Ivf buddy in Auckland& my ivf story

My name is Rose and iam new to this forum. Next month going to start my next ivf/pgd cycle. Miscarried at five weeks last year november. It was hard but we come through it. Me 31 DH 34 due to inherited rare bone disease we have over 50% chances for passing it to our children if conceive naturally. Part of the issues, it causes significant deformity to the bone that require multiple surgeries throughout life. Also it has higher chances to be cancerous. The condition is called HME. We volunteered in a genetic research four years ago as there less than 100 families affected by this condition in NZ and we are the first one to try on IVF/PGD for HME in this country. So here we are in IVF journey, hoping to have a healthy baby we so desired.

Hubby's family all siblings has the rare bone condition, the difference were only from mild to severe, female sibling tend to have a very minor impact than male siblings. The eldest brother didnt have any. The other two male siblings has very mild to moderate symptoms with only small deformities. Hubby were the severest in the family, which the same level as his dad. This rare bone disease starts from his grandmother but she has a very mild case again. Our nephews (identical twins) from the sister are free from the condition. Hubby suffers a lot throughout his childhood time, in and out hospitals for surgeries after surgeries, work discrimination even he is brilliant. Hubby has a very good job and he is highly intelligent man. He cant play sport due to his conditions, we would like to give all opportunity to our child so we hope ivf would be the answer.

I have been to acupuncture since last year Sept which proven helpful,now ive started some fertility massage once every three weeks as well, also started a gym exercise to reduce weight..i put on lots of kilos since the last cycle. Also started taking few new vitamins like folic acid with iodin, women one daily multivitamins, maca, network anti oxident, l arginine, royal jelly, vit c, vit B12, omega oil, cq10, organic wheatgrass and spirulina drinks, eating one avocados every day and also 1'pineapples every week at least. I recently went to see Dr Fisher at the Fertility Associates for a private consult and he said all these supplements are good for fertility, the only thing is i need to stop taking anything with herbal based prior to day 21 of down regulation. The rest can be continued.

You would see,that i mentioned about pineapples. A dear friend of mine whom i just met prior to Christmas last year told me, she suffered with Endometriosis, and few other health problems, went through surgeries, miscarried four times and 5 failed IVFs. She had two last eggs that was severely fragmented and frozen from the last ivf and got transferred both embies in two years ago, one stuck and she now has a beautiful daughter. She was told by her embrylogist at Fertility Plus that they only did the transfer because they feel sorry for her and that she will never got pregnant. See miracle do happen and all it really need is faith and only one embie..only one... She said the only thing she did differently was someone told her to eat as many pineapples as possible while doing the ivf and the day before embryo replacement and the day after,embryo replacement, she ate the crust or the middle of the pineapples. She sworn by it. So i did lots of research on this, i was surprised that many successful ivfs stories in America were mentioning about the pineapples. Well pineapples are delicious anyway and it has lots of vitamins in it so it gives no harm. Apparently there is some kind of enzyme inside pineapples that is good for implantation. So feel free to research this more or try it. Ive started few weeks already now and will continue to do so until the day of transfer.

In the last cycle i did a minimum, just taking folic acid, thought if you have no fertility issues it shouldnt be a problem, well i was wrong. I have taken a minimal intake of wines every now and then in the last cycle. this cycle I completely stopped wines and i am a non smoker and I dont drink coffee so that is good. Hubby is healthy too we both just started a pre ivf detox kidney and liver cleansing few weeks ago. The detox will last for a month. Ive started pre ivf pregnancy kit at the same time which i ordered from the USA. I was told it is best to do the pre ivf detox first, then three months prior to ivf to take the pre ivf pregnancy kit, but i dont have much time as my next cycle will start end of Feb so had started this at the same time. I consulted the herbalist of course, she said it was fine.

The last cycle i was under lots of stress, my neighbour was giving lots of trouble, and the front neighbour also stole our cat etc, i travelled lots for my job and friends come to me for their problems and we did huge house renovations. This time around we have decided to slow down and not to do much other than looking after our health. I also would like to take up some fertility yoga soon. My friends were sworn by it, her second child was like walking out of her womb lol and the only different was she did yoga 7 months prior to birth.

As this is our last funded cycle, we want to make sure that we did what we can so no stones are left unturned. We are at fertility plus at the moment but also had been going to fertility associates for private session with Dr Fisher. Fertility plus hasnt been that great experience but we dont have many choice in this. If the second cycle also fail we will probably pay for private cycle at fertility associates.

