FertilityZone

Awww, thank you so much darling Scarlett. Quite platonic, nothing dodgy? Dam.n! Have a great weekend lovely.


Phoebe, what's the news from yesterday??? Hope all good. Please update when you can.

Hi Zahra!

Thanks for the update!

I was actually looking at your page yesterday, I think it was, because I was anxious for your news. I saw your post on July chat but it felt intrusive replying just to you. OMG so many pills but hang in there, Dr G knows what he's doing and I really hope it is finally your time. Come on follies, please grow, lovely ones. By the way, do you meditate? If so, talk to them, send them positive energy and encourage them to grow. I also like Zita West CD, which is relaxing.

As for my news, check out my diary, (link in my signature), as I wrote a full update recently. However, in brief, my TH1:TH2 results were much worse following 2 humira than prior to treatment with TNfa about 13% worse and IFN 12% worse. We saw Dr Gorgy who said that the positive is that we now know what my body does when I'm pregnant, not that I've ever been pregnant to my knowledge! He also asked us to postpone the cycle. I'm having two more humira injections, last one next week, followed immediately by intralipid. We'll retest TH1:Th2 and LAD the week after next. Whatever the results (fingers crossed they're good), we intend to start on the pill with my August period and then DR.

All the best with your stimming and EC honey! Please post here when you have news, even if it's just a copy and paste from your usual place as I'm very keen to know how you're getting on. I really pray that this is finally your time!

Take good care.

xx

Phoebe, you crack me up. Hope all is well sweetie. Still loving the attitude. I shall be ordering fruit and nut chocolate and American Pie. Lol! Take good care. xxx

Zahra, just sent you a private message. How was EC? Wishing you all the very best of luck. xxx

Zahra, I really wish I had said something too and when I tried to get you back, you had left. Also, we all post what we want on this site and because Tina was in the room, I didn't want to blow our anonymity by doing so. But hey, even though we didn't realise initially we 'knew' each other, you still gave me the biggest smile ever and we did say hello which just shows that we're never alone in this horrible journey when there is someone else going through the same quest.

Any news on fertilisation? Keeping all crossed for you as you must be very anxious. Hope the injection is going OK. I've never had those, so no tips.

Take good care and let us know the news and when ET is planned.

xx

Zahra, you poor thing. Big hugs. xx I know it is very hard, but please don't lose hope. Cell 6, fragmented on day 3 are not bad. In 5 years or so on this website, I've seen so many *seemingly* hopeless cases get their BFP. The one that I will always remember is a lady who had a bad fertilisation and had just one 2 cell embryo put back on day 3. Her single embryo hadn't divided since day 2 and everyone thought it was a totally hopeless case and even the embryologist thought it wouldn't divide anymore. Well...nature trumps Science and the lady (Louise) got pregnant!

I wish you the best of luck. xx

Hi ladies,

Zahra - thinking of you this week. Best of luck on test day. Praying for a BFP!

Papaya, hope you're doing fine and getting used to the weaned off drugs.

Phoebe, hurray for Wednesday, though I expect it will be a bit daunting. I always get massive bruises and pain from clexane, no wonder you're not thrilled about it. When do you actually stop it?

I have hysteroscopy tomorrow. A bit daunting but hopefully all will be fine.

Take care all.
x

Aww. Thank you so much Amina. x

Thank you. I've written in your diary. xx

Hi all,

Thanks ladies for all your good wishes. Phoebe good luck tomorrow. Zahra, still keeping all crossed for you for test day. When is your blood test??

Hysteroscopy went well. The consultant said my womb cavity is in "excellent condition", so one thing to tick off the list!

However, I'm totally depressed. Got results of retest of LAD today after two LIT treatments. All the results are dramatically worse than before treatment. WTF! [B cells] IgG has gone from 7.6 to 6.2 (Dr Gorgy wanted it to go up to 50%!) and [B cells] IgM has gone from 31.6 to 9.5. Utterly depressed as this journey seems to be one step forward, three steps backwards. Waiting for results of 3rd (!) TH1:TH2 test after 4 humira and intralipids and not filled with confidence.

