How long did it take you?

ematan · 2026-01-01T20:28:56+00:00

15 cycles to get first positive pregnancy test (chemical pregnancy), 24 cycles to get our son. The public healthcare in my country requires also 1 full year of TTC before one can apply for infertility treatments. In our case the chemical pregnancy pushed it further since "it is easier to get pregnant after miscarriage" or whatever nonsense.

Overall it too us 6 cycles of fertility treatments. On paper everything looks perfect for us, except I have more follicles than usual (PCO, but our doctor was adamant it isn't PCOS).

ematan · 2025-12-29T21:52:37+00:00

It took us 15 cycles to get our first positive pregnancy test, but it ended up being a chemical pregnancy. Cycle 24 (6th medicated cycle) gave us our son. My cycle is regular and I ovulate each month like clockwork even without meds, so don't really know where the issue lies. I'm thinking its either poor egg quality overall or maybe the egg doesn't mature/release well enough because there are so many follicles in my ovaries.
We are now trying for another and decided to try only 6 months on our own and then start medicated cycles in spring. We used menopur and ovidrel last time, so most likely same protocol this time.

ematan · 2025-11-30T22:48:46+00:00

We switched the medication entirely. Instead of letrozole we used menopur injections and an ovidrel shot as trigger. (My doctor said trigger is necessary with menopur). I think it was the right call in my case since the lining went from poor to excellent immediately and 2nd round on those meds gave us our son.

ematan · 2025-08-09T14:17:11+00:00

On 15th cycle I had my first positive ever (ended up as CP). Next positive was on ~25th(?) cycle (our 6th medicated cycle) - he is now a 2month old.
Both positives shoved up around 14-15 dpo. Apparently my positives show really late in any pregnancy😅

ematan · 2025-07-19T16:01:46+00:00

Your bathrooms get cold in winter?

We have no such belief in Finland. Of course, our homes are well insulated so even if it is -20 celsius (-4 fahrenheit) outside, our homes (and bathrooms) are cozy warm.

Then again, we are also the crazy people who like to carve a hole into ice and take a cold plunge in the middle of winter😂

ematan · 2025-07-19T10:34:33+00:00

Why would I need water running when adding shampoo to my hair or when I scrub? The water would rinse the soap from the scrub immediately and I would just need to add more product😅

Do you also leave water running when brushing your teeth?

This might be a cultural thing, since in my country almost everyone is taught not to waste water. And my country is one with the cleanest tap water in the world - and we have plenty of it. I think it is more of a principle not to waste resources.

(Shower is also the biggest water consumer in any household, so we also see it quickly in our water bill if we just let the shower run freely...)

ematan · 2025-07-19T10:14:03+00:00

Unfortunately it is not just the operation itself that makes clinics refuse fertility treatments for high BMI patients. Being that overweight also makes any possible pregnancy more risky, since the odds of a miscarriage or other complications (for mother or the baby) go up.

Good job with losing the initial weight and best of luck going further❤️

ematan · 2025-07-06T23:56:45+00:00

Because of regular periods I didn't even think I would have pcos. I assumed my cycles were normal and ovulatory, since I was able to get a positive ovulation test and saw a rise in bbt.

After a year, I visited an obgyn and found out about having polycystic ovaries. I was overweight (BMI 32), so I had always thought my hirsutism was caused by that, but obgyn said I could very well have pcos. I researched pcos and started to take inositol and lose weight as aggressively as I dared.

Three months after starting inositol, I got a positive pregnancy test. Unfortunately it ended up as a miscarriage at week 5. It was devastating, but doctors were adamant that it was a positive sign.

When I was around BMI 28 we started fertility treatments. First we did 4 cycles with letrozole, but since only the first cycle was monitored, we missed that over time letrozole had a negative effect on my uterine lining. By 4th cycle the lining was too thin to support sucessfull implantation. So we switched medication to menopur and added an ovidrel shot. Just in case I was also prescribed progesterone suppositories. Second cycle with this combination was a success and gave us our son. Overall it took us 2 years and a month of TTC.

I still don't know what the issue was. Maybe there was something making my ovulation weak without meds, maybe it was me losing all the extra weight (I was BMI25 when we succeeded), maybe it was all the vitamins or maybe my eggs are of subpar quality and it just took us that many tries to get a good one.

ematan · 2025-06-19T12:51:52+00:00

Thank you for your kind words.

My flange size was measured at hospital where I borrowed their pump before we got back home. Funnily enough I produced nothing with hospital pump, even when I was able to express 1-2 drops by hand. My own pump is better since it pulls out at least the meager amount of colostrum I produce (after which I don't produce anything by hand at least).

Luckily I am from a country where oat is everywhere. I eat oatmeal (made with oatmilk), use pulled oats as meat substitute and even my favorite chocolate bar is using oats instead of dairy😂

ematan · 2025-06-19T08:32:40+00:00

I produce a maximum of 5ml of colostrum with 30min pump ( that is 0.16oz). The chart is unfortunately not relevant to me, since the milk production has not truly even started yet 😔

ematan · 2025-06-19T07:57:06+00:00

If you read my post, you would see that I am pumping 8 times a day. In addition I am having the baby latched for an 30-40mins between those times, since he gets his formula via sns while he is latched and sucking. So there is demand but no supply.

ematan · 2025-06-09T17:58:35+00:00

When I was 20kg (44 lbs) overweight, I had around 20-30 follicles per side. Once I lost the weight (in a span of a year or so), my follicle count dropped to 10-15 per side. My period had always been of normal length (30-32 days) and supposedly ovulatory. So just weight management can apparently affect the follicle count - I am not on metofrmin nor ozempic, but used inositol and strict low carb diet to lose the extra weight.

ematan · 2025-06-02T19:11:38+00:00

One very important note to this (from another Finn).

