Feel useless with my thin lining

[hdd1sm]

I haven’t stopped crying since yesterday, and I know the stress likely isn’t helping my situation but I feel so lost. Been TTC for nearly 3 years now, have 6 frozen embryos which is great but my lining just keeps letting me down. Been on Progynova for 15 days now getting ready for ET but second scan showed only 5.8, they are giving me until Monday but I feel so down. My husband seems to have lost all hope and started talking about surrogacy last night which has just made me feel so worthless and useless, he doesn’t mean to and is usually the supportive and positive one but we’ve had so many set backs and this is just another blow. Feel I can’t talk to anyone 😢

[Cinderella5]

Hey, I struggle with my lining too and had to have my fresh DE cycle cancelled! What amount of progynova are you on? I had to have quite a high level of progynova. Have you tried taking vitamin E 800ug in your prep, I also tried a few other things like beetroot juice and pomegranate juice and walking to get the blood flow going along with aspirin - aspirin was advised by my clinic though. I eventually got to a decent level for transfer. Is this your first prep?xx

[hdd1sm in reply to Cinderella5]

Hey, I started on 6mg then they upped me to 8mg at first scan a week ago, in 5 days it only went from 5.4-5.8! I’ve been having a glass of Pom juice every morning, and got raspberry leaf tea now. I haven’t tried the vitamin E I went to health shop to look for Vit E & L-arginine and they scared me a bit as there is already a lot of stuff in the pre natal vitamin so I didn’t know if you could have too much?! I’ve heard of baby aspirin but I know you have to be careful so go on clinic recommendation. One of the docs said anything over 6, then another doc said he’d like to see 7 for transfer then loads of sites say 8-10 so who knows?! I’ll be on pessaries if they let me go ahead so assume it should still grow a bit in the days between last scan and transfer?

Did you have good news? Xx

[Cinderella5 in reply to hdd1sm]

No unfortunately I didnt have any good news....but dont go by me....Ive had loads of transfers and nothing. I think I started on 8mg per day due to my previous issues and eventually I was increase to 12mg per day. I managed to get my lining up to 9.3mm last time and 8.5mm this time. It was the vitamin E high does 800ug from superdrug that made a different to me. However the time before that my lining was really struggling and the consutlant cancelled it as he felt it would lower my success. There is a lot of debate how thick a lining should be, my clinic have a minimum of 8-9mm. Best of luck! Oh and just to give some hope, my lining stuck for a few days on last cycle at 6.7mm and 4 days later had jumped to 8.5mm although I did have an increase in meds.xx

[LegoBatgirl]

Hi I'm really sorry to hear that it's been so stressful and I hope that you have a way to relax and de-stress. I've found accupuncture and meditation to really help. Not that it means much from a stranger but I'm proud of you for being so brave and opening up about all this, it's much better for your mental health to reach out and there are always people here to support you.

You've probably tried everything but some women on the forum seem to have had a good result for a thicker lining from drinking pomegranate juice and beetroot juice or by taking aspirin during cycles, having accupuncture or fertility massage to improve blood flow to the uterus or doing more gentle exercise such as walking to boost blood flow. I've not personally tried any of it though but I hope it helps.

You're not useless, 6 embryos is really good and you're a fighter for getting this far. Any woman who can go through IVF is a warrior princess and you have reserves of strength that other people won't even know is possible x

[hdd1sm in reply to LegoBatgirl]

Thank you so much for your reply.

I did try acupuncture when we were having IUI but I didn’t get much from it, I was thinking of trying reflexology or fertility massage. Yes tried a few of those things, no idea if they make any difference. I just keep thinking my poor little embryos are never going to even get the chance to grow if I can’t do the simple thing of preparing my womb! It is all such a difficult process, and all of my friends and family are falling pregnant around me without even trying. It just seems so unfair xx

[LegoBatgirl in reply to hdd1sm]

From my experience so far most of this journey has been a difficult struggle and I've seen so many people get pregnant naturally in that time and it always feels unfair.

