Hi ladies. I am new to donor egg IVF but after months and months we finally found our egg donor.

Some background: She is in her mid-20s, no kids, but she has donated a few times before always resulting in 25-27 eggs. Only one cycle allowed us to get results (5 PGS normal embryos from 25 eggs). There is no pregnancy info due to HIPAA. I chose her because she seems so much like me and I was immediately drawn to her profile.

She had a screening back in January for a cycle she will be doing after ours. Her follicle count was 32 and AMH was 5.5. The doctor said this looked great and we moved forward with her screening for our clinic about a month later. They anticipated it being a quick screening and about on par with the previous month's results.

The nurse called recently and said the doctor noted her follicle count as 13!! I am in shock. The nurse said the doctor is "not thrilled" but wants to wait and see what AMH comes back as. I would think if follicle count was 13, AMH shouldn't be incredibly high...certainly not 5.5.

This has me second guessing everything and asking WTF!! Has anyone seen this before? Her screening in January was done at a very reputable clinic and LabCorp did her AMH analysis. My doctor didn't have any explanation other than being skeptical of her results from last month... but come on...I doubt both CCRM and LabCorp are both wrong. I have had fluctuations in my own follicle count from month to month, usually 2-5, but can this happen in donors? I would hate for my doctor to deny my donor if this is just a variation and her numbers count possibly be back in the 30s next month. I am just not sure where to go from here and would really love input from you other ladies. Thank you!

I am coming out from lurching to ask anyone's take on my dilemma: I am adopting embryos and have been proposed a set of 6 6-day "high quality" embryos or a set of 6 5-day "good quality" embryos.  Both sets equally meet my personal criteria (physical characteristics)

From the literature I can find there seems to be conflicting results with 5d and 6d fet. Some say no difference at all others say that the 6d have less chance because they were a day late making envied blastocyst status.

When I search for anecdotal information there seems to be plenty of success stories with 6d fet.

If you were faced with making a decision would you favor the 5 day blasts even though marked "good" or the 6 day blasts considered "high quality"?  Or am I really splitting hairs and should just make a decision already and do the most important thing RELAX?

Thanks in advance for ideas.

Hi! I´m kind of dissapointed regarding my waiting time. Here in ARgentina, my doctor adds me to a list to get a donnor. I dont get to choose, the clinic makes a match with skin, eye color and that stuff, and they call me when they have my donnor (of course before that they check health and psychological background). The thing is I was added to the waiting list in October 16th 2017 and they told me the waiting period was s3 to 4 months. Now it´s been over 5 months and they give almost zero info, like I don´t know if I.m next or if there is 5 women before it´s my turn. 

I know you get to choose your donnor in other countries. How long would you define the waiting? I mean, since you started looking at files, picked one and got the treatment started, how long does it take?

they are really breaking my nerves, I´ve already waiting more than half a pregnancy! I´m reconsidering everything but unluckily in Argentina this is the fucking system. 

Thanks for sharing

gloria

I so badly want to be ok with this option, but I am struggling and am wondering how to reconcile my feelings.  I am in early menopause.  I stopped my BCP last fall, in order to TTC, after 3 months had no period, sought the guidance of a RE and after my workup found I am in early menopause and unable to conceive, ever.  There is no hope for me to ever have my own genetic child, to ever have a child that is a mix of myself and my husband. I feel like I felt when I had a close family member die.  The pain is like something I am unable to describe. 

Of course, DE was provided as an alternative.  Upon hearing that, I felt even more distressed.  Despite my emotional distress with this option, rationally, I know DE seems like our best option.  I so badly want a family, that I am desperate to be ok with this, but I am struggling to get there.

Whenever I think about it I feel a wave of nausea and cry.  The thought of seeing a child that is half my husband and half another women makes me feel physically ill. I want to have a baby with my husband and I want to be a mom, but worry I will fell like a surrogate and caregiver, for his and someone else's child.  How can I have a child that is half him and half some other women's running around my house? Even with epigenetics the child will be half his genes and half some other women's.  I want to be ok with that and I want to feel that I can love and care for this child.  I want to give my husband a genetic child.  However, I just cannot get myself there.

