The Trials and Tribulations of Trying to Conceive when its just not happening (12m+)

Runnerduck

onestep, good luck with AF arriving, hope you can start soon, i will be about a month behind you, so our paths may cross at the clinic

jujugaboo

Great new sillysausage, hope they all fertilise and you get a good result. I am never in much pain afterwards either so thats good news. I hate that dropping off feeling though you are trying to stay awake, it wipes you out.

Runner, glad the new clinic is nice and you feel positive, hope next time is your time. That will soon come around.

Good luck onstep may AF come soon.

Lisa, good luck on growing those tubes!

I am still struggling with the stim injections i don't know what it is, I just want to go back to the other needles i use but not sure if I can. Belly is looking very battered.

sillysausage1977

Just had our phone call from clinic - 2 have fertilised - really happy with that. Got to go back on Sunday for transfer!!

Jujugaboo can you ask the clinic if you can use the needles your used to, it must be making it a bit more stressful when it comes to injection time.

Onestep - may your AF arrive very soon - good luke with everything x

lisawood78

Great news SS, 3 day transfer then. Everthing crossed!

flutterby_lil

lisap4123 wrote: »

Sorry for any offence caused by sharing my story. i will try and delete the post. I didnt realise that this was a forum for those ttc with medical diagnosis on infertility only. It wasnt clear in the thread title. Maybe that is why people are posting such posts.

All the best with everything

I have to agree, the title states nothing of the sort. I once posted thinking I was being kind and sensitive, but realise it was the opposite.

I agree with Nicki, a new thread is needed......

jujugaboo

sillysausage1977 wrote: »

Just had our phone call from clinic - 2 have fertilised - really happy with that. Got to go back on Sunday for transfer!!

Jujugaboo can you ask the clinic if you can use the needles your used to, it must be making it a bit more stressful when it comes to injection time.

Onestep - may your AF arrive very soon - good luke with everything x

Great news SS, hope transfer goes well on Sunday.

I might ask the clinic but they are different needles in size. I hate phoning the clinic I hate being a nuisance.

I just spoke to the clinic and apparently they have had lots of complaints about these needles being blunt. Though not advised she said I can draw it up in one and put it into the other, so might do that.

epsilondraconis

That's wonderful news SillySausage. It's so nice to have some good news on here again.

I agree that a new thread title is a good idea. When people have posted on here recently with their TTC tips, I believe their heart is in the right place. It's simply that they don't fully understand that situation that many on this thread find ourselves in. They probably see the '12m+' in the title and because they have taken say 15months to conceive, they think they are doing their bit to encourage us. If only relaxing worked for us all.

I was wondering if anyone could help with a couple of questions I had. Just to recap on our history:

a) Wife and I have been trying for a baby for 9 almost 10 years. I'm 38, wife 35.
b) In an area that offers 3 free IVF cycles on NHS.
c) Had first ICSI cycle in 2008. Nine eggs collected, none fertilised.
d) Started second ICSI cycle March 2010. Wife began injecting (down regulation drug) and during the course of that month, she fell pregnant naturally.
e) Tragically lost Lucy at 20 weeks in July 2010.
f) Consultants have said we should continue TTC naturally, which we have, but every month is the usual BFN.

My questions are:

1. Does anyone know whether the down regulation drug could have in some way helped make things 'stick'? We've asked the consultant and they didn't know. To be honest, I'm not really sure why I'm even asking as my wife couldn't obviously just take the drug in the hope that it will somehow help us conceive naturally. I think its just frustrating that we haven't been able to conceive naturally before, the first ICSI failed dismally, and then all of a sudden she somehow falls pregnant taking the down regulation drugs. I guess I'm just wondering if anyone else has any thoughts. Oh and before anyone says anything, I don't think it was because we took the advice of well meaning friends and just decided to relax that month .

2. When we went for our last consultation, the person indicated that we have now used up two NHS cycles and that we have one left. I don't want to come across as being greedy, because we are obviously so very thankful that this NHS funding is available. I'm just wondering whether anyone knows of any cases where people have started the injections, then stopped the process and were allowed to repeat that cycle. My wife returned all of the unused drugs to the hospital as requested (even though they couldn't give them to anyone else, they were going to use them for training or something similar). I understand that these drugs are a major cost of the IVF cycle and so I guess I'm really clutching at straws. It'll just be great if we could still have another two cycles left.

Both the wife and I have been struggling a bit recently. We both feel so blessed that she was pregnant and we named our baby girl. There are times where you wonder whether the miracle really happened and that she was even pregnant. All too quickly we are back to using the ovulation sticks and DDT at the right time etc. Even though my wife was bleeding throughout the pregnancy, it was by far the best 20 weeks of our lives. Anyway, I sense I am moving into random rambling mode and so will stop there.

chickpea

I don't have your answers ED, but god, 9 years is a long time..if there's any justice in the world you'll get there soon.

+++++++

Put my 2 and a half yrs into perspective really (and 3 and a half the first time round!)

Although this month is a little weird - CD20 and still no +ve OPK. This has never happened before..

++++++

Predictably, I have crashed and burned on Atkins. (Had it worked, I would have stuck to it, but my weight didn't really budge.)

I just have to try to take a measured approach to carbs now and not live off doughnuts (which is what I'd like to do after 3+weeks off carbs..!!)

Good luck all.

lisawood78

Ahh ED, I feel your pain. We are around 10 years TTC now and have long used up our NHS tries.
The down reg drugs are meant to put you into a state of chemically induced menopause so I can't see how they will have helped cause a PG. At what point on down reg did your wife discover she was PG (if you don't mind me asking) How long had she been on the down reg drugs etc.
I would certainly press the issues about your funded cycles, perhaps speak to your PCT if needs be, although I know some people where the cycle has had to be abandoned early on and that has counted as an NHS cycle, i'm sure it is dependant on your PCT though.

I'm so sorry you are both struggling, it never really gets any easier especially when you have been so close to what you long for but I guess there are times when it becomes less of a constant pain to you, and other times (such as now) when it is always on your mind and at the surface.
Try to be good to each other, I know after our IVF ectopic last year we had a hard time, sniping at each other and arguing when we should have been holding strong together. Grief can do horrible things.

With regards to the thread itself, a quick read of 1 or 2 posts quickly shows the kind of problems we are all up against, why can't people do that before diving in with their helpful posts. I know they mean well but it is the last thing people in our position need to hear, we have heard it all a million times , only my opinion of course.

epsilondraconis

lisawood78 wrote: »

At what point on down reg did your wife discover she was PG (if you don't mind me asking) How long had she been on the down reg drugs etc.

Thanks for the replies...

She had been injecting for a month before we realised she was pregnant. On the previous ICSI cycle, she didn't down regulate with the dosage they gave her and so they had to increase it. On the second ICSI cycle where we found she was pregnant, she had been taking the increased dosage for the month. It does beg the question whether that caused some of the problems that we had during the pregnancy regarding the bleeding.

She also had total placenta praevia which didn't help our cause. Couple that with the endometreosis which seems to be a problem in getting pregnant, you just get the feeling that someone was against us.

We'll keep our fingers crossed for the future. I think I was just having a bit of a moan last night.

We'll definitely follow up with the PCT, but have already accepted that we're likely to have only one cycle left.

Hope everyone has a good weekend.

We have our fingers crossed for the transfer SillySausage.