Community post

Hi ladies,

So I just got my beta results - 9dpt - and I'm at 127..I have to go back on Tuesday to make sure it keeps climbing but I have to say I'm a little nervous, having read Taurio's experience...will let you know what happens on Tuesday....

Hi Violet,

Don't be nervous based on my account! They were initially very happy and congratulatory with my first beta of 108. It wasn't until the next week that I'd dropped and had bad news. You're still in good shape!!

I got my period last night, super heavy and crampy as expected. I went in today for blood, hoping my beta had dropped to zero. I asked the nurse about starting a frozen cycle right away and she said if my beta is negative (below 5) then we could start tomorrow. If not, I'd have to wait until my next period. She called a few hours later and I'm at 2! She checked my other levels and said I look good to start a cycle. So tomorrow I go back for an ultrasound and I'll start my estrace back up tomorrow. What a rollercoaster!

Violet that is great news! And what Taurio said, don't take one account into meaning that it will happen to you. Freak things happen - we're both prime examples of that - doesn't mean you're not getting a sticky BFP!

Taurio thats awesome you get to do your next cycle so soon! When are they looking at for the next transfer?

I'm so sad I never got to make it to a transfer after reading all of this. All week I've been thinking "I was supposed to have my beta today" and "I was supposed to be baby shopping today" so that kind of sucks. Still waiting to hear back from the clinic on if they can find us a donor, I'm assuming once they do we'll be moving pretty quick to get that cycle done.

and I'm sorry I'm just now seeing I never responded to your earlier message Violet! They said to expect finding a donor to take 3 weeks or so, we're at 9 days now and I'm already going crazy. Then once they find a donor they'll put us both of BCP to sync up our cycles and at some point start her on an IVF round. So it could be 3-6 months before we see a transfer they said.

I wish I had something to do in the meantime to at least seem like I was being proactive at this. I'm not sure if I mentioned before, but my husband has cancer and is currently going through chemo (which is what led us to banking and fertility clinic, thank goodness) so we can't even naturally be trying (even though it wouldn't work anyway) so its literally just sitting and waiting.

Babybump-- I'm so sorry you and your husband are also contending with cancer! I cannot even begin to imagine. That is a lot on your plate all at once. I do hope that an egg donor is found soon! In the donor paperwork are there preferences or criteria you're hoping the donor will meet? And they match you that way?

Violet-- do I remember correctly that you transferred 2 embryos? Is this your first ivf cycle?

From my understanding about this new cycle of mine, I'll start my Estrace back up tomorrow, which ramps up in dosage over the next few weeks. In about 2 weeks (around the time of normal ovulation) they'll do a frozen embryo transfer. At that point I'll take the steroids and doxycycline for 4 days like I did with my fresh transfer, and also start back up on the PiO. Then my 9 day wait for a beta.

Taurio - thank you. Once we got that diagnosis we thought maybe that's why we hadn't conceived, turns out it was just a mix of both. They say its almost all gone now so that's good, but we can't use chemo sperm (and there's a possibility he won't have usable sperm ever again after being exposed to chemo) so we're on limited supply!

We felt like we were filling out a dating profile with the donor paperwork! We're both naturally tall and slender people, so we put things like between 5'7"-6ft, natural blonde, athletic or thin build, light colored eyes lol we didn't want to be TOO specific about it since we may be working with a smaller in clinic pool, but it said to put down our preferences so we want it to be as close to me as possible you know? Then they try to gather a couple of choices to match our preferences, but we doubt they'll get it spot on. We're fine with that, just as close as they can get.

That's exciting it could be just a month from now to get another shot at it for you!

Taurio, how did the ultrasound go? That's so exciting that you can start up again so fast! The anticipation/waiting is always for me so much worse than any shots or procedures.

I did transfer two embryos and this was our first (and only) ivf cycle so feeling very blessed that one actually took, as we had none left to freeze. I have my second beta this morning so I will see if the numbers doubled.

Babybump...Cancer and fetility struggles????? I cannot imagine how stressful. My heart goes out to you. You sound so strong. You certainly deserve some good luck this year. Any news on a donor?

Violet - Is there any chance that both of them took??

No news on a donor yet. I broke down and sent the nurse in charge of the search an email yesterday, it's been 19 hours and I haven't gotten a response when every time before she's responded within the hour. I'm *hoping* this means she's finalizing details to send me...but it probably just means she hasn't checked her email yet lol

It was kind of a whirlwind of emotions at first. Luckily its not TOO serious of a cancer, but I mean its still cancer..but its very curable and they say he's responding well so we're just looking at lifelong monitoring. In a way it was kind of a blessing we caught it for many reasons, we had somewhat started looking into fertility specialists in May since it hadn't happened yet, but when he was diagnosed in October we had kind of an "oh shi*" moment realizing his sperm was about to be useless, so we went immediately to a fertility clinic and started banking. Then, once there, we moved forward with that and found all of the problems with me. We thought initially maybe we hadn't conceived because her had the cancer in him and that was already affecting his sperm, but it seems to be a mix of both. Even moving forward with donor my RE says he can't say for 100% that his sperm isn't affected, but they won't know until they test it against healthy eggs.

I was wondering about twins for you too Violet! Curious about your beta today.

My ultrasound looked good-- they're letting me start a new cycle right away. A frozen transfer is a lot less monitoring; they started me back on estrace yesterday, and I don't go back in until 3/4. That day we'll do another blood draw and ultrasound, and if my lining looks good we'll schedule the embryo transfer for 5-6 days later. I'm feeling super lucky and grateful my beta dropped so fast; they were under the impression it'd take til my next period to be ready. And I agree, the waiting and down time is the hardest to cope with.

Violet - how did everything go? I've been thinking about you and wondering!

I broke down and emailed the nurse in charge of finding us a donor on Monday afternoon...and I haven't gotten a response yet! I've been obsessively refreshing my inbox (because she used to respond within like 10 minutes). Im hoping this means she's finalizing details and just waiting to tell me..but in reality she probably just hasn't checked her email. lol

Hi! I finally got the results of the blood test today and thankfully the number went from 127 to 296 in 48 hours and the doctor seemed very happy with that. I stay on my progesterone and Estradiol until further notice, and first ultrasound is March 7th...I have to say I was so happy to get the news - at least for now I can breathe a bit easier - maybe begin to actually enjoy the idea of being pregnant - lol. I think I'm still in a bit of shock that this may have actually worked because the odds were so slim for someone my age - 41.

Taurio, that is awesome news regarding the cycle - in less than two weeks you will have had another transfer!!! It does seem like so much less work than the initial process, no? I have a good feeling about this one!

Babybump - I'm relieved to hear that the cancer is curable - still I'm sure so scary. If I were you, I would just call that nurse tomorrow and ask her what's going on. You've waited long enough. What do you think?