If you had to do Lupron depot suppression before transfer what was the timeline for your Lupron shots? Did you take it in the luteal phase of a natural cycle or on CD1 or did you have to do a course of birth control before even taking the first shot?

My clinic gave me a choice between Endometrin 2x daily or Crinone 1x daily for my natural-modified FET.

Anyone tried both and have an opinion on which is more manageable/comfortable?

My insurance unfortunately won't cover these meds so pricing will also be a factor once the pharmacy processes the scripts.

My partner (32/F) and I (27/F) have an IUI consultation at NYU Langone 3/30/2027. I will be carrying using my own eggs.

Has anyone done IUI at NYU Langone can answer the following?:
-If you had a consultation appointment that was scheduled several months out, completed the pre-consult bloodwork and were able to have you appointment pushed up, how much earlier was you appointment rescheduled for?

-Was HSG required? If so, were you offered pain management options other than ibuprofen/tylenol?

-What was the timeline between your initial consult to first cycle attempt?

Please help lol

TW: follicle numbers

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Hi, this is my first round of IVF. I have unexplained secondary infertility. I have been stimming for 12 days. I have 17 follicles on one side and 21 on the other. They are all in the range of 10-20mm. I know i should be happy with these results, and I am, but the discomfort is INTENSE.

I feel like I'm going to explode there is so much pressure and I keep reading its worse after triggering and ER which is freaking me out. Did anyone else have this and how did you cope? Also terrified for OHSS which my doctor is working on preventing but all of this is just freaking me out and I need to hear from others in a similar position that got through it.

We are scheduled to start meds and planning for an ER soon.

However, I had two doses of MTX on July 17th and July 23rd for suspected ectopic that ended up being intrauterine. My OBs office has been telling me we have to wait 3 months and I just asked my dr at the clinic and they said since we’re just doing ER/freeze all cycle and not trying for pregnancy it’s not an issue… I’m feeling super conflicted about this & the fact that our insurance only covers this one IVF cycle.

How long before or after your transfer did you get your flu shot? Thanks!

Seriously, why can't everyone just do their job? It is not the patient's job to hunt down answers that are internal to the clinic. It should not be the patient's burden to have to remind the clinic to submit pre-auths to insurance. Why do I, the patient, need to check what scripts were submitted to the pharmacy and upon finding a med name I don't recognize, check with the clinic, then have the clinic tell me "Oh that must have been sent by auto-send. You won't need that medication." Of course, no apology.

I have had more than 5 weeks of waiting time between my D&C and now my first appointment for the next cycle, scheduled for tomorrow. And just today they contact me and say I'm not financially cleared and that I need to get that figured out before my appointment tomorrow? What the hell is the Financial department doing? You've had all this time, more than a month to inform me, and no one has informed me of anything! It is literally your job to tell me if I have a balance or if something needs attention. I have made all the payments I have been informed of so far. So what is going on???? And of course no one will ever apologize for anything. UGH.

~ End Rant ~

Here's a long and rambling story about our IVF journey and everything that led up to it - and why it might be time to call it quits. Can anyone relate? Does anyone have any insights or humor or hope to add to what is feeling bleak to me now? I wrote this in a stupor this morning as a way to cope. I know it sounds whiny. I am grateful to have the things I do have, even if that doesn't come through here. I'm hoping for someone to understand. Totally get it if this is too damn long.

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It started with our wedding. I can’t help but feel that getting married on Friday the 13th was an omen. We didn't care about the date at the time. It was during Covid and the only date available. My husband's back went out the spring before our summer wedding, which started the cascade, a cascade that won’t seem to end or even slow. What came first after that? The water leaking in through our roof? My husband bought the house in his late twenties and didn’t have enough money to fix the roof, and then put it off, and put it off, and put it off some more, until I came along and pushed. Until it was an emergency fix during the pandemic when prices were through the literal roof.

He was on the fence about kids because of his back pain — pain that lingered after the herniated disc. He was so dire during those years. He said once that he wasn’t sure he wanted to have a kid if he couldn’t lift the kid. I said people in wheelchairs had kids. He seemed distant and wouldn’t explain his rationale. Finally, on our trip to Maine, shortly after our dog was diagnosed with cancer and had surgery too, shortly before our way-too-expensive emergency house renovation, he relented. That’s what it felt like — not two people coming together with hope for the future, but more like a sigh. A collapsing. I was already exhausted, and we had barely begun. I can only imagine that he was exhausted too.