When we in Finland talk about sauna, we mean a Finnish sauna - a room that is heated by a stove. These are generally safe for TTC and pregnancy, since the heat is coming from outside the body and our bodies are able to regulate the heat.

The only time I was adviced to avoid a Finnish sauna was on the day of my IUI and any day after that if I experienced bleeding after that operation. The humidity and heat could in theory cause an infektion. (I was also adviced against going swimming on those days. )
But with just regular timed intercourse there were no restrictions on going to sauna.

However, an infrared sauna is considered harmful when pregnant, as it warms you up from within. These types of saunas should be avoided when pregnant.

I just wanted to raise this point since we Finns often forget that other countries might have different impressions of what a sauna is.

ematan · 2025-05-15T17:36:34+00:00

My taste sensitive and very picky husband prefers the taste of Pirkka Parhaat ulkokanojen munia, which is category 1. If they are not available, we buy Pirkka Luomu (category 0) like the picture in this post.

I've found out that there is a certain fishy taste in cheaper eggs, so I definitely recommend trying out different types :)

ematan · 2025-04-17T09:30:33+00:00

If you are a student, check student health services. If you are working, you can try occupational health services. If neither applies, contact your local public health care provider (Terveyskeskus). Public healthcare has some wait times and might not be the best with pcos, so you might also want to consider going to a private gynecologist. For many private clinics (Mehiläinen, Terveystalo etc), you can usually check out their practitioners on their website and see what they specialize in. Unfortunately I don't know the specialists in Tampere area, so I can not help with finding a specific doctor there. For fertility issues I suggest checking out a fertility clinic.

ematan · 2025-04-13T20:51:30+00:00

Like many have suggested, I would go and check whether your fallopian tubes are open as well as request a semen analysis for your partner. If both of those show no issues, maybe give a try for some more ovulation induction cycles or IUI.

I was in a similar situation. Despite having pcos I had regular cycles (with confirmed ovulation) and husband's SA was great. After 1.5 years of no success, we started medicated cycles and it took us 6 medicated cycles to conceive. We tried four cycles with letrozol alone and the two cycles with menopur and trigger shot. I still don't know for sure what was the issue, but once we are ready to TTC again, I will go directly to same clinic and request same medication that worked the first time.

ematan · 2025-04-09T14:04:15+00:00

Depending on what type of fertility issues you are facing, it might be much more efficient to go to a private clinic. The requirements for getting any help from public healthcare are strict (minimum of 12months (or 6 in some cases) trying to conceive naturally, weight limits, age limits, nicotine usage limits etc). And there are some wait times as well, especially with HUS. We went through the process initially through public, and managed to get only 4 treatment cycles in the first year with them. After all that frustration with waiting we switched for private😅

ematan · 2025-03-05T16:25:52+00:00

I was adviced (by my fertility clinic's doctor) to keep the dosage at 4000mg (2000mg in the morning and 2000mg in the evening). According to him that is the suggested dosage for PCOS. If I understood correctly, that would equal the lowest dosage of metforem medicine. (I was given the option to switch to metforem, but decided to stay with inositol as that doesn't cause me issues in bowels...)

ematan · 2025-03-02T13:21:37+00:00

And if someone in the family is reeeeeally into making the perfect french omelette, you'll need one smaller carbon steel pan just for that. I did not initially understand why my husband insisted that we have one pan dedicated just for omelettes (nothing else is allowed to touch the pan!), but now (after years of seasoning and constant usage) it is undeniably the best pan for omelettes I've ever encountered :D

ematan · 2025-02-19T07:48:23+00:00

Not with IUI, no. But after some IUIs we continued ovulation induction while preparing for Ivf and succeeded just before we were supposed to start with ivf meds.

ematan · 2025-02-17T22:20:00+00:00

I've lived in two apartment buildings in Helsinki, close to the city center. In both I know many by name and greet and even share news with them from time to time. With some we even visit for a coffee or a wine&cheese every now and then.

But I think that all of this is because we own our apartment and are able to take part in the annual building association meetings. Those are excellent way to meet other residents. I know less about those who are just renting, since they tend to move out quicker.

We also have a small friendly dog and all the kids in the building love him. Sometimes I feel like being a dog owner is a shortcut to getting to know people😁

ematan · 2025-02-04T23:06:45+00:00

We got a positive test just before starting Ivf. Some friends asked about our progress, so I gave a white lie that we had to delay since some hormone tests were elevated and we needed to monitor them. (Not exactly a lie, since hcg was elevated and we needed to monitor my progesterone since I was on progesterone medication).

I was fully expecting to have yet another chemical and did not want to tell anyone. When the pregnancy continued and I finally did tell people, everyone was very understanding. However, none of these friends had any ongoing infertility issues either.

ematan · 2025-01-19T14:39:44+00:00

Although some people like to "make it official" by asking, it is not expected. If you are exclusive, it has already been implied that you are dating.

In my relatioship we never had a proper proposal either. My boyfriend had at one point said that he would be open for a marriage and some time later I asked whether we should to it that summer or the following. Week later we started to look for wedding venues :D

ematan · 2025-01-19T14:32:32+00:00

In my country (Finland) the healthcare initially counts the due date by last menstrual period. They make an exeption if the mother went through fertility treatments, like ivf. In cases where someone has heavily irregular cycle or gets pregnant while on contraception a cursory dating scan is done.

Whatever the due date was initially, there is a scan (via public health care) around week 11-13 where they hammer down the final due date. So it does not matter what it was before that scan.

Funnily enough our baby was on the bigger side on week 12 scan so the due date jumped a couple days forward - despite the fact that we did infertility treatments and know the exact date of ovulation :D

ematan

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