PAL after Recurrent Losses - come join us!

[bumpyplease]

Hi fili ask kellie (just waiting) if you want to know about ashermans she will be able to tell you all about it and hopefully make you feel less concerned. She had it and just look at her now!! I know I keep saying it but try not to worry as you are probably stressing yourself out unnessecarily!!! X

 

[BeachChica]

Hi ladies! :wave: Thank you for the warm welcome and all of the great info! I am in the recurring losses section too but you ladies have been successful after multiple losses so I really hope that hearing your stories will help me get my forever baby too!! It does not bother me at all that you all talk about your pregnancies; it actually gives me hope so as long as you don’t mind me sticking around and picking your brains a bit, I’d love to be here. I tried to start reading this thread from the beginning last night (and I still will try to do that) but it’s so long so it might take me a while.

To answer some of your questions –
Heart – my progesterone was tested pre-pregnancy and was normal but after being pregnant it was borderline/low so my doctor but me on the progesterone. My first visit to the doctor was at about 6 weeks so by the time I got the progesterone it was about week 7. Way too late in my opinion. I definitely think the tissue testing would have been extremely helpful to see if it was another chromosomal problem or something else. My lutual phase is usually about 11 days (I think that’s normal) and I usually O on CD 14. This last pregnancy I actually O’d a bit late on CD 17 and the cycle I am currently in looks like I might have actually O’d about CD 20. I hope this doesn’t become a pattern, actually this was the first time I ever heard anyone mention that late O might be bad so that’s interesting. I have all of the results of my testing so if I can find it (due to medical terms) I can look it up! It looks like my Thyroid level was 2.32. I also had a HSG and everything was normal there. Like you said, time is not on my side here Did you take anything else this pregnancy besides the thyroid meds and the progesterone 3DPO?

Embo – yes that 3rd time lucky thread!!! Gosh I wish that would have been it for me!! I am so happy you finally got your forever baby!!! So you did progesterone this pregnancy and the prenatals with Omega 3, anything else? I need to look into the omega 3 so I am adding that to my list,

Petitpas – so this is your 6th pregnancy? Wow you are giving me hope here to endure more losses!!! Were you just on the steroids for this pregnancy? Were you ever given a reason for your losses? I need to look into the steroids, what is that for? I am adding this to my list too to ask about.

Girls, I forgot to mentioned that one thing that did come out of my testing was a high homocysteine level. I was put on 2000mg extra Folic Acid to get this down. So last pregnancy I was on Prenatals, 2000mg folic acid, baby aspirin, and the progesterone that I started very late (about 7 week). I had ulrasounds about every 1-2 weeks and everything seems to be Ok with HB etc. I was always measuring about a week behind but docs felt that was due to late O. I started spotting on New Years even when I was about 10 weeks.

The doctor mentioned that the IVF with PGD is about $17,000. I am not sure that my insurance covers this as they say that they do not cover infertility treatments but he is writing me a letter to say that it is for recurring pregnancy loss so we’ll see. Even if I go this route there are no guarantees that the egg will stick or that something else is going on. He said that the success rate is about 35%. Again since I don’t have the tissue results to support multiple chromosomal problems it really leaves me wondering if something else is going on.
At this point I am leaning towards TTC again next month taking progesterone at 3 DPO and see what happens. He is having me go in for a Day 3 test this month after AF to check the quality and quantity of my eggs and next month I will have a sonogram CD 3 to check my follicles.

 

[x_Rainbow_x]

still not napped yet. someone only slept when i went to the shops and has been playing ever since lol.... Im making her a pom pom hungry caterpillar

 

[heart tree]

Thanks Em. I’m too scared to tell the doctor off quite yet. I actually do plan to send him a picture of my baby in my arms and advise him to never say something like that to another patient. Not only did he tell me I wouldn’t carry a baby to term, he told me the only way I’d ever get my own baby was through surrogacy. Most women can’t afford surrogacy. That’s not really an option for most people. (I didn’t think it was for me at the time, but later my mother offered to pay for it.).

Fili, I’ve had 4 D&C’s. Three of them were to terminate pregnancies. The last one was to try and find pregnancy tissue in my uterus to rule out an ectopic. As you know, it was ectopic, so the D&C was pointless. There was no pregnancy tissue in my uterus. It took me almost 8 weeks to get AF after my first one. It took 6 weeks after my second one. It took 5 weeks after my third. After my ectopic surgery, I got AF exactly 3 weeks later which surprised me. I bled for 2 weeks after all of these and spotted intermittently later in these cycles. I don’t remember if I had cramping later in these cycles, but I imagine I did with the spotting. After all of these procedures, none of them did any harm. I don’t think yours caused damage either. I think your body was in shock and needs time to heal. AF will return. Your doctor sounds amazing!

