First cycle ivf/icsi short protocol, slow growing follicles day 10 13mm biggest at risk of canceling can anyone help me please

[claire13599]

Hello everyone,I've never wrote on any of these before, everytime i write anything on Google nothing comes up to help me I'm 25 years old, been trying to conceive for 4 years had 3 miscarriages 1 in 2013 23 weeks little girl, 2 in 2014 never been able to get pregnant since, I have pcos I'm on my first cycle of ivf/icsi on the short protocol, been getting scanned every 2 days had my 5th scan today and follicles have only grew 1mm in 2 days, biggest one is 13mm I was hoping they were gonna up my dosage as they said they would on Wednesday if things wernt any better by today, but now the doctor is saying if things arent any better by Monday it's to late to up my dosage so they will have to cancel this cycle as I havent responded as well as they hoped for, my amh levels were high so I was at risk of OHSS but that hasn't happened so that's a good thing i suppose but to stop this cycle completely is heartbreaken as my periods are abnormal so I already had to wait 1 year to get this far can anyone help is there anything I can do I've heard hot water bottles may help, more protein, anything please ?

[Emmaxxx]

Hello hun. I really hope that they don’t cancel your cycle. I wonder why they haven’t up’d your dosage already? The only advice I can give was I was told to eat lots and lots of protein. I really hope that they grow a bit more so you can continue your cycle xx

[claire13599 in reply to Emmaxxx]

Thank you for replying hunni, well that was the plan he said on Wednesday if things arent looking good on Friday we need to up your dosage so we wont have to cancel this on so I've got my Hope's up for 2 days I've drank so much water I could around init lol I've had protein shakes been eating not but chicken, I just dont know what else to do I'm going to be so devastated if its cancelled when I know they could if tried more xx

[Shelleybean]

Hi, I had slow growing follicles and someone suggested upping my protein intake so I was eating lots of eggs, salmon, nuts, protein shakes and it did seem to tie in with improved growth. I did make it to collection each time, though it always took between 15-19 days of stims on short protocol (13 days on long and more eggs). The protein is worth a try! And lots of water. My Consultant never wanted to increase my dose mid-cycle as said higher doses only improve the no of follicles recruited in the beginning, so no point in doing it later. Don’t know how true that is and tbh I lost faith in them a bit, so wouldn’t really take their advice xx

[claire13599 in reply to Shelleybean]

Hello hunni thank you so much for replying, well all I eat anyways is chicken and protein shakes, I cant have to much milk as in lactose but I've been trying to get a bottle in everyday and so much water, I'm on day 10 tonight of stims and follicles are only 13mm 12s 11s and 1ps I've had 5 scans youd think they would know how it was going to go by the 3rd xx

[DianeArnold Partner Nurse Fertility Network UK]

Hi Claire. So sorry to hear that you have suffered 3 miscarriages, with one being at 23 weeks. I do hope you received plenty of support too. After losing 3 you should have been investigated at a recurrent miscarriage clinic, so hope that was the case. I wonder how many follicles you have intotal at the moment? If you have lots, then that could be the reason they haven’t increased your dose, in case you should over stimulate. That’s the only reason I can think of. You need to ask why they won’t increase your dose. It will be awful if you have to abandon this cycle, but best to be safe. You may need to go on a long protocol cycle, to quieten down your ovaries before stimulating them. Hope all is soon sorted out for you. Diane

[claire13599 in reply to DianeArnold]

Thank you so much for your reply hunni, yeah I had investigations, counselling but I'm not that type to talk to people anyways I know that's bad but I just keep it all in, I added alot of weight on then was diagnosed with pcos got told to lose weight so i lost nearly 2 stone BMI is 27 now so ideal for ivf/icsi my partner has normal sperm count but 0 forms I still dont no what that even means but that's why we are getting icsi on the NHS cause none of us have children hes 32, my amh levels were high so they started me off with 150iu menopur had 9 eggs on Saturday now I have around 15 I think they dont tell me much if I'm honest, a at 13mm 3 at 12 some 1 at 11 and loads at 10, really frustrating as the doctor stated he would up my dosage today but now saying it's to late, I eat just chicken I'm lactose so cant go to much on milk Haha I try and get a bottle of high protein shake a day though and so much water, I'm so heartbroken thinking its gonna get cancelled when i know they could have done more

[Hidden]

The reason they might not want to up the dose much is because there's evidence it results in poorer egg quality (smaller increases are ok). Honestly I had a cancelled cycle first time round and it's better to cancel than to push on in the face of evidence it's not going well and get a bad result. They'll learn a lot from this time around and will adjust for next time if need be. In the meantime there really isn't anything you can do - it's just how your body is responding to the meds which no one can really predict or control. The other thing I'd say though is stimming for longer than normal is in no way bad (even up to 3 weeks is fine), so if things keep progressing, just slowly, you may well still get to where you need to be in the end!

[claire13599]

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply to me, yeah your definitely right I've done everything on my part and obviously working off my natural cycle so cant drag it on forever I understand it's just so upsetting as my periods are all over so hope it comes on times next month to start again or maybe give my body a little time to heal off these injections maybe I dunno hoping for a miracle by Monday I only had 9 eggs on 2nd scan then 4th I had like 16 to 18 all 10s and 8th now there 13s 12s 11s and 10s it will be day 13 on Monday and there gonna cancel I dont know what size they even look for