Wow I am so excited to finally share my story! This website has been a mixed blessing to me. Giving me hope and also making me feel a little crazy! Anyway...( I wish this didnt appear in one giant paragraph!)
Background:
I am 33 and my wife (we are both women) is 36. A few years back we tried IUI (with donor sperm obviously). We did 5 attempts and I ended up having a chemical pregnancy on the second attempt. Due to anovulatory dysfunction, the other attempts didn't work and the drugs made me feel terrible. So we took a break for a couple of years to just focus on ourselves and travel. About a year ago we decided to use my wife's eggs since she's a little older than me and try recricpricol IVF. She was 35 at the time of retrieval and we ended up getting a bunch of good eggs. We also did ICSI on half of the eggs and PGS (genetic testing) and got 5 high quality genetically normal embryos. In the meantime, I had a hysteroscopy and we found a uterine polyp which actually may have been the cause of the chemical pregnancy (but really you never know). I ended up having surgery to have that removed. Fast forward to this past august and we had our first transfer scheduled. At this time I was working a full time job that i hated, going to grad school part time and attending a really intensive volunteer training. Needless to say I was pretty stressed out. We did the transfer anyway (5AA embryo). I didn't feel like it worked but since the odds are "so good" I kept my hopes up. Every symptom I felt could have been attributed to the progesterone (my doctor's office uses Progesterone in oil shots as a protocol). They also had me on 8 mgs of estradiol a day. I tested at home on 6DPT (aka 11dpo) and got a BFN and just had a bad feeling about it. Cried for a few days and it was confirmed negative with my beta. I was devastated. I decided to go right into my next cycle though because I knew I could handle it and didn't want to wait. We ended up doing another hysteroscopy to make sure my uterus was polyp clear and it looked great. I also did an endometrial scratch at the rec of my RE but its hard to say if that actually helps. It doesn't "not help" though i guess? Anyway fast forward to the second attempt...
I lost my job a couple weeks prior to the transfer which was actually not the worst thing. It was a pretty high stress job and I'm luckily not the main breadwinner so it was actually an opportunity for me to relax and get my body ready for pregnancy. These are the things that I did differently in my second attempt compared to my first attempt. Please keep in mind I don't know if this stuff actually contributed but i know sometimes you want to feel like you have SOME control so i concentrated on those little things...
* No caffeine (man that was hard)
* No clairtin (i read that it can contribute to reduced blood flow..who knows) I had been taking it daily for years.
* Meditation!
* Positive affirmations (example "my body knows how to nurture an embryo"...seems unnatural at first but try it!)
* Ate more veggies
* No alcohol
Ok here are my symptoms (since you probably just scrolled to this part anyway haha)
** 1DPT 5 Day Embryo 5AA singleton- nothing noticeable. Progesterone makes my boobs huge and this is the point where it starts to build up.
** 2DPT- some mild cramping in the middle of my abdomen. less noticeable than period cramps
** 3DPT - a headache on and off. could be from progesterone though. When i was trying to sleep at night had weird pulling, tightening feeling near my belly button. Like my stomach was tight? Felt like this was a sign because during my chemical pregnancy I had this feeling. Little jabs on my sides and abdomen. Like poking.
** 4DPT- Lower back pain and mild cramping. Upper thighs super sore like I ran a marathon (I dont run haha).
** 5DPT - AM upper abdomen cramps again. I want to test but I am trying not to. Lower back sore again. SO TIRED. Napped and i never nap.
** 6DPT - Itchy nipples - big sign. Slight nausea but I feel relatively normal. super emotional. nausuea at night. Super tired by 1pm.
** 7DPT - Boobs huge esp in morning. light cramping and nausea at night again. Weird jabs all over abdomen still.
** 8DPT (aka 13DPO) - light pinkish brown spotting all day. Could be implantation bleeding but I have heard that FET can cause women to have more spotting than non FET pregnancies. Sore legs again.
** 9DPT - BETA TEST and HOME first response test. First response test was SUPER positive. Like...super dark plus. Had beta come back at 245! Still spotting on and off.
** 10DPT - Itchy nipples. Waves of nausea and dizziness. Need to start eating more frequently i think. Super flushed and gross feeling at night.
** 11DPT - 2nd beta came back at 706 so I feel like I can breathe a little. AHHHHH but i cant because im probably having a baby! Feeling dizzy a lot throughout the day.
**Advice and Notes:**
* Concentrate on what you can control (which isn't much). There is not a lot you can do to make an embryo "stick". Do what you can to make yourself feel better though.
* Something my therapist told me that really helped was to remind myself that regardless of anything we WILL be parents at some point. It's a long journey and I know there are people who have had a much longer and more painful journey than myself but we will have a child.
* Meditation can work wonders for your noggin and body. I promise you. It felt so weird for me at first but I really think it helped my body relax and be more receptive. Youtube has TONS of stuff.
Best of luck to everyone and don't give up hope!
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