u/lindasek

My IUI is scheduled for this Tuesday, 7s are lucky, right? 🍀🍀🤞 Any twins?

So far, everything seems to have been going wrong or extra difficult in this cycle, I need all the luck 😓

I'm going through my second IUI. With the first, I had 3 large mature follicles on cd12, lining over 7mm, triggered and IUI cd14 (failed).

Same protocol, same meds, same amount of time, only got my first monitoring on cd9 (4x14mm, 2x12mm), e2 248. Just got it repeated today (cd12) and 3 of the 14mm follicles didn't grow at all (remained at 14mm), 1 grew to 17mm, the 12mm were all no longer visible (shrunk?). My lining is at over 8mm, and I was told to trigger tomorrow to allow an extra day of growth for the 17mm (they ideally want it to be closer to 19mm but also don't want my lining to get too thick?)

But I'm so confused, I thought follicles continued to grow ~2mm/day until ovulation. My body responded so well the last time, what on earth is happening this cycle? I didn't change anything in my lifestyle, no extra stressors, felt fine (identical to last time). I have suspected silent PCOS and take metformin, plus a barrage of other antioxidative supplements, but this was the same in my last cycle, too ☹️

I'm feeling so defeated - if it didn't work with 3 mature follicles, how can it work with just 1 that's also suboptimal size? Ugh

Budget: ~1,000 USD 
Country: USA
Use Case: casual gaming - mostly simulation and strategy games. Most demanding would be Hogwarts Legacy (cPU Intel Core i7-8700 or AMD Ryzen 5 3600; RAM 16GB; graphics NVIDIA GTX 1080 Ti, AMD RX 5700 XT, or Intel Arc A770)
Preferred Specs: 16GB+
Notes: 

My old MSI laptop is getting in age (ehm..I think I bought it 10+ years ago) and even not very demanding games make it heat up uncomfortably.

I'm currently between 3 laptops and was hoping for some advice:

Acer Nitro V 15.6-inch Core 5 RTX 4050 ($799)

HP Victus 15.6-inch RTX 4050 ($800)

Lenovo LOQ 15.6-inch RTX 4050 ($879)

Most games I play are 3+ years old and they would work with either of these laptops. I would prefer to spend under $1000, but have wiggle room in my budget. I usually play simulation and strategy type games (Two Point Hospital/Museum/Campus, Stardew Valley, No Oxygen, Banished, etc.) but bought Hogwarts Legacy back when it came out and would like to play it at some point (my current laptop can't run it) - that would probably be as demanding game I'd ever play.

My husband had a few of those now: for analysis, for IUI and now for freezing. Getting those appointments is pretty crazy though! For analysis, his appointment was 3 weeks(!) from then because they were so booked out. For freezing, they pretty much had a single appointment available in a 2 week span. It's insane because any of my appointments, they have a billion of openings, pretty much any day/time I want/need

Is your clinic the same? Does anyone know why?

11 dpIUI, 13 days after my trigger. I'm PMSing like crazy, cramps, wetness like I'm peeing in my undies (just watery discharge), and pinching 😭

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I know it's a fucking progesterone, it means absolutely nothing, but omg! I wanna test!!! I wanna know ! One way or the other, I just.want.to.know 😭😭 arggggh!!

Update: I tested 13dpIUI with morning urine and it was negative. I'm disappointed because things were looking so good: 3 mature follicles, good lining, 16.3M sperm post wash, good progressive motility. And the signs! So many, everywhere!

I'm off to IVF, so I can't TTC this upcoming cycle. 🤞 IVF works better for me than everything else we've tried so far 😔

My husband and I are visiting on his birthday and I want to have a birthday cake or cupcakes delivered to us. Any recommendations for a good bakery? He's a simple man who likes chocolate. We're staying at Royal Sonata

I switched to a plant based diet 4-5 months ago as a way to follow my Reproductive Endocrinologist (I'm dealing with infertility and silent PCOS/PMOS) orders for an anti inflammatory diet. Before the switch I had labs done (1/21) and my results were on in the normal category (only notable thing being a1c 5.6 which is high but still considered normal).

I had my regular annual blood tests done 2 weeks ago and I've never seen this much red on my tests before ☹️ I was told I have moderate anemia and my A1C suggests prediabetes (6.0) - the doctor wants to retest in 3 months to see if the a1c is true or is caused by anemia. At the same time, my prenatal already has supplemental B12 and iron so the doctor pointed at my diet change as the cause.