In the last cycle, i had 9 follicles, six eggs all fertilised with isci, had day three biopsied in monash australia, result received on day five only. All reached blastocyst stage and were beautiful high grades embryos. Unfortunately three of my embies carry the gene/condition, one embie, monash cant get result on so they exclude that and only two were unaffected. Fertility Plus then transferred one embie in and the other one they left it to day six in the lab as waiting for my embie to hatch unfortunately it stops growing. I was gutted with that as wish they could put in both or freeze it straight away when the result of the biopsy was back on day five itself. Well a review meeting with Fertility plus indicate that they have given me too high dosage of gonal f, i was in a borderline of hyper stimulation from that cycle. We spoke to the Fertility Plus again and they have agreed that on the next cycle the gonal f dosage will be reduced, so hopefully i will have more eggs and still in high quality.

The reason that iam sharing all this with you, so that you know that there's people out there who understands, and would like to offer support to anyone who is going through ivf due to fertility issues or in our case due to genetics. I am a career oriented person i am so used to take control of things and ivf is the only thing that i have no control of and its frustrating. My last 12 months boss was awesome now iam back to old bosses due staffing issues i had to return to the old team to coach the newbies, i dont get a long with this boss, she has female partner of her own, clearly indicated that she has no desire to have any children she is vague and can be quite mean too. I am doing my best not to think too much about her because i want this last ivf journey to be as pleasant as possible.

If you would like to meet for a chat, or need someone to talk to, i would like to reach you. Iam going through process all alone too..i mean with hubby of course. I have three other friends who did ivf and was successful in their last attempt and two others were successful through their first fresh cycle. We could share the knowledge and support each other. If you are from outside Auckland please do not hesitate to contact me too, and if you need a temporary place while in Auckland in between your treatments in Auckland, come and stay with us. We live very close to both fertility plus and fertility associated less than 10 minutes drive and very central. Iam doing this only because on my first cycle, how i wish i have someone who know this and going through the same thing. I was struggling and hunger for informations, and spent hundreds of hours reading blogs, forums and books etc. Our journey of ttc is special and I would like to help and be there for others too. Recently my Acupunturist told me that some of his clients drove all the way from Hamilton to get treatment on weekly basis, and i feel sorry for this family, hence that we are offering a place to stay.

I look forward to hearing from you soon, meantime baby dust to all xx

Rosey

Hi Binny121910,

It was nice to get a message from you and iam sorry to hear about your lost. Where are you now in the cycle? Travelling sounds like a hassle iam sure especially from Taranaki, my husband is from Hawera so we are connected in a way. Since my last message here, i had done 2 more cycles which one was private, one was chemical pregnancy on April and recently all our embryos were affected so i didnt get any transfer on my 3rd cycle. We were devastated. Iam going to do another private cycle on September/Oct as going away overseas for a holiday on August for a month.

Do you have much support at all? I have not been here much because i was introduced to an excellent support group some where else, if you are interested i could ask to add you in as well as long as you have facebook account. In this TTC via IVF world can be very lonely, frustrating and cruel, so having a safe place to rant, to ask question or share happiness and sadness and not being judged on would be very helpful because normal people just didnt quite understand what we have to go through.

Btw, i did 2 cycles on long protocol and the last one on short protocol. The last cycle has been excellent, the injection was only for 8 days, we got the same high quality eggs ( after my first cycle, i started on many great supplements and has improved the quality of my eggs by ten fold, i swear by it) and quantity, and i didnt get any side effects at all. What sort of protocol are you at the moment, it sounds to me that you are on the long protocol? The short protocol seems to be much easier to handle and also cheaper so we will be doing this protocol next time again.

I really hope that this cyle will work for you so you dont have to move to Auckland, but if you do that would be a great idea in terms of getting access to them quicker. If you have an appointment in Auckland, and need a place to stay let me know.

I really hope you will get a BFP in this cycle and i look forward to hear more from you. And do let me know if you like to have a bit more support to other TTC group. This group are close group and has great bunch of other ladies like us. They are very supportive, knowledgeable and active so we always get our questions answered/acknowledged. Might be able to connect you to other ladies closer to your area if you preferred. I personally havent met anyone from the group face to face yet but must say they have been my full time support group throughout the journey so far.

Take care and look after yourself. Have faith and miracle do happens sometime xxxx

Rose

Hi Beta22,

Thanks for your message. And i hope that you are doing well.

Yeap there's ladies in CHCH in that group too. I could add you in if you have a facebook account, i had to advertise your name for 24 hours for other members to see if anyone object, if no one object i could add you. This is to protect everyone privacy as it is closed group.

Iam not trying to be insensitive, just a requirement to add, we need to know a bit of your background TTC, would you mind to write a bit of your background journey so far.

