# Newbie with questions re: IVF



## Babycakes80 (Feb 26, 2012)

Hi everyone,

I'm a newbie to the forum. Just wanted to introduce myself and hopefully get some advice off you ladies.

I'm 32, hubby 31. Both had all the tests under the sun - we're "Unexplained Infertility". Although just been told recently I have a very low AMH of 1.0  . We are on the NHS waiting list for IVF Wales but have decided to plow our savings into having a go at private IVF first. Our Treatment Planning is in June, hoping to start IVF June/July. I wanted to try IUI first as it's less invasive but hey ho, now I feel like I'm running out of time rapidly so have decided to go in all guns blazing sooner than I planned (still can't quite believe it's come to this).

Is anyone else here having IVF at CRGW? I've had a few dealings with them already and they've been great so decided to stick with them. 

Just wondering if any of you IVF ladies have any tips for me as I am clueless. What sort of diet should I be eating? I've read somewhere that a high protein diet is best for getting your body "IVF ready". I've pretty much given up all alcohol save for the odd few glasses of wine, and I've cut caffeine totally. My husband still drinks alcohol though, should he stop altogether? What's all this hype about brazil nuts and raspberry leaf tea for IVF patients too?!

Any health advice/words of wisdom you ladies could give me would be greatly appreciated  

Looking forward to chatting with you all on the forum.


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## kara76 (Dec 14, 2004)

Hi and welcome to the forum

Crgw are doing talks on diet etc and fertility might well be worth looking on the website and booking a place

Always wise to take a good vitamin, pregnacare and pregnacare conception are good also fertilaid for women and men and wellman do a good male vitamin. A balance diet is always good and most ladies quit caffine before tx and no wine etc while cycling

Brazil nuts contain sellium which is thought to aid implantation. Raspberry leaf tea I would avoid personally as its thought to cause uterus to contract. I also used pomergratate juice during ivf for the anti oxidents, a glass of milk for protein and used pregnacare conception and high dose omega 3 fish oils.

My personal view is none of this will make tx work or fail but it will make the body and possible the mind healthier and feel as through you are in some way helping


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## pheobs1 (Mar 31, 2010)

Hiya,

Just wanted to add, there are lots of people who have had and who are having treatment at CRGW and there are some threads on here in the South Wales section which you may find useful.

Speaking from personal experience, my DH and I have been on the NHS waiting list for IVF Wales since March 2010 and we have yet to be even contacted by them.  We too decided to try private treatment while waiting at CRGW.  We have both found them totally amazing, supportive and professional.  We are expecting our little boy in 2 months following IVF at CRGW.
Wishing you lots of luck xxx


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## Sakura 78 (Feb 1, 2009)

Hi Babycakes,  

I'm having IVF at CRGW in July too, although I'm afraid I'm a bit of an IVF veteran, it's our first time at this clinic, I'm really impressed so far! I also have low AMH,  mine is about 7 pmol/L. 
I agree with Kara76 about the good prenatal vitamins &omega 3 fish oil, I'm taking both and have even persuaded my husband to take the fish oil ( doesn't like taking things like that normally but I told him, it's the easiest thing we can do to hopefully improve our chances) 
I've also cut out the caffeine& don't drink,  but DH still drinks very occasionally, I don't think it will do any harm to have the occasional drink,  so maybe if your DH is a regular/heavy drinker, you can persuade him to cut down, if you start now it will still have time to make a difference ( think it takes 3 months for sperm to develop or something like that?)
I think Zita West recommends 60gm protein everyday whilst you are stimming, it's supposed to help produce good quality eggs.  ( if you haven't already, her book Fertility and Conception has a whole section on what vitamins and minerals and what foods are good to eat etc- it can make your head spin a bit with all her recommendations but I think it's pretty useful all the same) 

I noticed you said you were still on the waiting list for NHS treatment and were having this cycle at CRGW in the meantime? Just wanted to give you a heads up, although you prob already know this,  I think , but not 100% certain, NHS take into account previous cycles ( private and NHS) so it might effect the number of cycles you are entitled to with them? Hopefully, though it won't come to that though, as this cycle will work!! 

Wishing you lots of luck xx


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## kara76 (Dec 14, 2004)

Totally correct. You are allowed to self fund 1 full cycle while waiting for your nhs cycles. Hate this rule and think its very wrong but when we campaigne for the second cycle ivf on the nhs this rule was already in place


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## Sakura 78 (Feb 1, 2009)

Thanks Kara76, you're right, that does suck    I thought it was something like that. Congrats to you by the way!


