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

[dovkav123]

Yes I have stopped my progesterone and I have my period now. No different.
My hubby is against injectables for now. We'll do another natural IVF this month. The next month I'll push for injectables.
WE debate if we should change the clinics. Our ET didn't go well. I read that too much cervical manipulation can cause hormone oxytocin to elevate and that can cause uterine contractions and I had those in 2ww. In my clinic gynecologist, not RE did the transfer, only the egg retrieval did RE. They performed ET the same method like your clinic. Dr. tried to push the soft catheter w/o embryo first and she did it smoothly, with embryo, she got stuck and had to push???!!! So heartbreaking..
We'll talk to a supervisor and discuss our experience, we can't see him till middle of OCT, but we'll just drop in on Monday.
Next cycle I'll do things different
1. I'll take 400mg progesterone, not 600mg. My blood levels were very high, 140, the levels of second semester. I read that this hormone thickens the blood. It is so smart that you are on the blood thinners!
2. we'll save 3 days for the sperm collection, no caffeine that morning for DH.
3. we'll transfer 2day embryo.
4. I'll demand the photo of the ultrasound after the ET. My huby needs to look at the ultrasound, not at my beauty

 

[Briss]

Very good plan. well done on going ahead this cycle! I am not sure about injectables as we ended up having one egg anyway.

It may make sense changing the clinic if next attempt is not successful. Unfortunately I only know two clinics in London that do natural IVF, it's not very popular here.

I had the same lady doing EC and ET but I think it's just an accident, every time I came for a scan there was a different doc but i know they make decisions collectively.

I wonder why she had issue pushing the small catheter with your embryo cos it is not supposed to go through the cervix but through the larger catheter which is not supposed to have any obstructions? actually there was two ladies the doc and embryologist, and the embryologist started inserting the small catheter and then the doc took over.

1. I am taking 400mg progesterone twice a day so it comes to 800 mg a day. blood thinners are quite painful and I get headaches

3. 2 day embryo naturally is supposed to swim alone one of the fallopian tubes not be in the uterus so it's not exactly the right environment but the clinic thinks it's still better than the lab. what day embryo did you get on ET?

4. the photo is quite funny cos you cant really see much

I asked about the papers on embryo as you suggested but they were surprised. told me they will send it to me by post.

 

[dovkav123]

How are you feeling?

I think that tube or uterus has the same enviroment for emby to grow and divide. When we have only one, there is no reason to keep it longer in the lab. We transfered day 3. Dr. called me, announced fertilisation and told me to come the next day, but my RE told me to come in 3 days, so we did the 3 day.

I saw an article that women get preggo latest 4th time with natural IVF. They were older than me. I think we'll be lucky soon, just need to stay possitive and keep doing massages, meditations, eating fatty fish, nuts and seeds and lots of protein to help my follie to grow. Now we know more about my body, we have better strategy and more hope, we were so close to victory!

I have a secret wish, I hope I'll have two folicles next time. My grandmother (my mom's mom) had non -identical (fartenal?)twins, this do run into family gene.

About the ET, I think the main catheter was not placed right in the first place, when the emby catheter went in it, slipped out. WE don't know, we'll never know. I hate changing clinics, I hope next time RE will transfer it, she did my hysteroscopy and she went in perfectly. Next time I won't let them try so hard, if they can't do it, I'll come later in few hours or next day.

If my follie will grow the same speed like last month, retrieval should be on Sunday. Bump, we'll be bumped because they don't do IVF in the weekend. I have another clinic close by, I can contact them. Now help me here, please. 1.Should I tell them the whole story about problems to retrieve in the weekend, 2. should I just make an appointment for IVF and than cancel if my follie is slow growing and retrieval in the following week. 3. Just go with a new clinic and pay tripple price.
here is an interesting study
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2582079/

Briss, thank you for support, you're my hope. WE need only one sperm and one egg and we'll prove it to the world that we are superwomen and we went against all odds to the victory!
Will you test it out your HCG?

Please let your hubby to pamper you, you deserve the best!
Enjoy your days off and your weekend.
here are some videos for you:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WG-LnCmYwU&list=HL1380992767

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcJWPWb2uBs

 

[Briss]

How many sells did your 3 day embryo have?

twins is a great dream, i think my dh was disappointed with just one egg cos he hoped for twins

cant they just give you meds to keep your follicle in place for a day longer so the EC/ET is not on weekend?

I have doubts about your clinic cos I think it's already twice that something was not quite right with the way they conducted the procedure. I'd probably try again because the prices are just really attractive but then move to a different clinic.

I am not sure If I will be testing as I am afraid of getting false positive after the trigger, I will probably still test just before my blood test so i am prepared for the outcome and wont start crying in the clinic.

