As some of you might remember, we lost twin boys at 24weeks back in Nov 09. We are now going to start a fresh IVF cycle. My wife is having her cycle monitored at a clinic in London. Although she explained to the nurse at the clinic that she has a short cycle, the nurse booked her in for a mid cycle scan and said that she should not start testing for her LH surge until after the mid cycle scan. 4 days before the scan she started testing for ovulation and it never appeared. The scan showed that she was about to ovulate anytime but I think her LH surge might have been earlier as two says since the scan her LH surge is not detectable.

She is now going in for a blood test on Saturday 12th Mar and hopefully they will start the DR (down reg) from there.

I interestingly read that a lot of the drugs provided by the clinics are at inflated prices. Especially the stimulation drugs. We spent and absolute fortune on these last time round and while I have heard that Asda will be selling these at cost price I don't think it will be in time for us.

I have contacted nearby pharmacies to see if they can provide the drugs and if so at what price. It will be interesting to see how much cheaper they are than the clinic.

Our clinic does the natural killer tests as well (Immunes) and they cost a fortune as well and then they do the IVIG which requires another mortgage. I think this cycle of IVF could quite easily cost us ??15000 if not more.

I pray it works as all the money in the world would be worth it.

Hi,
Just wanted to wish you and your wife all the luck in the world with your upcoming treatment.
Rhian

Am crossing everything for you and your wife - you sound marvellously supportive and I really hope you get the results you want. As you say, it's all very expensive and I'd also be interested to see where you could get drugs cheaper, but to have a child would be priceless. Good luck.

Thanks Misspolar and Moggs,

The latest is that the LH surge did not come so my wife is going for a blood test at the clinic on Saturday. If all is well then her Down Reg will start from Saturday.

I think this time all the excitement with a positive pregnancy will be invisible. It will be a 9month project and can only get excited once the baby arrives. I am scared to think anything else.

My wife is an angel and I am blessed to have met someone as amazing as her. While I really want to have child, I want a child more for her than for me as I know she will feel complete again when a baby enters our lives.

Good luck to you all. I will keep updating this post to let you know what the latest is with us.

Hi KS9,

Hope all went well today for the scan and will be thinking lots of positive vibes for you and your wife for this cycle.

Alison xx

Thanks Alison,

The tests on Saturday went okay. They have started her on Suprecur the DR spray every 8 hours now. I think her next TOM is Friday after which she is due to go in for a Estrodial test 5 days after Day 1. If the Estrodial levels are zero I think they will start the Stimulation.

I remember in our last fresh cycle, my poor wife was stuck on DR for a while as she had developed a cyst from the DR and they tried various things and eventually had to aspirate it before the stim could start.

Sunday was hard. - Mothers Day. I was so confused whether I should do something for her or not. If I did then it would have been a very emotional day, If I didn't then it still would have been emotional. In the end I just wished her a Happy Mothers Day from the twins and she was very sad and cried.

Hi KS9,

I was so sorry to read your message and hope that you and your wife are doing OK after yesterday.

I'm not sure if you've already tried this option, but have you asked your GP if they will arrange your wife's blood tests etc on the NHS? I was lucky and got all of mine done through the NHS which saved us a small fortune. I think my GP felt sorry for us that we couldn't get a 'free' go at IVF on the NHS.

I also discovered, on my 3rd attempt at IVF, that alot of the drugs were cheaper at my local pharmacy (Manor Pharmacy) rather than through the hospital. Again, this saved us quite alot of money. I wasn't keen on buying drugs over the internet but I know there are some companies out there already offering large discounts.

I'd like to wish you both all of the luck in the world for your coming cycle. Keep smiling....

Hi ks9,

Just wanted to wish you both all the luck in the world, your wife is lucky to have such a wonderful hubby! It's my 1st round and went for my 1st scan today to check stimming drugs. Results were not as great as I'd hoped, so I guess the emotional rollercoaster begins.

Keep us posted

Hi KS9,

I think you did the right thing for mothers day

Just keep giving your wife lots of hugs she probably feels guilty she's let you down....

Alison xx

Good luck KS9, I have everything crossed for you and your wife.

Dear All, I have written for a while so I thought I would give you an update of where we are. But firstly thank you all for your kind messages. And it's me who is lucky as I am married to an amazing person all I wish is that I could take away her pain.

My wife has been on the down regulation for about 11 days, she has to go for a blood test and scan on Friday. If all is good and the Estrodial levels low enough I think they will start the stimulation process.

