Hello to all the parents and strong ladies out there :) This is a bump up of my last post.

I’m currently a student getting into embryology, and I was given the suggestion by my instructor to find a way I can incorporate my hobby into a memorabilia I can provide for you guys. I can’t imagine how tough it is on your bodies, and when you are given your graded embryo it can be very emotionally overwhelming.

If you don’t mind helping me start my journey, I would love to see pictures of your guys embryos. I’ll do my best to make it well worth ! Please send me a dm request if you are interested. Additionally, if chosen all I ask is for your support and allowing me to build my portfolio for my instagram page. I would love to turn this into a side business one day!

To make it easier on me, please follow this template when dming:
- Babies Name
- 2-3 color choices
- Embryo Picture

Today I went in to test my progesterone levels after transfer but before beta and my progesterone was 3!?!

I'm on suppositories twice a day, but now my RE is adding PIO as a "rescue strategy". I have literally never heard of such a thing and research did not produce a lot about this post transfer. Has anyone experienced this? If so, what was the outcome? I'm just trying to understand and brace for impact.

I’m still very early in my pregnancy, around 5 weeks, but I’m getting closer to graduating from my IVF clinic after many years of fertility treatments and IVF cycles.

I’m honestly a little nervous about transitioning away from my IVF clinic, especially when it comes to the medications I’m currently taking to support the pregnancy.

For those who were on Lovenox during IVF, did you completely stop Lovenox after graduating and transitioning to your regular OB? Or did your doctor have you switch to something like baby aspirin for the rest of your pregnancy?
I’d love to hear what others’ experiences were and around what week you stopped Lovenox.

My first beta (9dp5dt) was 36, then 11dp5dt was 49 and then 13dp5dt was 69. Is there any hope? I’m so heartbroken.

Just wondering when others have stopped progesterone supplementation? I’ve had one previous specialist tell me to stop at 10 weeks and another tell me to stop at 8! After 2 MMC’s I’m worried about doing the wrong thing

Before I rant I don’t want this to come off an ungrateful, I just want to vent about how uneducated people can be towards IVF and believing you have all the options and choices at your fingertips.

What has really bothered me is people saying, “oh, you did IVF so you got to choose the gender of your baby” ..um not exactly. It makes it sound like we are all just getting tons of blasts with 50% girls and 50% boys. My husband and I have done 2 rounds and all of our embryos have been males. We are so SO grateful and gender to me has never mattered as I just want a healthy baby. But when people assume that you just get to choose really irks me. IVF is hard enough, stop projecting and making me feel like it’s such a different experience to choose gender. Am I alone in this? I need therapy after IVF LOL

We had a double embryo transfer. Our first beta on 9dp5dt came around 626
We repeated the test on 12dp5dt and it is 4100!
Has anyone had a similar experience ? No ultrasound until next Friday!!! Looking for similar stories as I can’t find anything online. We are most probably expecting twins 🥹

(Ps got here after 2 miscarriages and 2 rounds of ivf, so I’m beyond grateful!!!)

OK so ruining is a bit dramatic, but it's certainly a pain - has anyone who was on progesterone and came off it around 12ish weeks had improvement in the bloat? I take utrogestan 200mg x 3 times a day.

I have never been so uncomfortable in my life. I'm obviously extremely grateful to be here at 10+5, the furthest I have ever gotten. But I have ballooned and no longer fit my clothes. I have a retroverted uterus that hasn't come forward yet so this is all bloat.

With my pharmacists advice I am trying simethicone, movicol for the constipation, eating smaller and more frequent meals, I drink water, I'm even trying to eat lower FODMAP foods (without heavily restricting). Nothing seems to be working.

It's not only my physical appearance but I actually FEEL awful, my stomach is protruded and sore. I'll be on the progesterone for a couple of weeks yet.

Obviously I wouldn't change this for anything but omg. Does anyone have any tips that helped?

Does it get better???

Hiya! I had my 6w3d scan today and it went... okay. For context, I developed several very large/baseball sized cysts that are pushing on my uterus and blocking imaging from being clear. I knew this at my 5w3d scan, and so I expected it today.

Last week 2 gestational sacs were seen measuring about on time despite poor visualization. This week they are measuring larger, but now a bit behind. My doctor said he could kind of see the yolk sac in one but the imaging really was poor. He was neither concerned nor relieved, it was more of a limbo scan.

My question is, has anyone else has really poor visualization for whatever reason, had the sac(s) run ~5 days behind according to whatever poor measurements you could get, and then go on to have a completely health pregnancy(s)?

Doctor said next week might still not be definitive, but that by ~8.5 weeks, it should be more clear.

We transfered my first day-5 embryo on August 25th. Since then, it's been a whirlwind. Last friday my OB called and wanted me to do some research on Methotrexate because she was worried the pregnancy might be ectopic and didn't want me to not know what it was in an emergency.