Take care and i look forward to hearing from you soon


Rose

Thanks for your care Rose,
Actually I am in a short protocol.I was in short protocol on my first cycle as well.I was responding well to that protocol so doctor said to follow the same protocol for this cycle as well.
By the way I am moving to Auckland next month anyway for job reasons.But planning to continue my treatment with Hamilton fertility associates. My first scan is on Saturday and next week i will have my egg retrieval. Will let you know about the number of eggs I have produced this time.
We will catch up sometime when I come to Auckland.
Thanks for your care again

Hi Beta,
I will update about the my scans,EGR,ET so you know what to expect for you.I am sure we all going to have a happy baby soon.

Thanks Binnie, all the best to you :)

Sorry Rose, I misunderstood.

We are doing IVF with ICSI. My DH had a vasectomy reversal in December which initially worked however it has now scarred over so our only option is IVF. I've had lots of tests and all looks ok from my end however I have had endometriosis for 17 years.

Is that enough detail?

No one except my parents know about out journey so it's good to have others to talk to and hear about their stories.

All the best Binnie, I hope it goes really well! Do let us know how many eggs you get.

I picked up my drugs today and will start on Monday or Tuesday probably.

Hi ladies,
My husband and I have been through ivf/pgd due to a genetic condition in my family.
During our first cycle through fertility associates in Auckland we had 3 viable embryos. The fresh that was implanted and took. Sadly when we had an eight week scan, there wasn't a heart beat with either twin. They had only implanted one which split. This was a tough time for my husband and I. Of the other two embryos, the second didn't take and the 3rd miscarried at 5 weeks.
During our 2nd IVF cycle we had no embryos that could be used through some not being mature enough or didn't fertilise.
In August last year we went through our 3rd iVF cycle. Again there were 3 embryos that could be used after pgd testing. The fresh didn't take.
Our dr suggested that I have a minor operation done, where they scratched the inside of the uterus which can help with implanting and also go on aspirin.
The embryo was implanted mid April and I'm pleased to say I am currently 15 weeks pregnant and everything is going great.
So, don't give up cause it does eventually happen. Just gotta try and be as stress free as possible and take it how it comes.
We are expecting our first baby right at the beginning of January.
We are also from Taranaki so understand the other person who posted on here about travelling to Hamilton and then Auckland for treatment. We have been extremely lucky to have been under great drs at both places!

Hang in there and the best of luck to you all!!

Edited by inwaiting - 16 July 2013 at 10:18am

For me, the number of follicles has never been a problem, just not all contained eggs. My body responded well to the meds. In our first cycle, 8 were sent to monash to be tested. The results came back that 5 were fine and 3 affected. With our condition, the percentages are 50/50.
They implanted one fresh on day 5. Of the 4 left, two were ok to freeze and two couldn't be.
During 2nd cycle, they collected 29 follicles but only 6 contained eggs. Of those 6, 4 weren't mature enough to use and the other 2 never fertilised which was difficult.
Our last cycle in Augusut last year, 5 fertilised eggs were able to be tested, two were affected and 3 fine. The fresh implant never took but the other two were able to be frozen. This pregnancy is the result of one of the frozen embryos and we therefore still have one frozen.

With our genetic condition, the boys get the disease and the girls are the carriers. Each generation the condition seems to be getting worse and boys been effected younger, therefore if we had a boy with the condition he may not live past 2 years old which we don't think we could cope with. Our other reason for going through PGD was because we though if we didn't pass it on to our kids, then the condition will be stopped in our family. It was a hard decision to make but we feel we have made the right choice.
We thought we couldn't live with ourselves knowing the risks of our children having the condition and us doing nothing about it.
And we were prepared that if this didn't work that we may not have any children but I'd rather that than have them and lose them at such a yang age. Everyone has their own ideas though.
I defInitely think this one worked more for us though because of a decrease in stress levels on my part and the doctors trying a few different options which could help with implanting and miscarrying.

As to your comment about increasing the number of eggs for testing I'm not sure there is anything you can do to increase that, but that might come down to the many of gonal f you are on, I'm not sure.

Good luck

Hi inwaiting,

Thanks for your response. Sounds like you are doing the right thing. I was on major dilemma myself but decided to have it natural. At this time, the rare bone disease can be managed by surgical intervention if we do it early enough. Having said that, i might do the ivf/pgd again on September if this didnt work, can i ask you if you get 3 funding for ivf and 3 funding for PGD as well? We had 3 for PGD and 2 for IVF and the last one we paid privately. Iam wondering if we could get more help and get another govt cycle.

I was on 225 gonal F on first cycle, 187.5 on the second one and 300 (short protocol) on the third cycle. I got very good eggs, and they all fertilised and goes to blasto, unfortunately we have been vert unlucky with PGD. Like the last cycle all of them were affected.

Who is your FS may i ask. We went to see Dr Robert Fisher for a private consult at FA and did our cycles with Fertility plus and my gynea is at Repromed.

You really have given me a big hope. Btw, my husband is also from Taranaki, he's from Hawera.

Rose