10:31 - thank you so much for your thoughts. Yes, depending on my labs today, I might push this with my RE just to rule out anything, you know.

09:43, this is the OP. I have never had full-blown hypothyroidism, only sub-clinical. Like many places, Kaiser uses "above 5.5" as the cut-off for hypothyroidism, though there is much research out there that the range really should be much lower. (Like a cut-off of 3.0 I think? Ideal is 1.0, though anything in the 1.0-2.0 is good.) My GP originally blew off my concerns about my TSH - it was 4.76 when I started - but then agreed to get it down to a 1.0 (just to "prove" to me that it wasn't the cause of my fatigue, depression, weight gain, etc).

I believe what my nurse at SG told me was that they want to see TSH be 2.5 or lower, but that they might have let me continue with as high as a 4.0, so long as my GP was monitoring my TSH. (It was a moot point, as my TSH was above a 5.0.)

I've read tons of stories on boards like this from women who couldn't get pregnant (or maintain a pregnancy) with very "normal" sub-clinical numbers (3s and 4s) who suddenly had success when they brought their TSH down. It's definitely worth checking out. As far as I can tell, the meds have no side effects, and it's helped my peace of mind: at least I know this isn't what's been holding us back...

To the posters who were discussing TSH. Mine was 3.3 before conceiving my son via IVF #2. Now it's up to 3.79 and I've had multiple failed FETs. My RE at SGF said he wasn't worried about the slightly higher TSH because I've never been considered hypothyroid before. So he's not worried about the 3.79 level. Getting tested again today though just to check before my next FET in 2 weeks. I wonder - you all who have said that SGF requires TSH to be lower...is that because you're diagnosed as having hypothyroidism? My free T4 is normal and from what I understand I could have what's called subclinical hypothyroidism. Anyway, I trust my doc but it's just odd to hear that "SGF requires you to be under 2" when I haven't had that experience. Only one embryo left so I'm trying to cover all the bases.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Question for 9:12 and OP.
Just curious to know how much medication did you take? I am 35 years old but my RE concluded that my body behaves like 40 years old. I have done multiple IVFs but none of those worked. The best cycle I had gave 8 mature eggs.

Not either the PP or OP, but 8 mature eggs is pretty good.

The best one had 8. Other cycles had 3, 4 and 5. Never went to freezing.

Thanks OP for your thoughts.

Anonymous wrote:Question for 9:12 and OP.
Just curious to know how much medication did you take? I am 35 years old but my RE concluded that my body behaves like 40 years old. I have done multiple IVFs but none of those worked. The best cycle I had gave 8 mature eggs.

Not either the PP or OP, but 8 mature eggs is pretty good.

00:55, this is the OP. Sorry if what I wrote was confusing. After my day 4 blood test, the RE told me to drop my Menopur to 75 for 2 days, but after that resume the 150 dosage. So it was planned to only be a two-day drop in dosage.

I'm no expert in what E2 levels should be, especially since it depends on how many follicles you have. But here are my E2 levels. (I don't have exact numbers for some days.)
Day 4: 575-ish. (This was higher than expected, so that's when two-day Menopur reduction plan happened.)
Day 5: 830-ish.
Day 7: 1,700-ish.
Day 8: 2,673.
Day 9 (trigger): 5,541.

I had 14 follicles at baseline, but about 20 on day 4. The number stayed in the 20s until trigger day when I had 32 follicles. (My follicle numbers often didn't seem very precise. It depended on who was doing the monitoring, but some seemed less interested in getting a precise count than others.)

On day 8 my nurse told me that I was a bit over-stimulated and that the goal was to keep me from going over 5,000. Obviously I went a bit over that, but not too much...

Anonymous wrote:20:58, this is the OP. I was on an antagonist protocol. I took 225mcg of Gonal-F and 150mcg of Menopur. After my first blood test (day 4) they had me reduce the Menopur to 75 for two days, and then go back up to 150. I added Ganirelix (250mcg) on day 6. I triggered on day 9 instead of day 12 (as planned). I was originally supposed to use an HCG trigger, but to avoid over-stimulation was switched to a Lupron trigger. (There was some discussion of using a dual Lupron-HCG trigger.)

Just before starting my cycle, my nurse did say, after getting back my AMH, that the doctor was lowering my meds from whatever he had originally intended. (Though I don't know the specifics of the original dosages.) I should also mention that I've gained a ridiculous amount of weight this past year; I don't know how that may have planned into my dosages.

I hope your RE is able to adjust your protocol to give you better results. I'm sending good thoughts your way!

Interesting. Why did they bump up Menopur? Did your E2 drop at any point?

Anonymous wrote:I did my first IVF at age 41. They retrieved 42 eggs. 40 were mature. 36 fertilized normally. 28 made it to day three. At that point we had PGD done on all 28. Of the 28 day three embryos, only 4 were normal. All four made it to blast. We transferred two healthy, PGD normal embroys and got pregnant with a singleton. We froze the other two. When trying for DC #2 we did an FET with the remaining embryos. One disintegrated during the thaw and the other was transferred but did not produce a pregnancy. So....40 mature eggs. one baby. I really wish that they had given me lower dosage meds. I think if I had fewer eggs, they might have been healthier.

