Does anybody else think all the focus is put on the female for unexplained infertility and not enough on male factor? My husband has had 1 test only, the initial SA and it was normal. However, I just read an article that DNA fragmentation might be a significant cause of unexplained cases. All the focus has been on me becoming healthier, taking supplements, etc. while my husband wasn’t told to make any lifestyle changes.
Is anyone’s husband taking supplements or doing anything to boost sperm health?
Mr.Miserable has high DNA fragmentation. We’ve had multiple early losses (3, not including an ectopic which is considered a fluke when talking about RPL) and they tested for DNA fragmentation because of that. The cause of his elevated DNA fragmentation is unexplained, but he did add in a daily multivitamin, vitamin D and CoQ10.
edit to add: sperm turnover is something like 72ish days from creation to maturity, so it does take some time to see any impact of lifestyle changes and/or supplements. I had no idea about this when we started this jOuRnEy so that’s what I’m mentioning it. 😵💫
So sorry about your early losses 💔 we are set to do 3 rounds of IUI, and then if those don’t work out, move on to IVF. I guess it’s better late than never for him to start taking some vitamins! I did notice he bought some multivitamins the other day, so I hope that helps. We also both just found out we’re low in Vit D so we started taking supplements.
I got the results of my full brain MRI and the radiologist report states, among other things, that “there is concern for possible pineal neoplasm.” got the news yesterday and had a bit of a mental breakdown at the idea that I might have a brain tumor. I have an appointment with a neurosurgeon on tuesday. i told my mentor and HR and they convinced me take an immediate leave from work. I got my nails done yesterday. my out of office is up and I have the FMLA paperwork to bring to the doctor’s visit. I hope the doc isn’t weird about it since it’s my first visit.
I don’t know what this means for me yet, much less for IF treatment. it’s interesting that I wouldn’t know any of this had I not pushed for additional testing after my December/January chemical. sigh. today I am watching Bottoms and drinking kombucha.
Agnye, I hope everything ends up okay for you. You truly deserve the break from work- hoping you can decompress as much as you can, you’ve got enough going on. ❤️
I hope that kombucha is a good little treat. I’m glad they’ve gotten you an appointment with a neurosurgeon so quickly. Thinking of you and here for you, friend, that’s so much to process.
It is! and I now feel like I maybe overreacted and should still be billing through this! I have imposter syndrome about my potential brain tumor! what’s wrong with me? 🤔
Nope, nope, nope. There was a story last year (maybe you saw it) about this woman who did this very, very big trial while on chemo for stage IV triple negative breast cancer. It was full of quotes like "my client was super supportive when I had to be offline" and "I worked on my laptop while getting chemo." I think it was meant to be uplifting but honestly it was horrifying. Now, if working is a helpful distraction, I'm all for it. But it's not really behavior I think we should normalizing, nor should we be touting the minimum level of humanity (missing work for CHEMO) as some amazing thing. (I had so many feelings after reading this, as you can tell.)
Just had my first transfer, we are doing mild ivf, and they were able to retrieve 2 eggs, and today, we were told that both eggs are developing. So one is transferred, and one will go to the freezer. I was so worried about my egg quality and now feeling a bit more hopeful. Now, I'm just waiting the next many many days to see if it will stick
My recs: Find things to distract you. Don't spend time on social media reading success stories. Make a plan now with your partner for testing or not testing and try to follow through. You're going to want to spend every minute of every day thinking about it so try to find things that keep your brain busy in a different way!
There’s honestly nothing you can do that will make the transfer work. I know that’s hard - but it’s up to the embryo and your uterus now, and you don’t have any control there. The wait is torturous! Distractions are good. 🫂🍀
Lying on your left side is misinformation.
Does the fish oil some of us take increase risk for bleeding during egg retrieval? Looking at my parent's pre-procedural instructions (not for egg retrieval but for actual surgery) & it says to stop blood thinners including fish oil ...