I see so many others moving on.  Why can't I?  Why does counseling just make me feel worse? This is my only option at experiencing what most women do.  This is my husband's only option, in a marriage with me, at being a bio dad. I feel so guilty for taking that away from him because of my defective body and because of my selfishness of not wanting to see him mixed with someone else.  He has not admitted to it, but I know he still desperately wants his own genetic child, even if that has to be a child that is half another women.  He is content with the DE option.   He has been supportive of fostering or remaining childless and throwing ourselves into volunteering and helping others, but I have caught him with tears in his eyes, when he did not know I was there.  I know he is hurting too and these options sound nice, but leave an immense sense of emptiness.

We almost signed on with an adoption agency.  I felt much more comfortable with that route.  I could envision us happy. I could see us raising a child.  I felt a sense of excitement.  We would still have a family, we would be helping a child in need. However, my DH did not feel the same.  He worries about taking a child from a women who, if provided resources, could have a chance at doing alright.  I always saw adoption at stepping in to help. He feels that help could come in other forms to keep mom and baby together.  I never thought of it that way and now share his concerns.  Another reason DE makes more sense.  It makes more senses!  Why can I not just be ok with that? 

 
We have an incredibly loving home, we have had a long happy relationship together and know we have so much to give. I have seen happy families created this way.  I have seen the beautiful children brought to life.  A good friend has a donor egg baby that I adore.  There love for her runs so deep.  They are excellent parents and their home is full of love and joy. I see the stories of beautiful DE families and happiness here and my heart feels warm. I want that too.  However, even seeing and feeling that, the thought of going there still traumatized me.  The pain is unbearable. 

I also worry about the ramifications of being donor conceived.  The internet is full of stories of people who are very troubled by being brought to life this way.  So many tales of bewilderment and yearning to have the other bio parent in their life.  My husband and others reassure me that the happy individuals are out there and they are not spending time talking about their stories on the web, rather are going about their lives.  I want to believe this, but I worry.  I particularly worry that my own trauma,  that my own issue of my DH having a child that is half his and half someone else's,  my inability to deal with my own infertility will lead to one of the countless donor conceived people who are hurting.  I want a family so badly, however I worry I will displace my own pain on someone else.  I NEVER want to do something that will lead to the hurt of a child.

Prior to infertility, I had never been depressed; have been a very happy person, and was pretty together.  Now I am so sad, so hurt, such a mess and down, all of the time.  I never questioned my ability to parent, I felt strong.  I feel so weak.  I want to get to a point so I can move on, to where I can by happy again, to where I can bring joy to another life.  I clearly am in no way ready to start building a family with my head in such a dark place right now.  Why can I not get out of here? Why can I not look at my option to motherhood and embrace it, like so many others are able?

Did anyone else struggle this badly and finally accept that DE option can be a lovely way to build a family? Anyone else been here? Any advice on how to reconcile my feelings and move on?  I feel so irrational right now.  Just going back and reading what I wrote, I feel like whoever wrote this is a train wreck.  I want to get past this, I want to be my former happy go lucky self. I just do not know how.  Perhaps, having only been on this journey a short while....maybe time will heal?  Maybe 10 years from now, we can have a beautiful DE child and all will be well?  I am reaching out to see if anyone can provide any insight.

Thank you so very much for your time and I wish everyone well in their own journeys to family.

With my lining issues, CCRM is throwing the kitchen sink at me during my mock cycle, which begins tomorrow. I'll be on Vivelle patches, Estrace Vaginally, Trental and Vitamin E. Next week, they'll add in Viagra suppositories. 

My lining was damaged last August during a D&C and I had a hysteroscopy to hopefully correct it. I was given a 50/50 shot of my lining responding and having to move on to a GC. So this mock really is everything. I've never heard of the Trental before, and this is my first time on Viagra. Would love to hear from anyone that has similar lining issues and if you know anything about this protocol and it's success? My lining these past 8 months has never gotten above a 3.8mm. 

Looking for advice. We don’t want to wait too long to start again so I’ve been keeping tabs on the frozen donor options in case the first round didn’t work. I’ve narrowed it to two that I’m trying to decide between.

Need a vote for #1 or #2 and your reasons.

Keep in mind we tend to have low fertilization rates though the cause is unknown.

#1:
- First time donor (so not proven but has 2 young boys of her own).
- 23 years old.
- 8 eggs in the lot. (16 eggs total retrieved so her first lot of 8 is spoken for and this would be the second. Not used yet so no results.)
- She looks similar to me overall.
- Currently have her on a courtesy hold.
- No genetic conditions or serious medical history problems.

