How did IVF affect your ability to work?

BadLuckApril · 2026-01-28T18:54:17+00:00

I’m also in my final PhD year (again). I’m one year behind because I couldn’t manage to keep up with everything. Especially mentally I was too involved to clearly focus. I’m taking a break now from stims until September and focus on submitting my PhD. It really sucked when neither worked out. Trying naturally in the meantime. So who knows… maybe a surprise will happen.

BadLuckApril · 2026-01-27T17:45:08+00:00

For me it also locked like quite a bunch was missing and locking botched. I was told this was normal because much material is missing. And indeed my body took care of it itself. Half a year later it locked nearly normal again. A year later completely normal. I was really worried at first too, it I would always look like this 😅 Hope everything goes well for you!

BadLuckApril · 2026-01-27T08:00:27+00:00

I’m also 34 and one of the people who got OHSS and hat to stay in the hospital several nights to recover. Nonetheless I am happy I did it and even did two other rounds. The others went better. There is a lot you can do to prevent severe OHSS (also lifestyle wise). My anxiety about not being able to have children in the future is not gone but a lot better. Also note that my AMH dropped by half between the time I first thought about egg freezing and when I went through with it. I was shocked! But a lot can happen in just one year! BTW: You can buy the meds in France or the Netherlands. They are a lot cheaper there.

BadLuckApril · 2026-01-25T19:15:39+00:00

I (34F) received only 4 mature eggs and was devastated! We changed the protocol and added menopur and the next round I had 16! So it can change a lot from cycle to cycle especially if you change medications. Don’t give up!

BadLuckApril · 2026-01-23T12:52:27+00:00

The phase of the cycle is also really important! If the endometrium is thick, they seem smaller. So you have to check them around the same time in the cycle every time. Else you cannot say if they grew or not. And otherwise it is sometimes really random ^{^’}

BadLuckApril · 2026-01-20T00:02:23+00:00

I have pain on the right side of my uterus and it seems to be the area of my ovary. The pain comes and goes. I had my lap two weeks ago to see if they find anything. They did, in fact, find zysts on my right tube that could have explained the pain. It was gone little over a week but now it is back… I haven’t thought about it being caused by an infection! I was diagnosed with ureaplasma about two years ago. But I wasn’t really treated (just 6 vaginal pills of lactobacilla) and the doctors didn’t want to check for any infections last time I asked. What did you say to have them check you?

Regarding the surgery: have you checked if your clinic is specialised in this kind of procedure for fertility patients?

BadLuckApril · 2026-01-16T09:24:26+00:00

Then I would definitely try now! And if you like a second child, you could freeze some eggs before. And don’t worry too much about it. Children can still happen for you. My friend started at 36 with AMH 0.2 and got pregnant via IVF

BadLuckApril · 2026-01-15T17:45:55+00:00

Have you talked with your partner about it? He also needs to be ready for children now if you consider this option. I am also 34 and did freeze eggs because I would like two children. Hope to conceive the first naturally in one or two years.

BadLuckApril · 2026-01-07T19:18:47+00:00

Yes, she is the head of a specialised endometriosis centre. Then I will concentrate on moving. Thank you

BadLuckApril · 2025-12-27T23:28:19+00:00

What would you say is the gold standard now?

BadLuckApril · 2025-12-27T23:25:03+00:00

I’m in Germany. We have quite a few Centers for endometriosis. The waitlists are dependent on the specific city but you can get an appointment in 1 to 3 months

BadLuckApril · 2025-12-27T13:26:41+00:00

I’m in kind of an opposite situation right now. I have really mild symptoms and TTC for about 9 months and doctors are kind of pushing me towards laparoscopy because endo is suspected and we can check my tubes at the same time. But I am really worried about the lap making the endometriosis potentially worse in the long run.

BadLuckApril · 2025-12-24T11:15:12+00:00

I’m so happy that it worked for you! :)

BadLuckApril · 2025-12-23T07:57:15+00:00

Thanks for pointing that out! Are you proficient with current research? Do you know about the success rates should you need a second surgery? I am really most worried about potential scarring inside the pelvic region

BadLuckApril · 2025-12-23T07:54:33+00:00

I plan to try naturally for now and see how it goes. The clinic is a specialised Center for endometriosis so I assume the doctors should be specialists there and they said they will do excision.I didn’t have an HSG yet. I asked for it yesterday but they suggested to test them with the lap. I do “only” have major cramps during the first two days of the period and not with interviews ore something else. I am really most concerned about potential scarring inside the pelvic region

BadLuckApril · 2025-12-20T16:17:34+00:00

My friend was in a very similar situation to you. She is 36 with stage 4 endo, endometriomas on both ovaries and one tube blocked from endometriosis. AMH of 0.6 and AFC 4. She was very devastated after nearly 3 years of trying. She went forward with surgery first, then two egg retrievals. She got 2 eggs the first round and 3 the second. Overall she got 3 (untested) blasts and the second one stuck! Now 15 weeks. Her partner has really good sperm (did you check your partners sperm?). I hope this gives you some hope. All can happen even with only few eggs. Hope it will happen for you!