I will definitely keep in mind the suggestions of buying the meds from pharmacys rather than the clnic. They cost a fortune and I will be enquiring with the pharmacies in that area.

A strange thing is that, there is no excitment this time. In previous attempts we have both been excited but this time, there is none of that magic feeling. It's almost like we won't allow ourselves to be excited.

It makes me realise how complicated a pregnancy is and how so many people will go through their entire life without any idea of how amazing bringing a baby in this world is when there are so many things that can go wrong.

I have been giving her lots of hugs, I always did but even more so that before now.

Em J good luck with it all.

Also not sure about the blood tests. On the NHS it takes days if not weeks to get the results back so I don't think that will work with our clinic.

Anyway, wil sign off here. Hope all is going well with all of you and will post more on the weekedn once we know whether her body is down regulated enough to start the stimming.

Just a few nerves today. Tomorrow is the scan and blood test to see if my wife has downregulated enough for the stim phase to begin.

It's hard to explain but this week seems to have dragged so much and it's not because I am excited about tomorrow or anything it's just already a case of wanting time to go quickly so the next 9 months don't feel like a long time. I pray so hard that this time all will be well.

Hi All, my wife went for a scan and blood test, they said she has not down regulated completely therefore she needs to continue with the DR nasal spray and then go back for another test next week. Funnily enough as the DR had taken a long time last time she sort of expected this today while I was optimistic thinking they might start the stimming today.

Anyway will give another update next week.

Hi
Thanks for keeping us updated, hope your ok, keeping my fingers crossed for you and your wife.
Rhian x

Hi Rhian and all.

The clinic called later on Friday and said she needed to take a pregnyl injection to trigger her time of month again. It takes about 5 days for it to kick in again so I went to collect the meds on Saturday and in the meantime my wife has to continue with the suprecur downreg nasal spray.

I enquired about the IVF stimulation meds at the clinic and they are charging ??30 for 75units of Fostimon and ??20 for 75 units of merional. I remember last time it was larger doses of Fostimon required. I eqnuired with two pharmacies near to the clinic and one said ??19each for both drungs and another said they could sell for ??17 each. Based on our last fresh cycle they could be a saving of about ??400. The clinic already charges a lot for the IVF treatment and then to also make money on the drugs is pretty bad.

Hi KS9, I'm so pleased you enquired at your local chemists. Unfortunately, we only found out about the price difference on our 4th try so god knows how much money we could have saved. Like you say, its appalling that they can charge so much money. Unfortunately, its because you are a private patient, they therefore think they have the right to charge you what they want. I wrote several letters of complaints but got no where!

good luck with everything and hope it all works out for you both.

thanks Bennettnic,

I know the feeling, it's an emotional and physical rollercoaster. It doesn't need to be a financial one as well. You would think that the clinics would be a bit more compassionate about this rather than trying to rip off their vulnerable patients.

The worst thing is that at no time did they mention that we could ask them for a prescription for the drugs rather than actually having to purchase the drugs directly from them.

It's only when I started reading about ASDA selling the IVF drugs as cost price that I started thinking about checking with chemists near the clinic as to whether we could purchase the stimulation drugs from them as well as the later on "gestone" etc.

Once we have some change to our current situation (where my wife is still trying to Down Regulate) I will post some more details on here.

It helps me to keep track of what is going on and while we are not telling anyone about the treatment it helps me to keep some sanity as well by sharing the experience with people who are in the same boats as us.

Dear All,

Since the not down regulating enough, the clinic prescribed a trigger injection to trigger ovulation again in the hope that this time down regulation would occur sufficiently. However, the trigger was adminstered on Sun 28 March and my wife is still wait for her monthly cycle to begin. They expected it to happen in 5 days. Today is day 9 since the trigger. She called the clinic and was told that it could take anywhere between 5 and 15 days. So hopefully something will happen in the next few days.

It's hard just waiting around. Last time we went through a fresh cycle, the DR was the longest part and this time I was convinced it would be quicker. Oh well.

I'm really gutted for you, I know from my experience that you just want everything to go by the book and not have delays and waiting around. Hang on in there and I'm sure there will be good news for you both soon.
Rhian x

Thanks Rhian, still not sign of the cycle. Poor wifey, she gave up work last week and is now hanging around at home waiting for her body to DR. She loved her job (unlike most people I know) so was really very upset about giving it up, her workplace said they would have her back in a flash when she wants to return. Anyway, onwards and upwards I guess.

Anyway if nothing happens today she is going to go to the clinic tomorrow as she will be running out of the DR nasal spray and needs more.

Will write more once we have something more to write about. Keep your fngers crossed for us.