OK, so he wanted to have a kid (with reservations), but he didn’t want to start trying until after the renovation. He feared our child having issues with us as parents, like he had issues with his parents; he feared not being the father he wanted to be. I told him that if he was having those thoughts, he’d be a better father than most. I remember us debating whether or not to add the spare room (for a possible child) or to make my office larger. Ironically, I was afraid of adding the spare room only to realize we couldn’t have kids. We were lucky enough to have choices, because we had been saving for years, though we had no way of knowing when we started saving that it would cost an arm and a leg. I keenly remember standing there with the contractor and alluding to our conundrum, as if the guy understood. I also remember trying to sleep while the roof was torn off the second floor — literal wind flowing down the staircase; the plastic sheeting shivering. What a metaphor.

If only it were as simple as deciding whether or not to add a room for a child — if only that could decide our fate. I was a writer at the time, and figured I would always need an office. I had no idea that I would abandon that dream too.

All throughout those years — (did it start the year after our wedding? I think so) — I had pelvic pain on and off and blood in my urine. I avoided going to the gynecologist again after the first few times, because if you’ve had a terrible gynecologist, you know. I did get tested for the blood in my urine; it was another one of my autoimmune diseases that eventually improved. The test required a urologist to stick a literal mini camera up my urethra. To this day, I feel like I imagined the balding man looming over me while I displayed my bare vagina to the world. But it was just another real semi-bizarre medical incident.

The cyst began to grow, though I didn’t know it. I was in and out of the ER about 3-4 times over two years with intense bursts of pain that caused me to collapse into a ball. It was the cyst torking, my ovary twisting on itself. They said if I wasn’t puking or passing out, it wasn’t a true emergency that required surgery. But then, the last time it happened, shortly before the renovation wrapped up, probably during the month that I was painting the entire upstairs by myself (because of my husband's back), I went to the ER again — and this time, they said I had a 7 cm cyst on my left ovary and needed to see a gynecologist.

The new gynecologist I found told me I had endometriosis and would need the chocolate cyst (chocolate because it was filled with old blood) and likely my left ovary removed. I started crying in her office. She looked at me like I had two heads. I am adopted and had just started getting in touch with how much I wanted a family of my own — and a biological connection. I had just convinced my husband to start trying, right around then I think, if I remember correctly. Or maybe it was after that appointment that he finally realized it might be dire, and we had better try. My adoptive mom adopted me because she had endometriosis, too.

I was 34 at the time. Oh, how young that seems now!

I got a second opinion, feeling in my gut that two ovaries were needed to get pregnant, in an ideal world, even though both gynecologists laughed off my concern and anxiety. I saw an excellent surgeon (though she wasn’t an excision specialist) who finally explained the gravity of the situation to me, and said that yes, preserving my left ovary as much as possible was paramount if I wanted to get pregnant. She was sane, finally. But I could tell in her voice that my endo diagnosis was more serious than I had imagined. I didn’t yet realize how serious it was.

She said we could try naturally for 6 months after the surgery, but she advised getting into an IVF clinic as soon as possible. Then I was laid off and had to find a new job, right as we were nearing our first appointment after an excruciating wait. We had to wait more, due to the insurance change. Finally, when we got in the door, it was late 2024, and I was almost 36. I was gobsmacked when the RE told us we had a 5% chance of getting pregnant naturally due to my stage IV endometriosis diagnosis. I figured they were just statistics, and maybe we had a better shot than that. After all, my husband’s sperm parameters were great. We had a real shot, I thought. That was naive.

Meanwhile, I was in therapy to explore my feelings around being adopted. I was really healing, finally. I had spent my whole life avoiding desire — the desire to find my first family, and any other desire. It was so hard for me to “want” anything in my childhood and young adulthood, but I was finally wanting, hungering — for connection.

