[amax]

Originally Posted by SouthhamptonS

The meds were just right for IVF2 and I had the best outcome( my son ). I had 2 to transfer and 2 to freeze. Then 3rd was the same but had a miscarriage and none to freeze. 4th time same protocol but was oversuppressed (go figure) and had poor quaity. Last time I did BCP no Lupron my meds were the same but with different doses. The quality was good but alas nothing. Now no BCP but lupron until supression check. Then gonal-f and that's it. I am getting so scared. I had a dream today of a little girl. She looked a lot like my son but had darker hair. Strange.I hope that was a sneek peek

Samantha

Hi Samantha -
What was your med protocol for your successful IVF? Also, I loved hearing about your dream! My fingers are crossed for you!
Anna

[cagirl2003]

do any of you get really irritable on the birth control stage of the protocol? i have to say i hate it worse than the shots! i just feel sooo irritable, bloated, etc.

[Bella16]

3rdtimesthecharm - Sorry you're having such a hard time with your clinic and getting your schedule - thats no good at all. Sometimes I wonder - they HAVE to know how hard this entire thing is - they HAVE to know that we need to know everything along the way - how excited we get to start, etc and yet they seem to not care!? Soo frustrating, to say the least.

Last cycle I was terrified to hear I only had 10 follicles - I was hoping for way more. And then it turned out only 8 were mature.. then only 6 fertilized - BUT - of the 6 that fertilized, all 6 made it to day 5 - and thats VERY much unheard of, so I hear. The embryologist and our RE were very impressed. We transfered 2, and 3 made it to day 6 and were frozen. So all in all, considering I didnt have many to start with, transfering 2 and freezing 3 - is GREAT!!! So, aside from our BFN, last cycle was perfect & hehe

jp1981 - Stimming longer, sucks butt!! I was so worried last time, since I stimmed for 13 days <-- I was googlinglike a crazy woman, and most women didnt stim as long, so I thought there had to be something wrong with me!? I asked my RE and he said, on average, women stim for anywhere from 10 - 15 days - I guess I fall right in the middle of that. I was on 300 Puregon (by the end) and 75 Repronex, both nightly. Nothing was worse than only having 200 left in the Puregon pen and having to put another vial in - making it so I had to have 4 needles, one right after the other, within minutes of eachother - 3 was enough thanks!

jandm - Good luck with your ultrasound and bloodwork - Are you talking about the 14th n 21st of July? <-- If so, I'm so jealous - I'm not sure the exact date I'll be starting stimming, but I iamgine my ER wont be until the very end of July!? Wishing you nothing but a huge this time around.

cagirl2003 - OMG - the BCP's are killer! I asked to not do them this time - and am alloweed to not do them - YAY! BUT, last cycle, every symptom a girl could get - I got. Bloated, headaches, couldnt eat from about 3PM on, so tired I was head bobbing at work, irritable, nasueous.. you name it, I had it. I was pretty excited to not have to do them again!

[cagirl2003]

how do you not do them? will it mess things up? i'm so tempted to call and ask to stop them. they make me that upset. i get emotional, irritable, unhappy...it's just awful.

[Bella16]

cagirl2003 - When we were talking about our next cycle, I just asked if I could not do them - that they were terrible. My RE said 'fine, you don't have to do them - we'll just start you on Suprefact on CD 21 instead. When normally I'd do BCP's for about 2 weeks then start the Suprefact and the BCP's for about another week -- then off the BCP's and continue the Suprefact until the trigger....
I'm not sure if they'lll let you just stop once you've started - but no harm in asking!?

[MaggieMay75]

Originally Posted by jp1981

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For those of you who have done more then one IVF cycle, do you recommend taking a month off? Just looking for some feedback. And from the sound of it each cycle you produce different embryo quallity which is encouraging. My body feels ready to start another cycle thankfully other then a few lbs I didn’t notice any other symptoms from all the meds. Is here so I guess that’s good news. I just hope I don’t get any worse news tomorrow from my Dr….

Hi there,
After my first failed IVF, I tried to push to cycle again the very next month and my RE said no. He said that he has never personally seen a good outcome (or one that lasts) from back to back fresh cycles. So we took one month off and cycled in March/April instead of February/March and we got our BFP with that cycle. I had poor embryo quality by day five with my first cycle (on day three they looked great) so we transferred on day three the second time around and that was our magic ticket.

