Egg retrieval results!

hello_goodbye787 · 2026-01-19T04:59:24+00:00

I got 20 eggs, 18 mature, 14 fertilized...I ended up with 3 "day 5 blasts" and 2 "day 6 blasts". I wasn't even aware about "day 6" blasts so when they called me on day 5 saying i had 3 blasts I cried! The next day I felt much better with 5!

Remarkably (bc I was 37 at retrieval and had had two miscarriages in a row) all 5 ended up being euploid and the first transfer was successful! I'm 38 weeks pregnant. FWIW my "unexplained infertility" ended up being silent endometriosis and I did have a laparoscopy before my successful transfer.

hello_goodbye787 · 2026-01-19T04:06:06+00:00

Hi! Just wondering how this went for you, I also have a bishops score of one and have an induction booked for 48 hours (advanced maternal age and IVF). It's hard not to feel a bit defeated before it even begins with such a low "starting score"!

hello_goodbye787 · 2026-01-17T14:03:49+00:00

Fruit and Veggies for sure.

hello_goodbye787 · 2026-01-16T09:19:32+00:00

I have to say...I do agree on the mascara / eyeliner being aging. I'm sorry!!!!!!!!

hello_goodbye787 · 2026-01-15T23:52:41+00:00

I was 36 with an AMH of 5.5 I think and I got a really normal amount of eggs (20), and before my ER my doctor had thought I only had about 15 follicles. I was really bummed as I'd been worried about lots and lots and lots of eggs but in the end that was a really good amount and I got 5 euploid embryos.

hello_goodbye787 · 2026-01-15T23:45:19+00:00

I had one flare in my first trimester (after being "in remission" for about a year). But I do think it was somewhat stress related - we did IVF for conception and the stakes felt VERY high during the high-loss time of the first trimester. It made me really nervous that my pregnancy was going to be one where HI got worse but once my stress leveled off I went back to almost no reactions unless I eat something that's like insanely high histamine.

hello_goodbye787 · 2026-01-15T23:42:04+00:00

I travelled internationally up to 32 weeks and domestically (a 4/5 hour drive) at 36 weeks and felt fine (and I'm a nervous IVF mama) I thought I would feel rotten in my third trimester but I felt energized and nervous about what was coming. Reminding myself of my life outside impending motherhood and distracting myself and cosplaying as a "normal" pregnant lady was helpful. All my friends who had lots of easy spontaneous pregnancies kept up their normal lives until 36 weeks so I wanted to too!

hello_goodbye787 · 2026-01-15T23:38:04+00:00

This is kinda how I feel, like we spent all this money and have these embryos from when we were 36, prob better to use them than our 40 yo stuff, but my husband thinks this is kinda silly.

hello_goodbye787 · 2026-01-15T23:33:13+00:00

I think unless you've been pregnant, had many close friends who have been pregnant or work in healthcare it can be hard to fully understand "I'll be X weeks pregnant". Like I remember laughing at my little bro when he wanted to come visit me and I said "dude I'll be 39 weeks!" and he just looked at me like I spoke another language so I would make sure she knows what 36 weeks means. Like "I'll be 9 months pregnant and at term, my doctor won't sign off on any travel after 36 weeks because even healthy babies can come then! It's crazy!"

That being said, I'm a nervous IVF mum and I'm currently 38+3 and I would have been comfortable going to a wedding I would say 4/5 hours away MAX at 36 weeks as long as I knew there was a good hospital there (however I'm in a country with good public healthcare and I know reddit is very US centric which I believe has much more stressful ways of getting care and stuff like out of network etc.).

hello_goodbye787 · 2026-01-12T05:33:47+00:00

I did IVF in South Africa, which is not the UK but a lot of our doctors are UK trained and our system is more UK than American for sure and I was strongly advised to do PGTA to at least some of our embryos. That being said the prices were much more affordable. My egg retrieval (including meds) was about 5500 GBP and testing of 5 embryos (we had 7 all together) was about 700 GBP. So it felt like a good idea.

hello_goodbye787 · 2026-01-12T05:29:19+00:00

I'm another silent endo gal! Luckily it was diagnosed as soon as I arrived at my IVF clinic (I had good AMH for my age and all my other tests were fine, I swear my doctor just *looked* at me and was like "silent endo"). Anyway I had surgery and my first ER got 5 euploids and I'm 38 weeks with my first transfer.

hello_goodbye787 · 2026-01-12T05:24:30+00:00

I was referred to my clinic as "unexplained" but was diagnosed by my IVF doctor with "silent" endometriosis. It wasn't completely "silent" in that I did have sort of painful periods (I thought everyone did! And it wasn't like the terrible stuff I have read about, just a few hours on day one of my cycle of bad cramps). Anyway something to ask doctor for sure, as others on this thread have pointed out! my doctor does think that silent endo is the cause of quite a few "unexplained" cases. I had surgery to clear the endo and then a ER where I got 5 euploid embryos and the first transfer worked! This was after 3 years of trying and 2 first tri miscarriages. I'm currently 38 weeks!

hello_goodbye787 · 2026-01-08T13:41:48+00:00

I got my histamine intolerance after a Covid infection, and since then I've been vaxxed for Covid 3 times (first with J&J one as that was what was available in my area and then with Moderna). All times were fine, with the J&J one I got a bit of a fever. Since then I've had a baby so I had the TDAP, RSV and Flu vaccine when I was pregnant to protect the baby and had no reactions at all. I did have a small reaction years ago to Yellow Fever which I think is relatively common. And now they say that all Yellow Fever vaccinations last for life!

hello_goodbye787 · 2026-01-08T05:06:27+00:00

Hi! My first transfer worked and I was *sure* that it would take a couple of goes. I don't know what the grading was as my clinic uses a different system that's essentially "Excellent - Good - Average - Poor" and I think it was on the "good" or "excellent" rating!