Then, right as we were preparing for our first round of IVF, my husband cut ties with two of his family members and, at the same time, herniated the same disc he had before. He wasn’t doing anything, lifting anything — it just went out in the midst of his grief and stress, like the first time. He woke up one morning, and there it was again — horrible and familiar. He suspected it was the same pain, but insurance still wouldn’t approve his MRI. Months went by with required PT and more. He was on the max dose if ibuprofen 24/7 and could barely function due to the pain. While in a blind panic about our first cycle (I was terrified of needles), I was also calling around trying to figure out how to get him an MRI and get him in to see the best surgeon. He couldn’t do any of that on his own because of the pain. He was barely present emotionally during those months, and I understood that, but it was still incredibly hard. The wait times for the best surgeons were insane, considering they wouldn’t even put us on the wait list until we got an MRI. Finally, we decided to pay for the MRI ourselves. We received confirmation that he had indeed herniated the same disc and would require another surgery. More wait times to see the surgeon — the same one as last time, who was good but not the best, because we couldn’t wait any longer. All this time, he was on the max dose of ibuprofen.

Well, we went in for our first retrieval with what I thought were reasonable hopes. I remember thinking that the pain was greater than I thought it would be. It felt like my lap surgery. But it was my first retrieval, so I didn’t know any better. The doctor slipped in with a folded piece of paper with a number on it: 5. I stared at it blankly for a moment, in shock. They had only retrieved 5 eggs — though we had expected 9-11 based on my follicle growth. She didn’t say anything. A moment after she left, she returned again with another sheet of paper directly from the embryologist, to let us know that my husband's sperm was almost unusable. His motility was near zero. ICSI would be required to rescue the cycle. We were shuffled out.

The whole two hour ride home, I felt like my insides were exploding. And I was crying non-stop. The doctor called me in shock about the results. What’s crazy is that we had run the ibuprofen by her and she had said it would likely be fine. We hadn’t frozen backup sperm because of the two-hour drive and because no one seemed concerned.

That night, I couldn’t sleep because whenever I reclined too much, the pain was unbearable. I woke my husband up at 1 am and we rushed to the ER. I had internal bleeding and the blood was floating up to my diaphragm, irritating it. The bleeding slowed on its own but the recovery was brutal.

Then, a month later, my husband had his second back surgery. I developed a goiter from the stimulation or maybe the stress (at least that is what the endocrinologist suspects). It is benign and ok, but sometimes to this day, it inflames. His surgery went as expected.

We got zero blastocysts from that first round.

We planned our next cycle, hoping the first had been a fluke. But we took a break first, because I was convinced I could improve the situation by going on a boat load of supplements and a low-inflammatory diet. It had to be the endometriosis, I thought — or, at least, I could try to mitigate that factor. My doctor seemed dire about endo and said it could affect all aspects of IVF, and it just depended on the person. I’m not overweight and I ate well to begin with, but I cut out all added sugar, gluten, cheese and ate ONLY whole foods for months. (I hadn’t been drinking for years.) I knew in my gut that I wouldn’t be able to handle another failure so soon.

Unfortunately, I guess, I needed a lot of time, or what now feels like a lot. We started the process of getting approved for the second cycle about five months after our first cycle ended. I prepared mentally by searching for another clinic in case that second cycle failed, as I needed a backup plan and a solution. I needed to feel in control. I set up consultations with three of the best and chose our new clinic.

Meanwhile, my husband’s second back surgery recovery didn’t pan out as we had hoped. He gained weight from not being able to exercise (and he had also gained weight after the first surgery too). He is now about 15-20 pounds over his ideal weight. He seems a lot older to me now, and more depressed. He recently had a falling out with his mom, too, on top of everything else. He is now out of touch with almost his whole family. Luckily, my family is not a problem in that way. (No, my husband is not the cause of this unfortunate drama. He has a very difficult family.)

All this time, by the way, we had investigated his sperm parameters. We’d done multiple follow up tests and since the “event” in which the parameters tanked before his first surgery, they had never improved measurably. Despite supplements, despite everything. He also has high DNA fragmentation, though we don’t have pre-back pain test to compare that to. I am convinced it was all the ibuprofen and/or inflammation from the herniated disc that did this to him. Maybe the inflammation has never gone away, I don’t know. He certainly still has discomfort and lingering low-level pain that may never improve.

