Tips for slow follicle growth?

[Jezzabelle]

Hey! I’m on my second IVF cycle and just had my second stims scan. Although my lining looks good and is thickening there wasn’t much change in the 5 follicles that were there on Wednesday so I have to carry on with stims and go back for another scan on Monday. Any tips that might help get things growing would be much appreciated! I’m 35 with low AMH (4.9). I’ve been having a protein shake a day since starting sims and using a warm hot water bottle too. I’m going to up my water from 2l to 3l, but open to anything else that might help! Xx

[Jane8412]

Hey Jezzabelle. I can't offer any advice on how to increase their growth unfortunately, but hopefully they will grow over the weekend. Sometimes they can grow quickly. How many days have you been stimming and what drugs are you on currently? Have they mentioned increasing the dosage or do they seem happy with the progress? I have a similar AMH to you and I have been given quite a lot of stims on my two cycles. 375 Gonal F from day 2, plus 75 menopur from day 6. I hope they are looking good by Monday! xx

[DianeArnold Partner Nurse Fertility Network UK in reply to Jane8412]

Hi Jand. Just wanted to wish you well with your scan on Monday. You can improve follicles by adding more protein and zinc to your diet. Acupuncture and hypnotherapy also have been known to improve blood flow to the ovaries. Good luck! Diane

[Jezzabelle in reply to Jane8412]

Hi Jane! Thanks so much for your reply! I am on 375 Ovaleap and am on day 9 of stims. That’s interesting that you’ve got menopur on top of the Gonal F (I was on Gonal F on my first cycle). I might ask the clinic about doing something similar if there is no progress by Monday.

I hope you’re doing ok ☺️ X

[Jane8412 in reply to Jezzabelle]

Hopefully your follicles grow over the next three days and are looking good on Monday! Are ovaleap and gonal F quite similar drugs? How did your first round with gonal-f go? If they changed your drugs they must have thought Ovaleap could work better. I've have the exact same protocol both rounds with very different results so it could just be luck sometimes xx

[Jezzabelle in reply to Jane8412]

Let’s hope so 🤞☺️ Got an acupuncture session booked for tomorrow so that’ll be good! Yeah I’m told Ovaleap and Gonal F are virtually the same. I was on 375 of Gonal F on my first cycle but the clinic has changed to Ovaleap because they are more environmentally friendly. Other than the change to Ovaleap I’m on exactly the same protocol. Luck definitely has a lot to do with it - think that’s why I find it so frustrating, I’m such a control freak xx

[Jane8412 in reply to Jezzabelle]

I hope your acupuncture went well. I had a session on the weekend and it was great. I had no idea about Ovaleap being more environmentally friendly. That's so interesting! Gonal F is so expensive I wonder if Ovaleap is similar pricing. I am also a control freak so find the whole luck aspect of IVF really hard to deal with! How was your scan today? I hope there was a significant improvement! xx

[Jezzabelle in reply to Jane8412]

Awww thanks hun! Scan on Monday went better, there were 3 smaller follicles starting to appear and the other 5 had grown! I’ve also been drinking a lot of whole milk, echo I means I’ve drank ALOT of hot chocolate as i can’t stand milk 😂

I have carried on stimming so have another scan tomorrow and hopefully egg collection on Friday. Loved my acupuncture session! Got another one booked for tomorrow evening. Glad you enjoyed yours 😊

I can’t remember who much I paid for gonal f but think they are quite similarly priced as there wasn’t much difference with my meds cost between my two cycles.

I’m glad that I’m not the only control freak! Xx

[Alwaysbelieving in reply to Jezzabelle]

Hi jezzabelle I’m at exactly the same stage as you but this is my first round of IVF. Had my scan last Wednesday but follicles were measuring small so they upped my ovaleap which saw some improvement in my scan on Monday. Got a scan tomorrow and egg collection on Friday (all being well tomorrow) Hope all goes well for you this week and your cycle xx

[Jezzabelle in reply to Alwaysbelieving]

Thanks hun! Hope your scans went well and those follicles have grown 😊 I’ve got my egg collection tomorrow morning so will be interesting to see how many eggs we get. Good luck to you if you’ve got egg collection too! Xx

[Alwaysbelieving in reply to Jezzabelle]

Best of luck for tomorrow I’d love to hear how you get on. Mine has been rescheduled for Monday as the follicles were still measuring small. Got everything crossed for you 😃 Xx

[Jezzabelle in reply to Alwaysbelieving]

Thanks hun! Egg collection itself went well but 4/6 were immature and the other 2 don’t look like they’ve fertilised so looking like the end of cycle 2 😔 xx

[Alwaysbelieving in reply to Jezzabelle]

Oh I’m so sorry to hear that jezzabelle 😢 Such a cruel process/journey. Be kind to yourself and I’m sending my love x

[Jane8412 in reply to Jezzabelle]

Ahhh that's great news. Glad another 3 have popped up. Hopefully they are all a decent size by egg collection day and you can get an egg from them all! I hope your next scan goes well. Sounds like they are monitoring you closely which is a great sign they are on the ball. I'll be thinking of you xx