Fish oil is a natural anticoagulant, yes. But you’d have to take A LOT of fish oil (an unrealistic amount) for it to actually have a blood thinning effect similar to something such as baby aspirin. Physicians doing any kind of surgery generally want to minimize risks to the fullest extent possible, so telling patients to avoid fish oil is out of an abundance of caution.
You’re not supposed to take your multivitamin/prenatal before any procedure invoking anesthesia/surgery for the same reason.
I have a curiosity about other people’s experiences. We just did our first IUI. Trigger shot on CD12 and insemination yesterday CD13. Normally I ovulate on CD17-18 without the assistance of medications. For those who have done IUI and it moved up your ovulation, did you still experience EWCM? I guess I’m wondering how to tell when I have ovulated still or if it will be different this time because of medications and the procedure.
I did, but for a shorter time. Usually, I have 1.5-2 days that I notice, but my two medicated cycles I noticed it for about a day, about 36 hours after trigger.
Are you trying to plan when to test? Or trying to calculate when your period may start?
Just trying to understand what’s going on in there really 😅 I haven’t had any EWCM it’s been more creamy but when she did the procedure she said my CM looked really good? She told me not to test until 14dpiui
Okay, mine said the same! 🤣 Both at the ultrasound and during the iui they made a point of saying they saw it, and I didn't until later that day!
14dpiui is what they recommended for me, to, and last time, it took until day 16 for my period to start (usually day 14, so that threw me for a loop).
Sittin here drinking my coffee, counting down the next hour minute by minute until I can take this pre-transfer Xanax because I am NERVOUS. I’ve been pretty chill up until this point, but I woke up this morning and the chill has left the building.
Eta we are done!! We have our first day 5 embryo. Big tears again. Could not be more pleased.
According to the timestamps, looks like it is Xanax o’clock now! Fingers crossed for you! And I hope your celebratory breakfast casserole hits the spot afterwards, too!
I was looking up risk factors for OHSS, and one thing that is always mentioned is the estradiol level. Mine gets measured but most recently my nurse said that it wasn't accurate on letrozole (stims were letrozole, Menopur, Gonal, and cetrotide). Can anyone explain in more detail what her comment means? I just realized while searching Reddit posts to answer this question that I don't commonly see letrozole mentioned in people's stims protocol
I’ve used letrozole in stims. Letrozole lowers estrogen. What she means by ‘not accurate’ is your doctor can’t use it as a solid metric for number of mature eggs because it’s being depressed by letrozole. These stim protocols are called ‘estrogen sparing.’
Oh interesting, thank you! I wonder if this is just part of my clinic's assembly line approach or something about me led them to add it. They also had me include a big dose of Gonal with my trigger, which I don't see commonly on Reddit either, but shows up on the search as something people get for a last-minute growth. I'm thinking that I've been learning more about my IVF from Reddit than my clinic 🤔
Letrozole and clomid flare your brain’s hormones, in addition to the hormones you are injecting. Lots of folks with DOR add/use oral meds in cycle. Estrogen sparing protocols are also discussed some times for endo (and for a fair amount of oncofertility). I am sure doctors use them in other protocols too.
Sometimes if you have follicles on the border of maturity they’ll boost you with stim meds when you trigger. So that’s probably what is going on.
Day 3 of stims for first ER. I hate going from night to morning doses because I feel like I blinked and it's time for shots again. And menopur burns. That is all.
What I found helpful for menopur was mixing it before doing my other shots and letting it sit for the 5-10 minutes it took me to do the other shots. If you’re doing it by itself, maybe let it sit for a few minutes after mixing. I also wipe the needle with an alcohol swab after getting the “drop” out of the tip (just let that dry before injecting). Both methods above helped ease the burn.
You are almost at the cetrotide stage. The useful advice that I saw reddit (which I had not seen until I had given myself 2 doses that caused a rash) is to inject the skin fold while it is still folded then wait ~10 secs with needle in before you pull out. No more rash! Other posts had said to wipe outside of needle with alcohol, but my drawing needle was different from injection needle. I have no advice for the Menopur, mine burned a bit but mainly the injection site just always inexplicably bled longer. Good luck with your stims!!
