7th Natural cycle IVF(w/o meds) and finally BFP!

[Briss]

I think they put me on cetrotide so they are sure there wont be any accidental ovulation before the time. I will have to take trigger shot 35 hours before EC. they think that EC will probably happen next wednesday but we will have to wait and see. I am not sure how large my follicles are supposed to be. I think there is still a long way to go and things may change.

Am preparing myself for double injection

 

[dovkav123]

Briss,
I want to suggest something very important to you.
Take HCG shot in the evening and the next day take a preggo test, make sure you get positive. First time dr. didn't find an egg too, maybe the shot was at falt.
I didn't do it, but I will the next time....

Lorna from Babyandbump took a shot and dr. couldn't find eggs from 4 follicles. I am happy she has 8 more left, so she'll do another shot and EC on Monday. DR. couldn't beleave it. Nothing like this ever happened to him. The follicle's fluid had no traces of HCG. Isn't that crazy? All this anesthesia, emotional breakdown, heartbreak...
Maybe the dose was not enough, or was not administered properly or not on time.
I took 250mcrg of Ovitrel, but some clinic sadvise 500mcrg. BMI matters? Maybe.

After dinner I got dizzy, I had to lay down. My blood pressure was Ok. Since Yesterday I have a stuffy nose and feel like I'll get sick. Also I am very thirsty, slept very bad last night. Too many trips to the bathroom.
I am praying for Monday 8am. The results I should now by afternoon.

You'll be an expert in poking yourself soon! Go, girl, Go!
I can't beleave that we need to take this road to happiness! Who knew?

 

[Briss]

Thanks so much for heads up! I had no idea ovidrel can give false BFP; did a bit of googling and apparently it can still be in your system for 14 days giving you a false positive.

My BMI is 19-20 so i guess one shot would be enough to trigger O. Apparently, ovidrel does not trigger O when follicles are in fact cysts and don't contain eggs. As far as I could gather the clinic is supposed to check your Estrogen levels during your cycle and before triggering to make sure these are follicles and not cysts. Every time I have my scan they check estrogen because from the first scan they were suspecting that my larger follicles might turn out to be cysts but estrogen was not too high they got comfortable that these were follicles. I really hope so.

I have a lot of unused pregnancy tests so i am going to start doing them daily after the trigger shot just to make sure it worked and check how long it will take to get it out of my system. it's going to be depressing to see your pregnancy test getting fainter every day...

 

[Briss]

CBFM: HIGH

Scan: 2 dominant follicles; left follicle 16 mm (grew 3 mm in 2 days); right follicle: 11 mm; other follicles reduced in size; for egg collection follicles need to be at least 17 mm; slightly depressing cos right follicle is most likely empty and was not increasing in size as it should; basically we have almost the same result if i had not taken the meds: one dominant follicle; either menopur is not working for me or I need larger doses to see any effect; I could have just gone with no stimulation at all and still get one follicle; My left ovary is very sensitive I feel like I am about to O and if it was not for Cetrotide I'd be most likely ovulating now.

Lining: 11.4 mm; triple layer – I am not sure what this means and what are the other options for the lining but they all keep saying it's promising. I was spotting until CD9 which is way too long and has not happened in many years;

Cyst on the right: 24x22x23; roughly the same size as before; still not being affected by the meds; very happy about that

Bloods:
Estrogen: increased from 632 (CD8) to 1,100; was told it's promising; it almost doubled in 2 days and i guess that prompted my CBFM to move to HIGH;
LH: stayed the same at 6.5 (being suppressed with meds)

Meds:
150 IU Menopur
0.25 mg Cetrotide

Scan: next scan is scheduled for CD 11

My headache got better but i am still no closer to getting used to the injections. Feel slightly defeated today by the scan results but I guess we wont know anything until egg collection which may happen on wednesday.

 

[Briss]

CD 11

CBFM: HIGH
OPK: 4 pm negative; 7 pm - positive

Scan: 2 dominant follicles; left follicle 18.8 mm (grew 2.8 mm in 1 day); right follicle: 12.6 mm (grew 1.6 mm in 1 day);* ready for egg collection! Blood flow to the left follicle and uterus is very good; they also noticed some CM - also good; Even though the right follicle is small I was told there is still a chance it has a viable egg. I asked why menopur did not work in making me develop more follicles and was told that it has nothing to do with menopur as it can only help develop follicles that have viable eggs; each cycle is different and it so happened that this cycle I probably only have 1-2 good eggs; the rest vanished because they never meant to be this cycle;

Lining: 10.6 mm; triple layer* - seem less than yesterday but i guess it depends on the way each practitioner measures it;

Cyst on the right: 25x28x29; roughly the same size as before; still not being affected by the meds; very happy about that

Bloods:
Estrogen: increased from 1,100 (CD10) to 1,529 - good;
LH: increased from 6.5 to 16 despite being suppressed - very bad!! I did several OPKs - negative so I was advised to start taking 50 mg Indometacin in order to keep follicles from disintegrating; I did some google search and only found studies on rats... I asked if we should move EC for tomorrow but because my OPK were negative they decided to proceed as planned; I can only hope we wont miss that egg by Wednesday; I repeated my OPK later in the evening and it was positive (4 hours before the trigger shot). i called the clinic's emergency number but they said we will have to risk it as tomorrow the follicle wont be mature enough for EC. Indometacin should help prevent early ovulation but it's not a guarantee.