I had a bit of cramping couple of times today, I immediately lied down hugging my tummy and the cramping stopped. I also seem to develop constipation from the progesterone. Hubby got me prunes which is supposed to help with that. i think I need to make sure it's all working properly to avoid toxins accumulating in that area.

My colleagues are trying to make me work on Monday but i am resisting as much as I can, i really want proper relaxation. I think my wonderful embryo will become blastocyst on Monday and may start implanting so i really want to give it the best possible stress free environment

 

[Briss]

TMI I had a tiny bit of brown spotting today when I wiped I never ever spot in the middle of TWW, may be progesterone is not working but either way it's not a good sign. am trying not to cry. it was supposed to reach blastocyst stage tomorrow and start implanting... I did have a bit of cramping yesterday but i was trying to stay in bed most of the day

 

[dovkav123]

WE transfered 8A embryo, but dr. told us it has more than 8 cells. Nobody know exact age of embryo. When was it fertilised?
Never TMI for me. Shouldn't be any TMI between women.
Briss,
1. progesterone may cause spotting, esspecially the vaginal one.
2. Your blood thinner. You are at risk of bleeding, even little scratch may bleed.
3. It is an old blood, maybe still from transfer, your cervix was irritated.
4.Do you take progesterone rectally? It can change your bowel movement. Constipation can cause bleeding.

Stay in bed as much as you can, allow yourself only shower and bathroom.
I had cramping too, ovarian pain, but I had no spotting till my AF.

5.maybe it is implantation, emby grows it's own paste and maybe faster in optimal conditions.

In natural IVF study, dr. also transfered 2 day embryos and they resulted in pregnancies.

"Although stable at room temperature, once you insert a vaginal or rectal progesterone suppository, the preparation begins to melt due to your body temperature. What may appear to you to be spotting due to vaginal bleeding may actually be a small amount of leakage, from the vagina or anus, of the liquefied suppository. Certain formulations of progesterone suppositories are associated with orange and brown discharge due to the medication itself. If you are having difficulty discerning whether the spotting is due to the suppository or vaginal bleeding, talk to your doctor"



Read more: https://www.livestrong.com/article/...-of-progesterone-suppositories/#ixzz2gwwKyAmR

Praying for you, girl.

 

[Briss]

i do progesterone rectally, not vaginally. and i do have constipation, so annoying. I started eating prunes but spotting was definitely vaginal not rectal. the doc said i should increase my progesterone to every 8 hours, 1,200 mg a day.

i got a faint positive today, it's most likely false one from the trigger short. i wonder when it's going out of my system

 

[dovkav123]

did you contact your clinic? Did dr. increased your progesterone?

My dr. told me in a week HCG should be out of my system.
I tested CD22. 13 days after HCG and it was snow white blahhh.

I have those short crying episodes since my period came. The summer ended, and I am still not preggo. Cloudy sky makes me unhappy. I want to go back to California, where it is 25 degrees and sunny sky. But I am not leaving Germany till I get preggo.
Today I am very proud of myself, I meditated, exercised, massaged my pelvic area, heated it. I ate dandelion salat, pumpkin seed, flaxseeds. Grow follies, grow! They grow different speed every month. In August on CD11 it was only 14-15mm. This September on CD8 18mm. I'll just relax and go with a flow...
This cycle I'll take 3g fish oil pills. It helps with autoimmunity problems, which endometriosis can cause.
Also fresh garlic and ginger. Those will help me if I have blood clot disorder. I should buy resveratrol pills and green tea pills too. Ginger is better blood thinner than aspirin.

Probiotic 20billion repair gut lining and treat candida. I used to have candida on the corner of my lip.

I am eating lots of grapes from our garden, they are very small but sweet.
Floradix, I am taking iron supplement. Minimum amount it has herb and fruit blend that prevents from constipation.

 

[Briss]

you grow grapes in your garden? wow!! that's amazing. I did not know you lived in California before moving to Germany. I wonder what US fertility clinics are like. Do you know they are keep on natural IVF?

well done on meditation and the rest of it, really healthy and an excellent boost to your follicles.

i called the clinic and they said it's not necessarily bad news yet but advised that I increased progesterone. constipation is killing me, my tummy looks like I am at least 6 months pregnant but prunes definitely started working today finally!

Thanks for the article, that's really interesting

I think I will start testing every day to see if the line disappears and then hopefully appears again for real

Cramping is still there although I spent last two day on my sofa, every time i get up i feel cramping

I take 1 g fish oils, 1 g vit C, 800 folate (not folic acid) and prenatals

I will start making ginger tea, good idea. i knew it had worming properties did not know it was a blood thinner.

