# Any advice ladies on improving our chances?



## Peach14 (Apr 18, 2014)

Hi there ladies,

I hope all of you who read this are well and your journeys are progressing in the right direction.

I am looking to gain some advice from you all, anything you feel you'd like to suggest that could help me moving forward, i'd just greatly appreciate your time and words of wisdom...

My journey so far is as follows:
I've had 2 rounds of NHS ivf, 1st one was short protocol which resulted in a MMC at 7weeks and then went on to having an ERPC 5wks later after natural and 3 attempts of medical intervention didn't work. I did also get very slight OHSS but no treatment necessary.
2nd round I had long protocol. I responded very well but I did however suffer with OHSS and was given cabergoline but had to stop taking it as I got very poorly (severe sickness/ loss of bladder control). The OHSS passed with rest over time and all our embryos were frozen. 
I did respond well both times.
I have had 2 failed FETS, 1 in January (embryo was ok but didn't thaw very quickly) and 1 has just ended now with a BFN (embryo thawed perfectly). Both FET's were mostly unmedicated, other than having ovitrelle to guarantee ovulation, and on our 1st FET I also used cyclogest pessaries. It's worth mentioning on my most recent FET when I was having my monitoring internal scans the nurses kept commenting how stimulated I was and I found the scans made me feel quite tender and sensitive. There was a lot of visible follicles too apparently.
I had a bicornate uterus that was operated on a couple of years ago to hopefully help natural conception. My uterus was in 2 separate parts, one of which used to collect the menstrual blood rather than releasing it, so that part was removed, kind of like a half hysterectomy, and also that tube was taken. They found some endemetriosis and removed it. Unfortunately the tube I was left with was found to be blocked. I still have both ovaries. So ivf was the only way to go.
I had a few tests after our miscarriage last year...blood clotting, thyroid, etc. All ok other than an underactive thyroid was diagnosed, and they put the miscarriage possibly down to that as nothing else stood out. My thyroid is now under control. 
I've also had a prolactin test but that was ok too. 
I had a hysteroscopy done back in march and all looked ok. I also had a scratch done at the same time, but then my long protocol went on for nearly 9wks as I didn't down reg well....it was a farce! I think starting on day 2 of cycle didn't help....so the scratch was wasted really. 
I have had a couple of dilations carried out on my cervix to make access easier. I have very bad transfers, very painful, and they usually take approx 45mins to 1.15hr, as my cervix is tiny and to get the catheter into my womb is a nightmare and my womb has now tilted back and they have to get the catheter around bends. All my transfers have been bad, including the one where I got pregnant, and I tend to bleed a bit but not too heavily, and not on the tip of the catheter ( I know that can be bad for implantation rates). 
We have 5 frozen embryos and my thoughts are that before going into another FET, we should ask for further investigation now (private if necessary) before possibly loosing any more embryos unnecessarily. 
I wondered if I'm missing something obvious or if there's anything you ladies could suggest us asking our clinic to carry out, or even pushing to pay for private tests, as we'll have a follow up very soon and I want to go prepared. I'm thinking that it's possibly an issue to do with implantation seen as I originally got pregnant but now can't. But I also know it could be loads of things or just bad luck. 
We have also started thinking very recently about whether surrogacy is possibly the way to go, if it's a womb issue. I know I'm a risk of early labour, but other than that the clinic and all my previous specialists have said they think I should be ok to carry, fingers crossed. We are an open minded couple and we would go down the surrogacy route if necessary, but I think I'd like to try a bit more with me conceiving first though. 
This is our remaining NHS treatment so any future cycles will be self funded.
Any advice ladies is very much appreciated. I'm sorry if that was a long read! 
Lots of love to all, this journey is a hard one. Big hugs xx


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## njr_26 (Aug 27, 2011)

Peach, this is a very good place to start finding out what went wrong: http://www.fertilityfriends.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=283000.0

It does sound as though they are giving you too much stimulation. Have they discussed this with you? You also appeared to do better on a short protocol, so why have they got you on a long protocol?

Did they tell you what number your TSH was? It needs to be under 2 and the reproductive immunologist I go to Dr Gorgy prefers it to be as close to 1 as possible. Don't be fobbed off with NHS guidelines of anything under 4 is ok, it may be for normal living but not for TTC or pregnancy. Mine was 2.85 when I m/c and that was only one of the things I had wrong with me. (see my signature)

In my opinion NHS clinics are very conservative and just try the same protocol again and again. With the benefit of hindsight I would rather have paid for a good private clinic rather than paying an NHS clinic privately. (Only 1 IVF is free in Warwickshire) If you have enough money then Dr Gorgy tests for everything and will treat you alongside your NHS clinic. You don't have to tell them as he looks at what they are doing and will prescribe accordingly.

If you have to self fund then the clinics abroad are very good and much cheaper, better service, better technology than here. Something to think about if the free go fails.

Hope this helps.


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