I feel very lucky to be posting here. I have just had my 12 week scan and all seems to be going well so I felt it was time to post. This thread has given me a lot of support and information and I hope my post can give hope to other ladies with extremely very low sperm counts or ladies who had a similar number of eggs and worried that it was too low for success.
Name: Toch (well on here anyway!)
Age: me 34 OH 32
How long TTC: over 2 years
Diagnosis or any known issues: I have endo and had a retroverted womb that I had surgery on to pull it forward and release my ovaries that were tucked behind my womb. We were referred for routine testing after 10 months of ttc because I was told that I would probably need IVF but my OH took over as our primary concern as we found out his sperm count was in the few hundred thousands rather than the millions with poor everything.
Treatments you tried before IVF: none IVF ICSI is our only option.
How many IVF did you do before success: We were very lucky for it to work first time.
Are you using donor eggs or sperm: no
Protocol (meds taken): long protocol. Down regged with Synarel, 112.5 menopur and triggered with Ovitrelle.
How many follicles at ER: 6 decent sized ones with lots of little ones.
How many eggs retrieved: 5 collected 4 were mature
How many eggs fertilized: 4 were injected and 3 fertilised.
How many days between ER and ET: 3
How many and quality/rating of embryos/blasts transferred: 2 x 3 day (one 9 cell and one 10 cell) We were hopeful that the third would be frozen but it didnt make the quality to be frozen.
How many days bed rest: My job is quite full on. I took the first week off work and was quite glad as I felt very uncomfortable for the first few days. I went back to work for the second week but only managed 2 days and then took the rest of the week off. So two weeks in total.
Symptoms or issues during 2WW: The longest 2weeks of my life! Lots of AF type symptoms. I felt that AF was on her way. Lots of cramps and cm.
What day you got your BFP: I couldnt hold out. One of the days I did go into work I thought AF had started and I was quite crampy. I couldnt cope with the waiting any longer so went and bought a FRER. I was completely shocked when there was a faint line but then didnt know whether to believe it or not.
HPT before blood test: 9dp3dt faint line on FRER. I did another sneaky test on 11dp3dt and the line was no darker and then on OTD I got a positive on the test the clinic gave me and also on a digi 2-3 weeks
Number of first beta: I didnt have a beta
Number of babies: One perfect heartbeat.
Anything else you would have wanted to know before you started this process:
That the actual physical process of IVF the sniffing, injecting, egg retrieval and embryo transfer - is fine but it was the emotional ups and downs that I found hard.
That acupuncture really helped. My acupuncturist was Zita West registered and she provided me with relaxation as well as a bit of a therapy session!
That the support of a friend (whether virtual or real!) who has been through the process is so valuable.
Wishing you success in your baby making!