 

[Briss]

This is interesting, I did not realise ET is so important I assumed it was a very easy and straightforward procedure, apparently the doc's experience at ET determines the success of IVF. having read this I do think you may want to look into a different doc cos your ET was not uneventful and is probably the reason for bfn.

"The embryo transfer is the most crucial step in the In Vitro Fertilization procedure/process. You can have the best quality embryos, but if they are not placed into the uterus correctly, then pregnancy will not occur. That is why "transfer technique" is so important. There have been studies showing that pregnancy rates can vary by Physicians within the same group, and this is all because of transfer technique. Once the disparities between transfer techniques were corrected and unified, the pregnancy rates became consistent. For this reason, you want to seek out a Physician who has a lot of experience with embryos transfers and comparable good pregnancy rates. If you go to a clinic that has multiple doctors, ask for the pregnancy rates of each Physician or your particular Physician. Although I know that newly trained REI Physicians have to get experience, most don't have a lot of embryo transfer experience from their fellowship. So, if I were paying $10,000 or more for an IVF cycle, I would ask for a more experienced doc to do the transfer."

https://womenshealthandfertility.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/bleeding-after-embryo-transfer.html

 

[dovkav123]

Thanks so much for this article. I didn't realise it is such a crucial step.
Now I know more.
I'll ask to try out my cervix on the day of ER. Prof. she is RE does my ER, I'll ask her boss that she could do my ET in 2 days.
Valium! I read that It is a great idea to take valium to relax, legs and tighs and of course uterus.

Thanks for support and for being such a good friend!

 

[dovkav123]

I made an appointment with both F clinics for an ultrasound. On THursday(my old clinic already mentioned about no retrieval in the weekend, receptionist didn't want me to come on THursday, I told her my follies may be small and we'll be good to retrieve on Monday) and ON Friday(new clinic I didn't tell about IVF just an ultrasound, I can cancel them anytime)
I just don't want to miss out this month... I want to keep going.... and never give up!

How are you feeling today?
You must be at work now, please take an easy.

 

[Briss]

dovkav, it's great if you can start with both clinics, when do they ask you to pay? at my clinic you pay on your first scan and in full and if no eggs collected you lose everything. pretty tough.

I am cramping non stop. makes me really depressed.

I called a sickie and decided to stay at home until lunch time. i'd stay the whole day at home but i have a meeting in the afternoon which I already postponed so cant do again. still i think if I just do half day today that might be beneficial.

I am not sure about valium, does it have side effects? it might be an idea as my legs were shaking a lot at ET, i hope it did spoil anything.

i am also so happy i found you! not many people go through natural IVF it's great that we stick together

 

[dovkav123]

we pay cash, any dr. we visit in Germany the bill comes in the mail in couple of weeks

in US natural IVF is common. I found one clinic gives you 3 tries you pay right away for $7000
other clinic refund some $, or you can use them for the next try.

Other clinic in Los Angeles does a natural IVF study trial, research, they state that only some meds will be cheaper(probably progesterone or HCG trigger) The whole amount they want is 7000$. For such a low % of success!!

Stick little bean, stick, I hope cramping is a good sign.

 

[Briss]

3 tries for $7000 seems really cheap compared to UK prices.

How's it going? when are you going for your scan?

afm, cramping still there but I think it's not as strong as yesterday, I am so hoping it's a good sign. I tested out the trigger and now just getting bfns

 

[dovkav123]

16 mm follicle today(dr. told me I may need to take voltaren pills to stop premature O), but the blood tests change the whole plan
ER on Monday
I requested RE to do an ET on Wednesday.
Tomorrow we'll talk with RE on phone about doing IVF not ICSI, I want to know if we capable to do it. naturally. Worth of risk.

What an adranalin rush!I am so excited! We are playing Russian rulet. We are choosing the hardest way, but I think we'll succeed soon.
I need to cancel another clinic today.

We went to church today and lit up a candle for the last month emby. We think he is an angel now and we'll see him in heaven.

I also prayed for you, and your miracle...
I aslo prayed for all the girls who has problems, that their suffer would end soon. God loves us, he wishes us the best. I's only The matter of time...

 

[Briss]

dovkav, I think it all depends on your DH's SA sample on the day, if morphology is good than IVF should be possible but if it's below 4% I would not risk it and would just go with ICSI. Your follicle is growing really fast - 16 mm follicle on CD 6!! what are you feeling it?

Thank you very much for your prayer, so unbelievably kind of you! you know 3 is a lucky number so I am sure this cycle is going to be a success at last.

It's very exciting time for you! keep me posted.

 

[dovkav123]

I am on CD8 today, 16mm follicle, Left side again. Uterine lining is 8mm. Sorry, I didn't update my FF.
I am so glad I came today for ultrasound. My receptionist told me that CD8 is too late we don't do ER in the weekend. I told her maybe my follicle is small this month and we'll make it till Monday. And was right!

