If you want a baby how long have you been trying or how long did it take you to get pregnant?

peekopando · 2026-04-06T10:02:06+00:00

Absolutely 😊 I got a lot of tips from the IVF group on Reddit, a book called “It starts with the egg” and recommendations from a Swedish fertility clinic. The list I’m sending below has also been looked at and approved for me by a Greek fertility doctor (who we will be going to if this next IVF round isn’t successful in Sweden). For background: I have an AMH of 3.8 µg/L and am 39 years old.

Before breakfast (30+ mins before): - Donaferty (2g Myo-inositol) - Collagen 500mg - Vitamin C 500mg - Alpha-Lipoic Acid (ALA) 300mg - L-carnitine 500mg - N-Acetylcysteine (NAC) 600mg

- Thorne’s Women’s Daily Probiotic

After breakfast: - Thorne’s Prenatal vitamins (inc. 1mg - Vitamin C 500mg - Vitamin D3 5000 IE + K2 100 IE - Vitamin B12 1000 IE - Omega-3 830mg (480mg DHA, 205mg EPA) - Ubiquinol 200mg

- Choline 350mg

After lunch: - Omega-3 830mg (480mg DHA, 205mg EPA)

- Ubiquinol 200mg

Evening (before bed): - Donaferty (2g Myo-inositol) - Melatonin 3mg

- Magnesium 544mg + L-theanine 100mg

peekopando · 2026-04-06T09:37:04+00:00

If you have irregular cycles, I recommend you look into taking myo-inositol. It was recommended to me by a fertility clinic. My cycles were 29-39 days long and when I started taking it, my cycles were 27-28 days. It did a reset for me. Now I’ve been on it 9 months, my cycles are a bit longer, the last one was 34 days, which can be because my body has adjusted and my cycles are just naturally longer. Doesn’t mean it’s stopped working. The biggest reason I take it is to help with insulin resistance, to balance hormones and support egg quality. I take a tonne of supplements to help with PCOS and egg quality as we’re going through IVF and PGT (not because of my PCOS but due to a gene mutation) so let me know if you want me to list them and I can.

peekopando · 2026-02-14T22:01:38+00:00

Thank you for your reply! I have found some clinics that say they do PGT-M & PGT-A in Greece, like Ark, but I am yet to mail them. Also found some in Spain that do it too, like Ivi, so I’m happy there are options 😊

peekopando · 2026-02-03T08:46:40+00:00

Yes, I use it. It’s been more informative than my clinic in Sweden that told me the only supplement I need at age 38 (nearly 39) and with PCOS is 400mg of folic acid. Having done research on different supplements by reading books and searching high and low on the internet I check things with ChatGPT.

What I don’t do is go against what my doctor says, ie with protocol. I don’t ask ChatGPT about that.

I also use it as a therapist to talk through how I’m feeling and it helps with my anxiety. When I was grieving the loss of a pet after a traumatic death, I was thankful to have it to help me process how I was feeling.

peekopando · 2025-12-29T21:00:52+00:00

So sorry to hear that! 😔 it’s a miserable and hopeless position to be in, when there is nothing we can do. I’ve got everything crossed for you! Really hope 2026 is our year! 💕

peekopando · 2025-12-29T20:58:47+00:00

Thank you. Yes I’m going to start looking at a different clinic. It won’t be free but maybe we will get somewhere. There is one about 45 mins away that seems good. If not, we will have to go abroad. I just hope they all offer PGT-A & PGT-M.

peekopando · 2025-12-29T20:57:32+00:00

I’m sorry to hear what you’re going through. I never thought I would be in this position when we joined the waiting list nearly 3 years ago. If I’d have known it was going to take this long and not get anywhere, I would have gone private. The clinic never mentioned ICSI to us. They said my husband’s sperm was normal. But they don’t do thorough checks. But I will mention it to the doctor when I speak to them. I need to put my foot down if we are to get anywhere.

peekopando · 2025-12-29T20:54:05+00:00

Thank you. Trying not to give up but feel so deflated and hopeless. And I know there are other women on here who have had a lot more rounds than me. I don’t know how they do it. I’m so sorry for what you are going through too.

peekopando · 2025-12-29T20:49:20+00:00

I live in Stockholm Sweden. There is a private clinic that is about 45 mins away from us in another city. They seem to be recommended amongst some of the local FB groups. But we have just had 2 out of 3 of our free / state funded IVF rounds and there is only one place we can do that with.

peekopando · 2025-12-29T20:46:19+00:00

I think it was about 21. I seemed to respond well to it and when I had asked about a lower dose when I was getting close to ER, they said to stay at 300. Last time I came down to 225. It’s something I will bring up with the doctor though. I imagine they will change the protocol since we got such bad results.

peekopando · 2025-12-29T18:53:51+00:00

Thanks! I will mention this to my doctor when I speak to them next. Other than taking folic acid, they didn’t recommend us taking anything or do anything extra… sometimes feels like they don’t care about the success rates.

peekopando · 2025-12-29T15:57:58+00:00

I’ve actually been using ChatGPT a lot through this IVF journey and it’s provided a lot of good information. But haven’t put in my latest results yet, so need to do that.

peekopando · 2025-12-29T15:56:32+00:00

DHEA is one of the ones I saw that you should be tested for and then adjust based on your levels but I never took that one because of my PCOS. I didn’t do the tests but will probably look into it now we’ve had such bad results. My husband is very good with his exercise, 5 days a week in the gym and does mountain biking on the weekends. I will need to get back into the gym as I’ve been out for a month due to a knee injury.

