Change of clinic, change of attitude

[Bluetop1981]

I’ve had a productive couple of weeks recently that I wanted to share here as this forum helped me get out of my despair.

I received NHS funding for 2 cycles at an excellent clinic in London, and have had my first consultation there - love the doctor. She said one failed IVF cycle doesn’t indicate needing to go to donor eggs and she has lots of hope for us. Just what I needed to hear! We start on my next cycle and will do a couple of rounds for embryo batching and then have a FET.

I also saw my consultant gynae privately - I went to see him after I had OHSS and my NHS follow up ultrasound showed one of my endometriomas had potentially grown from 5cm to 9cm.

He sent me for a scan and some tests. My AMH has dropped to 8.5 and my AFC is only 9. I think they’re both on the low side but he (and the doctor I saw for my ultrasound) both seemed very positive about it. I have healthy ovarian tissue, looks like access for eggs is good (it isn’t a 9cm endometrioma but one 5cm and a 4cm one), and despite having moderate-severe adenomyosis my uterus cavity is in good condition. Both agreed that embryo batching and a FET is the best step forward.

Two other interesting pieces:

1) my previous clinic told me my embryos did not develop to blasts because of a poor egg quality due to my (severe) endometriosis. All three doctors I’ve seen recently (IVF, gynae, and ultrasound) said the sperm leads the development after day 3 so it isn’t just the endo. My IVF doctor asked my husband what supplements he was taking and on finding out he was taking whey protein, she asked him to stop these. He’s been told to take zinc and selenium, and I’ve been told to take COQ10 and omega 3, as well as our usual preconception vitamins.

2) according to the ultrasound doctor and my gynae doctor my tubes aren’t blocked! I was told they are following an MRI on the NHS, but they tried to see it on my ultrasound and couldn’t find anything. Both said that if they were blocked with blood/scarring this would show on the ultrasound. I had one ultrasound last year, a day before my MRI, and now this one. There is no evidence so they think it could have been read wrong 🤷🏻‍♀️. Either way, nothing changes for me but it’s a little comforting to know.

So I’m going to start IVF number 2 in a couple of weeks time. I’m feeling optimistic again and hoping batching gives me one baby at the least and maybe more for the future ✨✨

Good luck to everyone!

[Novice_knitter]

Wow that’s all so informative! Especially how the sperm leads development from day 3 - really is a shared process!

Wishing you the best of luck on your second round xx