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Help! Got a BFP 10 days ago but been having light bleeding ever since. ICSI and possible chronic endometrisis

Barenina profile image
17 Replies

Hi all! This is my first post here.

On our 8th ICSI attempt trying for a sibling we had a positive test 10 days ago. This was from our first ever FET. We are so happy but also so nervous as I have experienced bleeding every day since. It starting with brown spotting two days before test date but has since been red and slimy. Not heavy, I don’t really need a pad, but almost every time I go to the toilet and wipe there is red slimy blood. (Sorry for the description)

We had our first BFP trying for a sibling two months ago and it sadly ended in a missed miscarry at 8 weeks. I didn’t experience spotting or bleeding then, we found out at ultrasound.

I guess I just need some advise, is there anything I can do or test? I tested my HCG levels last week and it’s rising normally so my clinic just wrote: ok, see you at the 7 weeks scan. I am taking progesterone support.

Anyone had the same experience? How did it turn out? Both good and bad experiences welcome, it’s so hard living in limbo land.

Additional info: I experienced bleeding in my first pregnancy from week 11 and gave birth at week 25 after my water broke. They don’t know why I was bleeding during pregnancy or why my water broke.

I have had problems with Ureaplasma and plasma cells. Had 3 antibiotic treatments this year and unfortunately did not do a second biopsy as they assured me it should be gone. Can persistent chronic endometritis be the reason I am bleeding?

I also have PCOS, and my partner has poor sperm quality and high dna damage. Yeahaaa

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Barenina
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17 Replies

Hi there. I’ve not experienced it myself (not managed to get a BFP yet), however a cousin of mine bled all the way through her pregnancy, from around week 5, she carried to term, all okay. If your levels are increasing, then try and relax hun and assume all okay. Such a worrying time and waiting for the scan. Can understand your worry. Best of luck and keeping everything crossed for you.

Barenina profile image
Barenina in reply to

Thanks for your reply.❤️ Your cousin must have been so worried but I am glad everything went fine! I already feel so lucky we have one healthy child, but I never knew it would be so heartbreaking and hard not being able to give him a sibling.

I will try to relax, and I really hope you will get your BFP one day soon!💫

Have your tried DHEA supplements? I see you have a low egg count. I have a high egg count but my testosterone was low at 0,7 causing poor egg quality. DHEA rise testosterone levels. It made all the difference for us together with antioxidants and regular sperm ejaculation for my husband ;)

Big hugs

in reply toBarenina

How are you feeling today? Has the bleeding changed at all?Thank you for your msg x

Dr suggested DHEA to me - 75mg. I started myself on 50 for 2 months and then increased to 75 this month. I know everyone says they take a few months to have an effect, but I went from x2 18mm follies last month to x4 mature ones this month (17mm, 22mm, 24mm and 24mm). Amh is 1.2 so Dr wasn’t expecting a response like that. I’m wondering if it was the DHEA! But could have been recovery after laparoscopy. This is all such a head fog! X

Sending best wishes ❤️

Barenina profile image
Barenina in reply to

Hi! Bleeding is still the same here ;) but starting to feel a bit more optimistic. After so many years of trying to fall pregnant I feel it’s taking over my life and I can’t go around being negative and worried all the time.

Christmas is coming and I will try to stay positive and see what the ultrasound says at 7 weeks 💫

Woah amazing to hear that your egg count has gotten so much better! Continue on the DHEA 🚀 are you taking other supplements?

From what I read ubiquinol q10 is also highly recommended!

Why did you have a laparoscopy? It seems they have stopped doing that in Norway. But I also got a friend who finally got pregnant on her 11th IVF procedure 😱 after having one!

How many IVF’s have you been through now? And your age? 😅 I am now 39, have a great egg count but it’s still difficult 😂

A head fog indeed!

in reply toBarenina

Ah sorry to hear it’s still on-going. I have read that whilst not standard, this does happen. Hopefully eases soon 🤞🏼Glad to hear that you’re in a positive head space love. You’re so right - it does literally take over and before you know it, years have passed. Need to find those “normal” things like Xmas planning to keep living! 🤣

Besides, everything could change for you during that 7w scan. Sending all the luck in the world 🍀

So with me; I’m doing dummy runs on stims at the moment, and triggering different days to see what my body does, follies sizes etc, before we dive into IVF. So I haven’t started IVF yet. We’ve done all of the scans, surgeries, blood work and clean-slate work (as I call it) first. My amh is so low that we weren’t sure if I would respond at all - so committed to a 3 month trial to see what happens first. Next step was going to be IUI, but they said if month 3 (December) is 3 or more follies again then we’ll go straight to IUI. May need to egg bank though 😩

Just now thinking about whether to have immune tests and PGS testing first, to save wasting anything!!!