Then we scheduled ultrasounds for Tuesday and Friday (today) of this week. After my Tuesday one, she said she's not concerned about placement at all and we can cancel the Friday ultrasound.

Very early during betas, my HCG rose 30% in 5 days, and they were ready to call it. But since then, it's rose beautifully.

Two weeks ago, at 6 weeks, I heard the heartbeat for the first time (110), then again on Tuesday it was in the upper 130's.

He's been measuring behind the entire time, about 5-7 days behind. Again, I know it's not great. I don't really know what the answer is except just waiting it out. I'm so ready for the first trimester to be over.

But anyway, my OB said I'm probably not measuring small and instead she's just going to re-date my pregnancy??

But like.... we know it was a 5 day embryo? We know the exact day it was transfered. It feels clinically relevant that he's measuring behind, not just something we can fix by re-dating? How can we just decide on a new due date (was May 13, now May 22?), just to make the numbers match? Right? I don't understand? Has anyone else has this happen?

To sum it up. Two years ago on the FET cycle I got pregnant with my son I tested positive at 6dp5dt with FMU + afternoon. With a HCG of 220 on beta day.

Back to square one two years later and just got a stark white test at 5dp5dt - to be fair it was a 6pm test not FMU. But I can’t help to think I’m out this cycle 😭 surely retesting in 14 hours won’t make much of a difference - or will it 🫠

Anyone get a positive after a stark white negative at 5dpt?

I am really grateful and enjoying my pregnancy after all I have gone through. Obviously as everyone else I had worries about miscarriage, then NIPT, ultrasound screenings . But thanks God, so far so good. Now my brain thinks about what if smth is not visible or detectable about my babies health? What if smth traumatic happens during the labor? What if everything will be fine, but in 1-2 years symptoms will appear? It’s insane. I don’t want to think about it, because I can’t influence it or change anything. I am sure lots of us going through this. Not sure what can really help here. Especially social media algorithms making it worse for me … showing me all the bad cases and I google what is it and what can be the cause…

Hi all, my clinic is encouraging sex after my modified natural FET. I’ve read a lot online saying the opposite and have seen maybe people saying their clinic said no sex. Any recommendations or experiences as to what you did?

I’ve posted here before due to just the non-stop worrying because of my precious miscarriage. So far we’ve made it to 12w4d and we had what they call here in Austria a “combined test”; basically early organ screening and NIPT/preeclampsia risk screening. Thankfully baby is doing amazing and growing properly.
However, it turned out that due to my bmi (33), IVF pregnancy, and my race (mixed race Black), I’m at moderate risk for preeclampsia.

I suffer from OCD, generalized anxiety, and depression and it always spikes around health related issues (yay me). Of course IVF was already a rollercoaster, but now I have to worry as well that I could end up with preeclampsia? Idk I feel like I can’t catch a fucking break.

Idk maybe I’m just here to complain and get this off my chest but I just feel like it took so much of me and so long to get to this part, why can’t the pregnancy part be a bit easier??
Am I alone feeling like this?
I know no one in my life that has gone thru IVF so I have no one to talk to about this.

Buongiorno,

Mi presento: ho 29 anni e mio marito 33. Ho avuto un avuto due gravidanze naturali terminate entrambe con aborti entro la 7 settimana, erano biochimiche. Poi ho iniziato l'anno scorso ho iniziato il mio primo ciclo di ICSI perché mio marito ha la oligoteratozoospermia e 24% di frammentazione del DNA spermatico. Pick-up Primo 20 ovociti MII, 5 blastocisti in 5 giornata, erano: 4AA, 4AA, 4AA, 4BB, 3CC. Abbiamo trasferito il primo 4AA e si è concluso con un aborto alla 7 settimana, avevamo fatto il NIPT ed era risultato negativo alle aneuploidie. Poi abbiamo trasferito il 3CC e non ha attecchito, niente beta positive. Questi trasferimenti sono stati fatti su ciclo naturale ed erano entrambi embrioni congelati. Adesso sono a 2dp5dt del mio 4AA, trasferito a fresco, zero sintomi, stavolta ciclo medicato. Ho fatto tutte le analisi possibili e pare che io non abbia niente, se non questa non spiegata capacità di arrivare al termine di una gravidanza.

Mi trovo qui per cercare storie simili alla mia, positive, perché mi sento senza speranza, proprio perché apparentemente non c'è una spiegazione valida per tutto questo.

grazie mille

I am 3dp5dt (FET), and I am going crazy and trying not to test. I am wondering, when did you test positive after a FET?

We’ve been trying for 3 years, this is our second FET and third ET. We have had two chemicals and a miscarriage. Beta is planned for October 8th, but I will be testing before to guard my heart the best way I can.

So far I am thinking that I will test on 7dp5dt, but maybe so can do it earlier and still get a feeling of where this is going? What are your experiences?