Good luck to you.

I've wondered about this myself. Were you at SG PP? I'm hopefully going to trigger tomorrow (I feel like an egg farm). From my last cycle 3 years ago I got a healthy baby from 36 eggs, and nothing to freeze. So 1 out of 36. This time it looks like I have 40+ follicles. I am so uncomfortable and I wonder, wouldn't it make more sense to use a lower dose and let the naturally healthy folicles develop? Isn't this sort of the idea behind "natural" IVF? I know I am very lucky to have been successful the first time, but I never really quesitoned my protocol, and now I am. Also no one at SG has every used the term "PGD" with me - I don't even know what it is. Should I have requested it?

20:58, this is the OP. I was on an antagonist protocol. I took 225mcg of Gonal-F and 150mcg of Menopur. After my first blood test (day 4) they had me reduce the Menopur to 75 for two days, and then go back up to 150. I added Ganirelix (250mcg) on day 6. I triggered on day 9 instead of day 12 (as planned). I was originally supposed to use an HCG trigger, but to avoid over-stimulation was switched to a Lupron trigger. (There was some discussion of using a dual Lupron-HCG trigger.)

Just before starting my cycle, my nurse did say, after getting back my AMH, that the doctor was lowering my meds from whatever he had originally intended. (Though I don't know the specifics of the original dosages.) I should also mention that I've gained a ridiculous amount of weight this past year; I don't know how that may have planned into my dosages.

I hope your RE is able to adjust your protocol to give you better results. I'm sending good thoughts your way!

Question for 9:12 and OP.
Just curious to know how much medication did you take? I am 35 years old but my RE concluded that my body behaves like 40 years old. I have done multiple IVFs but none of those worked. The best cycle I had gave 8 mature eggs.

OP again. Thanks everyone for the good wishes. 09:12, thank you for sharing your story; it sounds like our cycles were similar in a few ways. That's wonderful that you had a baby from your first IVF - I take encouragement from that! - but I get your disappointment about the rest of your embryos. If you are still trying for #2, I wish you all the best.

09:25, thank you for the TSH advice. I've been working on getting my TSH down to 1.0 for almost a year. Actually, I was supposed to do this IVF cycle a month earlier when it was canceled at the last minute - I had already bought the meds - due to a surprisingly high TSH test (over 5). (SG wants TSH to be 2.5 or less.) If they hadn't canceled the cycle, I would have canceled it myself, because I know how much TSH can affect the odds of conception. My TSH was 2.0 just before I started my IVF injections. My only concern there is that my GP will only let me test my TSH every 4-6 weeks. I've read that IVF meds can raise TSH, so I wanted to test again after my retrieval, but Kaiser is making me wait. I'm going to test again as soon as they'll let me. My GP did slightly raise my meds after my last test, so my hope is that my TSH has remained stable or even improved...

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, if you have a spare $5K sitting around I would look hard at getting anything that makes it to blast CGH tested. The unfortunate truth is that at 40, only about 1 in every 10 eggs is genetically normal. Gorgeous, perfect, 0% fragmentation embryos can be genetically abnormal and ugly, fragmented lower quality-looking embryos can make perfect babies. CGH tested embryos don't guarantee a pregnancy, but it sure might save the heartache of repeat transfers. On the bright side, you have a lot to work with so hopefully there are a few embryos that will want to become babies.

Given your high E2 and bloating, having them tested and doing a FET next month is not a bad idea--particularly since you mentioned immune issues. Are you doing anything about that or is it just suspected?

P.S. I'm 40 and out of 30 embryos over 2 cycles we never had any make it to the freezer.

I haven't read through the whole thread, but this is extremely sound advice. Do CGH testing and figure out your immune issues in the meanwhile. After a few failed FETs of good looking blasts, my RE got my TSH to under 2 (it was 2.8 -- not officially hypothyroid but he said optimal levels for fertility and pregnancy were between 1 and 2), and I got pregnant off a very average looking frozen embryo.

OP Thank you for sending your info. Sending good baby thought your way. Keep us updated

I did my first IVF at age 41. They retrieved 42 eggs. 40 were mature. 36 fertilized normally. 28 made it to day three. At that point we had PGD done on all 28. Of the 28 day three embryos, only 4 were normal. All four made it to blast. We transferred two healthy, PGD normal embroys and got pregnant with a singleton. We froze the other two. When trying for DC #2 we did an FET with the remaining embryos. One disintegrated during the thaw and the other was transferred but did not produce a pregnancy. So....40 mature eggs. one baby. I really wish that they had given me lower dosage meds. I think if I had fewer eggs, they might have been healthier.

Good luck to you.

Good luck OP!
Thank you for sharing such detailed information. It is very encouraging.