Meds:
250 micrograms Ovitrelle - 11 pm trigger shot (originally I was advised to take double dose (500) for some reason even though my BMI is normal but after it appears that my LH increased so much I was advised to take just 250 micrograms Ovitrelle. She told me it's unlikely that Ovitrelle can fail but i can check my monitor tomorrow for LH surge and it should give me a PEAK;
50 mg Indometacin - supposed to start taking this anti inflammatory drug 3 times a day up until egg collection which hopefully going to keep my follicles in place.

Egg Collection CD 13; there is still a risk of early ovulation

 

[Briss]

Dovkav, I followed your advice and had a huge steak for lunch today; trying to feed my follicles How is it going? have you tested again?

 

[dovkav123]

Sorry girls I kept you waiting.
I got BFN on my blood test. Only today I could think what we could do next. It takes 2 weeks to see my RE and talk about failed IVF. I am willing to do mini IVF little stimulation, retrieve 3 eggs. But my hubby doesn't like that idea. He wants me to repeat natural IVF again. He is choosing slower but healthier way of treatment.
2 things could be the reason of our BFN:
My hubby had a low motility, so they did ICSI.
My ET went really bad. My hubby saw how dr. forced that embryo in, he is doubt if an embryo really got in where it suppose..to..First try she did it smoothly without an embryo....

I burned badly on our IVF, but that won't stop me a bit, I'll go forward even faster, because I was soooo close to the victory.

I had 18mm follicle in the morning and I took ovitrel next day in the evening. You are on the same schedule like I was, I pray you'll be on time for EC.
P.S. drink lots of water!!! and take your preg. test before ER

 

[sekky]

Was following your progress Dovkav. Sorry you got a bfn this time. Hopefully DH allows you to do minimal stimulation next cycle and you get you rainbow baby. Hugs

 

[Briss]

dovkav, I am so sorry about BFN, how disappointing it would be interesting if they could tell you whether there was something with egg/sperm quality or implantation? I do not think motility was an issue. why did she have to force it in during ET?

I agree with your hubby that natural cycle is probably better; I had mild stimulation but in the end I am lucky if we get 2 eggs tomorrow, most likely one which is the same result if I did not have any stimulation.

i am getting slightly scared about ER tomorrow, there is a chance I ovulated today. will check my temp in the morning before leaving.

 

[dovkav123]

Thinking about you, good luck!

 

[Briss]

IVF Update EC/ CD 13

Temp: raised, was concerned about early ovulation; asked to do a scan before EC - left follicle was in place. I am now questioning my temp method and all other ovulation symptoms as I felt very strongly that I already ovulated; everything pointed towards it and that's exactly how I usually feel the next day after O. I was so sure we missed the egg and when it turned out that I had not ovulated yet I started wondering whether we BD too early when we TTC naturally. the doc said the temp is not reliable but they do trust OPK. I guess I was supposed to O later today naturally.

EC: Left follicle: very straightforward; egg came off straight away; right follicle: too close to the cyst and very small - decided not to take the risk of puncturing the cyst and not attempt collecting an egg from the right follicle; DH was very disappointed as it seems all this trouble with daily injections of menopur - all for nothing but I am pleased they did not take the risk. sedation was fine, they injected some painkillers which felt like morphine and made me want to smile and then I fell asleep; they woke me up about 10 min after I even managed to have a dream. did not feel a thing. There was a bit of pain near the cervix; no bleeding following the procedure;

SA/ICSI: unfortunately we ended up with poor sample: 5.5 million; 27% motility and only 1% morphology so there was no other option but to do ICSI; the embryologist said that even if DH's sample was of better quality they would still recommend doing ICSI in our case because if his previous SA which were never good enough. the chances of fertilisation are about 70%. They called me later on to tell me that the egg was mature and all is well; they managed to proceed with ICSI;

ET: the next important point is tomorrow: the egg is supposed to (i) fertilise and (ii) divide into two sells. if all goes well then on friday morning they will check if the egg is divided into further 3-5 sells (about 90%) and if so they will call me in for transfer; if not then there is no point in doing the transfer as something is not right with the embryo. As I have only one egg they prefer to transfer 2 day embryo as they believe it has better chances of developing inside my uterus than in a lab.

Meds:
7 am: 50 mg Indometacin (trying to keep the egg in place and avoid early ovulation)
after Egg Collection:
Cyclogest 2x400 mg (Progesterone): two options vaginally or rectally. I personally would probably go for rectally as I do not want anything to interfere with my vaginal flora so it's good to go for natural TTC next cycle if things do not work out.
Clexane 20 mg/0.2ml: just as I thought I am done with injections, they make me do blood thinning injections daily for the next 2 weeks!!!! starting from tonight. I honestly did not see it coming.

