Starting IVF cycle

[JennViv]

Hello!
I am 27 yrs old & starting my first IVF cycle. I have stage 4 endo and have been TTC for 2+ years. I had a lap done in august 08, and was then placed on femara therapy for 4 months. Following that, I was placed on BCP until now. I already did my "mock" transfer and the uterus looked good. The doctor said "oh that looks good-take a picture" and he said "now i'm just getting greedy taking the picture". So I assume the uterus itself looks ok. The doctor keeps telling me that the endo should not effect my odds of this being successful, but I keep thinking it will.
Yesterday I had my baseline u/s and b/w. Again I asked would the endo effect it and he said "you are young and everything looks really good-do not worry about it".
The nurse called and I start the follistim this friday -i think 375 is the dose.
Does anyone else have any similar experiences with having endo and IVF? I can't find much online about it and what the success/failure rates are. I ovulate great and DH's count/motility etc is great. The only thing stopping us is the endo because my tubes are fused to the uterus...they cannot move to pick up the eggs from the ovaries.
I'm so nervous about this-any suggestions/comments would be greatly appreciated!
Also, has anyone done accupuncture and found this to help? I'm hoping with the femara supression therapy before this that I may have a good chance.

[JennViv]

sorry for the confusion, i meant to say that my bowel is fused to my uterus. he said that the inside of the uterus looks perfect.

[agini]

hi JennViv,
   iam sorry about medication i cant help u,u shoul clear out everything with ur RE.about endo yeah thats what my previoues Re told me.& i read so many place about that.u know according to my RE i have prefect uterus,ovary & tube no problem at all,i ovualte everymonth,quality of my egg is also good,my AF is regular.i did lepro for my endo it was stage 1,can u belive still its hard to get concive.i dont know it doesnt make sense but its true.stage 1 is worse when it come to infertility.i hope we all can achive our baby goal soon.so u said ur RE said u have scars inside ur uterus too????did u ask ur RE if their is a scar inside ur uteruse it wont effect embroyo when they transfer emby???make sure about that b4 u start ivf.i read some where in other foram that  if u have scar u should treat that first.

[JennViv]

to all:
Ok ladies I'm a bit confused. So, I was on BCP until Monday 3/30/09. Had my baseline U/s and B/w tuesday. So, A/F is due to show up any day, but I don't start meds until tomorrow 4/3/09. Is this normal?? Am I supposed to start the meds while i still have or am starting AF? They estimate my retrieval date the week of April 13th...will this be enough time? Usually I respond very well to the meds but this seems different from before as to when I'm taking them.
Sorry-so many questions!

agini - I hope this acupuncture helps! Just wish I would have started it sooner since my transfer is only like 2 weeks away! You said stage 1 is worse to conceive than stage 2,3,4...i wonder why? Was it the RE who told you this? I'm a bit confused by that!! According to the RE, since its my tubes/ovaries and uterus/bowel all covered in scar tissue, he says the IVF skips all those parts and inserts it right into the uterus so a girl with endo shouldn't have any less of a chance hopefully.

[agini]

hi ,good to hear about u doing acupuncture,iam doing it too.i heard alot about acu too.so i decide to do accu b4 i start my 2nd cycle.its been only one month for me ,& i already start feeling difference,i use to get painfull A/F but this time no pain<i sleep good,after my 1st ivf failure i was very dipress & down as soon as i start accu i feel so differnet feel good,no sad feelings.its prity expensive everytime i pay $70,but again infront of ivf coast its nothing,our issurence doesnt pay a single $.everything we pay from our pocket.i go twice a week according to her iam close to my 2ivf cycle so its better to do twice a week.she concentrate on my tummy area upper & lower abdomen,both wrist,inner ankle area & toe.she put this heat on my tummy,& she aslo does electro acu--- she put 2 electrode on each side of the lower abdomen she put that electrode on the pin & pass small amout of current she said it helps 4 blood flow.1st day u feel weard but then it feels good,.goodluck with ur accu.i hope u will feel good.hope this will help u.