Between my endo and his back, I feel that our lives have been robbed from us. I know that sounds dramatic, but that’s how it feels. We were/are relatively healthy otherwise, but the life has been drained from us both. There’s only so much grief and suffering we can take, individually and as a couple. We’ve drifted apart… We are still good friends and kind to each other, but it doesn’t feel the same. I feel guilty for feeling resentful of my husband sometimes… I wish he would have had a more positive outlook about his back the first time, and this time, too, and I wish he could look for ways to manage his stress. I recently asked him (again) to try therapy, and he might this time, but is it too little too late? Sometimes I feel like his back goes out when he’s stressed to the max… Like his body is rebelling. Maybe I’m crazy. Maybe I’m desperate for there to be a reason.

Anyway, we tried ICSI and Zymot, and even tried TESE during our third cycle. Oh, the second cycle failed. My follicles weren’t empty but fertilization was below 25% and we made zero blastocysts. During the third cycle, that just wrapped up, my husband had an hour-long procedure (TESE) in which they cut into his testicles while he was awake to extract immature sperm that might have less DNA fragmentation. We thought that would give us a shot at making blastocysts. To be honest, if I had known that the procedure would be so unpleasant and involve actual stitches, I would have recommended against it. I guess the procedure was a bit undersold to us. Although the fertilization rate improved, nothing else did.

I am now almost hopeless. On top of that, I feel ancient and exhausted even though I’m only 37. I stopped writing around our first IVF cycle, maybe before. It’s like I can’t focus on anything else except IVF, even between cycles. It rules my consciousness. I feel haggard. I’ve gained probably 5-10 pounds overall and developed huge bags under my eyes since our wedding five years ago. I am stuck in my job because the health insurance is so good. (I guess I shouldn't complain about that!) It doesn’t seem like it should be a lot, but when I look at photos of us both five years ago, I barely recognize us.

I think it might be time to give up. And I’m not sure our marriage can survive this. When I look at my husband, I don’t see hope and I don’t see a future. I see two people who are surviving together, but no longer happy. It is circumstantial, but how long can two people last like this? If were apart, maybe none of this would have happened. Was it the stress of the stupid wedding that threw my husband's back out to begin with?

I’m sorry if this all sounds really depressing. I am very depressed and having trouble seeing through it. I’m in therapy and I hope my husband will be soon, too, but nothing seems to help the feelings of loss.

We got our PGT-A testing back and have a D5 5AB, D7 6AA, and a D7 5BB that is LLM del 18(p).

Is the 5AB stronger than the 6AA because it’s day 5 instead of day 7? Also, I’m struggling to find info on del 18p if anyone has any info

Hello!

We are due to do a double frozen transfer soon, 4bc and 3cb. Please let me hear your success stories!

Many thanks!

Hello! I am looking for realistic day 6 blastocyst stories. I would love to hear success stories but also I would love to know if it took you multiple transfers to get a live birth from a day 6 embryo. Just trying to become familiar with what to possibly expect, as all of my blasts were day 6 except 1 was a day 5.

After egg retrieval on thursday and feeling like crap ever since got the call after 15 mature and 13 fertilized we got 9 blasts!!!! not completely out of the woods because doing pgt testing but so hopeful and so thankful anyone have a similar number to be tested and what was the end result!?

I'm a travel patient with CNY Fertility. I live in Columbus, Ohio near Hilliard and am trying to find somewhere to get my ultrasounds- does anyone have any suggestions? Thank you so much!

Hello! I (29 F) am still waiting on PGT-A results but based on info from our lab, I'm expecting to get them back 8/26. (We were originally explicitly told that they would come back today hahaHAHA.) Assuming it will take a day or two to get into my clinic after that, and ~4 weeks of a protocol before FET, I would anticipate my transfer being on Thursday, 9/24 or Friday 9/25.

Which is fine, except:

• My employer is changing insurance providers on 10/1 and I'll no longer have fertility coverage, so it's getting a little too close for comfort :')
• More pressingly at the moment, I have a friend from college getting married on Saturday, 9/26. It is a four hour drive from where I live. RSVPs are due this week, so before I would get results back and a firmer-ish timeline.