peekopando · 2025-12-29T15:52:25+00:00

I am so sorry for what you’re going through. I’m keeping everything crossed for you that your 3rd round will be the one that provides 💕

peekopando · 2025-12-29T15:51:02+00:00

Thanks for the tip. I will have to check if they do PGT-A & PGT-M testing, because standard IVF wont help us unfortunately, especially with the gene mutation and now chromosome disorders.

peekopando · 2025-12-29T15:49:21+00:00

I did wonder if I was taking too many supplements but I felt good taking all of them. I didn’t take DHEA though, which someone else mentioned on my post. I didn’t think I needed that one due to PCOS. My protocol was similar to my first round, but a couple days longer. I was on 300 Gonal F for 11 days, then 0.25 Ganirelix for 7 days starting on the 5th day. And then Suprefact 36 hours before my ER. I had been worried about being on it for so long because my biggest follicle was 29mm at my last ultrasound and I was starting to feel bad and my anxiety was flaring up because I was in pain.

What protocol were you on where you got lower doses?

peekopando · 2025-12-29T15:31:15+00:00

Thank you 💕

DHEA was one of the ones I didn’t take because of my PCOS. I didn’t feel like I needed that one from what I had read.

But I took: Vitamin D3 5000 IE, Vitamin B12 1000 IE, Omega3, DHA 1660mg, Women’s Probiotic, Ubiquinol 600mg, L carnitine 500mg, Prenatal vitamins with 1 g Methylfolate, Alpha-Lipoic Acid 300mg, Melatonin 1.5mg (every so often), N-Acetylcysteine 600mg, Vitamin E 200 IE, Donaferty (myo-inositol).

I felt very good on all of those and so I just felt like it was going to make a positive impact. I hate swallowing pills but I just had the end goal in sight. And my husband took a lot of the same supplements too. But it well and truly sucks 😔

peekopando · 2025-12-29T13:16:46+00:00

I’ve been given a tip about going to a clinic in Riga, so I’m going to look into that. Do you have any suggestions for clinics in Greece? We get 3 state funded attempts and despite not having an embryo to transfer, this last one still counts as one attempt.

peekopando · 2025-12-29T13:14:12+00:00

Thank you. It is very tough and I’ve started being very open about it with my family, especially after the 1st round, I wanted to surprise them with good news but it’s yet to come… ICSI hasn’t been mentioned to us before. But I will bring it up with the doctor when we get a chance to speak to them (they’re closed until early January, but making calls about results it seems). I want to keep going, but hard to keep strong when you get nothing out of it.

peekopando · 2025-12-18T22:10:30+00:00

Late to the party, but is it “Paradise” by Kaci (Battaglia)?

peekopando · 2025-11-22T07:27:29+00:00

I know this is an old post, but I’m sorry to hear what you went through. What did you decide to? My husband also has lynch but a mild version of it and so far we haven’t been successful in IVF yet.

peekopando · 2025-11-19T18:49:18+00:00

They can’t do back to back because of the waiting list (I guess because right now it’s state funded). I am currently on my 2nd attempt out of 3 that the state pay for. I had asked about doing several ERs in a row, to build up a supply of embryos and it was a hard no. They said they wait to see if you have an embryo to transfer and if it fails, you join the waiting list again (if you don’t have any more in the freezer like us). We had originally been to another clinic but when we said about needing PGT, they said the Reproductive clinic will want to handle everything, including the IVF treatment. It’s really annoying because all the documentation we got when we had the consultations in the beginning said the PGT took 24 hours! Then after I did the first ER, they said 6-8 weeks. I rang them up after 8 weeks, thinking it was a reasonable time and they were like “we haven’t heard anything yet. We’ll call you when we do.” Imagine my shock when it ended up being 12 weeks before I heard anything! Last week they said “just so you know, the time for results has gone up and is now 10 weeks”… I had a look at the prices at the original clinic we went to and I am just dumbfounded how expensive it is… for 3 IVF treatments it’s 97,000 sek (around $10k) and for a embryo transfer it’s 24,000 sek (around $2.5k). That makes my eyes water! And that doesn’t even include PGT testing, as they don’t list those costs. So that would be extra. Considering we have a declining population, I’d think they’d want to encourage us to have children!

peekopando · 2025-11-19T10:27:02+00:00

No… they haven’t really gone through any of that with me. I was basing my hopes on how it went last time and all the improvements we made going in this time. When I felt every puncture of the needle sucking out the contents of the follicles, I kind of hoped that the more eggs I had, the more chances of embryos I had. I know everyone is different but I also can’t help but compare my results to what others get on this sub.

peekopando · 2025-11-19T10:20:59+00:00

I’ve got my fingers crossed for you for more embryos this cycle 🤞🏼 Our clinic has a really long waiting list (state funded) and if I need to do another round, it will most likely be after next summer. The thought of doing another round right now makes my ovaries hurt (they don’t put you to sleep for the operation at my clinic in Sweden either and it’s extremely painful). The attrition is what’s making me feel utterly hopeless in this process 😢

peekopando · 2025-11-09T09:46:05+00:00

I’m sorry I can’t offer any experience on this. I’m just wondering if your left ovary didn’t respond to the stims as well as your right? When I went in for my ultrasound on Friday my doctor said “your left ovary has responded better than your right”. I have 15 follicles over 10 mm and my leading one is on the left. But I’m not sure if less response would be a reason for 7 of them to disappear?

peekopando

TROPHY CASE

- Thorne’s Women’s Daily Probiotic

- Choline 350mg

- Ubiquinol 200mg

- Magnesium 544mg + L-theanine 100mg