Oh Pretty, poor little Elliot! I agree that mother’s know best. I’m so glad he’s on the mend now.

Pip, eco-groovy is something my husband and I say all the time! Please use it. Maybe it will catch on around the world and we can take credit for its creation! I love that Ducky is such a squirmer!

Beach, I think your plan is a good one. My insurance doesn’t cover “infertility” which always pissed me off since I clearly wasn’t infertile. I had to pay for IUI and meds out of pocket even though it was more for recurrent losses than “infertility.” I was diagnosed with the hetero version of MTHFR, but my homocysteine levels were normal. As a precaution, my doctor put me on 5000 mcgs of folic acid. For this pregnancy I took the extra folic acid, progesterone, thyroid med, and I did IUI. With the IUI I took Femara to make me Ov earlier and to produce a stronger egg, I did the hcg trigger shot to force the egg out and then my hubby’s sperm was washed and inseminated. Those are the things I did differently with this pregnancy. If you had low progesterone, I HIGHLY recommend starting it from 3 dpo. I think it might have made a difference for me.

Tracie, sounds like you have an active girl! I think mine might be following in her footsteps. I woke up at 4am this morning to my little one practicing her gymnastics routine! I was so enamored by it, I couldn’t fall back asleep. I imagine I won’t be as enamored when she’s not in my belly and is keeping me awake! LOL!

 

[Embo78]

Beach, yes that's all I did differently. Just the prenatals and progesterone. Why did you start on the progesterone so late?
I'm glad you have a plan for the next bfp

 

[x_Rainbow_x]

haha izzy used to wake me at 3am every day for 10 weeks and i couldnt go back to bed untill about 5/6am, i thought that might be her pattern when she was born but wasnt.
Izzy was quite a lazy baby but i think its because she was stuck in one place in the end.
I constantly got feet and bum... so when she was bron first thing i did was look at her feet. huge!!!

 

[heart tree]

That's exactly what mine is doing! I'm usually awake at 3am every morning, but this time it was 4am! Interesting that Izzy's pattern wasn't the same once she was born. That's sooo funny she had big feet!

 

[x_Rainbow_x]

yeah my mum was convinced shed be a early morning baby but wasnt either. Id always get heartburn really bad at 3am aswell so downstairs with a glass of milk, a yogurt and a book. but that was 30 weeks plus when i had no room left

 

[heart tree]

Oh, now you're scaring me! Did you have 10 weeks of heartburn at the end?

Jen, I see you lurking. How is your wrist?

 

[BeachChica]

Beach, yes that's all I did differently. Just the prenatals and progesterone. Why did you start on the progesterone so late?
I'm glad you have a plan for the next bfp

Thanks again ladies! I am taking more notes!

Embo - I don't think the doctors realized that I had a progesterone issue until after I was pregnant this time. I did not start seeing the RE until after my 3rd loss. My non- pregnant progesterone was in the normal range. After I got pregnant this time and they started testing they realized it was borderline/low. I saw the RE doctor my first time this last pregnancy at about 6 weeks, had to wait for my bloods to come back, then some issues with my insurance about the progesterone etc so by the time I was taking it, it was about week 7 I wonder too if it would have helped. It just makes me so mad about the tissue results from this last pregnancy to know if the baby was chromosomally normal.

Heart - I am going to ask my doctor about the Femara. I wonder if this would be an option for me with natural insemination and if Oing earlier would get me a stronger, better quality egg....? I am very interested to see what my Day 3 test results are, as I have never had this done. Did they ever determine your egg quality to be an issue?

 

[x_Rainbow_x]

i had 14 weeks of it... but it got uncontrollable 10 weeks before. i got through a litre of milk a day!

 

[heart tree]

Beach, yes that's all I did differently. Just the prenatals and progesterone. Why did you start on the progesterone so late?
I'm glad you have a plan for the next bfp

Thanks again ladies! I am taking more notes!

Embo - I don't think the doctors realized that I had a progesterone issue until after I was pregnant this time. I did not start seeing the RE until after my 3rd loss. My non- pregnant progesterone was in the normal range. After I got pregnant this time and they started testing they realized it was borderline/low. I saw the RE doctor my first time this last pregnancy at about 6 weeks, had to wait for my bloods to come back, then some issues with my insurance about the progesterone etc so by the time I was taking it, it was about week 7 I wonder too if it would have helped. It just makes me so mad about the tissue results from this last pregnancy to know if the baby was chromosomally normal.

Heart - I am going to ask my doctor about the Femara. I wonder if this would be an option for me with natural insemination and if Oing earlier would get me a stronger, better quality egg....? I am very interested to see what my Day 3 test results are, as I have never had this done. Did they ever determine your egg quality to be an issue?

