Background

My husband (38) and I (38) are doing our first round of IVF. I am currently on Day 4 of stims.

My husband is addicted to nicotine and uses Zyn (nicotine gum). Last week he started nicotine patches (at 21 mg) though he is still supplementing the patch with 1 zyn (6 mg).

I’ve expressed my concerns to him multiple times over the year. He also wants to quit, but it will take time. The situation sucks, but here we are.

- He has had two normal seman analyses over the past 4-5 months, the latter one testing HBA Binding (91%). We have informed our RE about his nicotine usage, but based on his SA, he said that he wasn’t concerned and did not recommend him to quit (I was surprised).

- I was diagnosed with DOR with AMH of .96 and initial AFC of 11 at my first workup. I had my first monitoring appt. at stim Day 4, and they counted 20 small follicles, which I was so pleasantly surprised with. It makes me sad and worried to think that this cycle could be seriously compromised by my husband’s nicotine usage. Which brings me to….

Egg or Embryo Banking?

- My husband wants to quit nicotine and I believe he can and will, but I also believe it will take at least another month or two. Sperm takes 3 months to develop. My egg retrieval is next week.

- We planned to make embryos but given his nicotine usage, should we be considering egg freezing instead? Then that would give him a bit of time to quit nicotine. As far as timing, my clinic requires a 4-5 month period between ER and FET anyway.

Does any one have any advice? If you have been a similar situation, I would love to hear from you. If you haven’t, but have thoughts, please share!

Thank you!

I’m hoping to get some opinions because I’m confused about my diagnosis, and it is stressing me out.

About 2 months ago, I developed pain in my left shoulder after lifting something heavy. I don’t remember hearing a pop or having extreme pain. I thought I might have pulled a muscle?

My symptoms:
• I have full or nearly full ability to raise my arm overhead.
• I can lift objects without much pain, although the arm sometimes feels weak when I’m holding something.
• Reaching behind me is the biggest problem. Putting on a jacket and reaching into the back seat of the car can cause sharp (but short lived pain).
• The bra-hook motion is possible, but I have to move very slowly and gently.
• If I accidentally move my arm in the wrong direction, I get a very sharp pain that lasts about 10–30 seconds and then settles back down.
• The shoulder feels stiff, especially with backward movements.
• I don’t have any pain at night, and it generally doesn’t wake me up.

I saw an orthopedic doctor who examined my shoulder, watched me move it, took X-rays, and diagnosed adhesive capsulitis (frozen shoulder). He prescribed physical therapy and told me that PT would likely be painful and that I should push through it.

I’m nervous because I’ve read that frozen shoulder is often associated with major loss of motion and significant night pain, and I don’t seem to have those symptoms. I’m worried that if this is actually a muscle, tendon, or labral injury, aggressive stretching could make it worse.

Has anyone had frozen shoulder that started like this, with relatively preserved overhead motion but pain and stiffness mainly when reaching behind the body? Or does this sound more like another shoulder problem?

Thank you!!!

My current local clinic does batched cycles with BCPs. If this cycle has a poor outcome, I will likely switch to a different clinic (requiring plane travel) that offers more customized protocols, not limited by the clinic's scheduling demands.

I'm really worried about over-suppression with BCPs, but I've already signed up for a cycle at my current clinic for this summer. I've decided to proceed with my local clinic given my age (38) and lower ovarian reserve (AMH: .96; AFC: 11 at initial transvaginal ultrasound).

Extra context: I have already reached out to my clinic about estrogen priming. I'm waiting to hear back. Is estrogen priming as flexible as BCPs in terms of meeting a clinic's scheduling needs? There is a 25-day gap between my CD1 and my baseline appointment, so that might be an issue? (They cannot move my baseline appt. because they start everyone on the same day).

I'd love to hear all positive and negative stories with BCP suppression, especially for 37+ and/or lower ovarian reserve. I'd love to hear some hopeful stories of BCP suppression leading to good outcomes, but I'd also appreciate all "real" stories...

1. How long were you on BCP suppression?

2. What was your outcome?

3. Do you think it helped or hurt your cycle, and why?

Is this normal? My clinic has a standard 4-5 month wait from ER to FET - this is the soonest possible.

This is a small-to-medium, popular clinic (two doctors) in a midsize city. Anecdotes from Reddit had me anticipating something closer to 1-2 months.

This clinic also does batched cycles only. Based on the procedure document, it seems that they only offer medicated transfers. I am following up with the nurse team to see if they may offer natural-modified/natural transfers if I respond poorly to medicated.