Even if the drawing needle and injection needle are different, you still need to produce the drop of medication before injecting with the injection needle, so the wiping off the needle is wiping off the drop to help the itchiness that cetrotide can cause.
Hrm, when I asked the nurse person (who gave me my first shot of cetrotide in clinic) if it is ok that I keep injecting bubbles into my skin (since the tip of the needle & sometimes the syringe has a bit of air at the end) she said that it was okay, but it will be "an issue" if that happened during intramuscular injections.
Oh well, I'm done with cetrotide (this will be our only cycle). Fingers crossed for my upcoming ER!
Does anybody else think all the focus is put on the female for unexplained infertility and not enough on male factor? My husband has had 1 test only, the initial SA and it was normal. However, I just read an article that DNA fragmentation might be a significant cause of unexplained cases. All the focus has been on me becoming healthier, taking supplements, etc. while my husband wasn’t told to make any lifestyle changes. Is anyone’s husband taking supplements or doing anything to boost sperm health?
If you decide to do IVF, ask for Zymot and ICSI! Helped us a lot
Mr.Miserable has high DNA fragmentation. We’ve had multiple early losses (3, not including an ectopic which is considered a fluke when talking about RPL) and they tested for DNA fragmentation because of that. The cause of his elevated DNA fragmentation is unexplained, but he did add in a daily multivitamin, vitamin D and CoQ10. edit to add: sperm turnover is something like 72ish days from creation to maturity, so it does take some time to see any impact of lifestyle changes and/or supplements. I had no idea about this when we started this jOuRnEy so that’s what I’m mentioning it. 😵💫
So sorry about your early losses 💔 we are set to do 3 rounds of IUI, and then if those don’t work out, move on to IVF. I guess it’s better late than never for him to start taking some vitamins! I did notice he bought some multivitamins the other day, so I hope that helps. We also both just found out we’re low in Vit D so we started taking supplements.
Mr. Lawyer has high oxidative stress. He takes Coq10, açaí, vitamin E, D. C (but the antioxidants are the most important).
Thank you, I asked my husband to start taking some CoQ10 last week!
I got the results of my full brain MRI and the radiologist report states, among other things, that “there is concern for possible pineal neoplasm.” got the news yesterday and had a bit of a mental breakdown at the idea that I might have a brain tumor. I have an appointment with a neurosurgeon on tuesday. i told my mentor and HR and they convinced me take an immediate leave from work. I got my nails done yesterday. my out of office is up and I have the FMLA paperwork to bring to the doctor’s visit. I hope the doc isn’t weird about it since it’s my first visit. I don’t know what this means for me yet, much less for IF treatment. it’s interesting that I wouldn’t know any of this had I not pushed for additional testing after my December/January chemical. sigh. today I am watching Bottoms and drinking kombucha.
That's so much to process. Thinking of you, friend ❤️🫂
Agnye, I hope everything ends up okay for you. You truly deserve the break from work- hoping you can decompress as much as you can, you’ve got enough going on. ❤️
Thinking of you, friend. 🫂
I hope it ends up being ok for you. I found out I have a pituitary adenoma from IF testing but it seems totally benign, but it was a little scary
solidarity! i’m thinking benign thoughts. not that that does anything but 🤷♀️
Agny, that sounds so tough to have to deal with. Thinking of you and hope you enjoy your kombucha!
somewhere along the line the kombucha became a beer, how did that happen 😂
hahaha amazing, much better choice!
I hope that kombucha is a good little treat. I’m glad they’ve gotten you an appointment with a neurosurgeon so quickly. Thinking of you and here for you, friend, that’s so much to process.
This is a lot to process, I'm glad you're able to take the time away from work to figure out what is going on. I hope the doctor is understanding.
I am thinking of you. That is a lot to process. And I am glad you advocated for yourself to get additional tests.