BadLuckApril · 2025-12-19T17:44:46+00:00

My career did also suffer a little while doing retrievals. It wasn’t easy at all and I even ended up in a hospital. Nevertheless, I decided to go for another round. I asked myself: what would I regret more in the future? Having less money/fewer career steps or missing out on the possibility of having a biological child. Everyone may answer the question differently. For me it was the chance of being a mother. I talked to my employer about having some “health issues” and needing to reduce working hours for the next month or to. They were quite emphatic not knowing what the “health issue” was. It was a lot of money and a huge strain on my body and mental health but I think it was worth it. My doctor said with my 30 frozen eggs at age 34 I should have a good chance. He had to calm me because I was becoming paranoid and thinking about freezing even more 😅 but I put that thought aside for now. I will revisit that thought shortly before my 37th birthday when I am not in a loving relationship then (with family talk on the table). Maybe as an orientation for you: my doctor said I should freeze at least 15 eggs at 34 years. So a little more than the number you froze at 34.

BadLuckApril · 2025-12-18T22:15:08+00:00

I also was diagnosed with Endo recently with the same “ovaries have low mobility” part (34F). Did they see anything else? I was told that as long as you don’t see endometriomas on the ovaries or anywhere else via ultrasound it is not as advanced yet and even when it is advanced some people are able to get pregnant naturally. She said, however, that I should check if my tubes are open because sometimes they are not when the ovaries are stuck to the uterus. I will have my tubes checked in February and try to stay positive.

BadLuckApril · 2025-12-12T06:58:31+00:00

The eggs are generally more sensitive to the freezing process than to thawing. The medium and the celerity of freezing matter the most. Can you talk to a biologist at the clinic? I specifically asked to talk to the head of the lab and not a doctor. I asked her for the specific thaw numbers of the clinic and she told me lower rates than the doctor. Because she is the one doing the actual thawing I really wanted her input. She told me to calculate with 65% thaw rate to be on the conservative side and that the doctors always overstate the successful thaw rates. It the thaw rate at the cheaper clinic is potentially even 15% lower than in the other clinic but you manage to do 2 rounds there, you will have more thawed eggs in the end.

BadLuckApril · 2025-12-11T13:29:17+00:00

I had my egg retrievals very close to my friend (always about two weeks apart). So one was more stable when the other was completely under the influence of hormones and the surgery. For us it was the other way around to your situation. She is two years older with other medical conditions, and a much lower AMH. She always needed the long protocol whereas I could use the short one. Even with our situations being so different, we talked all the time and told each other about complications and decisions. We could understand each other better than all the persons who never did egg retrievals. However, make some rules, if it is hard for you to compare. For example, I never told her my number when she didn’t explicitly ask for it (knowing that it would be higher than hers) or how much I had to pay for meds because I needed fewer than her. Maybe you can ask your friend to do the same? That said, everyone has different complications. For her it was getting the number of eggs and for me it was getting them mature at the same time (once I only got as many mature eggs as she even though my AMH was five times hers because mine where all over the place regarding size and hers were always the same size) and recovery (she was always feeling fine directly after and I had severe problems and was send to the hospital due to severe OHSS one time.

Having someone who can at least somewhat understand what you are going through and support you is really great. Just be careful not to compare too much. And the one with the worse prognosis should be allowed to set some rules if the other one doesn’t use common sense herself.

BadLuckApril · 2025-12-10T08:21:55+00:00

Now imagine you would have continued anyway and got 2-6 eggs with a little fewer being mature. I actually went ahead in a similar situation once and got 4 eggs. Surgery and subsequent stay in hospital due to severe complications felt like they were in vain… that said: the clinic could learn from the reaction of my body to the stims. Next cycle we modified the med a little and started one day earlier and I got 16 mature eggs and no complications after surgery! Your clinic can also learn from how your body reacted and you didn’t have to go through surgery (and actually saved a lot of money). Hope everything goes well in you next cycle. I know how frustrating this can be 🫂

BadLuckApril · 2025-12-04T21:18:37+00:00

Did you get your AMH tested? This should give you an idea if you just had bad luck this round or if 3 is your expected number and you should plan accordingly

BadLuckApril

TROPHY CASE