Any chance the LAD test results are mistaken? It just doesn't make any sense to me that LIT did nothing but worsen things. Has anyone experienced this? My period is imminent and the plan is to start pill and treatment. What do I do, postpone treatment yet again when so far, all my post treatment results have been much worse following treatment with no guarantee that any of the treatment is working for me? So so depressed about all of this.

The whole point of the immune treatment is to feel we're doing something different from 4 failed fresh ICSI cycles. I now feel totally dejected and have little confidence in a new cycle having better results than last ones when everything appear worse than when we started.

xx

Papaya, thanks for the post. When you say mismatch, does that mean you had donor LIT? If so, how is the matching done? The two LITs were my DH's. Congrats on being past 12 weeks. Wishing you the best and hope you get to relax and enjoy your pregnancy which must be so difficult after all you've been through. xx

Kylie, thank you and good to have you join us. Glad to hear you've started treatment. All the best. xx

PS. Dr Gorgy is on hols until 6th of August so I can't get any reassurance from him. I'm awaiting results of 3rd TH1:TH2 retest and will send an email to clinic tomorrow to try and get an answer from him or Dr Eskander. My period is imminent and I need to know whether I can start the pill!!

Hi Papaya, thanks so much. Glad all is going well with you. I'm starting the pill on Saturday. Dr Gorgy is back on Monday. I'll probably have donor LIT and IVIG as my 3rd TH1:TH2 have also come back still very bad after 4 humira and intralips. Boo. xx

Zahra, thinking of you and anxious for your news. Keeping everything crossed for BPF. xx

Phoebe, hope all is well after yesterday and no withdrawal symptoms. xx

Kylie, hello! xx

xx

Thanks so much Phoebe and best of luck with the drugs. I'm with DH that Dr Gorgy knows best but it is of course only natural to worry.

No news from Zahra. Her 2 week wait ended on Friday, I think. I really pray it is good news and I guess she'll share with us, when she's ready to do so.

Take care xx

Oh Zahra. I've sent you a PM. I am so very sorry. There is nothing I can say to make you feel better. I was so anxious for your news and was hoping with all my might that it was good news.

So sorry to hear that you've been so unwell. Did FGA say why?? I'm glad you're better now and wish you full recovery soon. It must have been so very scary for you two.

I hope you and DH can find ways to comfort each other at this very sad time.

Take good care of yourself sweetie.

Big hugs xx

Hello ladies,

Hope you are all OK.

Thinking of you Zahra.

Phoebe, I feel for you on the consultations! Can you ask for the test results to be sent to your address and maybe send short email queries if they're of concern? We saw Dr Gorgy last week (more below) and I saw my menstrual blood retest this week when I went for intralipids. I was asked to come in to discuss the menstrual blood but I said I couldn't afford any more consultations, having just seen him the previous week, and 3 weeks before that! Tina (bless her, she's a sweetheart), got him to look at my notes and write prescriptions without having to come in for what would have been a 2 mins chat.

Our news is that following bad TH1:TH2 and LAD retests, Dr Gorgy advised us to postpone starting a cycle for yet another month. Because of my bad TH1:TH2 (following 4 humiras and 1 intralipids), I've had a second intralipids this week, and will be having those every 4 weeks. I will also have intralipids and IVIG during stimming. Because there was no change in my LAD after two LITS, Dr Gorgy wants me to have 2 pooled LITs, where DH's blood, and blood from 3 or 4 donors are used to shock my immune system into producing antibodies. Needless to say, pooled LIT is even more expensive than normal LIT. I'm scared shit.less by the idea of being injected with blood from unknown men with unknown se.xual and medical histories but we've started, so we must finish!!