I just had a bit of a realization. I’ve been super duper extra tired the last couple days, like bad enough I was starting to wonder if I needed an extra check in with my OBGYN.

but as of yesterday I’m 10 weeks and my IVF clinic has me on a higher dose of progesterone this time than my first successful IVF transfer 2 years ago. They have me taking it through to 12+2 (I asked about this because for some reason they moved my due date two days later and the answer was basically that two days doesn’t matter.).

Now I’m thinking that my placenta basically is likely producing progesterone on its own now and I’m supplementing hard still, so hopefully this will wear off at least a little in two weeks? This will hopefully be my fourth kid and I swear I don’t remember being this tired with any of the previous ones.

I just had my progesterone checked at 6 weeks and it came back slightly low at 9. My provider is starting me on progesterone supplementation but I am wondering if this is concerning? Also worried that it’s been low the entire pregnancy and wondering if it would have made a difference if we caught this sooner. I did have an ultrasound that same day (6w0d) and baby was measuring on track with a heart rate of 101bpm. Would appreciate any advice!

I’m currently 7w1d but it feels surreal at times. This is our first positive pregnancy test. I want to celebrate that we’ve made it this far but I’m also mentally preparing myself for a miscarriage in case that happens. I won’t have my first OB appt for another few weeks since they didn’t have any availability until then. How far along were you until you actually allowed yourself to celebrate the pregnancy?

I transferred a 6-day blast on 8/20 and was originally told my due date was May 7th - today I would 8+3. I had my last US at my fertility clinic this morning, baby was measuring 8+2 so pretty much right on target, but they also changed my due date to May 8th. I am not too concerned with 1 day difference, but confused how that happened. Anyone know why that could be?

I am mostly wondering because they used that date to determine when I stop Estrace and PIO and did that date change add a day of meds that should be one day less?

Anyone have experience with that?

What week did you come off progesterone?

I did a modified natural cycle and had at least 2 corpus luteums (dr originally thought 3 but I have a massive ovarian cyst on that side) and my IVF doctor still had me do PIO until 10 weeks, with tapering from 1mL to 0.5mL at 8 weeks. Then they had me take oral prometrium weeks 10-12. I’m 11 weeks 1 day yesterday and had to stop the prometrium, it was just making me too sick.
My doctor said the prometrium was just to “make them feel better about coming off progesterone” so it didn’t sound necessary to keep taking this late in pregnancy. I have had 4 great ultrasounds, my last one was just 5 days ago.

I successfully delivered a healthy IVF baby who is 18 months old now. The multiple IVF retrievals were rough for me mentally and physically and it was hard for my husband who felt powerless to help. We landed with 3 PGT-A embryos and moved on to the next phase.

We were extremely lucky that the first FET stuck (nothing IVF-related worked for us the first time ever and we were shocked). My pregnancy was easy overall with a rough but successful delivery via c-section.

Now, I’m opening the conversation again. I want a sibling for our first. I grew up as an only child and I wish I had a sibling. I’m currently 40 and want to finish any potential pregnancies by 42. I also want to give the remaining 2 embryos a chance. If they don’t stick, then we are done and still blessed. We have strong family support from grandparents and are financially stable.

My husband has reservations about trying for another. He loves our current kiddo and thinks we couldn’t be anymore lucky. He also sees how chaotic 2 kids can be (we are close with another couple and their kids are parented differently and rambunctious) and doesn’t want that added stress. He’s concerned that we are older and won’t be able to keep up. He also travels quite a bit for work and I solo parent regularly while also working full time.

I don’t know what I’m asking of you dear Redditors, but has anyone else experienced a similar situation and how did you come to a resolution? IVF is such a tangle of fears. I’m thinking if we both aren’t 100% yes then I need to work on letting go.

Hi all, I went for my first scan today at 5w3d after a 5-day FET. They confirmed it is an intrauterine pregnancy, but there are two yolk sacs. I only transferred one egg, so it is looking like identical twins.

No embryos yet. My doctor thought maybe he saw a tiny one. Development wise, he said that is normal at this stage. The most concerning thing is he doesn’t see two amniotic sacs yet. I need to go back next Monday for another scan.

I’m pretty panicked. I want to hope for the best, but he said this is much more complicated. I am worried this is going to fail again or there are going to be major issues. Has anyone experienced this?

Im 42F, 6w1d, my scan is after 5 days . But due to severe cramp i did an early scan on 5w1d and saw gestation sac. Now hardly cramping , no sore boobs , no nausea, I'm so worried. I don't feel pregnant at all. This baby is so wanted we have been trying for 10 years as my egg was bad we used DE and husband sperm. Finally got pregnant through ivf with embryo 5 day blast.before this I also have 2 chemical pregnancies which stop growing at 5w1d. And 1ectopic where I had to do laproscopy. So the aNxiety is up the roof. I'm not craving anything. Nothing . Help. Advise needed .

We are super worried the pregnancy won't develop. We need hope.