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## Babycakes80 (Feb 26, 2012)

Thanks ladies for all your replies. 

I was referred for NHS IVF back in October 2011 and they said it takes 6 months to get your first appointment. Now I have my first appointment with them on June 12th, so I take it this is pretty good then as regards wait time? It was booked for May initially but circumstances meant I had to cancel that one and re-book for June instead. Also they told me over the phone that I will receive the actual treatment between Oct this year up to a max of April 2013 which again seems pretty good compared to the wait times other people have had. I have been nagging the s**t out of them though chasing the first appt. 

In my IVF pack it says they allow you to pay for TWO cycles privately, so I don't know if this is a new rule that's been brought in since 2011?? I think it's really stingy of them if it's only ONE! My wonderful gynae at the Royal Glam said "Bit naughty of me to say this, but how would the NHS even know? When I worked in fertility we did lots of dodgy things for patients paying privately while waiting for NHS" - think he must mean because you have to give consent for your info to be stored by HFEA and GP etc. 

I looked at what is funded in South Wales at IVF Wales and it's one measly fresh cycle and one FET cycle. Is this some kind of sick joke? years of paying taxes and never going to the doctor/hospital, and they're making us jump through hoops for ONE funded cycle!!!! Grrr makes me so mad.

As for drinking, I have cut out caffeine months ago and stick to decaf now. I rarely drink at all now too, apart from one blow-out night out last weekend to see off some friends who are emigrating. But I'm on the wagon again now. As for DH I keep nagging him to give up drinking completely, but he likes the occasional bottle of beer after work. Amanda at CRGW told me to carry on having caffeine and alcohol for now?! But that seems bit silly, I think she's just busy and couldn't be arsed to give me any proper interim advice. I emailed her asking for diet/health advice as I want to get everything ready as poss for IVF and she said carry on drinking it for now. 

I always thought (naively) that IVF was my last resort and that of course it would work and I'd have children some day. Now with everything we've been through and getting this low AMH back I feel scared and quite negative already and feel like there's a real possibility now that I could end up never having children with my husband   When they first tried me on Clomid my D21 Progesterone shot up to 100 nmol from my usual 56 nmol, and the nurse said they think I might've released two eggs, I was hoping this was a reflection of how I'd respond to stims with IVF, but my consultant told me it doesn't work that way


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## Sakura 78 (Feb 1, 2009)

Hiya,

2 cycles is better as you could easily fit in a couple whilst waiting for NHS treatment if need be, I'm too sure about wait times to be honest as have never had treatment in this country, but from your initial referral in Oct 2011 to possibly starting treatment in Oct this year, that doesn't seem too bad, although if I had to wait until April 2013 I think I'd be going nuts  
I'm not sure how they would know how many cycles you've had privately unless as you say when you sign up for private the HFEA has to be notified each time so it would be on their records, unless as your gynea said they weren't notified?

I think the most important thing re the alcohol and caffeine is to cut it out when you're stimming&during the 2WW at at least then it also means that if you do get pregnant it won't be so much of a shock then to give it up completely? I know I had about a week's worth of headaches every day when I gave up caffeine& I can imagine not too nice to go through that whilst in the first stages of pregnancy too. I don't think it will do your DH much harm as he's only having the occasional one after work? I know what you mean though, you just want to give it the best possible chance. It's hard to get my DH to do things like that, when I tried to get him to take the omega 3 fish oil, anyone would thing I was trying to feed him arsenic but luckily he's on board now  And we've had countless of arguments grown up discussions about the benefits of cutting out alcohol completely but we agree to disagree  To be fair he hardly ever drinks but when he has a rare night out it always seems to happen just before we have treatment or in the middle of treatment, and never when we're not! 

Try not to worry too much about the low amh, it is definitely possible to get pregnant it just might take a bit longer than for people with normal levels. You may end up responding fine to the drugs, you just never know what's going to happen until you start stimming.


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## Emnige (Apr 11, 2011)

Just wanted to say that I had tx at CRGW and they are fantastic, very friendly and great facilities. Good luck x


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## kara76 (Dec 14, 2004)

Its not 2 cycles, that info is outdated- when only 1 cycle was funded by the nhs you were allowed to self fund 2 cycles but since the introduction of the second funded cycle then reduced the number of slef funded cycles to 1 full cycle, that is one fresh and one frozen.

You can always check this by contacting stephanie herring at ivf wales.


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