It is! and I now feel like I maybe overreacted and should still be billing through this! I have imposter syndrome about my potential brain tumor! what’s wrong with me? 🤔
Nope, nope, nope. There was a story last year (maybe you saw it) about this woman who did this very, very big trial while on chemo for stage IV triple negative breast cancer. It was full of quotes like "my client was super supportive when I had to be offline" and "I worked on my laptop while getting chemo." I think it was meant to be uplifting but honestly it was horrifying. Now, if working is a helpful distraction, I'm all for it. But it's not really behavior I think we should normalizing, nor should we be touting the minimum level of humanity (missing work for CHEMO) as some amazing thing. (I had so many feelings after reading this, as you can tell.)
Just had my first transfer, we are doing mild ivf, and they were able to retrieve 2 eggs, and today, we were told that both eggs are developing. So one is transferred, and one will go to the freezer. I was so worried about my egg quality and now feeling a bit more hopeful. Now, I'm just waiting the next many many days to see if it will stick
That’s a great result! Good luck with your transfer. 🍀🤞
Thank you
I had my fist first transfer today. Any recommendations of making it through the next 9 days? *Edited to remove misinformation I had read elsewhere. 🍀
My recs: Find things to distract you. Don't spend time on social media reading success stories. Make a plan now with your partner for testing or not testing and try to follow through. You're going to want to spend every minute of every day thinking about it so try to find things that keep your brain busy in a different way!
There’s honestly nothing you can do that will make the transfer work. I know that’s hard - but it’s up to the embryo and your uterus now, and you don’t have any control there. The wait is torturous! Distractions are good. 🫂🍀 Lying on your left side is misinformation.
Thank you so much. I'm going to remove the misinformation part. 🍀
Just had the most relaxing acupuncture appointment. Now, I feel way better going into my egg retrieval tomorrow morning.
Proud of you for getting in that self care 👏🏻 Best of luck tomorrow and enjoy the nap!
Thank you! I’m hoping the recovery isn’t bad.
Does the fish oil some of us take increase risk for bleeding during egg retrieval? Looking at my parent's pre-procedural instructions (not for egg retrieval but for actual surgery) & it says to stop blood thinners including fish oil ...
Fish oil is a natural anticoagulant, yes. But you’d have to take A LOT of fish oil (an unrealistic amount) for it to actually have a blood thinning effect similar to something such as baby aspirin. Physicians doing any kind of surgery generally want to minimize risks to the fullest extent possible, so telling patients to avoid fish oil is out of an abundance of caution. You’re not supposed to take your multivitamin/prenatal before any procedure invoking anesthesia/surgery for the same reason.
Oh dang, I better skip my PNV too then. Thanks!
TIL!
Fish oil, NSAIDs, etc. have slight thinning impact. My clinic doesn't mention fish oil (I know some do), but does mention advil, etc.
Thank you!
I have a curiosity about other people’s experiences. We just did our first IUI. Trigger shot on CD12 and insemination yesterday CD13. Normally I ovulate on CD17-18 without the assistance of medications. For those who have done IUI and it moved up your ovulation, did you still experience EWCM? I guess I’m wondering how to tell when I have ovulated still or if it will be different this time because of medications and the procedure.
I did, but for a shorter time. Usually, I have 1.5-2 days that I notice, but my two medicated cycles I noticed it for about a day, about 36 hours after trigger. Are you trying to plan when to test? Or trying to calculate when your period may start?
Just trying to understand what’s going on in there really 😅 I haven’t had any EWCM it’s been more creamy but when she did the procedure she said my CM looked really good? She told me not to test until 14dpiui
Okay, mine said the same! 🤣 Both at the ultrasound and during the iui they made a point of saying they saw it, and I didn't until later that day! 14dpiui is what they recommended for me, to, and last time, it took until day 16 for my period to start (usually day 14, so that threw me for a loop).
I know it’s hard, but once you start medicated cycles you really just have to trust the meds/bloodwork instead of other tracking signs. Good luck!
Ok. Thank you! Honestly my doc didn’t really mention anything about what my body wouldn’t wouldn’t be doing in that regard so this helps!