My day 3 tests were normal and a follicle count showed I had more eggs than the average 36 year old (my age when I had it tested). I was told that even when I was 40 I would have more and better eggs than the average 40 year old. That made me feel good as all of the women on my mother's side of the family go through menopause between 38 and 41. Looks like I take after my father's side of the family on for that, thank god! But given that I Ov'd so late all the time, my doc wanted to give me the meds. Femara is similar to Clomid. It's a newer drug so many docs won't prescribe it. What's nice about it is that it doesn't thin the uterine lining like Clomid, it doesn't have the side effects and it doesn't last in your system as long. I think it clears from your body in a couple of days. It also doesn't dry up cervical mucus. I took it for 3 cycles without doing IUI and didn't get pregnant. But I had more ewcm than in any other cycle. Same thing happened on my IUI cycle. It was awesome. It's worth asking about. At this point, they should be throwing everything at you.

Femara also wasn't covered by my insurance and it was expensive. About $20 a pill and you need to take 10 pills. But that's way less than IVF and PGD!

 

[BeachChica]

Thanks heart! I am definitely going to check into it! So were you ever given a reason for your losses? It sounds like you have a good quantity of egg and you were able to get pregnant. I imagine that I will have a good quantity of eggs as I have been able to get pregnant very easily like Fili. Just wondering if the quality is the issue or something else is going on. It's so frustrating when the doctors start to tell you that the chances of a normal pregnancy really start to go down after this many losses but here so many of you are with multiple losses and successful pregnancies!!! You all give me the hope to keep fighting!!

 

[filipenko32]

Beach I would prefer to do what heart did before the ivf and get my hands on Femara but none of the doctors in the uk will give me this since I ov, they understand why it is given in the us but they're not willing to treat me like that in the uk which is annoying.

 

[filipenko32]

I know beach I think you have to have a bit more than a spoonful of human spirit in this game don't you!? My fs doc is so miserable and doom and gloom,..

 

[jenny25]

Hey Amanda it's fine the swelling went down sorry not really posting I'm nervous about tomorrow xxx

 

[filipenko32]

Good luck tomorrow Jen, I know it's difficult timing wise but you're going be fine with this pregnancy, it will just be sad too won't it? X x x

 

[filipenko32]

Ohh heart that's great news about your eggs!! In that case your age matters so much less for number 2! what was your follie count out of interest. Mine was 19 in total. X x

 

[hopeful23456]

Welcome beach! I've posted this awhile back but we have so many pages now...here is what I did:
This post is older so I am off of all of it now except for prenatals, vit d and b's, dha, neevo and metanx and baby asp.

First time I've ever had heartbeats and good ultrasounds, had 4 mcs between 5 and 6 wks, 2 before and 2 after uterine septum removed...
I have clockwork natural cycles, 27 days and o on cd14.
Stim meds follistim, repronex, ganirelix, stimmed for 15 days, iui cd17, out of 3-5 possible follies that were 10 - 15 mm 3 days before iui, I had 6 mature and release. My clinic counts 15 mm as mature with these stim meds.

I have mthr hetero a1298c which is the very common one that is least harmful and alot of folic acid and baby asp are the protocol for it (as its inefficiency of processing folic acid) so I take both Neevo dha and metanx as with both it's about 4 mg lmethyfolate (easy form of folic acid to absorb) . I also take 2000 iu vit d3, baby asp, vit b supercomplex, another dha pill, 20 mg prednisone and 40 mg lovenox daily. Also 50 mg progesterone suppository. I don't have a clotting disorder. Will be going off lovenox around 13 wks, weaning of prednisone through 18 wks and off prog around 14 weeks. I will be on baby asp throughout.
This is the first time I had ever gotten to the heartbeat stage and they are doing great! The clinic I go to has had a lot of success with this treatment for unexplained recurrent early losses.
I started progesterone at 48 hours piui, lovenox and prednisone at bfp (11 dpiui) and was on the rest of the vitamins, etc for months.
Keep in mind i get preg pretty easily without meds and iuis, we were just going for the best possible chance and eggs although they didn't think I had an egg quality issue.
And I did acupuncture for a month before the iui, they specialize in rpl/ if and went twice/ wk until bfp now I go once per week
Also went to chiropractor twice right before iui to make sure I was in alignment.

My follicle counts and tests like that were great, like someone in their 20s.

 

[hopeful23456]

Just reading back- beach- if your homocysteine is high, do you have a form of mthfr? Also, instead of plain folic acid, you should change to neevo dha and metanx , i didn't have high homocysteine but asked to be on them as I've read a lot of good stories about them.