All of above mean that I will continue on pill until probably end of September when I will start buserelin. I will also have an endo scratch to improve our chances.

The costs have gone utterly crazy!!! I'm not too upset having to postpone because I trust Dr Gorgy's judgment and would rather give us a better chance of success than a rushed failed cycle, when there are untreated factors. Also, having had houseguests for past 5 weeks, my diet and exercise routine have been screwed and it will be great to lose some weight before stimming. The plan is to get back on my diet from next week - long weekend in Edinburgh coming up and I won't be dieting! We've also got 5 weeks of antibiotics to get rid of persistent macroplasm which came out positive in menstrual blood but were negative in all my blood tests.

Saw previous consultant yesterday to discuss hysteroscopy and he was full of praise for my "excellent" womb cavity. He also praised its perfect symmetry! He said he's been doing lots of research on miscarriages for women my age and that he was positive that if I achieved implantation, I would have a healthy pregnancy because everything looked great. He was very sweet, asked us our plans, told us to keep him informed if we got pregnant and said that he would do our first scan for us. Bless him. Even though he thinks immunology is mumbo jumbo total waste of money and had vehemently discouraged us, we had given him a thank you card because he really has been very sweet and kind to us. Most especially, although we were his private patients, he had helped us to get the hysteroscopy done by him for free on the NHS in a private hospital where I had a lovely room all by myself.

Best of luck everyone.

xx

Ladies,

Hope you're all well.

I need your help please.

Could you tell me what medication you had for stimming from Dr Gorgy? (Papaya, I note from below you had Merional and Fostimon). Also, did you get the medications from him or were you able to shop around for cheaper drugs? If you got from him, how does his costs compare with other places like Healthcare at home? I'm trying to figure out whether it is worth the hassle of pushing for prescriptions so I can shop around for the expensive drugs and have time to get my GP to prescribe cheaper drugs like predinsolne and none-IVF drugs, or whether I should just chill, go with the flow and get everything from him, if the costs are not significantly different.

Any thoughts appreciated.

xx

Thanks so much Papaya, very helpful to know. Just to clarify, my GP doesn't prescribe fertility drugs but he very kindly said he would write me a prescriptions for drugs if they can also be disguised as not being IVF specific drugs e.g. clexane. Having said that, my GP isn't near my house - long story and hassle factor involved in actually getting this in practice means that I won't bother if the difference in price isn't huge.

More questions please. What are the appointment requirements like during stimming? In my previous clinic (I've had 4 failed fresh cycles), you basically get 3 scans every other day during the second week of stimming. I don't live near Dr Gorgy and need to plan to stay nearer him if he requires scan/blood tests every day or every other day? I heard ARGC even does blood tests twice a day. Is it like that with him?

Have a great weekend. xx

Papaya and Phoebe, thanks very much. I guess the close monitoring is part of the reason he works miracles. Hope you're both OK. xxx

Hi Phoebe,

Hope all is well with you. How are you feeling now you're off most meds? Hope fine and positive. Any more scans? Hope you're getting a little bit more relaxed about things and enjoying your pregnancy a little more, even if understandably a little anxious after all you've been through.

Question for you, do you get a room for EC or is it an in and out thing? My old clinic would serve breakfast and allow a couple of hours recovery before discharge but I note the EC info says discharge after 30 minutes!!

Bad news for me following baseline scan and blood tests. I have a massive follicle that is active - confirmed by E2 (489!) and LH blood tests. My body seems to have ignored the last two months of being on the pill and nearly a week on buserelin and didn't down-regulate. I took trigger injections on Wednesday for today to get rid of the follicle and once I bleed, (apparently in a week or two), we can scan again and hopefully start stimulation. Not exactly sure how the bleeding will occur in a week or two as my period only finished today! Oh well, we'll see. In the meantime, I remain on buserelin injections. More in my diary.

Anyway, take care and have a great weekend. xx