Finally success after 5 years unexplained infertility

[ashknowsbest]

9 months in a few days

 

[MoBaby]

Any update ash?

 

[ashknowsbest]

Sorry I've been MIA and didn't respond Mo. I ended up not being pregnant but had a 54 day cycle. Ugh, it's so frustrating. Not that I'm not pregnant but that my body is still all over the place. CCRM opened a satellite office in Menlo Park which is about 20 minutes from my house so my hubby and I had a consult there. We're going to try metformin alone for 6 months and if that doesn't get us pregnant then we're going to do an IVF cycle, CCS testing, and then transfer when we're ready. I really want to try the metformin since we found out that I am definitely PCOS - not PCOish like my other doctor (at RMANY said) and metformin is supposed to help significantly with PCOS patients egg quality. She can't believe I've never been put on metformin so she really wants to try that before going straight to IVF and I'm totally on board with this.

L and O are 9 1/2 months old. I can't believe it. I've started planning their 1st birthday party which I'm very excited about. O is crawling all over the place, even standing by himself which is just crazy. Lucy is rolling over, not yet crawling, but pushing herself up a lot when she's on her tummy. She's extremely observant whereas Oliver is a doer. He is a typical boy I feel like. Watching them develop has been really cool.

I hope everyone else is doing great!

 

[ashknowsbest]

Just wanted to give everyone a quick update if anyone is still on here. We're starting an IVF cycle this month! We're with CCRM San Francisco, hoping for good results. I've been on all of the supplements I was on last cycle when we got 2 normal embryos, and we've added in metformin. Doctor says there's some evidence that metformin helps egg quality in women with PCOS. Here we go!

 

[MoBaby]

Good luck!

 

[bubumaci]

Good luck!

 

[ashknowsbest]

Baseline ultrasound tomorrow morning at 7:45, meeting with Dr. Jun to talk about protocol, and I'll also have to get some blood drawn for amh, fsh, prolactin, etc. I can't believe we're doing this again. So exciting though! Wonder how the hormone headaches are going to be with twins??

 

[babylights]

Hi ash! I read your whole thread before our first appt with CCRM in Menlo, Dr. Jun is our doctor too, isn’t she the best?? Congrats on starting a new cycle, hopefully your hormone headaches aren’t too bad! I’m starting my estrogen priming tomorrow and will likely start stimming mid-November. So nice to have someone on here going to the same doctor as us!

 

[ashknowsbest]

I got my calendar. We start BCPs tonight, 14 days of that then starting gonal F and menopur, and cetrotide during the last phase of my stims. Retrieval tentatively set for 11/22-11/25. I'm pretty sure I normally stim for 12 days but we'll just have to see how it goes. I'm in shock that it's happening so fast but excited to!

 

[froggyfrog]

Oh wow!! So excited for you ash!!!

 

[ashknowsbest]

babylights - I do like Dr. Jun although she did say to me that "i'm young" and "have time" and I hate when doctors do that. I've been through the ringer with IVF and started fertility treatments when I was 22 so it's sort of dismissive in a way. That said, she is really nice, seems to know what she's doing, and allows me to voice my ideal plan and then comments on it. She lets me be a large part of my care and I really appreciate that. I see you're on your second cycle, are you trying to bank embryos? Also, congrats on your frozen girl and boy!

frog - thank you! I'm excited too. Can't believe it's happening so soon. We won't be transferring until May or June of next year but I'm really looking forward to getting the eggs out, creating embryos, so that I can be done with the retrieval part of things for good. I'm really hoping for a good outcome. Fingers crossed!! How's your LO doing?!

 

[babylights]

Hey ash! I can definitely see where you’re coming from, although, if it makes you feel better, she kinda said the same thing to me and I’m almost 37, so very likely not intending to make you feel bad in any way And thank you! Yes we’re trying to bank since we’d ideally like to have 2 kids and I am definitely running out of time so we need to get those eggs asap! When will you start stims? I’m starting probably mid-November ish, maybe we’ll be cycle buddies!

 

[ashknowsbest]

I definitely agree with you and think that doctors don't try to offend people but ya know. This infertility stuff can be a sensitive topic. Do you know how many cycles you want to do? I'm starting my BCP tonight, will be on those for 2 weeks so I think I start stims on 11/12. I could be off by a day or two but that's generally the timeline. I'm excited!

 

[babylights]

Yah, for sure. I’m really hoping this will be our last cycle, I had a poor response the first cycle which took everyone by surprise so they changed my protocol to one of the most aggressive. Fingers crossed I get enough embies this next round! That’s right around when I’ll start stimming, we’ll be cycle buddies for sure!

 

[ashknowsbest]

Do you mind sharing what you mean by poor response and what protocol you were on? I just ask because you did get two normal CCS tested embryos, I think that's AWESOME! It took me 2 cycles to get 2 normals. I'm really hoping for a better outcome this time since this will be my last time doing IVF.

 

[babylights]

Of course, and you’re right we’re thrilled to have ended up with 2 normals! I did a straight antagonist with bcp’s, I started off with 225 Gonal-F and 75 Menopur and eventually went up to 300 and 150, respectively. I had 6 eggs at retrieval, all mature but only 3 fertilized and 2 made it to blast. We were expecting not to have any normals but luckily they both were. Apparently everyone was expecting a much better response based on my numbers, so I definitely did feel bummed out by that reaction. But honestly, with those kinds of numbers it’s kind of a miracle we got any normals so I’m hoping for more eggs retrieved to make it through normal attrition rates.

 

[ashknowsbest]

Oh wow that's incredibly! Yeah, just for fun, I get approx. 20 eggs every retrieval and out of 5 IVF retrievals I've only had 10 total blasts (2/cycle), and only 2 babies. It's insane! But I have PCOS and it's common for PCOS to produce bad quality eggs.

 

[babylights]

5 ivf’s - you are seriously Wonder Woman! That’s amazing that you had twins, what’s that like??! I recently hung out with my DH’s family and he has a cousin with a toddler and twin infants, all girls. I don’t know how they manage, even with all those extra hands it felt like a lot. But of course somehow she makes it work, mamas are just amazing

 

[ashknowsbest]

Having twins is incredibly hard. I wouldn't go back and change my situation but I wouldn't want twins again. They're amazing, and seeing them grow up together is really neat but it's incredibly demanding. It has gotten a lot easier as they've gotten older but it's just a lot. It's harder to bond in my opinion because you're always going back and forth between babies. I'm bonded but it took me longer than other women I know. It's incredibly difficult to breastfeed. The sleep depravation in the beginning was HORRIBLE! They were born 1 month before they were supposed to be and so they didn't have good eating skills so it took them an hour to eat 2 oz. of milk and then they would sleep for an hour and want to wake pu and eat again. Writing that out makes me even wonder how my hubby and I did it. But we did and here we are with 13 month old twins. It's hard but incredibly. Don't let me scare you!

 

[babylights]

I can only imagine how hard it must be, congrats again!