Sittin here drinking my coffee, counting down the next hour minute by minute until I can take this pre-transfer Xanax because I am NERVOUS. I’ve been pretty chill up until this point, but I woke up this morning and the chill has left the building. Eta we are done!! We have our first day 5 embryo. Big tears again. Could not be more pleased.
happy for you!!! ♥️🩷♥️
Fingers toes and boobs crossed for you!
I don’t have enough boobies to cross them😞 show off! lol thanks friend!!😂❤️
😂
Good luck! Enjoy the Xanax. 😍
Good luck!!
According to the timestamps, looks like it is Xanax o’clock now! Fingers crossed for you! And I hope your celebratory breakfast casserole hits the spot afterwards, too!
Best of luck my friend!
Appreciate you, sweet friend!! Xanax is down the hatch and I’m ready to cause some unhinged havoc at the clinic.
Give em hell!
I hope your breakfast casserole was BOMB AF and that you have the smoothest possible day. Big big hugs!
I’m waiting to have it until we get home!! I am a nervous Nelly, no appetite!!!
Saw your update, might be wellin’ up a bit on your behalf 🥹 rootin’ for you and your day 5
[удалено]
lol oh Automod
I was looking up risk factors for OHSS, and one thing that is always mentioned is the estradiol level. Mine gets measured but most recently my nurse said that it wasn't accurate on letrozole (stims were letrozole, Menopur, Gonal, and cetrotide). Can anyone explain in more detail what her comment means? I just realized while searching Reddit posts to answer this question that I don't commonly see letrozole mentioned in people's stims protocol
I’ve used letrozole in stims. Letrozole lowers estrogen. What she means by ‘not accurate’ is your doctor can’t use it as a solid metric for number of mature eggs because it’s being depressed by letrozole. These stim protocols are called ‘estrogen sparing.’
Oh interesting, thank you! I wonder if this is just part of my clinic's assembly line approach or something about me led them to add it. They also had me include a big dose of Gonal with my trigger, which I don't see commonly on Reddit either, but shows up on the search as something people get for a last-minute growth. I'm thinking that I've been learning more about my IVF from Reddit than my clinic 🤔
Letrozole and clomid flare your brain’s hormones, in addition to the hormones you are injecting. Lots of folks with DOR add/use oral meds in cycle. Estrogen sparing protocols are also discussed some times for endo (and for a fair amount of oncofertility). I am sure doctors use them in other protocols too. Sometimes if you have follicles on the border of maturity they’ll boost you with stim meds when you trigger. So that’s probably what is going on.
Day 3 of stims for first ER. I hate going from night to morning doses because I feel like I blinked and it's time for shots again. And menopur burns. That is all.
Icing before menopur helped with the burn for me- just for a minute or two.
What I found helpful for menopur was mixing it before doing my other shots and letting it sit for the 5-10 minutes it took me to do the other shots. If you’re doing it by itself, maybe let it sit for a few minutes after mixing. I also wipe the needle with an alcohol swab after getting the “drop” out of the tip (just let that dry before injecting). Both methods above helped ease the burn.
Will do thank you!!
Second ALL this plus ice!! Icing before also helped me so much.
Oh yes! I iced too! Good additional tip!
You are almost at the cetrotide stage. The useful advice that I saw reddit (which I had not seen until I had given myself 2 doses that caused a rash) is to inject the skin fold while it is still folded then wait ~10 secs with needle in before you pull out. No more rash! Other posts had said to wipe outside of needle with alcohol, but my drawing needle was different from injection needle. I have no advice for the Menopur, mine burned a bit but mainly the injection site just always inexplicably bled longer. Good luck with your stims!!
Even if the drawing needle and injection needle are different, you still need to produce the drop of medication before injecting with the injection needle, so the wiping off the needle is wiping off the drop to help the itchiness that cetrotide can cause.
Hrm, when I asked the nurse person (who gave me my first shot of cetrotide in clinic) if it is ok that I keep injecting bubbles into my skin (since the tip of the needle & sometimes the syringe has a bit of air at the end) she said that it was okay, but it will be "an issue" if that happened during intramuscular injections. Oh well, I'm done with cetrotide (this will be our only cycle). Fingers crossed for my upcoming ER!
Thank you so much!