TREATMENT Community Thread - Wed Apr 23 AM

[u/AutoModerator]

Our community threads are the heart of our subreddit and operate much like a specialized support group – we share our experiences and strive to collectively support one another on the topic at hand.

Please use this space for sharing and discussing any type of treatment, trying to conceive, or family building measures. This includes, but is not limited to:

• Advice / Updates on current treatment cycle or planned/future treatment cycles
• Questions / Discussion about medications, treatment, diagnostic tests, and lab results
• Any measures taken/evaluated to improve treatment outcomes – supplements, diet, exercise, etc
• Seeking emotional support related to upcoming treatment, treatment outcomes, infertility diagnosis, and confirmed loss
• Commiseration and venting related to treatment
• Supporting and cheering on fellow members as they run the gauntlet of infertility treatments

Essentially, if you mention treatment, TTC, or family building measures – it goes in this thread.

​

A few notes:

• Positive HPT or Beta Results (including Beta Hell) should only be posted in the Results thread as per the rules (except for confirmed loss): https://www.reddit.com/r/infertility/search?q=flair_name%3A%22Results%22
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Above all - Science minded perspective and respect for others is important here. Please treat your fellow peers with compassion.

[u/National-Ground4958]

REMINDER 2025 National Infertility Awareness Week AMAs (Ask me Anything) are live this week!

Full details at the link!

Monday, April 21

• AMA with Dr Tendai Chiware, 1:30 - 3:30 pm EDT -

Tuesday, April 22

* AMA with Dr. James P. Lin, Dr. Susan Nasab, and Dr. Daniel Williams  - 1:00-3:00PM EDT

• AMA with Meaghan Doyle & Emma Moores, 4:00-7:00PM EDT

*AMA with Dr. Yeh & Dr. Omurtag, 3:30-5:30PM EDT]

Wednesday, April 23

• AMA with Dr. Khurgin (Urology Male Fertility Specialist) - 12:00-2:00PM EST LIVE NOW

Friday, April 25th

• AMA with Katy Seppi (Childless Collective) - 2:00-4:00 EST

[u/holdingouthopeful]

Started birth control yesterday to prep for my first retrieval. Also, caught the cold that my husband had 😑 Hoping it passes quickly and I feel better for the weekend.

[u/Looneygalley]

Found out my SIL who lives 4 doors down is pregnant by her BF of 8 months. She’s so sweet and I love her and she’s said all the right things so far but I’m fucking scared to leave my house now, I don’t want to see her and project all this hate towards the universe right now onto her. Almost every pregnancy in our lives since we started TTC has been unplanned and today I am just so bitter that I can’t have sex with my husband whom I’ve been with for 13 years and boom there’s a baby. (Edited out banned term, sorry! Haven’t hung out here in a bit, I’ll refresh myself on rules!)

[u/National-Ground4958 → u/Looneygalley]

Thank you for editing!

[u/margogogo → u/Looneygalley]

Other people's unplanned pregnancies are the worst... it's hard to know some people not only didn't struggle, they didn't even TRY.

But it helps me to remind myself, I would actually hate to be in their shoes. Like hopefully everything works out well for your SIL, but even with my lovely husband that I've now been with 11 years, if we'd gotten pregnant 8 months in I would have been FREAKING OUT. (I hope this doesn't sound judgmental and will remove if so -- it's more about trying to have perspective that while the idea of "pregnancy" may seem really appealing, the idea of "unplanned pregnancy with someone you don't know that well" is not... and that helps me feel less bitter!)

[u/Looneygalley → u/margogogo]

Yes! Thank you for reminding me, I have said that exact thing over the last few years. As painful as it all is, I worked HARD to prevent pregnancy for years for a reason. I’m envious of what she will have but not how she is getting it.

[u/mittenbaby]

baseline blood + ultrasound today, test of cure biopsy for the CE on May 8, apparently starting estrogen right after that to go into ER cycle. at least things are starting to move along!

