I’m just wondering when I should say ‘Enough’ and think about IVF. I have PCOS (diagnosed in March 2019) and the gp said I would take a long time to conceive. I was worried but with acupuncture and Chinese herbs I started to ovulate immediately, I conceived naturally in June 2019 after only 2 months of treatment. I was amazed to see how fast it worked. The same treatment with the same practitioner worked for two separate friends who had fertility issues and a miscarriage each. But after their miscarriage 4 children were born, so I know I’m doing it in the right clinic.
Unfortunately I had a missed miscarriage and managed it naturally at home at 11 weeks. After the miscarriage I started the herbal treatment again. I even quit my stressful job of Nursery School Manager and spent loads of time outdoors walking dogs. I started a healthy lifestyle and even lost a few Kg. Since November I ovulated once and this is making me really stressed. Without counting the months I was pregnant I was on this natural treatment for 6 months in total. It makes me feel much better when I do these treatments but I know at some point if nothing happens again, I will have to go on a different route. Any advice welcome!
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FrancyItaly
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I would suggest you to carry on with your current treatment but in the meantime ask for an referral from your GP to a fertility clinic as sometimes is taking a full year until you can start IVF treatment, particularly if you want a funded NHS treatment. They need to do lots of tests for you and your husband, all are taking so much time, so you can do 2 things on the same time.
In my case we had our first appointment in Oct 2016 and first IVF cycle in April 2018, this is 1.5 years 🥺
If in your case thing will move quicker than mine, you can always ask them to give you more time until you can start.
We already made a referral and completed some questionnaires. I received an email saying I will receive a letter with information on some tests we have to do. Because my issue is ovulation, I think they put me on Clomid, I don’t think they’ll offer IFV 🤷🏻♀️ I really don’t know if I should relax and what for it to happen again.
If they will offer you Clomid that is also good as you have ovulation issue, might work for you very well. It is worth to try. I was also 5 months on Clomid and didn’t work for me as we have male factor. Better Clomid than IVF 🤪
To be honest I would have definitely considered to move one with another treatment if you already have 6 months in total of trying with acupuncture and herbs. You can always go back to them in future...
With medicated treatments is always good to go when you are younger as you can have better results. ❤️
Thank you for your messages. Sorry about your struggles 😞 I read on here that Clomid didn’t work for so many people and I’m just worried it will be for nothing. Anyway, I will see where this referral will take us. Wish you all the best 💜
In your case I think it will be easier to see whether Clomid is working or not. They will monitor you first month. If ovulation occurs that is all you want to hear, I am sure you will have good chances as you got pregnant naturally. If ovulation doesn’t occur the treatment will stop in 3 months - so not bad I guess, reasonable time.
Hi, I get where you are coming from. PCOS really sucks doesn't it! I'm also diagnosed with PCOS, but my health is fairly good and I've got a few years before I'm considered getting older in terms of egg quality (those years are going fast now though!). However, I'm well past being patient and I do wish now I had started things earlier. It has taken me so much longer than I ever thought.
For me, I had a natural pregnancy over 6 years ago that ended in MC, I can't even believe that it has been that long. Since then I've done several rounds of clomid and letrozole for ovulation induction plus IUI all failed. Lots of tests, tubes clear, etc. Now currently doing 2nd round of IVF after my first round was cancelled.
It's really a personal decision, once you start down the medicated route, especially once you start paying privately, it does get a lot more stressful. So if you want to try naturally for a while longer I think it's really up to you. Good luck whatever you decide!! 😊 xx
I only started to think about getting pregnant when I got married in 2018, but back then we were not trying on the right days and when I started to use ovulation tests I knew something was wrong. I was 30 back then, this year I will be 32, time does go so fast! I will carry on what I’m doing until Nhs will offer me some treatments. I think it will probably take a while anyway. Good luck on your journey too 💕
Hey Francy, I was reading your message and sensed, from your words, some kind of pressure in you....you’ve ditched pressures from life (job) and taken control of your health, but somehow I feel you’re feeling under pressure.... I apologise if I’m wrong but thought it’s important to say.
My journey has been different, we’ve tried for over a year and at the time I was 35 and my husband 45.... and I felt that time wasn’t on our side, so thought it would have been better to ask for help from science rather than trying other more natural routes...
We’ve wasted 3 cycles on IUI (and money, has such low successful rates!) and then the NHS has years of waiting list so we went privately....then I got sick (really bad food poisoning ended up admitted into hospital and wasn’t able to eat for months) so that delayed our first IVF cycle...
Then it didn’t work....then I went into a dark place and lost faith in my marriage...we went through really hard times.... until we managed to come out of them and try again...
This is not to tell you my whole life story 😂😂😂😂but to say that time is very precious and life can get in the way and delay things in unexpected ways.
In short, do what you feel is best for you, but take into consideration those important factors like age/time that could impact on the outcome you’re looking for.
Thank you for sharing Issy. The lack of ovulation is what makes me so frustrated! I would be so positive some days and full of energy, and others I feel so low and helpless. Before PCOS was diagnosed I sensed something wasn’t right but then soon after I got pregnant so it didn’t affect me much. I was 30 and now I know I will be 32 without a baby, where did these two years go so fast? I had such a perfect plan, get married at 30, get pregnant, bring my baby in the nursery I ran. It was perfect, everything was working just as I always wanted to. Sorry this is only one of my low days, tomorrow I will be better again ❤️
You don’t have to apologise at all! Low days are part of our lives, we are beautiful humans ❤️You are a beautiful human!
They say ‘life is what happens when we’re busy making other plans’ ...some things are out of our control and the best we can do is to play with the cards we are given, having a great support system around us ❤️
The more we love ourself and our body, the easiest our journey will be 💗xxx
Hi love. There is no set timeline for anything, really, on this journey as it's super personal and also I think some of it is doctors just trying to fob you off, especially as time is obviously of-the-essence. However, I would say that the NHS required us to be trying for 2 years before even thinking about IVF, as sometimes it does just take some couples longer to conceive (not us unfortunately - my husband and I haven't had a natural pregnancy). Before the end of those two years, I was quite heavy handed about getting blood tests and scans, HSG etc. on the NHS, and then as soon as the 2 years were up they referred us to IVF. I kind of wished I'd probed further about other treatments as IVF was really the first and only thing they recommended....
Sounds like you can conceive naturally, so that's super great news! I'm glad for you that you're living a healthier and less stressful lifestyle. That also sounds amazing!
My first port-of-call would definitely be my GP to see their thoughts. Sounds like you've already do that, though.... So I would keep pushing them about the referral to the fertility clinic! Call to see if it can be expediated, for cancellations etc. I think a lot of them consider fertility low priority, despite the massive impact it has on mental health and your life in general!
Hun I feel like you have to do what you believe in, I told you we have done one cycle of IUI but I never wanted to do that and after one round I ask the doctor to go ahead with IVF... I know our journey is not similar but I get how you feel. Sending you lots of love 😘😘
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