Supplement-wise I am taking 400mg COQ10, 75mg DHEA, Pregnacare pre-natals, low-dose vitamin D and iron boosters. I think that’s it lol!!

What else do you take, if you don’t mind me asking? X

Barenina profile image
Barenina in reply to

Thank you 🍀 yeah gotto try and stay sane in this process 😛

Woah so interesting with your dummy runs. I have never heard of that here in Norway. You could get pregnant during these dummy runs naturally, right? You never know 🤞

A friend of my sisters got pregnant on her first IUI with almost no eggs left. She swears to IUI instead of IVF if the egg count is low 🤷🏻‍♀️ But I have no idea. Hopefully you get your good egg count and can try IUI first. Less invasive and less expensive 💫 We could never try that because of poor sperm quality.

Supplement wise I didn’t take anything the first years of trying but after turning to IVF forums and international clinics webpages I finally found more info and things to try, when nothing worked.

For my last cycle that went way better than all others I think it for sure was the DHEA that made all the difference but I also took:

QO10 300 mg (would up it to 600mg next time)

vitamin E - 300mg

vitamin C - 1000g

vitamin D 1600 ie

Multi vitamin + fish oil

+ eating more healthy and drinking less alcohol. No BIG nights out 😢🤣

Even though your man doesn’t have any issues it’s probably good for him also to be taking multivitamins and I would suggest frequent ejaculations. Younger men have better sperm, some suggest it’s because they “renew” their sperm so often 🤣

QO10 should also be good for men! So damn expensive though 😅

In Norway it’s not allowed to PGS test embryos so I don’t know about that. But I have read that embryos that possible could leed to pregnancies are discharged 🤷🏻‍♀️

I actually had a test done for natural killer cells and plasma cells 8 months ago. My clinic think it’s strange non of my transfers has stick, even with the poor results we’ve had. It turned out I had elevated plasma cells and had to take antibiotics. It was still there after retesting and I had to take another stronger antibiotics. Now I didn’t test again before my FET transfer and I am scared the infection is still there and it’s why I am bleeding. 🥺 It’s a damn ureaplasma I had years ago that just don’t want to fully go away I think. I don’t test positive for it on a normal vaginal swab, but I sent a bit of “period blood” to a clinic in Greece, and they found urraplasma present in it. Jeeez, all the things I have done the last year 😂😂 #desperate !

So if you have the time and money, why not do those tests to be sure you will not waist any of your good embryos if something is not 100% good regarding implantation 👌

I regret not doing a lot of testing a lot sooner. But in Norway, the attitude is always to not test from the doctors. Why pay so much for IVF treatments just to later find out it was something wrong with the implantation all along 🤪

Aiaiaiai have a good evening 💫

Fruitandflowers profile image
Fruitandflowers

Yes, pretty much every day from around 9 weeks when I tapered off progesterone. Midwives weren't concerned and said it's very common in the first trimester and only to update them if it got heavier or went red. It did go red and got heavier so I asked again but they said it was fine. I was having pretty regular scans that showed everything was ok and there was no haematoma in/around womb (something to check later at your scans). Because I've had progesterone problems and the spotting had gone into the second trimester, I had an investigation last week - they found a growth on my cervix that's bleeding. They don't know what it is but they said it could be endometriosis (have had that all my life and previously had some removed from the cervix), hormone related or just that I may have a cervix that bleeds more easily (and pregnancy makes the blood vessels bigger and changes everything so it can just happen). Waiting for test results but they don't seem worried and said there's no risk to the pregnancy and they'll just monitor it. What you might want to check though is for problems with your cervix, in particular an incompetent cervix (can cause bleeding, mucus and premature birth) - I don't know at what stage they can do this, and I think possibly only later on. I feel much better having had all this checked and finding a reason for the bleeding as I was very worried. In the meantime you might want to ask your clinic if you should/could increase your progesterone. x

Barenina profile image
Barenina in reply toFruitandflowers

Hi! Thank you so much for your reply!

