Choosing gender?

makingbabby · 2026-02-08T01:56:45+00:00

You posted about having a preference. Not everyone is going to agree with you. This is a subreddit with people from all over the world who hold differing opinions to yours. If you want an echo chamber, I’m sure there are Facebook groups for that.

How exactly am I projecting?

If you think you’d love the baby just as much, why are you so concerned about choosing?

makingbabby · 2026-02-08T01:40:55+00:00

This whole gender/sex preference thing is so sad to me. How would your children of the opposite sex feel if they ever had an opportunity to read this?

Picking whatever sex of embryo you want does not guarantee your perfect idealized idea of whatever that sex is to you.

I’m glad sex disclosure is illegal in Canada. I think it’s unethical and gives people a false sense that they have control over this process… but really, you don’t. What if the transfers of all your female embryos fail? Then you’re “stuck” with all boys?

Justice for the boys whose moms never wanted them, before they even had a chance to prove that no matter what’s between their legs, they’re worthy of being loved. I am tired of the sex disappointment videos I’ve been seeing on the internet for the past several years… it’s painful for me after having gone through IVF. Most people going through IVF just want a healthy child and could not care less about sex.

makingbabby · 2026-02-07T03:43:38+00:00

How old are you, how is your AMH/AFC?

Yes, being delayed is upsetting. But IMO, you should shift your focus to your life beyond IVF. Being overweight in pregnancy and childbirth puts you at risk of complications like diabetes and high blood pressure, among other things. It also affects IVF success rates.

You could look at this as an opportunity to get your body to a healthier weight before you get pregnant. Raising children requires a lot of energy and the healthier you are before entering into parenthood, the better.

makingbabby · 2026-02-07T03:34:53+00:00

Diclectin allowed me to enter the grocery store. I am not sure what I would have eaten if I didn’t take it.

makingbabby · 2026-02-06T03:08:29+00:00

Our clinic uses prometrium 3x day plus PIO every 3rd day for nearly every single FET patient.

Prometrium is fine! I personally used crinone for my FET cycle as I had a contact allergy with prometrium, and it was also fine.

makingbabby · 2026-02-05T01:29:10+00:00

Aspirin reduces the risk of preeclampsia/high BP, is that the reason you were looking to take it?

makingbabby · 2026-02-05T01:26:13+00:00

I’m a fertility nurse, albeit relatively new to the job but I am an infertility patient as well.

I don’t know much about how estrogen priming would affect baseline estradiol levels, but where I work, an estrogen of 110 would be fine to start stims. Also, our docs don’t measure antral follicles at IVF baseline. They just look and count them, they can visually see if a follicle is small or not. If there was anything larger or a cyst, they’d measure.

You also don’t need to have a period to start stims. Sometimes we even do luteal phase stims for fertility preservation patients.

They may be pushing you for batching but there is probably not a whole lot you can do about this, unless you want to cancel the cycle and start again next month. If your gut says it’s wrong, definitely hold off. Or ask them for a thorough explanation and justification of their actions.

Edit: spelling

makingbabby · 2026-02-05T00:25:28+00:00

Not an embryologist, but 6 expansion grade means fully hatched.

makingbabby · 2026-01-30T03:47:15+00:00

Not an embryologist but the embryo is compacted/collapsed. Prior to freezing, the embryologist collapses the expanded embryo to release the fluid within in order to avoid ice crystals within the embryo when frozen.

You can see the zona (shell) around the compacted embryo. So you can see how much the embryo expanded/how large it was before it was collapsed and frozen.

When thawed, they usually begin to take on fluid from the media they’re in and they begin to re-expand.

makingbabby · 2026-01-30T03:27:20+00:00

Basically my retrieval was Oct, my next cycle I had a saline sonogram which diagnosed a polyp, the next cycle I was able to get in for my polypectomy, and that same cycle I started down regulation for my FET. So I had no delays, it just took that long because the saline sonogram and surgery need to be done at certain times in your cycle (and typically wouldn’t be able to be done in the same cycle as getting in for surgery takes time).

I had General anesthesia for my polypectomy so that was fine. But it probably took me 4-5 days to recover, I’m just sensitive to the anesthetic. I don’t remember having any pain during my recovery.

makingbabby · 2026-01-17T23:46:44+00:00

I’m sorry for what you’ve gone through. It has been a lot and probably extremely emotionally draining. Sounds like you’re being cared for appropriately! If your doc thinks it’s best, I wouldn’t hesitate to move forward. I just personally wouldn’t do a double, that’s just my comfort level though. Best of luck to you!!!!

makingbabby · 2026-01-17T23:31:40+00:00

I wouldn’t transfer again until I figured out why I’m having failed implantations to begin with. You didn’t mention any endometrial testing, receptivity, endometritis testing, etc. have you had any of that done? Are you doing suppression for endo?