I have a counsellor and that has helped massively. I just tell myself I can only control my own actions and that all I can do is try my best. Sounds like you are trying your best and I wish you all the luck in the world x

[cryst4l]

Hey, sorry you are going through this. With my first ivf cycle my lining was also thin with taking 8mgvof progynova. My Dr then gave me the tablets to induce a bleed and take progynova too. This worked nicely and I reached around 12mm for the lining. So perhaps this could be an option for you? You will get there xx

[hdd1sm in reply to cryst4l]

Oh really you took both at same time? It’s hard when you can only go on doctors advice! X

[cryst4l in reply to hdd1sm]

I took both both yes as that what my dr advised and it worked with the lining. It is hard i totally understand as we feel we have to go by what they say and they all seem to say different things x

[Hidden]

I found full fat milk helped me and got my lining to 10.5, I drank a pint a day! I put on loads of weight tho, good luck sorry it’s so hard and feels like set back after set back, good luck x

[hdd1sm in reply to Hidden]

Haven’t heard that one! I heard calcium stops intake of iron which is impt.. so many conflicting views making it so hard!! X

[Ash2016]

I have had lining issues on all my cycles too, it’s so frustrating! We transferred at 6mm on first cycle and I wouldn’t recommend it. Although I think the failure was down to poor quality embryos more than anything else, we went to a private clinic for second cycle and they had really good stats that they have saved from all their thousands of cycles. The dr put in all my stats to their calculator thing and the chance of success with 6mm was only about 5% and jumped massively when he changes it to 7mm. I know the lining issue is tough but in hindsight I wished we hadn’t transferred with such a thin lining as the stress and upset that went with a BFN just wasn’t worth it. This last cycle I wasn’t given any progynova or estrogen as it was a fresh cycle. I was in a low dose of stims and they didn’t want to counter act the effect of the stims. Instead the dr suggested I take a double dose of cetrotide (one morning and another evening) on trigger day. I have no idea why or what those drugs have in them but it worked. My lining jumped from 5.3 to 7.4 from last scan to EC. I don’t know how frozen cycles work as never done one and what drugs you have to take but maybe that might help? Good luck xxx

[hdd1sm in reply to Ash2016]

Thanks for sharing, Its so hard when I can only go by doctors who say at scan they are happy to see over 6 and triple line, they then don’t transfer until 5 days - a week later so maybe they assume it grows more in that time with the pessaries too? Its so hard we’ve been waiting so long and EC was 3 months ago so we never even got the chance of a fresh transfer which I’m convinced wasn’t the right decision. We may get another clinics opinion depending on outcome here xx

[Ash2016 in reply to hdd1sm]

Fingers crossed it keeps growing. I found vit E helped as well x

[ashlou86]

Hi, take a look at one of my previous posts about lining as I always had issues too. I was also on 4 estradiol tablets a day, changing an oestrogen patch twice a week and progesterone pessaries twice a day xx

[hdd1sm in reply to ashlou86]

Thank you I’ve just had a look and will definitely follow some of your advice. I am sorry to hear about your miscarriage, that far along too how devastating I can’t even imagine how you deal with that. I hope you are doing ok. Was you on the pre natal vitamin too, as that already contains the vit E & L-arginine I didn’t know if taking a lot more was a good idea? Xx

[ashlou86 in reply to hdd1sm]

I did take a 'trying to conceive' vitamin but this contained a very low level of vitamin e so I decided to add that to the mix!xx

[Scarlett13]

Hi I’m on my second FET. My lining didn’t get thick enough first go when I was on 8mg (4 tablets) of progynova so they upped it to 5 then I got to 8mm. This time I’ve started on 10mg/5 tablets a day and my next scan is Monday so I’m hoping I’ll have got to 8mn. Are you able to take more progynova? X

[hdd1sm in reply to Scarlett13]

Fingers crossed for you! I have another scan Monday too, i was surprised they didn’t put my dose up at second scan but they left me on 8mg. I think Monday they will decide whether we go ahead or not so not sure if they would do an increased dose as it will have been a while by then. Who knows, different doctors say different things which is frustrating! X