 

[dovkav123]

Congrats on your eggy!-1 step is over! Cheers!
Fertilisation is next.
My hubby had a small only .5 ml sperm collection(we BD a night before) we thought if we won't catch an egg, we'll try naturally.
sample after concentration
.5ml .1ml
motility 60million 2m
progressive mot 16% 100%
immotile 76% 0%
motile in circles 8% 0%

I don't understad why motility went so drasticly down after a workup.
morphology they didn't check, in May he had 19%. Motility was too low, so they helped out. Dr. never told us about ICSI, i found out in papers. Maybe ICSI was not the reason we failed.
why the blood thinners? I read that women after 35 is a good idea to take aspirin for fertility.
Are you achy tonight?
progesterone I agree, put in rectum, because this hormone may irritate cervix
Next time I will do 2 day transfer too, more days after O my uterus or cervix changes, that's why dr. can not get in there easy!!!!

 

[Briss]

they think the blood thinners help with lining and implantation, I never took aspirin cos I did not think it was an issue for us but here they seem to think it's necessary.

I do not have any pains at the moment, although feel very tired and sleepy.

 

[dovkav123]

It's a big day today. Good luck, praying for you.

 

[Briss]

CD 14, Day 1 post EC: fertilisation occurred!

I am so thrilled. I feel like I love that little embryo already and wish I could hug it! I know most people, when going through IVF, are more worried about implantation and what happens in TWW. My concern has always been what happens before the transfer. I doubted my DH's sperm is capable of fertilising anything, I do not know why I thought so but I did. I am very happy that I was proved wrong and that at least we passed this stage. The next stage is anxiously waiting for the egg to start dividing. At the moment it's still one sell, it has two parts: my and DH's but only now it is going to start dividing into more sells. They gave us about 90% chance. We wont know if it happened until tomorrow but they told me to be prepared to come for ET tomorrow with full bladder.

 

[dovkav123]

I have chills! I am so happy for you!
Little life is there, boy or girl, character, soul, appearance. I know how you feel!
Rest well, girl. Your baby is growing in warm and peaceful place. He is waiting for you.
2 weeks ago, I thought he is sooo lonely and scared in the dark.
Stay postive and dream only colorful future!

P.S. don't forget to ask your dr. a copies of SA and an embryo assesment papers(discharge papers)

 

[Briss]

Thanks so much for the tip re a copies of SA and an embryo assesment papers, I had not idea I was supposed to get those.

 

[Briss]

IVF Update CD 15

Day 2 post EC: embryo transfer!

Our wonderful embryo divided into 4 perfect sells today with no fragmentation. I was told that's the best we could have hoped for. I do not know if that's true i think they try to make everyone feel positive about their embryos but I am grateful. I am completely in love with our embryo it's amazing to think I may have a new life inside of me.

The transfer was very straightforward and I could not feel much at all. it took about 2 min but there was about 10 min preparation time, they inserted a larger catheter through the cervix and then embryologist came in with a smaller catheter containing the embryo that went into the larger catheter. i even have a picture of a small cloud with the embryo (cant see it though) and liquid being injected into my uterus. There have been about 3 hour wait though but that's not the worst part. Full bladder - that's the challenge! I was failing miserably on this front, had to empty my bladder twice before I reached the transfer, 20 min in there seemed like ages cos I just could not hold it in. I can deal with pain but I completely cant deal with peeing deprivation. I had to pee about 10 min after the ET not ideal but they said it's completely fine, I am still scarred by this experience and cant stop peeing at home...

it's going to take a few days for the embryo to grow and further divide and then hopefully it will start implanting into my lining. I am due for pregnancy blood test on 16 Oct. In the meantime I carry on with Cyclogest 2x400 mg (Progesterone) and Clexane 20 mg/0.2ml. I took today and Monday off, am going to pumper myself and take it easy and now have no regrets about missing out on the business trip, I think it's very likely that we have now come closer to achieving a pregnancy than ever before. I cant stop smiling.

I have to say that natural IVF is very manageable and I think I can even do it every cycle but probably best to have it every 2-3 cycles so the body could recover its hormonal balance. I would be very interested to discuss menopur and other stimulation meds as it might be that we should just go completely natural with no stimulation. Having just one egg is risky but than you cant transfer more than two anyway and freezing is not the best way I think.

It would have been nice to have DH with me for ET but he could not take any more time off.

 

[dovkav123]

Great news! Now I can go to bed!
You even got a photo of your baby on the ultrasound, a little cloud
How cute!
Keep smiling and stay positive, I'll pray every day for you till!
I am happy you have had a good experience with this IVF.

How long did you lay down after ET?
Did your dr. wear a hat, mask and coat? In US they take ET very seriously.In Germany no, the same like IUI
Any special dr. orders?

 

[Briss]

dovkav, thank you so much for your support! have you stopped progesterone? what's your plan for the next cycle?