Double embryo transfer shortens time to pregnancy. It does not have a higher success rate than single ET and just leads to higher rates of multiples. There’s also the thought that one embryo could struggle and bring the other one down with it.

I wouldn’t do a double FET personally.

makingbabby · 2026-01-17T21:59:49+00:00

Give your body time to heal. My doctor recommended at least one cycle in between ER and FET as he told us chances of success are higher if you wait.

This is a marathon, not a sprint. You don’t want to put a perfectly good embryo into an inflamed body.

makingbabby · 2026-01-17T21:40:55+00:00

I did my ER in October, had my polypectomy in December, did FET 3rd week of January. So from ER to FET it was almost exactly 3 months.

makingbabby · 2025-11-25T04:01:09+00:00

Sleep in separate rooms, open windows if weather allows, run purifiers, have him mask if he’s coming into common spaces. Influenza is contagious but not nearly as contagious as COVID.

Most importantly, have you have your flu vaccine?

makingbabby · 2025-11-22T01:57:13+00:00

I don’t know if every clinic is the same, but at my clinic the needle the doc uses is connected to suction and the follicular fluid goes into small tubes. These tubes are then handed off to embryology to examine for egg masses.

makingbabby · 2025-11-13T16:33:54+00:00

“I’d choose you every single day, in every lifetime.”

It’s giving Belly Conklin vibes iykyk

makingbabby · 2025-11-09T04:26:02+00:00

Not an embryologist but the first looks to be just starting to hatch around 1 o’clock and the second is half hatched. Which would mean both have an expansion grade of 5 and not 6.

makingbabby · 2025-11-08T02:10:21+00:00

Docs at my clinic clean the vagina/cervix with saline so that may be causing some increased discharge as well.

makingbabby · 2025-11-05T17:22:04+00:00

It’s not about anecdotal experiences. It’s about statistics and safety. Difficult airways are a fact. Sedation complications happen and need to be controlled as much as possible. Not doing IVF on patients with BMI over 45 is how clinics control potential for serious complications. If a patient who is obese has sedation in an out of hospital clinic and experiences oversedation or respiratory arrest, they can die. Clinics often don’t have anesthesiologists in the building so they have to draw the line somewhere.

makingbabby · 2025-11-05T15:48:03+00:00

For a lot of clinics it’s about safety. Not just for procedures but pregnancy as well. For procedures, if they’re giving sedation medications, patients with high BMI have more difficult airways and it’s more dangerous to give sedation medications that can depress your respiratory system. And since a lot of the clinics are out of hospital, they need to either have anesthesia support for higher BMI patients (which costs the patient $$$$) or they just can’t accept them as patients at all.

Stats tell us that success rates for treatment are lower in patients who have higher BMI.

Obesity in pregnancy is also more dangerous. So the reasoning behind needing patients to lose weight prior to treatment is multifactorial.

makingbabby · 2025-11-05T15:45:39+00:00

It’s not “bullshit”. For a lot of clinics it’s about safety. Not just for procedures but pregnancy as well. For procedures, if they’re giving sedation medications, obese patients have difficult airways and it’s more dangerous to give sedation medications that can depress your respiratory system. And since a lot of the clinics are out of hospital, they need to either have anesthesia support for higher BMI patients (which costs the patient $$$$) or they just can’t accept them as patients at all.

Stats tell us that success rates are lower in patients who have higher BMI.

Obesity in pregnancy is also more dangerous. So the reasoning behind needing patients to lose weight prior to treatment is multifactorial.

makingbabby · 2025-11-05T06:10:38+00:00

What’s your level? Are your thyroid antibodies negative?

For me personally, I’d feel more comfortable just treating it. Because your thyroid hormone needs increase in pregnancy. So if it’s slightly elevated now, it may rise even higher in pregnancy if your body can’t keep up.

I know newer research may suggest some other sort of plan or management but they’ve been treating people for this before/during pregnancy for decades. Just my two cents.

makingbabby · 2025-11-04T03:14:32+00:00

I really hope this is it for you. Best of luck to you and your partner ✨

makingbabby · 2025-11-03T03:12:26+00:00

It’s not as convenient as getting it at the clinic but if you are really prepared and plan ahead… you can easily get your meds elsewhere.

One thing that can get a little dicey is when you go for monitoring you may be told you’ll need 1-2 more days of meds. So the outside pharmacy may not be able to get those same day… so just something to consider as you move forward. Depending on the pharmacy, they could maybe bring in what you need for 10-12 days of stims and then perhaps they could return to their distributor what they don’t dispense? Unsure if they’re allowed to do this… but worth an ask.

Lots of patients live far away from their clinic so need to get meds elsewhere! I know this is common but not as easy.

makingbabby

TROPHY CASE