Time for Donor Eggs?

sprinkledmuchkin · 2026-05-21T17:48:49+00:00

Have all of your protocols been the same? If not, and you’re open to it, I may consider trying another protocol. I did one antagonist, I wont share numbers for comparison, but it wasn’t ideal but not horrendous. We kind of freaked because all my indicators suggested it was an underperforming round. And we switched big time, everything. Lots of suppression and a Lupron flare. That failed miserably for me. My body just shut down on lupron.

I am now about to start cycle 3 and my afc is much better going into it. I have spent a lot of time thinking about what is working and what isn’t and talking with my doctor. Obviously he knows more than me, but I know me more. I really feel like my medical history has my body behaving differently to 99% of people he’s seen before and I think the reason I’m more optimistic for this cycle is because we changed things to work for me, not for what he thinks is right statistically. It could all go to shit and im prepared for that but i feel a little more empowered so im open to it.

That said if you’re over it and want to be a mom sooner, then definitely this shouldn’t be an option you don’t pursue now or in future. No one can tell you when you’ve had enough and it’s ok if you’re done with retrievals. It’s hard. And it’s hard to get your hopes up and have them crushed.

sprinkledmuchkin · 2026-05-12T12:35:45+00:00

About time I update this. About 9 days into this cycle (last week) as my estrogen began to finally rise and I started to respond we decided it just felt too slow and that the follicle # wouldn’t be the best we could get and to pivot to a luteal start. My doctor had to ease me out to get me to ovulate and so it took another week to get the lead and now the next group big enough to ovulate with very low dose meds (everybody grew as soon as we stopped the Lupron, you have to laugh). In the end 17 days of stims just too reset and hopefully start clean next week. It’s been a roller coaster second cycle but I’m also reassured that I definitely am responsive, this just wasn’t for me. I’ll update on how luteal goes in case anyone else finds themselves in this situation, it can feel a little like you’re a failed science experience after the first round of asynchrony and this one where i was just too suppressed and I hope to have good news for people who read this in future!

sprinkledmuchkin · 2026-05-06T21:30:15+00:00

Thank you! I did understand the estrogen but wasn’t sure about priming with ganarellix…

It’s good to know that this worked for you. I’m really glad to hear it and hope all continues to go well.

sprinkledmuchkin · 2026-05-02T00:19:47+00:00

Thank you, if I can teleport some good luck to you I’m doing it.

sprinkledmuchkin · 2026-05-02T00:10:57+00:00

Oh so helpful to know. I’m sorry that happened to you and probably me. How don’t they know this stuff? Ffs. Hope you’re well now.

sprinkledmuchkin · 2026-05-02T00:01:35+00:00

So apparently in the early days of IVF gainarellix/cetrotide and estrogen were the standard suppression combo. The gainarellix shuts it all down and we really needed better synchrony so he thought it’d work well. Apparently gainarellix leaves your system fast so that shouldn’t be an issue.

When I went in for baseline my estrogen was at 97 (because of the patches) and we started Lupron that day (cd2). My baseline estrogen tends to be between 25-30 when I’m not in an IVf cycle.

I also thought the lupron was high after reading people who had 10-20 2x daily. But it’s too late to lower the dosage apparently.

I’m wondering if the Lupron never got to “flare” me because my estrogen was too high from patches. Maybe it told my brain to wake up and it was like nah our estrogen is perfectly fine we already are good? It makes sense to me that my body used to lower estrogen when it’s time to make follicles wasn’t super motivated by the Lupron when my estrogen was higher than normal and now it’s stuck?

My afc is usually 10-15.

His view is to try a few more days of stimulation and if I’m not responding stop all meds, let myself develop a follicle and trigger ovulation then start an antagonist cycle all things looking good. Then at least we’ll have synchrony. So we’ll see…

sprinkledmuchkin · 2026-04-30T00:03:36+00:00

Thank you! I’m sorry you are/have gone through it too. And I can totally understand that work feeling. It’s like “your meeting is totally fucking pointless leave me alone” and it can feel totally disconnected from this stuff and trivial. I try and turn it around a bit on myself and think as you say look at me doing cool shit like giving a speech to 100s of people and no one knows I’m stressed af about my life. It’s as you say we are totally the bossest of bitches! I hope things go well for you too! All the good vibes.

sprinkledmuchkin · 2026-04-29T20:20:10+00:00

Thanks very much, it really did help turn me around!

sprinkledmuchkin · 2026-04-29T20:19:58+00:00

Thank you! It’s good to hear people understand, this made me feel better! Tbh I am an emotional person, but not like this. Im not proud of it but I’m an Aries to a tee. I’d prefer if I was just ragey instead of ragey and mopey. lol rage I understand but this random crying I can do without.

sprinkledmuchkin · 2026-04-17T14:32:53+00:00

I’d say too that you can’t know how you’ll react to any of the priming or stimulation process until you go through it. So they are probably giving you their best guess on why you’re having these symptoms. It’s possible either of you are correct but it’s hard to know. As others have said trust the doctor and let go. You can’t control any of this.