I am sorry to hear that you also are experiencing bleeding in your pregnancy and that it has gotten heavier and what the doctors now found a growth that is bleeding at the check. Let me know what the results show! But it sounds good that they are not worried about the pregnancy and maybe it’s also a relief that they found the reason for the bleeding? How far are you now? Sending baby dust all over for you 💫

It’s interesting to hear that you started bleeding after going off progesterone support. Did they check your levels in your pregnancy and were they low? My clinic does not check but I checked myself and my level was 6 nmol/L which is extremely low is I understand what I am reading online. The clinic wrote I could double my progesterone intake but no need to check the levels again 🤷🏻‍♀️ I am taking oral progesterone this time as I hate the vaginal pills 😂 maybe it’s not working as well and I should go back to crinone or cyclogest, I don’t know. Maybe I should check my progesterone levels anyway again? My periods are really unregular so I never had my progesterone levels checked or monitored when not pregnant either.

I also experienced bleeding in my first pregnancy but I didn’t start bleeding before week 11 then. The doctors never found out why but my water broker in week 24 and my boy was delivered at 25 weeks. They thought it was an eruption of the placenta, but it wasn’t really and they still don’t know why it happened. What they never told me was to be careful with having sex, bathing in swimming pool etc when experiencing bleeding in pregnancy. It’s easy to catch an infection which can cause the water to break. Not to worry you, but in case no one told you either, be careful and avoid sex etc 😉. My son is perfectly healthy by the way. 💫

Barenina profile image
Barenina

Just wanted to update here and let you know that we had a 7 weeks scan today and there was no embryo there. 😔

I’ve bled a little every day since our positive test and the doctor said it’s just been a silent, early miscarriage. I didn’t know what could happen without cramps and wish I had tested my HCH levels more often so I didn’t go this long, hoping for the best - but then there is just nothing.

This is my second miscarriage this autumn so feeling very deflated now. Anyways, it’s snowing here today and 1st of December tomorrow. Will take a break from IVF until next year.

All the best xxx

Millbanks profile image
Millbanks in reply toBarenina

I'm so sorry lovely, that must be absolutely heartbreaking. I hope you are able to take some time to recover and grieve.

Much love xxx

Barenina profile image
Barenina in reply toMillbanks

Thank you Millbanks ❤️I see you’ve had such a journey and that you’re finally pregnant. Congratulations!😍

I hope your bleeding has stopped? I bled from week 11 on and off until my water broke at 24 weeks and gave birth a week after. Our son is 100% fine now. 5 years old.

They never found the reason, one doctor was able to see a small hematoma on one ultrasound but I was younger then and didn’t worry so much. Was traveling to Spain all the time and only had a few ultrasound. Jeeez, now I would freak out and not being able to relax!😂🤪

What nobody told me then was to not bathe or have sex or anything during this time with on/off bleeding as it can lead to infection and possible early labor/water breaking.

I don’t know if this is that happened to me, but I was indeed swimming a bit in the ocean etc when I was only having light spotting.

Wish you all the best in your pregnancy, may it be healthy and worry-free from now on 💫🤞🥰🎈

Millbanks profile image
Millbanks in reply toBarenina

Thank you so much - yes quite a journey for us! I genuinely still wake up every morning and am so incredibly grateful to be here, no matter how hard it was ❤️

Thank you also for sharing your story - thankfully my bleeding has stopped and the haematoma has gone :)

Funnily enough, the first thing they said was "no sex" - directed at my husband

😂That's incredible that you gave birth at 25 weeks - that must have been so traumatic for you - but I'm so pleased to hear your little boy is well!!

I will definitely be avoiding swimming and sex - no worries there :)

I hope you have a lovely Christmas and come back stronger in the new year for your next cycle xxx

Barenina profile image
Barenina in reply toMillbanks

So happy to hear your bleeding has gone and they told you about the non-sex part 😂👌

I guess you don’t do ice-bathing in the ocean over there anyways 🥶😂

I see you had really good egg collections, fertilization and even blastocyst formations, so finding out about the natural killer cells was maybe key for you?

Do you think also the ERA test was worth it? Don’t know if we should consider that. We’ve been pregnant twice this autumn but embryo stopped developing at around 6-7 weeks.