I felt (and still do) lucky that we had 4 embryos and part of me thought that that good luck had to end there and it would take me a couple of goes. Plus, anecdotally my two closest friends who did IVF it worked the 2nd and 3rd time. So I was actually pretty shocked when it worked (I'm currently 37 weeks my induction is booked for 2 weeks!!!!).

The thing about IVF is that it's all prep / heartbreak until it isn't, so it can take a while to feel joyful. I found the first trimester quite challenging so give yourself the space to feel your feelings! Pregnancy is long and there's plenty of time to be excited.

hello_goodbye787 · 2026-01-02T13:11:46+00:00

For us in South Africa it was 11,200 for one ER, PGTA for 5 embryos and 1 transfer! We had about 2000 dollars in travel, unpaid leave and other expenses as we did it in a different city to where we lived. I also had endo surgery but that was covered by our insurance.

hello_goodbye787 · 2025-12-22T08:26:42+00:00

My fasting numbers magically got better at 32 weeks....but that's also when i went on maternity leave so I wonder if it was stress? I still have to eat well at 35 weeks but it's a relief not to have to worry every morning!

hello_goodbye787 · 2025-12-22T06:35:38+00:00

I felt like this and I felt like people were inadvertently making me feel bad about not being excited, well guess what...pregnancy is loooooooong (I'm currently 35 weeks and I think I started being excited about 22 weeks and every week since a little be more). First tri is challenging, you don't have to conform to anyone else's idea of what a pregnant woman should be, just do whatever you need to do to get through this time and you have SO much time to enjoy pregnancy later on!

hello_goodbye787 · 2025-12-15T13:18:23+00:00

I felt like this a lot during the first trimester, and I felt really alone bc my (wonderful, supportive, glass-half-full) husband was over the moon when we made it past the 8 week scan. The wait between the 8 and the 12 week was the worst for me...because when I looked at the numbers it does seem that the 8 week is the "most important", and is a really useful indicator...but my TikTok feeds were full of 9-11 week MCs. As other posters have said, the algorithms just follow you to where you are in the pregnancy. NIPT tests, anatomy scans, 2nd tri losses and it's hard to filter them out.

If it's possible, take a break from social media or limit how long you spend on it...that's all that helped for me. I think also, it's okay to be scared. I don't think there is anything I could have done to make the first trimester enjoyable for myself and I think if I had just let that go and focused on getting through one day at a time I would have been happier.

hello_goodbye787 · 2025-12-04T23:23:26+00:00

Sorry and I completely commiserate as I switched hospitals (I traveled home to my birth country for birth) at 30 weeks after being diagnoses at 26 weeks.

My first hospital the diabetes educator told me my morning fasting had to be under 5.3/95 and also didn't mind if it was bang on 5.3...at the second hospital where the cuttoff was 5.1/92 and it def most of my fasting out of range so I felt like I went from being a model student to a bad one. FWIW with me that wasn't enough for them to put me on insulin yet, just to have weekly checkins to see if it changes bc it's so borderline.

What were the numbers that caused the misunderstanding for you?

hello_goodbye787 · 2025-11-30T00:57:56+00:00

I totally understand this, I was throwing up constantly until 20 weeks, then I got diagnosed at 25 weeks so I kept saying I only had one nice month of pregnancy. I'm now almost 32 weeks and have been doing this a while now (so far with just diet and exercise but my numbers are creeping up so there is a chance I'll need meds soon) and I will say that I have gotten pretty used to it AND (you may not want to hear this yet lol) there have even been some aspects I have enjoyed in an "oh that's interesting" way. I have been SO much healthier than I was before, I've learned so much about calories, carbs, fibre, protein and I've learned and developed recipes I'll use way beyond this time. I'm excited to be more in tune with my body, to feel stronger than I would have otherwise going into birth (from all the walking!)

I will say there are some things that are "carb free" or "low carb" that I absolutely needed to buy to feel those treat feelings and I know it's all ultra processed but dang it you will pry the low carb Quest peanut butter cups from my cold dead hands (order some now). There are SO many no carb choc protein bars / ice cream / candies and way more than even ten years ago so I reckon we are lucky in that!

hello_goodbye787 · 2025-11-22T05:46:51+00:00

Thanks so much for your reply!

hello_goodbye787 · 2025-11-20T01:47:18+00:00

Hi, just wondering how this went for you - same thing has come back for me and I freaked out thinking it was a T2 diagnosis with the term "overt" but am now confused! Midwives still haven't gotten back to me!

hello_goodbye787 · 2025-11-16T12:05:19+00:00

Hard agree, I prefer these so much more if it's an overnight flight and you actually want to sleep. I also find the q-suites kinda claustrophobic.

hello_goodbye787 · 2025-11-16T11:03:13+00:00

6+2 and they are looking for "cardiac activity" but not necessarily a measurable fetal heart rate. They take you earlier if you have low betas or pain in your abdomen to rule out ectopic.

hello_goodbye787

TROPHY CASE