So, while I know it is hard to wait yet ANOTHER month, my recommendation would be to go with what your RE says or give your body a month to recover before starting all over again. Just my two cents!

[cagirl2003]

thanks! i just left a message. we'll see. if it delays it...i'll suffer.

[MaggieMay75]

Oops hit reply too soon!

Wanted to catch up with the rest of you ladies too.

CaGirl - BCPs are brutal. I HATE being on them. I've been on them since the beginning of May with the exception of five days off so AF could come and go. I take my last one (hopefully for the rest of my life) on 7/10. I cannot wait! Have you made sure your pharmacy is not giving you the generic version of the BCP ordered for you? The generic is much harder on my system. The non-generic, while sucky is still a much better option for me.

Bella - My friend had a very similar cycle to your last one, BFN but several great ones to freeze and she now has a 16mo from her FET. Are you considering FET or are you going straight to another fresh? I'm sorry if you already told us this, I didn't go all the way back and read.

JandM - wow, if those are July dates, you are SO close!!!

My first shot is on July 6th...gulp.

[jdw]

Originally Posted by amax

Hi Samantha -
What was your med protocol for your successful IVF? Also, I loved hearing about your dream! My fingers are crossed for you!
Anna

Anna- I think the mother's age, which can make a diffence in egg quality, unfortunately plays a role too in why some women have a successful IVF cycle in the past, but then have a more difficult time trying for baby #2. The biological clock ticking and all that. That's why a part of me now wishes that we'd started IVF again sooner, although I know I can't change that now.

GL to everyone who has their meds and is starting soon! Only in the IVF world would I be jealous of you all injecting yourselves. I worry that my RE will tell us next week that we should wait until September instead of being able to start in August. It seems like such a long ways away.

Jody

[cagirl2003]

because my eggs sucked on the antagonist protocol, i have to do the lupron and so i have to be on birth control.

ugh.

sorry, just having a bad day lol

[jp1981]

Originally Posted by MaggieMay75

Hi there,
After my first failed IVF, I tried to push to cycle again the very next month and my RE said no. He said that he has never personally seen a good outcome (or one that lasts) from back to back fresh cycles. So we took one month off and cycled in March/April instead of February/March and we got our BFP with that cycle. I had poor embryo quality by day five with my first cycle (on day three they looked great) so we transferred on day three the second time around and that was our magic ticket.

So, while I know it is hard to wait yet ANOTHER month, my recommendation would be to go with what your RE says or give your body a month to recover before starting all over again. Just my two cents!

Thanks for the advice Maggie! I am so torn to take the month off or not but I just might.

[SouthhamptonS]

Hi Ladies

JP - That is a tuff choice. I can speak from my experience. I did a back to back and the embies were a much better quality than the previous cycle but I still had a . Now i wonder if I should have taken a month off. I know I felt like I couldn't wait but it took a big toll on me emotionally. I wanted to be pg by my due date - somehow I felt that would have helped the pain. I have read alot on these boards that RE's suggest you wait. My RE did not. So it was on us. We decided on a go. In the long run I am glad to know that that cycle showed that I can produce more eggs . Such a tuff choice. Go with your heart and do what feels right. You won't regret it

Cagirl - I agree BCP SUCK!! I am a bear on them my poor DH. I find myself all over the map. On the bright side you are almost done right . It will all be worth it soon. Just another bump in the road to your baby!

Jandm - How did things go?

Jody - I hate all the waiting we have to endure. My RE made me wait 2 cycles after my mc before I could start again. My OB said just wait 1 cycle then we could try again on our own. But as we know all RE are so different. Will she want to have your test results back first? I hope it works out the way you want.

Anna - I don't know if you want this detailed but here it goes. That cycle I started Acupuncture about 1 month prior. BCP and Lupron. Gonal- F and Repronex 150 of each mixed into one shot for first 5 nights. On day 6 decreased Gonal-F to 75 Repronex stayed the same at 150. Day 8 not more gonal-f Repronex still 150. Day 9 trigger 10,000 units of Chorionic Gonadotropih. Estrogen Level was at 1782 Lining at 9.3. How sick am I. I write everything down Hopw that helps. I do remember from 1st to 2nd they changed my trigger from Ovidril to the one above. RE felt ovidril(sp?) I needed something stronger. Also I did pineapple after transfer for a week. The women I see for acupuncture also says no blueberries or parsley don't know why but I do it I go back and forth with acupuncture. I am not sure if it is a deal breaker. Best of luck


Ladies keeping everyone in my .

