Our TTC journey started way back in 2007, after being off the contraceptive pill for a couple of years I started to experience painful endometriosis type symptoms. After many ultrasounds and tests (gotta love those smear test contraptions!) my consultant decided that I had the early signs of endometriosis, my diagnosis would remain as 'suspected' unless I undertook a laparoscopy so they could take a closer look. She asked me if I wanted to have children and that as I was 30 at the time, I best get cracking as my symptoms may develop further. She decided to put me back on the contraceptive pill for 6 months, after which she advised we started 'trying', if we were unsuccessful after 6-8 months we should go back to my GP and then have the laparoscopy if my pain symptoms have returned.
In June 2008, ready or not we followed her advice and quickly got our heads around having children and got quite excited at the prospect of taking this next step. As the months went by we became increasingly worried and feared the worst, we gave ourselves 8 months or trying instead of the recommended 6 months, just in case, as my endometriosis symptoms had since laid dormant again. Sadly we had opened a can of worms and weren't prepared for what happened next . . we saw our GP in March 2009 and she quickly referred us to the an NHS fertility consultant to get the ball moving as the waiting times could be long. As a pre-requisite she ordered a semen assessment and unfortunately the results were not good, the test was repeated, it was better but still low.
We finally received an appointment to see our NHS fertility consultant, Mr Moody, in September 2009. He ordered a repeat ultrasound, blood work and a hysterosalpingography (HSG) for me to rule out any other underlying issues I may have. He wasn't interested in investigating Mr Moon any further, at the time we just accepted this and went with the flow, in hindsight it would have been good to have a urologist referral at this point to understand any root causes. The NHS waiting times slowed us down, I had my ultrasound in October but they were unable to fit me in for the HSG until January, we are now pro's at waiting! (should probably add it to my CV) :-) We saw Mr Moody again in March 2010, he told me that my ultrasound and HSG came back clear and he would refer us to a fertility clinic. By now I had earned my Google Queen status and understood that we had a choice of 5 clinics in the South East, no choice seemed to be offered to us at the appointment so instead we made it clear we had a preference to be placed at Bourn Hall as it was closest to us, luckily our persistence paid off.
In May 2010 we were invited to an introductory seminar at Bourn Hall and met our consultant at our first appointment in July 2010, he scheduled us for our first ICSI cycle for starting down reg in October and egg collection/transfer for late November 2010.
In June 2008, ready or not we followed her advice and quickly got our heads around having children and got quite excited at the prospect of taking this next step. As the months went by we became increasingly worried and feared the worst, we gave ourselves 8 months or trying instead of the recommended 6 months, just in case, as my endometriosis symptoms had since laid dormant again. Sadly we had opened a can of worms and weren't prepared for what happened next . . we saw our GP in March 2009 and she quickly referred us to the an NHS fertility consultant to get the ball moving as the waiting times could be long. As a pre-requisite she ordered a semen assessment and unfortunately the results were not good, the test was repeated, it was better but still low.
We finally received an appointment to see our NHS fertility consultant, Mr Moody, in September 2009. He ordered a repeat ultrasound, blood work and a hysterosalpingography (HSG) for me to rule out any other underlying issues I may have. He wasn't interested in investigating Mr Moon any further, at the time we just accepted this and went with the flow, in hindsight it would have been good to have a urologist referral at this point to understand any root causes. The NHS waiting times slowed us down, I had my ultrasound in October but they were unable to fit me in for the HSG until January, we are now pro's at waiting! (should probably add it to my CV) :-) We saw Mr Moody again in March 2010, he told me that my ultrasound and HSG came back clear and he would refer us to a fertility clinic. By now I had earned my Google Queen status and understood that we had a choice of 5 clinics in the South East, no choice seemed to be offered to us at the appointment so instead we made it clear we had a preference to be placed at Bourn Hall as it was closest to us, luckily our persistence paid off.
In May 2010 we were invited to an introductory seminar at Bourn Hall and met our consultant at our first appointment in July 2010, he scheduled us for our first ICSI cycle for starting down reg in October and egg collection/transfer for late November 2010.
IVF / ICSI Cycle 1 (NHS funded):
15 eggs collected, 13 mature for IVF/ICSI, 8 embryo's fertilised.
Single embryo transfer: Day 5 morula transferred (unfortunately no blastocysts, no frosties).
Our moon-embies deteriorated significantly post Day 3 :-(
Under our Primary Care Trust (PCT) guidelines for the East of England we have to wait 6 months between cycles due to the demand for treatment. Whilst we waited for an NHS cycle, we self-funded a cycle at a clinic on our doorstep, Herts & Essex Fertility Centre. Down reg started in March and egg collection /transfer was in mid-April 2011.
IVF / ICSI Cycle 2 (Self funded):
13 eggs collected, 10 mature for IVF/ICSI, 6 embryo's fertilised.
Double embryo transfer: Day 3 embryo's transferred (one excellent, one good) (the other embryo's were taken to Day 6 - unfortunately no blastocysts, no frosties).Sadly again our embryo's deteriorated post Day 3 again, overall the quality was slightly better than last time, but still no blastocysts.
IVF / ICSI Cycle 3 (NHS funded):
11 eggs collected, 10 mature for IVF/ICSI, 10 embryo's fertilised.
Single embryo transfer: Day 5 blastocyst embryo transferred, good quality (two other blastocysts had formed by Day 5 but poorer quality, the other embryo's were taken to Day 6 - one further blastocyst formed but poor quality, no frosties).Despite our fantastic fertilisation rate on our third cycle and even forming a great blastocyst our treatment still failed, this is heartbreaking.
Not sure where we turn now in this maze.
Not sure where we turn now in this maze.
Stay tuned for more Moon adventures.
