That's one of the dangers, yes, but the thing I read was talking about the exposure to the ultrasound waves, since with home dopplers there's no control over length of exposure and how often they're being exposed? Like obviously there's no issue with the few times it's being done at the doctor by a trained professional, but with the home ones you get someone inexperienced doing it MUCH more often and I guess since they don't really know the effects of that much exposure to the fetus they don't recommend it for safety.
I guess it would depend how often. By the end I was getting weekly ultrasounds and monitoring twice per week with a Doppler and the MFM never seemed concerned about it.
So... yeah. I’m back. Looks like we’re going to start this fun again in August or September. All the preliminary lab work has been done and surprise, surprise I still have PCOS. Also a blocked tube that while they put me under for a hysterescopy they tried to open up. We’re going to started with timed intercourse for a bit and see if maybe we’ll luck out before reverting back to IUIs. Maybe 3 hours of labor before the c-section opened things up where we don’t need an IUI. Apparently a study came out last year for using Clomid plus Letrozole which yielded similar results for women with PCOS as using Letrozole plus Menopur so I’m excited to try just oral medication to save the cost of injectables. Another new twist on the medication front: a rectal suppository. Has anyone had to use those before? There’s so much stuff that I forgot about all this that I’m going to have to refresh my memory on.
How exciting that you're ready to do this again! I wish you all the best! How interesting about the clomid + Letrozole. That certainly is significantly cheaper as well!
Good luck Mag!!! I so hear you on the forgetting stuff. I feel like I’ve forgotten almost everything from when we did IVF before. On top of that my new clinic does things a bit differently than my old - on the medication front, last time my estrogen was pill form and my progesterone was a suppository (vaginal though, so I’m no help on your rectal ones). This time around both meds will be intramuscular injections. I’m kind of nervous! But of course I want to do whatever has the best chance of a good outcome. I did my consent signing and I paid, so I’m looking at a late August transfer if all goes well!
Oh that's interesting about the estrogen being IM too. I've heard it is super effective but my RE doesn't do it. CCRM does though
I had my mock embryo transfer today... hysteroscopy/polyp removal this Friday and tentative embryo transfer on 8/14!
I had no idea this was a thing, and now I'm fascinated. I know this sounds sort of trite but I really appreciate a place where people are open about this stuff, it makes me feel far more adequately prepared, like I at least know how to doggy paddle before being thrown in the deep end.
@Cashmere Bandit It’s basically an embryo transfer with no embryo lol. They do everything they would do day of transfer: you have to have a full bladder, they feed the catheter through and kind of make a note of the path. Pretty much a dress rehearsal for the real thing so there are no surprises. It went well so as long as tomorrow does too things are looking good. Stupid pandemic is causing issues with the medications which is annoying. A lot of stuff seems to be backordered so I had to switch brands and the price went up by $60 (per month). But at least I can get it. My IVF bff texted me in a downward spiral yesterday because she’s been testing (she’s in the two week wait after her embryo transfer so she has her blood test Monday). She had tested negative again and said she felt like her period was coming on. I told her to try to stay hopeful until her beta, the symptoms can be similar, it’s too soon to call it, etc. Tested again today and she’s got a line!!! I am so excited for her.
I'm reading over my fertility clinic welcome packet, and it mentions that for most of their fertility treatments you need to be under a BMI of 40 kg/m2 (which I am), but some of them you need to be under a BMI of 35 kg/m2 (which I am not, but I'm actively losing weight and I'm very close). I'm assuming that I need to be under 35 for IVF, but I'm curious if anyone has a clinic with similar rules? I just don't want to be disappointed when I go in and I'm told they can't do anything till I lose ten more pounds. My consult is on the 14th, so I might be able to drop what I need to by then regardless. Also my doctor looks like he should be guest starring on Grey's Anatomy. This neither affects my level of care or how comfortable/uncomfortable I am with him, it just sort of made me laugh.
I’m not sure what her exact BMI was but a good friend of mine went through the IVF process a couple years ago and sadly lost the baby around 22 weeks. They wouldn’t let her go through the process again until she lost some weight, they seemed to think it may have contributed? I remember thinking that was bs at the time but, just remembered it in response to your post. She was around 180-190lbs and 5’5” or 5’6”.
Because a person’s weight is clearly the only measure of health Also BMI wasn’t even invented by an actual physician/doctor. It was created by a physicist for math reasons, not health reasons. And the fact that most medical practitioners still use BMI as a (primary) measure of health is fucked up.
It all varies by office, but only RE had really strict dietary requirements for IVF and typically wanted patients to start it several months before starting IVF with the objective of reducing inflammation. IIRC it was basically no dairy, no gluten, no refined sugar. If you’re actively working on your health, I can’t imagine that being a sticking point. Just be mentally prepared for them to take all the food you enjoy.
Interesting, I’ve never been given any dietary restrictions for IVF beyond alcohol and caffeine! re: the BMI, I wonder if there is data to indicate that certain BMI ties into chances of success. It sucks but a lot of clinics are strict about what they will and won’t try in terms of treatment and I think some of that has to do with not wanting their success rates to go down. So for example, because my current embryos were made at Clinic A, Clinic B didn’t just accept them by default, they had to look at the data and decide whether the embryos met Clinic B’s criteria. Anecdotally I have also seen a lot of people in IVF fb groups complaining that certain clinics refuse to treat them at all if their chances of ultimate success seem too low.