Samantha

[Bella16]

MaggieMay75 - My DH and I are about to start our 2nd fresh cycle - we have enough for 1 more fresh and one frozen, so we chose to do the fresh first - go with the odds.

[jp1981]

Hi Ladies! I just have to say that I love our cozy little forum and I really appreciate your feedback on the back to back cycles.
Samantha-I just love the positive vibe that you give out when it comes to IVF and that some of us just need more then one cycle for whatever reason and that’s completely fine.
I met with my Dr today. He wasn’t very shocked my cycle didn’t work, he didn’t feel that anything was wrong other then the embryos likely failed to implant.
Basically he advised that it can take a few cycles and that it will happen. He went over all my #’s, my E2 level prior to ET which was high. So although I had 12 eggs he felt that 8 were mature and all fertilized. He learned a few things from my cycle and he is slightly tweaking my Gonalf dose. Rather then starting on 150u I will be starting on 187.50 and he is not adding anything else. I will be on Lupron, then on GonalF and Lupron. He didn’t think that I needed any additional medication so everything else will stay the same. My Dr is a guy, so he is not compassionate at all which is fine, he seems very confident that it will eventually work. He didn’t think I needed to take a month off since arrived on time and everything else went well with my last cycle. Meeting with my Dr today I think I am past the devastated stage and now just ready to start over and hopefully get a this time around. I plan on starting acupuncture next week. I hope it’s not too late for this coming cycle. Cant wait to hear what everyone else is up to!!!

[JustOneMore]

Hey girls,

Sorry I have been MIA for a few days but we are actually in MIA...Miami that is! We decided to take a long weekend off b/4 all the stimming craziness kicks off on July 9th.

I agree with all of you on the BCPs. I switched REs after last cycle and the new RE has set cycle times. I missed the June cycle so I had to stay on BCPs until July... this meant I went through 2 packs and 2 pill before stopping. Let me tell you, THAT was brutal! I am finally off of them and just got AF last night (yay!). I did Lupron which gave me headaches and made me moody (not so much moody actually as really sensitive and prone to overreact). I am on dexamethasone which causes instant weight gain and insomnia. To combat the bloat, I consulted a fertility nutritionist who recommended a high protein, low carb diet. It is working for me, but at last weigh in, I have gained like 15 lbs!! This is more than 10% of my body weight so it really freaks me out. It were one thing if I were preggers but gaining this much before that even happens.....yuck! I am doing an hr of cardio a day and really sticking to the diet but I just feel like a cow. What can you do? (I am hoping AF takes a few lbs with her!)

Today, I switched from Lupron to Cetrotide. Has anyone taken Cetrotide? I am so curious about the side effects. I also just stuck the estrogen patch onto my (big, fat) behind. Just the thought of my body getting some of that back has me instantly feeling better. The RE said the lupron side effects should really diminish once I start the patch. I swear my right butt cheek actually feels warm from it too!

JP, I recently started accupuncture too. Doing it twice a week since I started late. I am not a fan of the needles at all (hello? do we not get pricked enough during this process?) but I love how he reads my tongue! He told me I must eat an apple a day which I am so happy to do! Heck, it's pretty much my only carb a day right now!

Shawna, glad you are doing the fresh first! That makes a lot of sense.

CAgirl, my eggs sucked on antagonist too (and I wish I had the eggs of a 35 year old woman!!) and I am doing EPP with Lupron this cycle as well. I am told that this is the best chance of success. It is not fun at all but it goes by pretty quick.

Samantha, glad you got your box of meds! I find opening that thing to be so overwhelming!!

JandM, I think we are cycling very close together though I may be a few days behind you. It felt like it took forever to get here but now things are moving along a little faster. I am actually getting really excited about the cycle. I am a very optimistic person anyway so I have to temper my own enthusiasm. I know this is a long journey but it feels good to be on the train and moving out of the station!

I hope I didn't miss anyone!!

Have a great night!