I like my routines so my diet tends to be the same day-to-day:

Breakfast: black coffee or Huel protein powder with water +supplements (Huel: 400cal, protein 30g, fiber 8g, net carb 38g)

Lunch: Thistle salads (hard to average since it's slightly different each day but from my salad today: 510cal, protein: 20g, fiber 13g, total carbs 60g)

Snacks: random Japanese treat (I have a subscription box and those tend to be under 120 calories, not sure about the other numbers since labels are in Japanese) and 2 frozen eggo original waffles

Dinner: veggie tofu scramble + side salad with vinegar (no real numbers other than measured 5oz of tofu, veggies are random - asparagus, green beans, snap peas, spinach, tomatoes, peppers, radishes) sometimes 1/2 cup of lentils, bulgur, buckwheat or quinoa if I didn't have breakfast

I'm considering reaching out to a dietician to help because other than my 2 waffles I've been really trying to be good about what I'm eating and the blood results are so disappointing (my weight is not largely different, I lost 11 lbs in those 4months). But perhaps those here can see something outrageous based on their own experience?

Edit: thank you everyone for the advice! I'll start on my supplements and add more high vit C veggies. I'll also talk to hubby about cast iron (we just replaced our nonstick pots and pans with stainless steel a month ago 😅). Hopefully, once the anemia gets resolved, everything else will improve as well 🤞

I'm Polish, born and raised, etc. my 23&me result was somewhat expected with all non-Polish scores adding to under 20% and are more illustrative of my country's history than any migrations.

Except for the trace - Spain. I'll admit I assumed it's bullshit when I got it as 0.7%, then got a little weirded out when my mom got it as 2.3%. Poland and Spain are pretty *far* from each other. My mom's parents never tested, so we didn't know where it could have come from, but my maternal haplogroup is T2c1 so I kinda suspected that maybe it came down from the maternal side. Still, we're talking 8 generations ago+, the female side would be so hard to track given all the name changes, etc. So, we shrugged it off.

My husband and I are trying for a baby and did a genetic carrier test (clinical, through a fertility clinic) not really expecting much. Lo and behold - I'm a carrier for thalassemia! A blood disorder specific to people from the Mediterranean. And my mom had blood problems all of her life without a diagnosis! I told my mom about the result and asked for her doctor to do a blood test for thalassemia, just in case. The first diagnostic question for it is "is this patient of Mediterranean descent?" clearly, she always answered "no" (and not living in a country where people are frequently mixed and might not know, nobody questions it).

She tested positive for mild thalassemia alpha (she's not sure if she wants to test if it's trans or cis but cis would most likely be much more severe so assumption is she's a-/a-). A 60 year old mystery of what the hell is going on with her blood, answered!

Which means...both of her parents carried the deletion. Which means *both* of them had to have the Mediterranean admixture (unless she's cis --/aa).

We still don't know how or when, or how long ago. 250 years? Maybe more? Somehow the stupid deletion on the alpha globin on chromosome 16 got passed down all these generations! But hey, at least we can confirm the trace must be true!

I've been TTC for over a year now and got recently diagnosed with PCOS by my RE. As part of prep for IVF, they had me do a carrier test. On the carrier test I got CAH (Congenital Adrenal Hypoplasia) with note that further tests are necessary to verify if the 2 pathogenic changes are on the same chromosome (making me just a carrier) or it's 1 on each chromosome (making me affected). Apparently mild CAH can be misdiagnosed as PCOS as many symptoms are similar. I'll be making an appointment with a genetic counselor on Monday to discuss it further but I was wondering if anyone else here had a similar issue 😬😟

I read this poem as an ending of a short story many years ago and it really touched me - I don't think it was written by the author of the story, though. I had a copy of it saved somewhere but can't find it anymore. Google has been unhelpful (while the AI search thing praises it for being evocative...ugh).

The start of the poem (or verse) I think, was to do with a loved one crossing a street (slightly stooped, not seeing me?? I think) and the sudden fear of how fragile life is before ending with the *you hold me like a glass holds water - you can be broken like a glass*

I would appreciate any help in finding it!

It's been a year of TTC. Husband and I had a bunch of fertility tests at a clinic at 6 months, everything was perfect. Had a FemVue, clear. Antral follicle count, normal. Check for ovulation, normal.

I had my first visit with an new RE...he looked at all my results, chatted with me, noted my jawline acne and...said that he strongly suspects I have silent PCOS 😲

Another thing that I found highly comforting was that he acknowledged my chemical pregnancy and in his notes wrote G1P0 (so pregnant once, 0 living children)... it's the first time a medical professional actually acknowledged it as a pregnancy, and not just a blip. For whatever reason it makes me so sad, it's such a tiny thing, but makes me feel so seen 😓

Keep your fingers crossed for me! While waiting for the IVF to go through we're going to try IUI. Thankfully my insurance covers both fully so perhaps with the process customized for PCOS, things will work out!!

Edit: to clarify my symptoms: I'm overweight (been fighting that 25 lbs for years now, if we weren't trying to get pregnant I'd be so on those glps); A1C of 5.6 with fasting glucose 84; I don't get lh peak/BBT rise every month even though I menstruate very regularly every 24 days (suspect I don't ovulate regularly) and jawline acne (cystic). I don't have excessive hair, hair loss, ovarian cysts, irregular cycle, mental health issues.