IVF ... and Bust!

I had a child when I was 30 with my (crazy) ex-husband = the Little Guy (also crazy but in a good way). We didn't try to have tLG, he was a miscalculation of cycle times. Married my current husband, the ever-loving and endlessly-patient Big Guy at the beginning of 2008 and we started TTC. He has two kids, I have one; we decided we'd like to produce some spawn together.

The Big Guy was very excited - he thought that this would mean a couple of wonderful months of constant s.e.x. and then a pregnancy. Alas, his dreams came only partially true. With OPKs in hand, we've done 13 months (3 6.5 years now!) of perfectly timed mid-thirties s.e.x. to no avail (except, of course, for some most excellent bonding). Given our ages (I'm a 1972er and he's a 1970er) we started testing toward the end of 2008. I had lots of blood drawn, a lap and dye with a scope and sample and the Big Guy did 2 SAs. Results - one low morph result for him, one fine, nothing abnormal for me. The Lovely Dr L.'s Conclusion - Secondary infertililty ... we'll get pregnant one day. Eventually. Or we can do IVF. And so we did.
Here's the fruitless path we took.

Feb 08 - June 09
TTC naturally - no luck
begin investigations in Sept 08

Jan 09
me - lap, bloods and hysteroscopy all clear, DOR
tBG - 92% abnormal morph, all else great


ICSI #1 June/July/Aug 09 long down-reg
BCP May-June
0.1ml Lucrin CD2-12
225iu Gonal-F (upped to 300iu on stim day 6) CD3-13
3 follicles, 2 eggs
2 embryos tx, 1 A-grade, 1 C-grade
1 chemical pregnancy

ICSI #2 Sept 09 flare
0.1ml Lucrin CD2-11
300iu Gonal-F CD3-12
4 follicles, 2 eggs
1 embryo arrested on day 2
nothing to transfer

ICSI #3 Nov 09
 antagonist + 100mg clomid
Clomid CD2-6
450iu Gonal-F CD3-13
9th Nov scan - only 1 follicle supposedly
12th Nov - 2 follicles, 1 already erupted
cycle cancelled due to mismanagement.


ICSI #4 Nov/Dec 09 flare for free
0.1ml Lucrin CD2-11
450iu Gonal-F CD3-11
3 follies, 3 eggs, 2 embryos!!!
Twinkle and Blobby transferred
24th Dec - BFN (I was a Christmas drunk)

Jan-June 10 
finish Honours thesis by the end of March
start DHEA - 75mg per day  


CD3 Bad baseline results from Jan 23 pre-DHEA
FSH = 7.4
AMH = 2.8
inhibin-B = 23



CD3 Blood tests from April mid-DHEA
FSH = 14.3 (wtf?)
AMH = 1.9
inhibin-B = 10 (wtf?)



Hello Premature Menopause diagnosis, I hate you.


April 28 2010 - reduce DHEA to 50mg per day to stop mid-cycle bleeding


June 2010 flare
0.1ml Lucrin CD2-11 
450iu Gonal-F CD3-11
2 follicles, 1 egg
1 embryo - abnormal fertilisation
nothing to transfer


End of the IVF road. No more assistance for us, the doctor said not to bother anymore.


August 2014 - still having well-timed s.e.x, still getting periods, still not pregnant.