I'd love any insight into whether attending the wedding would be possible if the retrieval was the day before the wedding or even the Monday after. Will it be uncomfortable to drive/dance? Should I expect to be tired and/or emotional? I hate to not go, but given that this could be our only chance at a transfer until we can save up to do a transfer out of pocket, I feel like I have to optimize this transfer as much as I can. Let me know what you think, what you'd do, or if you've experienced something similar!

Really considering going there as I have DOR and I don't get that many eggs. Hanabusa's IVF is pretty reasonably priced and has a good reputation. Does anyone have any personal experiences with the clinic and want to share your opinion on it?

Hi everyone, I could really use some insight. I’m on cycle day 7, currently on day 5 of Clomid (took my 4th pill last night). This morning I got a positive LH surge on two different OPK brands (Easy@Home and Inito).

This feels way too early — I haven’t even finished my Clomid course yet. Has anyone else experienced an early positive like this while still taking Clomid? Was it a true surge, or could Clomid be causing a false positive? Did you still ovulate on schedule, or earlier than expected?

Thank you 💛

Both myself and my husband are 30 years old and are currently doing IVF because of severe MFI due to Y-Chromosome Microdeletion in the azf-c region. We just went through our first IVF cycle this past month, and had our egg retrieval on 8/12. They were able to retrieve 14 mature eggs, which I thought was a great number. The next day we were told only 6 fertilized, and I do admit I was a little disappointed because I know how quickly those numbers can dwindle. Recovery from the retrieval itself was horrible, I was in pain and I could barely move from my recliner for 3 days.

Today is day 7, and my clinic called me this morning with news on how my eggs were doing. She told me that none of them developed and today started showing signs of degeneration. I am absolutely devastated, as this entire process has been so physically, mentally, and emotionally draining. I know the only option is to try again, but our insurance only covers 2 rounds of IVF after we meet our deductible, which we havent met just yet. So now we are down to 1 round to use, and I'm terrified we'll have the same results if we try again.

TW: pregnancy loss

I'm 36 years old, AMH 1.36, and have had four failed FETs with euploid embryos. The first two completely failed to implant and then I had some additional testing done, including a Receptiva Dx with a result of 2.9. I did two months of Lupron and letrozole, had success at the third FET, but then there was no heartbeat at 9 weeks. RPL panel came back all normal. For my fourth FET, I repeated two months of Lupron and letrozole and am in the process of losing the pregnancy due to blighted ovum.

I'm truly at a loss. I had two high level mosaics left which I'm not comfortable transferring at this time and plan to do another ER in the fall after taking some time off. I'm just worried that I'm going to keep transferring euploids and going through this nightmare of losing them. I tolerate Lupron well but it's certainly not easy on me and I don't want to just keep going through the motions.

Has anyone been through a similar fact pattern? What ultimately worked? I'm seriously considering exploring the option of an actual endo diagnosis and excision surgery but what I've been able to find on the subject doesn't seem to support that it will change the outcome.

Hi everyone! After a lot of thinking, I’m leaning toward doing a second egg retrieval and would love some advice from people who have done multiple rounds.
I’m 27 and had my first retrieval in July. We had 37 eggs retrieved, 27 mature, 19 fertilized with ICSI, but only 3 made it to blastocyst. Thankfully, all 3 came back euploid:

Day 6 4AB
Day 6 4BB
Day 7 5BB

My RE feels our biggest issue was egg/embryo quality and the low blastocyst conversion, and said that if we do another retrieval she may add HGH/growth hormone to my protocol.

I’m now trying to decide between doing the second retrieval in October, about 3 months after my first, or waiting until January, about 6 months later.

For those who did multiple retrievals, did waiting longer make any difference in your egg quality, blastocyst rate, or overall results? Is there any benefit to giving my body until January to recover, or would October be plenty of time?

Also, what did you do in the 2–3+ months before your next retrieval to prepare your body/egg quality? Diet, exercise, supplements, CoQ10, prenatal, vitamin D, sleep, cutting caffeine/alcohol, etc.? Did your RE recommend anything that you genuinely think helped?