[JennViv]

wow this is so much information to take in! i'm so nervous about it all! I just made an appt for acupuncture because i've read different things saying it may help. How often do you think I should try that before and after the procedure?
My dr does transfer on day 3, so I hope that my odds are still pretty good.
I appreciate all the feedback!

[Helen72]

On day 3 you will have a countable # of cells, e.g. 7-8 cell embryos.  By day 5 you will just have blasts (embryos with too many cells to count).  By day 5 you know a lot more about the quality of embryos and can pick the best ones (those that went to the blast stage).  We had a day 3 transfer that was successful.

[agini]

hi jennViv,i have simlar case like u,ok iam 32 ,TTC from last 5 to 6 yeras tryed naturaly 2yrs no result so went to RE,did all possible test,DH motilty is perfect,no problem.then they findout i have stage 1 endo,& high prolactin,so they did leproscopy for endo,& give medicine for prola--.after lepro they ask us to do IUI,so we did 3 IUI's.result BFN.so re said endo is bothering they said do IVF,but we were not convinced,becasue we did lepro for endo ,& i had only stage 1,according to my RE i have good ovarys,my uterus is perfect,no problem with tubes either,& my prolactin is in control by medicine so we thought we gonna try naturaly again tryed again for one year but nothing happend so finaly decide to go for IVF.so our journey started in jan 2009,i was on BC for one cycle then statred all the crazy injections,they retrived 25 eggs,15 embys so they decide to go for blastocyst day 5.(as u asked difference bet day 3&5,so dr says day 5 is better than day 3 becasue when we concive naturaly it takes 5 days for embroyo to go inside uterus till 5 days it travels in fellopian tube & on 5th day it goes to uterus so if we do ivf day its better chance to get concive becasue enviorment is same verses 3 day becasue they transfer in uterus early but i gues all depend on individual bosy how they react.y becasue i have experience.)i have 7 day 5 embroyos, they transfered 1, day 5 blastocyst grade 5AA which is the best embroyo anyone can have,they said so they only transfer 1.in feb last month result BFN.my RE didnt had proper answer,she said she want me to go for one more try with frzen embys this time she want to transfer 2 with natural ,without any medicines or injections,she said most of the time 1st cycle fails becasue of all the medicines & injections they gave to produce more eggs,& she said she only transfer 1 at first time so she want to make sure this time she want to transfer 2,she said if it wont work then she want me to do leproscopy again b4 we do 3rd cycle.so i gues its all luck,our body is like trial & error.iam so frustated 3 failed IUI's,1 ivf.still iam going to try 2nd ivf in march ,i just had baseline U/S everything looks nice now i have to track my ovulation the day i will ovulate they will do U/S 7 they will decide when to transfer ,if my lining is good & all the harmone level is in range becasue this will be natural they have to match ,if one of them wont be in rangethen  they wont transfe then wait for another nmonth.goodluck with u.i hope it will work for u,i heard stage 2,3,4 endo is easy to conicve with IVF than stage one i know sounds crazy,stage1 is the less endo but that the killer.goodluck to u.

[Atia_Julii]

Good luck with your IVF. :-D  I am on birth control pills right now, and am thinking I will start meds for my first IVF in about two weeks.

I'm sure your doctor knows better than anyone, and if he says endo won't affect your chances, I would definitely believe that.  

Good luck, and keep us posted. :-D

Oh, and your transfer question.  By day 5, the embryos should be blastocysts.  My clinic primarily does transfers on day 3, but some think it's a better success rate with day 5.  I guess it all depends on your doctor.

[JennViv]

can someone also tell me what is the difference between a 3 day and 5 day transfer?

[Helen72]

I had a similar problem with scar tissue.  I ovulated well but my tubes could not pick up the eggs on either side.  Ivf worked for me and now I have a beautiful girl.  With ivf all you need is some decent eggs and a working uterus.
Good luck to you!!!