We did the endometri-test last sprint which showed high plasma cells. We’ve had two antibiotic treatments but not sure if it’s gone. Waiting to see if I can get the second test for free. (They don’t do it in Norway so we have to send it to the UK so it’s pricey!🤪)

I sent period blood to Greece one year ago and they found Ureaplasma and also only 8% good bacteria (lactobacillus)

After an antibiotics treatment they gave me, I had the endometri test which showed high plasma cells/chronic endometris so I am worried I am not getting rid of this 🤬😩 and it might be the reason I gave birth prematurely and the reason I am not able to keep a baby now.

Sorry about the ranting, you just seem so knowledgeable so thought I would poor all my worries out and see if you have any thoughts 🥰

Just spoke to my clinic about our next IVF and they didn’t really have any suggestions or thoughts as to why we lost our embryos.

Anyways, wishing you a wonderful time being preggo! 🤰🌟🥰 enjoy it!!

Lots of love from

Norway

Millbanks profile image
Millbanks in reply toBarenina

Hehe! Funnily enough cold water swimming is really big here - although not for me!!

I think the NK cells was definitely the key for us - although having the ERA I think helped too. But we'd never had a positive test before so I think it was probably a combo of it all (plus PGS testing).

Knowing that we had a genetically normal embryo meant that there was less chance of miscarrying - if it did stick! Have you done PGS testing? It's not for everyone, but as we got so many embryos we needed to make sure we weren't just transferring embryo after embryo with no hope.

My feeling would be that if you've already had pregnancies and early losses (so sorry to hear about this) - then your window of implantation probably isn't the issue so ERA is probably not worth it.

It could well be that you've just been unlucky with the genetic side of things - depending on your age your percentage of "normal" embryos within each batch goes down....

I don't know much about high plasma cells - they sound interesting. Is that something that LIT therapy can help with?

Have you had your progesterone levels checked too? If you're getting to 6 or 7 weeks then I wouldn't think that immune issues would be a problem - but it's maybe worth getting them checked too?

Much love to you too!! xxx

Barenina profile image
Barenina in reply toMillbanks

He he, so ice bathing is actually a thing over there. Funny, it’s so trendy here as well. Brrrr 🥶

We never had our embryos PGS tested. It’s actually not allowed in Norway 🤷🏻‍♀️ Egg donation just became legal this year, so we are a bit behind on everything 😅

Anyways we always ever had one embryo to transfer so maybe not a good idea for us to PGS test anyways. Our recent and 10th ICSI was the first time we had more than one embryo developing and could develop to blastocyst and even had one to freeze. Jeez it’s really a miracle we ever had our son with these terrible results! 😂🤪

But hoping our next ICSI will show same/better results but with an embryo that stick around 🤞🎈

The test we had which they here call “endometri test” is actually a biopsy of the uterus to test both natural killers cells and chronic endometritis/plasma cells.

I tested negative to NK cells but positive to high plasma cells which means you have an infection of some sort. It should go away with antibiotics but for a few it’s hard to get rid of 😑

Yeah my age is against me now. Just turned 39 and by partner has severe DNA fragmentation on his sperm so both can be a reason why we lost our embryos.

But I have really high AMH so don’t know when to throw in the towel now we are finally getting some decent results… both egg donation and sperm donations could be an option. Maybe I even need a surrogat 🤔

But it’s already been such a long journey…

Oh, and with my last pregnancy I was spotting from before test date to I had my testosterone tested and it was only 6 nmo/L at 15 dpo!!!🤯 I paid myself and the clinic just replied: we never test this. You can double your progesterone but no need to test again.

This was a natural FET cycle. I actually almost never ovulate (Pcos) but we had an ultrasound and I was suddenly ovulating so they just transferred 5 days later with progesterone support from transfer day. Any thoughts?

(I also had a trigger shot to be sure I was ovulating as my ovulation test was negative)

So many things to figure out that I wish my clinic could figure out for me. It’s not my job 😂😂 but it’s been great to join this community with such supporting and knowledgeable women ❤️💫

Big hugs darling!

When are you due??

Millbanks profile image
Millbanks in reply toBarenina

That's interesting that PGS testing isn't allowed in Norway - I guess the rules differ all over the world - although it's still in the red category on the HFEA website - which means it's not recommended.... but we did it as we had lots of embryos.If you're only getting 1 or 2 it's probably not worth the risk.

It's so lovely that you have a son!! Interestingly I did read that you can develop high NK cells at any time and even after a successful pregnancy - so who knows.

I really hope your antibiotics work soon!! I have just turned 39 so I know that feeling .

Are there supplements you can take to help with high fragmentation - I can't remember?

