Started Northisterone on 17th August, finished on 27th and my period arrived this morning about 2 hours before my baseline scan! She better get the puppy pads out so I don’t make a mess of her chair! The lining was still quite thick as my period had only just started, but again, as with cycle 1, there were about 20-30 follicles each side. The nurse needs to double check Gonal-F starting dose before I start tomorrow.

I never in my life dreamed when I started this journey that I would be having IVF, let alone a second cycle.
My consultation today suggested that shes basically going to go for maximum eggs probably causing OHSS with a view to freezing them all, recovering for a few months and then having a Frozen Embryo Transfer, however, she has only upped my Gonal-F starting dose by 50iu to 150iu, when I ended last cycle on 200iu and still got nothing!
She also she didn’t know when I could start, but wasn’t hopeful for the August date that I had been promised – she said I could ask the nurses but she thinks it’s full.

When I got home the clinic got back to me and I was told wrong last time, I won’t be looking at egg collection in August it will be September… seriously this is getting pushed further and further back, I was so naieve when I first started this journey and I thought it would work first time, one month and I’d be pregnant. Here I am almost a year later still not even close to being pregnant!

And just like that this IVF cycle is over. With only a 21mm an 18mm and a 15mm and a lot of smaller ones they called me in to another room and discussed it, but they basically decided it wasn’t worth continuing and going through Egg Collection for 2 or 3 eggs that might not even be mature, when I have the reserves to do a lot better.

Next egg collection booked for August. Atleast it’s not too long to wait!

Todays scan showed that I have a few follicles coming on, an almost 18mm, a 17mm, 4 around the 13mm and 2 around 10mm… so they’ve decided to give me 2 more days of a higher dose and hopefully Egg Collection on Friday 22nd!

What are the chances that the previously unstimulated follicles answered to the higher dose over the weekend and have started to grow? What if no more follicles have grown and they call off the cycle? How long will I have to wait before I can try again? How will that affect my Access Fertility finance? So much stress!

Slightly downhearted from the last scan where there were only a few follicles growing, I had another scan today and found only 2 follicles on one side at 11 and 12mm and the rest haven’t even started growing yet. They have upped my Gonal-F to 200iu and the nurse said that egg collection would be pushed back to atleast the end of the week (It’s already pencilled in for Thursday so guess its Friday now, or the week after and I have to travel to a different clinic!)

I started Gonal-F 100iu on 8th June alongside fragmin to offset the fact that Gonal-F can make your blood thicker.
Today was the first progress scan, and there were still 30-40 follicles on each side, but only 3-4 follicles starting to grow at 8-10mm. They asked the consultant and they upped my Gonal-F to 125iu, they don’t want to over stimulate and cause OHSS. Now just to wait and see if any others can start to grow and catch up.

Started my cetrotide today, first injection I have had to mix myself! Felt like a chemist! Managed to get the needle stuck in the cap and now the injection site stings! I don’t like this injection!

Ready and eager to start my first IVF cycle I was booked in for egg collection on 21 June. My drug order arrived on 22nd May in 2 massive boxes, one room temperature, one for the fridge. Suddenly it all felt real!
As I am not able to take the combined pill due to my antiphospholipid syndrome, I started my Northisterone on 23rd May and continued it on until 2nd June, with my baseline scan booked for 7th June. They found 25-30 follicles on each ovary, with slightly fewer on the left. The lining was still a little bit thicker than they’d like, but I only started bleeding 2 days ago and don’t start Gonal-F until tomorrow.