Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum.
I did my first ivf cycle after 3 failed iuis. As the title says, I did not respond well to the protocol they had me on (12mcg rekovelle, 300 iu menopur, 3.33 mcg hgh) My baseline showed 3 follicles and my followup on day 6 showed a dominant follicle with two smaller ones.
the doctor was pretty brutal and told me that another cycle would not yield different results. they gave me the option to keep going with the ivf but were very frank about the fact the chances of it working were abysmal.
it was heartbreaking. We converted the cycle in an IUI, and my partners numbers were not great, 6.5m post wash. this has also been a problem, his numbers have always been between 7 to 15 mil max.
I am currently in my tww.
I am not hopeful this will work so I am planning ahead.
Mini IVF : I did some dr google research after the bad news, and I"m thinking of pushing to do a mini ivf protocol, which would hopefully yield a couple of follicles of better quality. I think this cycle we would be ready to go all the way and try to fertilize even if its only two follicles. its a hail Mary for us.
Donor eggs : Our clinic/hospital works with shady Groves in the USA. I got an idea of the cost of everything and it would take out all of our savings and we are not ready to do this. we keep saving and maybe we will be able to do it in a year or so.
Donor eggs abroad : its my understanding that the cost would be lower, as anyone gone through it and would be confortable giving me a breakdown of cost or where to find such information?
adoption : this would take more years and Im open to it, but I think its going to be kid number 2.
In the meantime, this is what I have been doing for the past 6 months at least :
prenatal multivitamins
vitamin d
folate
coq 10
Ive just added vitamin c although I get plenty through my diet
no alcohol
2 teas a day max
my partner :
fertilaid for men
coq 10
he doesn't drink much, maybe a beer every two weeks, so Im not worried about that.
cut down on caffeine but again was drinking maybe two tea/coffee a day.
He just started adding folate, vitamin D, vitamin C this week, I read a study about vit c increasing volume of semen. I might be wrong.
this week I asked him to stop taking hot steamy showers (i dint realize how hot they were)
hes wearing loose underwear or no underwear (yay working from home)
im trying to convince him to ice them 20mn a day but he will need the doctor to convince him if its necessary.
I dont know what i am looking for here. maybe some advice and commiseration. Is there anything else we can do, I know my numbers wont go up, but maybe we can work on my partners numbers?