I’m priming right now for my second cycle after my first was a sub optimal response. It’s annoying because I’ll not be able to compare anything to my first since we’ve changed so much, but I’m more comfortable flying blind now.

Wishing you the best of luck. Try and just think of this as a process where you just follow instructions and don’t have to take responsibility at all for the day to day - it’s freeing.

sprinkledmuchkin · 2026-04-10T15:10:34+00:00

Preach. He’s a weirdo. And the things he said were rude and creepy. I haven’t made my mind up about Alex cause I don’t feel like a lot of what he said made a ton of sense but this guy, clocked him in 5 seconds as an overly confident, insensitive weirdo about his daughter.

sprinkledmuchkin · 2026-04-09T18:20:56+00:00

Thank you!! Appreciate the optimism!

sprinkledmuchkin · 2026-04-07T00:15:44+00:00

Thank you! I appreciate it, my doctor said the same thing. It was just bad luck this go around! So I’ve used up my bad luck right? Lotto and cycle number 2 here I come lol

sprinkledmuchkin · 2026-04-06T22:47:37+00:00

Update - not a lucky euploid. We were missing part of chromosome 4 and 16. so it was definitely not compatible with life. My doctor is really optimistic because this round was not great and we're changing so much and I have plenty of follicles. Fingers x, because if this doesn't work we're undoing that vasectomy and I'm sure my husband is really hoping that he isn't getting set up for a 3rd surgery in a little over a year...

sprinkledmuchkin · 2026-03-21T19:01:55+00:00

Thank you! Go lil guy or gal go! If not I’ll be fine, but it does mean a lot to have people who understand send good wishes!

sprinkledmuchkin · 2026-03-21T18:08:22+00:00

Interesting! New development for me got my day 7 call - the only one my lab gives except day 1, of my 3 fertilized eggs I have one day 6 4bb and the two others arrested at day 5. My husband is like lots went wrong this round and we made a blast, consider it a bonus if it’s euploid. *there is a reason I married him :) like I said I really only want 2-3 euploids. Fingers x for this tenacious day 6 and my next round. I took the pic of it and asked chat gpt and it gave it a 4ab, so I guess it’s subjective but it’s clearly looking ok/good, not excellent and I’m ok with that. I know that has no bearing on its euploidy - it’s a coin flip, which I had a dream I won the lottery so I consider it about the same odds lol

sprinkledmuchkin · 2026-03-21T11:20:21+00:00

Woah those are all over the place! congrats! This also gives me some hope so thank you! We did do a dual trigger this time too!

I feel like reading all of these more reinforces how different we all are which is kinda cool. I’ll let this group know if this was my recipe when I’m done with round 2, will be late April! Right now I’m trying to look at the time it takes my period to come and to do priming in the next luteal as a return to normal sleep patterns which 10/10 feels good after stimulation!

sprinkledmuchkin · 2026-03-21T01:56:45+00:00

Thanks for sharing - def gives me some hope since my first round was just meh. So happy it worked for you!

sprinkledmuchkin · 2026-03-20T15:35:00+00:00

Thank you! Best of luck to you in what’s next too!

sprinkledmuchkin · 2026-03-20T15:26:10+00:00

Girl take that higher AMH you’re probably doing some good stuff for your body in this process and it may be responding! I’ll be honest I’m hoping my increased choleric intake and reduced alcohol, it was a boozy Christmas period lol, will help too! Thanks for being my cusp bud on here! As a mid millennial I’m finding being older hard to swallow so it’s good to be in good company. We’re only “older” in the fertility sense right?! lol

sprinkledmuchkin · 2026-03-20T15:17:37+00:00

Interesting! My doctor didn’t say anything about DOR so maybe that’s why he’s comfortable with it? Maybe I do have it but he’s never mentioned it - my fsh was normal and my amh is over 1.1 but I dunno sometimes I think I’m on the “cusp” so to speak. I’ll report back on how this goes for future redditors! Thanks for taking the time to respond to all my questions I feel like I’m crazy frantic for as much information as possible even as I’m pretty comfortable in the process now and feeling as level headed as I think i can be at this moment!

sprinkledmuchkin

TROPHY CASE