#2:
- Proven donor (plus has 1 daughter of her own).
- 29 years old.
- 6 eggs in the lot. (Don’t know how many eggs retrieved. Results are three ongoing pregnancies, one negative and one miscarriage.)
- She looks very much like me and her strengths/interests/blood type are the same as mine.
- Her last lot is on hold for someone else but that may be released soon and we’re next in line.
- No genetic conditions or serious medical history problems.

Help!!!

Hi All

First time post but not new to IVF.  We started our journey March last year (2016) at me age 42.  First IVF (in vitro fertilization) 5 eggs, 3 - 3 day embryos, none made it to blast.  Second IVF (in vitro fertilization) (Aug 2016) - 5 eggs, 3 - 3 day embryos, 1 made blast and genetic testing says it had trisomies.  I'm 43 now....Third IVF (in vitro fertilization) (Nov 2016) - 7 eggs, 4 - 3 day embryos, 1 made blast and genetic testing says it had monosomies.  Dr suggests donor.  

We are committed to donor eggs but financially we are in for 60k plus on the last procedures with no prego.  So we are looking at the Egg Donor Bank, USA.

Anyone have success or failures with them?  Please tell me the details.  

There are 3 plans:

1) Trying to decide: Egg Lot - for $14,000 and done ny my own Doctor (IVF & FET costs added on).  

Or 

2) Single Cylce Plan - egg lot with discount plus all egg tham & embroyo transfer...etc.  Extra embroyos more to save for later.  This is $19,000 and only with selected clinics (not my clinic) but a clinic close by - San Diego Fertility.  Anyone use them?

3) Assured Refund Plan - you get up to 6 embryo transfers and if a live baby does not happen you get 100% refund.  So 6 lots of eggs and it includes everything from the fertilization and the FET transfers, etc.  refund option - $45,500

Can someone let me know their experience with DEB and San Diego Fertility or just Donor Egg Bank?  Thanks a million and baby dust.  XX

Hello everyone.  Here is my story .  We did a FET with 2 grade A embryos and everything went great.  Then I had my first Beta on 9dp5dt and it was 118.  Then the 2nd Beta was 11dp5dt and it was only 162   The nurse had me test again at 13dp5dt and it jumped to 269.  I don't know whether to be feeling ok about things or still worried.  THe nurse is retesting it tomorrow morning which is 15dp5dt.  Has anyone had this happen and it result in a viable pregnancy?  I could use some encouragement!  Thank you in advance!

Hi! I´m kind of dissapointed regarding my waiting time. Here in ARgentina, my doctor adds me to a list to get a donnor. I dont get to choose, the clinic makes a match with skin, eye color and that stuff, and they call me when they have my donnor (of course before that they check health and psychological background). The thing is I was added to the waiting list in October 16th 2017 and they told me the waiting period was s3 to 4 months. Now it´s been over 5 months and they give almost zero info, like I don´t know if I.m next or if there is 5 women before it´s my turn. 

I know you get to choose your donnor in other countries. How long would you define the waiting? I mean, since you started looking at files, picked one and got the treatment started, how long does it take?

they are really breaking my nerves, I´ve already waiting more than half a pregnancy! I´m reconsidering everything but unluckily in Argentina this is the fucking system. 

Thanks for sharing

gloria

After heartbreaking tries of failed IUI and IVF and chemical pregnancies, we are moving on to egg donor.  We have exhausted so much funding through this process. I would love any feedback on suggestions to funding. And grants or scholarships you are are aware of and of course, medical loans that you felt were easy to get. Any feedback is welcome. Thank you for helping me navigate this part or our journey. 

Hi ladies. I am new to donor egg IVF but after months and months we finally found our egg donor.

Some background: She is in her mid-20s, no kids, but she has donated a few times before always resulting in 25-27 eggs. Only one cycle allowed us to get results (5 PGS normal embryos from 25 eggs). There is no pregnancy info due to HIPAA. I chose her because she seems so much like me and I was immediately drawn to her profile.

She had a screening back in January for a cycle she will be doing after ours. Her follicle count was 32 and AMH was 5.5. The doctor said this looked great and we moved forward with her screening for our clinic about a month later. They anticipated it being a quick screening and about on par with the previous month's results.