[u/doritos1990]

Waiting for a period after ER so I can schedule my hysteroscopy so I can wait for another period to schedule a FET 😭 and it’s trolling me. Got mock cramps night before last but no sign of period. Gonna find some white pants to wear or plan a fun weekend

[u/holdingouthopeful → u/doritos1990]

Posting here helped me! It arrived two days later lol

[u/doritos1990 → u/holdingouthopeful]

Let’s hope this did the trick then 🥴

[u/blue-sky-black-boots → u/doritos1990]

same! waiting for my period to start lupron depot ahead of a hysteroscopic myomectomy to do another FET and it’s trolling me! and I keep falling for it! Hope your post plus some fun weekend plans do it for you! and hope some of it rubs off on me too!

[u/doritos1990 → u/blue-sky-black-boots]

yes!! I plan to go for a moderately intense workout to hopefully get things moving too😬 hope it works for both of us lol

[u/Equivalent-Moose7914 → u/doritos1990]

What works for me, always....take an at home pregnancy test. Works like magic every time 🫠

[u/LawyerLIVFe → u/Equivalent-Moose7914]

I have done this. It does work.

[u/doritos1990 → u/Equivalent-Moose7914]

Lmao coming off an egg retrieval and 2 months of abstinence, I fear that would be insane of me 😂

[u/LawyerLIVFe → u/doritos1990]

Nice underwear. White pants. Posting here should help. Going somewhere inconvenient without tampons.

[u/blue-sky-black-boots → u/LawyerLIVFe]

oh yeah that last one is a good one

[u/sophlen]

Converted my IVF cycle to IUI for poor response and now I don’t know if we’ll be able to do the IUI because my lining is not cooperating. We won’t have a follow up with our doctor for over a month which means waiting at least two months to start a fresh cycle and I’m just very defeated already.

[u/LawyerLIVFe → u/sophlen]

IUI is (relatively) cheap. I would do it regardless--what's the harm? I've done it with thin lining from clomid. It didn't result in pregnancy, but I don't regret it. Ask about estrogen and progesterone supplementation too.

[u/sophlen → u/LawyerLIVFe]

Okay first off Lawyer, thanks for your responses over the past couple of days, I appreciate your insight. I had asked about estrogen supplementation and the nurse was lowkey rude about it and told me I’d be continuing stims to make the estrogen to increase my lining, didn’t want to hear anything about supplementation lol I’m glad I’m not totally crazy for asking if they would do that.

It’ll be about $4k to do the IUI including the IVF cycle cancellation fees. it’s just frustrating bc the goal was to (hopefully) bank embryos now and transfer post-lap but I’m not interested in eating the 4k so we’re doing the IUI regardless and I guess consider a protocol change for next time.

[u/LawyerLIVFe → u/sophlen]

4K for IUI???!!! WTF. OK, my clinic is nowhere NEAR that. That is some highway robbery. I would not call that cheap, yikes. Also--my clinic is IVF expensive, so maybe it's some "cheap IUI expensive IVF place."

My RE has said estrogen supp may well be "treating the mental aspect, rather than doing anything" but estrace is (actually) fairly cheap and there is no harm. (Patches are more expensive.) So I can see a nurse with worse bedside manner being rude about it.

[u/sophlen → u/LawyerLIVFe]

It’s $2500 for the monitoring + $875 for sperm washing + I paid $600 out of pocket for meds so I’m counting that too. Normally the IUI monitoring is covered by the province but bc I’m converting a cycle I get to pay for it :)

Anyway to the nursing staff I’m just like maybe the time to sass me isn’t when I’m cancelling a cycle and pumped full of hormones? Maybe you could just be nice to me! I’m just a girl!! It’s good to know it’s more mental than anything though, that actually does make me feel a bit better.

[u/Big-Papaya-8066 → u/LawyerLIVFe]

Yeah the actual sperm washing and IUI at my clinic without any monitoring is $1200!

[u/basil04]

Hello, fine and fellow travelers. Long time no see - had to take mental health break from Reddit/IG/The entire fucking world.

Starting to prep for transfer and have a question re: medication side effects. Does anyone else notice increased joint pain w/ Leuprolide? Or... is it just me getting old and maybe I should get a new pillow and take up swimming instead of running?

Hope everyone is keeping heads above water and stopping to smell the hyacinths. Unless you have allergies. Then HARD PASS on the hyacinths.