My hubby says don't do anything that heps him grow.

Last month on this day I had 18mm and it was Friday. So we are 1 day behind. Today dr. told me(I met 4th gynecologist in 3 months) they don't do retreivals in the weekend, because IVF lab is closed. Another dr. told me different reason, no one is here to help me during emergency during ER. Which is teling the truth?
Today she wanted to test again my thryroid TSH, I showed her my tests from May. I asked for some blood tests. It was nice of her to prescribe blood tests for my kidney, liver, cholesterol and CBC(all blood counts, hemoglobulin, white blood cells)
Last year my white blood cells were quit low and my dr. sent me to hemotologist. He said it is common, girls like my age to have WBC low. WE demanded for some tests, everything came back normal.
Also she wants to test for chicken pox. I told her I have all my immunization records, I'll give her later. This is our 3rd IVF and now she is asking for our passports and marriage certificate. I can't beleave she needs them now. I guess she is following the protocol. Goverment or insurance will not help with IVF if the couple is not married. WE PAY PRIVATE. IT DOESN'T MATTER.

Do you know anybody else who is doing mini or natural IVF on this or different website?
I found only one woman's testimonial, story on youtube about natural IVF. She sounded that IVF is so easyyyyyyy. They did ICSI because of male factor and they were lucky from the first try. She inspired me so much.
I hope 3 charm is a lucky one.
Those 2 were experimental one, this one a real deal!
I'll talk to RE CHIEF tomorrow on phone and we'll ask why he did ICSI last month. We'll decide than.

How do you feel testing so early?
HCG trigger is out of your system early.

 

[Briss]

dovkav, timing looks good, I am so hoping your follicle will be ready for Monday's EC.

I think emergency is a good point, anything can happen EC has some risks so they are thinking of your safety.

it's good to do thyroid TSH but I also heard that it's important to test antibodies as well

I cant believe you need to be married to get funding for IVF!! this is ridiculous!

why is she asking about chicken pox? i had chicken pox a few years ago as an adult, not a nice thing to have they asked me for rubella immunisation which I think I had as a child.

I do not know anyone on B&B who is doing natural IVF but there is a discussion board for my clinic which mainly does natural - https://www.fertilityfriends.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=240802.1050;topicseen although it's been quiet lately.

I recall there was another discussion not that long ago actually - https://babyandbump.momtastic.com/trying-conceive-over-35/1856095-natural-cycle-ivf.html

my HCG trigger was out quickly because I had LH surge before the trigger so in the end needed only one shot.

I started testing early in order to manage my expectations and prepare myself for whatever comes step by step. if I just do tww and then test and get a bfn that would be too much. we wont do another cycle straight away as I need to get my hormones back to normal. progesterone is really having a noticeable effect on me. I will take a holiday and visit my mum, get more strength and then do it again.

Did you have bloating? I am so bloated, it's awful.

 

[dovkav123]

SYMPTOMS CHECKER: temps went up after transfer, progesterone didn't give me any bloating. I am glad you have one, it is a huge hope. Last month I took 400mg progest. didn't have any symptoms. This time I took 600mg, the symptoms were very mild.
1.CD14 transfer day-pain on the right ovary, cramping, headache.
2. CD15 less cramping, headache, ovary pain, needle feeling on the uterus for a few seconds.
3. CD16 urine cramp, uterine contractions
4. CD17
5 CD18 stressed out
6 CD19 breast tingle, nausea after breakfast
7. CD20 stressed out, tired all day, nausea breakfast and pm
8.CD21 uterine contraction, breast tingle
9. CD22 stuffy nose, uterine contractions, dizzy pm(had to lay down), bad sleep,BFN
10. CD23 stuffy nose, migraine, feels I'll get sick
11. CD24 tired, stuffy nose,
12. CD25 blood test negative, cried, depressed
13. CD26
14. CD27

Thank you for the references about natural IVF.
When is your blood test due?
I know, Briss, you want to be prepared for anything what will happen. Have control of the situation. Home preg. test could be false negative. The blood test is the one to beleave. But still my clinic tests 14 days after retrieval, others 17-18. So I didn't rush to get off he progesterone(I got off it slowly), I waited for 3 more days and did another preg. home test. I did a test a day before my AF. That suppose to be the most accurate.

hey Briss, stay positive! I know it's such a feeling of wonder when you realize that you finally have your fertilized egg living thing inside you. Wishing you lots of healthy growth and that your little miracle makes itself comfortable in there. I'm sure it feels your love. Happy 2ww! It's so hard to be patient when you've been patient so long but I am hoping and praying for strong little embies for us both.