The nurse called recently and said the doctor noted her follicle count as 13!! I am in shock. The nurse said the doctor is "not thrilled" but wants to wait and see what AMH comes back as. I would think if follicle count was 13, AMH shouldn't be incredibly high...certainly not 5.5.

This has me second guessing everything and asking WTF!! Has anyone seen this before? Her screening in January was done at a very reputable clinic and LabCorp did her AMH analysis. My doctor didn't have any explanation other than being skeptical of her results from last month... but come on...I doubt both CCRM and LabCorp are both wrong. I have had fluctuations in my own follicle count from month to month, usually 2-5, but can this happen in donors? I would hate for my doctor to deny my donor if this is just a variation and her numbers count possibly be back in the 30s next month. I am just not sure where to go from here and would really love input from you other ladies. Thank you!

oh the cycling again thread is quiet.

I noticed that the part 2 thread is “closed to comments” – is it because it reached the limit for comments?

Hope everyone is well!

Sprightly, is your baby due soon? How are things?

Evening, how far along are you now?

Jly, any updates?

I haven’t posted in a while.

I have news…we had one PGS double donor embryo left from our fresh cycle early last year. After filling out international adoption papers and paying the agency’s registration fees, we decided to go ahead and still transfer our remaining embryo.

We are now almost 17 weeks pregnant. I have not wanted to announce anything to anyone because I just keep waiting for the ball to drop given our history. But my 8^th (or maybe 9^th, I’ve lost track) DE transfer seems to have worked.

I had a bad bleed at 12 weeks and thought it was another miscarriage, but it was a subchorionic hematoma, which is shrinking (now about 1.6 cm – small).

I am very excited but also very wary. I have a great midwife and a backup MFM doc.

Our protocol…

I went rouge on a couple of things. My RE wanted to do an ERA but we weren’t willing to put in the extra time or money given that we had pretty much settled on adoption. But, I remember my most successful pregnancies that went to a heartbeat were afternoon transfers, so I technically had been on progesterone for an extra 10 hours or so. So, I took fate into my own hands and did an extra 12 hrs of progesterone prior to transfer.

I also got my functional medicine doctor to prescribe low dose naltrexone (4.5mg), which is supposed to balance your immune system and reduce the chances of repeat miscarriage with very little side effects. My immunologist refused to prescribe it. https://www.ldnresearchtrust.org/sites/default/files/Dr_Phil_Boyle.pdf

I had been on prednisone for several months because of a previous transfer that didn’t take. I did 20mg of prednisone leading up to transfer and 30 mg at 11 weeks when my immune system flared up. I am still on 30 mg and my last immune labs were somewhat normal.

IVIG every 2-3 weeks – immunologist would prefer every 1-2 weeks but I couldn’t afford that. I am not sure if I need to continue it at this point but my last infusion was last week.

Vaginal Viagra prior to transfer, and a endometrial scratch the month prior (which was way more painful than any other scratch I had done, not sure why)

Baby aspirin, vit E, lovenox 40mg twice daily (now every other day after bleed), high doses of progesterone (2cc pio + 200mg prometrium three times daily); high doses estrogen (2mg estradiol three times a day plus estradiol patches, 2 every other day) – my progesterone/estrogen levels never cooperated (even yet) so they kept increasing my dosages, and I am still taking some progesterone and estrogen at 17 weeks.

High doses of methylfolate (I have a double mutation of C677T). I started out on Metanx but my B12 and B6 levels got too high, so they changed it to just 5mg of methylfolate.

Fish oil and curcumin for inflammation.

Lots of acupuncture, and I did some Chinese herbal teas for the immune system and inflammation prior to transfer.

Hi everyone. I am brand new here so I hope I am not double posting and that I’m in the right group.
We’ve had 2 ivf plus one canceled cycle. Low ovarian reserve. I am doing the supplement and healthy lifestyle protocol from It Starts With The Egg but if this doesn’t work out, we know we will go with DE asap.
So my questions- has anyone been happy with any European egg BANKS? Trying to avoid having to cycle a donor.
We are looking at European banks preferably. We have looked at First Egg Bank but we have some caution due to the poor reviews on their partner clinics around the world. Could really use any and all advice on how this works and what banks and or clinics to use.
With thanks!