously. I actually have like two jars of the stuff left over and caps if anyone would like them I would be happy to send them your way. PM me if you need them. Sorry to crash your thread.

[MaggieMay75]

JustOne - Hooray! That is a great number of follies! I did progress slower the second time around, they even amped up my stims a bit at the end and lowered my Lupron to 5 units too. I think that every cycle is a little different. Please keep us posted! I hope that this is your magic cycle!

About my cyst, it is ovarian, so if it has grown since May (it was 3.8cm) they will not let me stim and I will have to have surgery to remove my ovary. Sigh. I had surgery at the end of January to remove a 6.6cm cyst on my left ovary and my OB had wanted to remove the ovary then but my RE wanted to keep it. So there is no question it will have to come out with another surgery. No way will my OB allow me to keep it! At least I would still have my right ovary. Anyway, trying not to think about it and hoping that all is quiet on that front (if the two months worth of bcps have done their job). Thursday is a VERY big day. Getting nervous.

Is anyone else feeling completely EXHAUSTED from Lupron?

[SouthhamptonS]

Maggie- So glad to hear you say that. I have been napping with my son. I am super tired. that the cyst is tiny Best of luck on Thursday!

Shu - nice to see you How are you feeling?

Samantha

[JustOneMore]

Samantha,

You are sweet to remember! I have my first check in today. I am so excited to see how things are developing. Last cycle, I hyperstimmed. This cycle, I switched to EPP (agonist protocol) in the hopes of not hyperstimming. I am praying that the approach is working. My RE has me coming in at 12:30 for bw and back at 2:30 for U/S. They have a lab on site so he will get the results immediately. He wanted my e2 numbers before he sees me. Last time, my e2 was over 900 by day 4 (when it should have been between 100 and 400). I am hoping the hope of all hopes that it hasn't shot up again like that. I will let you know how it goes.

Of course, having gone through this before, I know that this is the FIRST milestone to get pass. So just

that this is the first of MANY milestones that goes well.

Good luck to everyone else today. TTYL.

Originally Posted by SouthhamptonS

Justone - Grow Follies Grow. Way to go. I wouldn't worry too much about the growth rate. You have a great amount. That is the most exciting part!

Justonemore - When is your next check?

AFM - So sad no sign of . So strange . I don't know if that will change my dates.

I hope everyone had a nice weekend.

Samantha

[MaggieMay75]

Good luck JustOne!

Samantha - OMG. I am sooooooo tired. Might have to nap with my LO today too. Not being allowed to have caffeine is not helping matters!

[mouse007]

Originally Posted by MaggieMay75

JustOne -

Is anyone else feeling completely EXHAUSTED from Lupron?

Maggie-
I'm taking lupron right now...and not only am I exausted, but I have the most tremendous headaches I have ever experienced. I don't think they're migranes or anything, but they just won't go away. I have had them no joke, for 3 days straight. My nurse said the estrogen pills are supposed to help relieve them. Still waiting on the relief to come. I'm also very irritable and very argumentive. I blew up at my husband yesterday. He's trying to be patient with me, but I admit I've been a big "B" lately.

Socain- It's so great to hear from you and know that your pregnancy is going great!! Thanks for the clarification on the DHA vs. DHEA. I am going to stop the DHEA today. I didn't know they can harm the fetus (not that I'm pregnant yet)...but hopefully will be in a few weeks . My RE never mentioned when to stop taking them. I really believed they worked for me too.

shu- What a little pharmacist you are. I never knew you could actually make your own capsules. I hated the taste of the RJ. It used to make me gag and choke as I swallowed it. I used to chase it with orange juice. Water wasn't strong enough for me.

Sam-I wish you the best of luck on your bw/us today. OHSS sounds awful from what I hear. I did antagonist too. It's a much easier and faster cycle than lupron. However, I'm on lupron right now and it's killing me.

[MaggieMay75]

Mouse - OMG. YES. The headaches! I have had them almost constantly since I started bcps and now with the Lupron, I am just pathetic. If I drink a really cold glass of water it sometimes helps a tiny bit. What I would like to do is take four Advil and chase them with a Coke, but I'm pretty sure both those things are verboten! I am sorry you're having the headaches too. And in terms of my mood I'm basically like a woman with PMS 24/7. Moody, cranky, emotional and in pain. We are such a fabulous bunch!

[JustOneMore]

Hi Ladies.

I had my first check in today and, well, it was underwhelming. Nothing is happening. My e2 was 71 when it should have been over 200 and the follies showed no signs of growth. And, on top of that, the RE saw a big honkin' cyst that he couldn't figure out if it was on my ovary or outside. If it was on my ovary, it would threaten the whole cycle so we decided to aspirate it on the spot. After four or five (very unpleasant) jabs, he determined that it was definitely outside of my ovaries (since it moved around wildly) and wouldn't effect anything. He upped my stims (Gonal F) from 300 to 375 and I go back Thursday to see if there is any change. He didn't seem too worried since I have lots of resting follies and he'd rather me stim slowly instead of too quickly but I am definitely behind.

This is the part of the process that I really hate. You wake up feeling great, are excited to go to the RE and then *bang* something happens that isn't so great and takes the wind out of your sails. I am so down right now (and crampy from all the jabbing at the cyst). There is nothing I can do, but keep up the protocol and wait for Thursday...and of course, hope and pray that things start to kick in by then.

(And to think, I was worried about hyperstimming. At this point last cycle, my e2 was over 900. Just crazy.)

[cagirl2003]

i'm sorry justonemore. this process can be so exciting sometimes and then so defeating the next. everything crossed that your appt goes well next time.

i start lupron tonight.

been reading about you girls, just don't have much to say. i'm feeling rather negative about my own cycle so i don't wanna whine

[cagirl2003]

can we take meds while on lupron? in case i get the headaches too...