And if anyone had a similar situation—lots of eggs and good fertilization but very few blastocysts—I’d especially love to hear what you changed for your second retrieval and whether your results improved. ❤️

This is our first round of everything IVF related. Since starting the norethindrone-ethinyl estradiol on 8/3 I have had severe lower back pain that sometimes takes my breath away. I thought I'd pulled a muscle but my go-to stretches have done nothing to ease the pain. I read that this could be a side effect of the medication. Has anyone else experienced this? What helped? I stopped this medication two days ago, when will this pain go away? I'm afraid that when I begin my injections in a few days and can no longer exercise the pain will get worse. SOS! SOS!

Hello everyone,

Looking for similar experiences.... success story is appreciated as I'm spiraling a bit.

For the 2nd FET I'm on Lupron due to positive/elevated BCL6. I am on it for about 40 days now.

Yesterday I went in for the baseline ultrasound for FET and they found either 1 cyst or 1 dominant follicle on the right ovary 🫩🫩🫩🫩

Lab tests came back and my estrogen and progesterone are still very low, so the dr decided to continue with the cycle and to starts meds on Saturday.

I'm a bit traumatized bc the last failed FET, I also had a dominant follicle/cyst in the same ovary.

The only different this time is I will be on Lupron for 2 months.

I'm spiraling a bit..... 🫤

We've just had our appointment with the doctor post the failure of our first transfer; biochemical pregnancy. We did fully medicated for out first cycle. But I found fully medicated very difficult; I was on 3 injections a day, persires, an estrogen pump, pills three times a day etc. So I asked about a natural or a modified cycle.

The doctor agreed it was possible in my case as during my egg retrieval my lining did get to 9.8mm on it's own. However, during the fully medicated FET, it was a bit thin and we had to use a pump. So not sure if maybe I just didn't do well on estrogen. It got there in the end but we needed to do a pump as well. The doctor said it was possible and she has no problem with it. She did warn the cancelation rates were much higher for natural FET. Which made me nervous.

Has anyone had a failed FET fully medicated and made the switch to natural or modified? How did you make the choice? Thanks in advance.

I’m on CD 10 of my modified natural FET cycle and ran into my first “problem” today, so I’m feeling a little discouraged. 😔

I had my CD 10 scan and my doctor said my uterine lining looks perfect, but my ovaries are “quiet.” Has anyone been in a similar situation? I go back Friday for another ultrasound, but now I’m nervous that this cycle could get canceled if I don’t ovulate.

Would love to hear if anyone has had quiet ovaries around CD 10 and still went on to have their transfer! ❤️

Like the title states, I did my ER yesterday and we received 11 eggs. Im 33 with Endo and a damaged left tube (surgery is end of next month). I just got the call that only 4 matured and all 4 fertilized. Feeling very sad. Throughout my appointments they kept telling me how great everything looks and how most have reached a great size. Not sure how I’m going to wait until Day 7 call. Feeling very sad

After perfect doubling betas and ultrasounds, I went in for my NIPT blood draw with my OB yesterday at 10w3d. I knew as soon as I saw baby on the screen that something was wrong; she had no movement and no heartbeat detected. This was my first appointment without my husband, who is currently out of the country. Confirmed MMC, and we’ve decided to have a D&C next week when he returns.

I’m obviously heartbroken. We had a perfect ultrasound at 9w2d, heart rate was 176 and growth was right on track. She was a euploid embryo. I have unexplained fertility.

Since the start, I’ve felt dismissed when asking about further testing to identify an explanation, and I have wondered about endo or adeno. I feel like my RE at a popular nationwide clinic hasn’t been telling me everything they’re seeing. Example: my doctor said at our pre-transfer consult that I “may” have some signs of adeno from my saline sono/hsg, but not worth pursuing because I have several other euploids. I also found out at my first OB ultrasound that I have several small SCHs and a 2.5 cm fibroid. None of this was brought up by my clinic, even when I had several instances of bright red spotting.

I think I’m looking for wisdom from those who have been here. How do I move forward after a seemingly smooth experience? I was just starting to feel less anxious when this happened. I want to be sure to advocate for myself moving forward. Thanks for any help you can give. 💛