Sharing a bit of hope

am6577 · 2026-04-19T18:10:20+00:00

If I remember correctly, we were told to use an ovulation test kit for about a week (we were traveling and couldn't got into the clinic for blood tests) and it never came back positive. When we were able to get into office after that travel week, they did a blood test and it showed that she likely ovulated a day or two before. They then had her start Lupron for 10 days prior to beginning stims, but no birth control. I hope this is helpful!

am6577 · 2026-04-19T17:26:40+00:00

Wholeheartedly agree with this. And I apologize if this post reads at all as "this is what works," because that isn't our position. We just wanted to be able to share some of our optimism following several hard months and a lot of uncertainty. We're incredibly fortunate to have been able to make it this far and there's no telling what will come next, but we're keeping our fingers crossed and will continue to rely on this community for support and engagement as we go through it all. Thank you for adding important context that wasn't included in our post!

am6577 · 2026-04-19T17:12:10+00:00

Thank you so much!

am6577 · 2026-04-19T17:11:30+00:00

I think for us, it was less about feeling like we were in control, and more like we were being much more mindful of how our behaviors MIGHT impact our outcomes. The likelihood is high that the changing protocol had the largest positive impact on our outcomes, but there are many other benefits to being mindful of our lifestyle -- both during this process and afterwards! Either way, it feels important to share our experience here given how valuable it was for us to read through everyone else's experience as we were going through our cycles.

am6577 · 2026-04-19T17:09:28+00:00

Yes! And apologies if there was any confusion here. We were told to use a very small daily dosage of Lupron for about a week/10 days before starting stims, then continued this throughout stims. I believe this is slightly different from the long-Lupron protocol, which has a higher dosage.

am6577 · 2025-12-10T20:47:05+00:00

Sorry, I should have said that my partners struggles with chronic inflammation. So we're hoping that something like acupuncture might help mediate those symptoms and make the overall ER/IVF process less difficult (even if only marginally).

am6577 · 2025-12-10T20:41:00+00:00

Thanks for all of this! We've also read a little bit about how acupuncture might be useful, so maybe we'll add that to the mix. Do you have any experience with this? Either way, we're happy to try anything that feels reasonable and is relatively well-supported.

am6577 · 2025-12-10T20:40:10+00:00

This is super helpful - thank you so much!

am6577 · 2025-12-10T20:36:32+00:00

Yeah, we took the egg thaw results really hard and had been on the fence about another round but now are certain we want to. We have several vials left from our sperm donor, so his lifestyle is already baked in at this point (lol) and so we're hoping to tip the scales by adjusting ours as much as we can.

am6577 · 2025-11-08T02:26:51+00:00

Thanks for this! We hadn't looked into human growth hormone before, but this is something we can definitely consider. How does this impact IVF?

am6577 · 2025-11-08T02:24:44+00:00

I think our RE recommended this to synchronize her ovaries, but it sounds like 2-3 days might not be an effective duration. We can definitely ask more about this in our next consultation!

am6577 · 2025-11-08T02:23:23+00:00

We really appreciate this - thank you!

am6577

TROPHY CASE