If you've got good AMH I would give it another go 🥰 but great to have donation and surrogacy as an option - I love that you sound so upbeat about it!

Oh wow - that is low progesterone for sure - I would ask them to add in lubion injections with your cyclogest - it's so important to have good levels of progesterone - I can't understand why so many clinics don't test for it.

I've never done a natural cycle so I don't know much about them - but could you do a semi medicated one? Start progesterone on ovulation day and transfer 5 days later.

I completely hear you about it not being your job to figure it out - but here (well definitely for me) I did all my own research and went to the clinic to tell them what I wanted - you have to be your own advocate!!

I am due on the 31st March - I still can't believe it. xxx

Barenina profile image
Barenina in reply toMillbanks

Hi! I see I never got back on this one, was nice to have the holidays free from “IVF research and focus” 😂👌

I hope you are still doing good and that your pregnancy is progressing nicely with daily kicks and a lovely big tummy 🥰

Not so long now! 🤱🏼

—-

About my last miscarriage after FET that was maybe due to super low progesterone, I am so gutted and can’t stop thinking about it. It was the first blastocyst we ever got to freeze and it was good quality. To think we maybe lost it because of something as simple as low progesterone 😩

Usually in my fresh cycles I take cyclogest, but for my FET I asked for just oral progesterone (Duphastone) because a friend recommended it and the thought of avoiding the mess with cyclogest taken vaginally was so tempting.

But now they think this oral progesterone didn’t work out for me. I knew already on 15dpo that my progesterone was super low but my clinic just told me to double the dose and not check again. So that’s what I did. 2 weeks later my embryo had bled out.

I should have asked you guys for advise and help instead I now realize. Sometimes it just takes a lot of energy to write a post and ask for help. In this post that I did indeed write, I didn’t actually mention my low progesterone 😒

Arg, what is done is done and I must try to look forward.

For the next fresh cycle they recommend that I test my progesterone 5 days after egg retrieval (they never do this but will do it for me) and that I take cyclogest as usual and also a HCG trigger shot to boost my natural progesterone 6 days after egg retrieval. Have you heard about this before?

I see you suggest Lubion injections, I never heard about this. How much and how often should I admin those? We have doctors in my husbands family so I can always make them write me a prescription if my clinic will not. This will perhaps be our last try so have to give it everything! 🌟

Can I also ask you if you took any specific supplements or changes your diet during your IVF journey?

I am taking DHEA x 3 (found out I have lot testosterone now that I am getting older, it can apparently happen with slim women with PCOS) it helped greatly in my last ICSI and I believe it is one of the main reasons that we got 3 blastocysts (never had one before in 8 cycles!!)

My husbands high DNA fragmentation we have improved with high doses of vit C, vit D and vit E. Also daily to every other day ejaculations to get the old out and in with the new 😂👌 Our fertilization rate went from 0-20% to 50-60% after implementing this!

I also take q10 gold, vitamin C, vitamin D, vit E and prenetal with fish oil.

Wondering if I should cut down on gluten and diary, but it’s so hard. Any thoughts?

Also, have you ever had an antibiotic treatment during your time trying to get pregnant? Did you take probiotics? Think I saw you comment somewhere else about it.

I was told by one of the doctors to continue probiotics (vaginally) until week 10. But next doctors said only to take it for 7 days after my third antibiotic treatment. So unsure about this, as I understand the environment down there is quite important to not have a miscarriage also … and a test I sent to Greece one year ago showed I had super low levels of good bacteria (lactobacillus) down there so this might me something I also struggle with

I have read that the reason I gave birth to my son early (week 25) could have been because of low levels of good bacteria but also low progesterone throughout the pregnancy. I started bleeding at week 11 and bled back and forth until I gave birth and I just realized that around week 10 is when I stopped progesterone support so maybe this could have been the reason? Hmm. I never had my progesterone levels checked in a natural cycle even, so never known if I struggle with that.

It’s crazy how many things can be off with one body 😂 and also my husbands super bad sperm 😂 jeez we are really so lucky we have our son, our miracle for sure!💫

I just need to get pregnant soon or stop obsessing about a second child, because I can’t live like this!

Can I ask if you have more embryos in the freezer?

Sorry for such a long message, if you ever find the time to reply I will be grateful 😊 I don’t know anyone with knowledge about this stuff, so nice to have someone to chat with (on my old post 😂)

Enjoy your pregnancy, so happy for you!!!💫💫👌👌👌

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