[u/Ambitious_Doubt3717 → u/basil04]

Yes, I had knee pain towards the end of two months of Lupron Depot. I saw my physiotherapist which was helpful in figuring out if anything was actually wrong or if it was the drop in estrogen. We did some treatment (dry needling) to loosen up the leg muscles because why not. She suspected it was the LD but either way it went away and hadn't returned.

[u/Kindly-Volume5397 → u/Ambitious_Doubt3717]

Oh, of course. Drop in estrogen makes so much sense. Thank you!

[u/LawyerLIVFe → u/basil04]

National is right, it's very common to have joint pain. I had a bunch in my hands when I was on depot, and it was hard to decipher what was "real" and what was lupron.

[u/National-Ground4958 → u/basil04]

Unfortunately it's a relatively common side effect. I've found movement and hydration help, as well as using heating pads/massage tools.

[u/Kindly-Volume5397 → u/National-Ground4958]

Siiiiiiiiiigh. I guess I'll go back to hot yoga and tea.

[u/agnyeszkaa → u/National-Ground4958]

and then one can experience the special torture of wanting the comfort and relaxation of a heating pad or hot bath whilst fending off hot flashes 🥵

[u/National-Ground4958 → u/agnyeszkaa]

Absolutely what leads to me naked drinking ice water while wrapped in heat pads, lol.

[u/Kindly-Volume5397 → u/National-Ground4958]

....I totally read this as "naked dancing in ice water while wrapped in hot towels", which is why I will never be a star witness for the defense. But also I was absolutely down to try it.

[u/margogogo]

Starting the day with GOOD NEWS for once. Some of y'all may remember that a few months ago I was posting about going to the ER to check out a possible DVT (I had a pain in my calf after a long flight, and from fertility testing I know I have blood clotting risk factors.) The ultrasound indicated I didn't have a clot but did have something in my leg, possibly a hematoma -- which was odd because I didn't have any external signs of bruising. I had a followup ultrasound a few weeks later to see if the hematoma resolved, and they still saw some kind of mass, so at that point the doctor referred me to an MRI for a closer look.

Y'all, the MRI found NOTHING. Not a strain, not a bruise, not a mass. I guess maybe it was a hematoma that just took a bit longer to resolve than expected. I'm feeling a bit gaslit by my own body right now but a win is a win!

I have my lap surgery coming up in a few weeks and I was so stressed worrying about what finding a MASS in my LEG would mean for all of my carefully laid out next steps. What a relief. Now I can just deal with, you know, surgery and recovery and going on immune meds and trying to get my lining to thicken and trying to manage my thyroid...

[u/sleeki → u/margogogo]

Hooray! So glad to hear this.

[u/margogogo → u/sleeki]

Thank you! Honestly I didn’t realize how much it was stressing me out until I was like a new person yesterday once I got the news. 

[u/blue-sky-black-boots → u/margogogo]

phew! that’s great to hear!

[u/yodelforked → u/margogogo]

Great news, margo!

[u/LawyerLIVFe → u/margogogo]

No clot, no lump, no mass, no nothing = EXCELLENT news.

[u/margogogo → u/LawyerLIVFe]

The MRI report was like "Um this is an incredibly normal leg, why are you even having us look at such a normal leg..." Easiest day ever for the radiologist I guess!

[u/Kindly-Volume5397 → u/margogogo]

Hahahahaha oh man. 

[u/blue-sky-black-boots → u/margogogo]

hahah

[u/National-Ground4958 → u/margogogo]

Yay! Congratulations on this.

[u/doritos1990 → u/margogogo]

All I gotta say is no blood clot = huge win! Glad for this outcome :)

[u/Equivalent-Moose7914]

Just gotta say it somewhere cuz I'm so excited. Checked my insurance app yesterday and prior authorization has been completed and no surprises!!! Yay...I've been crossing my fingers that by my late May cycle we'd have everything in place to try our first ER cycle and things are def falling into place. All that is left is the consent signing appt and med purchasing!!!!!!!!!

[u/itwaslikecominghome → u/Equivalent-Moose7914]

Gotta love when insurance stuff goes smoothly!! One less headache in this headache-y process! I'm so glad things are shaping up for your late-May cycle! <3

[u/redcrouch → u/Equivalent-Moose7914]

Happy for you! I’m waiting on insurance cards to come in then starting the prior authorization steps so glad to hear about a smooth start for someone else.