[LanasMommy]

So as some of you may know (from the 800 posts I made in the span of 30 seconds a few days ago

DH and I will be doing our 1 and ONLY IVF cycle. I have a question and would love to hear your advice from those who have been through it and are currently going through it.

I do not know everything that IVF entails and I know treatment is different for every woman. But I have a dilemma on when I should actually start my IVF cycle. Here is my problem.

My IVF consult appointment is this Thursday 7/28. I am not due for AF until 8/10 (30 day cycle). So I technically could start IVF in August, but here is my dilemma. DH and I will be flying across country for a week as his brother is getting married in September. I wonder if I should hold off on treatment in August and start treatment in September when we get back, but if an average IVF cycle is one month then I should still be taking meds when I'm there and when I get back right?

What would you do? Do you think I could still start in August or do you think its to risky and I should wait until we get back from our trip? I know I can talk about this with my doctor but I have been talking to some ladies here in my area about my IVF (IVF meetup) and they say you should know exactly what you want to do before you go to your IVF consult that way you won't be swayed by what your doctor says and that is especially true when you're not sure what to do. They said I should have my mind made up about when I want to start my cycle, what brand of meds I want to take, a pretty good argument on the dosage I want to take (since 75 IU (x2) of Bravelle did NOT WORK at all for me), whether or not I would like to have ICSI or assisted hatching (this is not required, but you can request AND have it if you want to pay for it) and finally how many eggs you want to transfer (as long as it is within the medical facilities limit) right now I am sure of all of them except what meds to take and when to start the cycle.

Any advice helps.

[LindseyE117]

During your cycle you are monitored very closely in case you have to change your meds or dosages around. For the 1st month though, you do have to start BC before any other meds to supress your ovaries and regulate your cycle perfectly. It is definately something you need to discuss with your doctor, because once you start, if you stop you will have to start all over again, and there is usually a month break in between.

[BandGeek]

If you know that you will be gone in September, I would probably wait until after that trip. We lost out on about $500 on plane tickets this summer to go and visit my in-laws b/c the week that we were going to be gone was the week that we had our retrieval. It stinks b/c we bought the travel insurance, but it did not cover fertility treatments! What a crock!

Anywho, I don't feel like I was swayed in one direction or the other when we went to our first RE appointment. I knew that I wanted a more aggressive approach and our next step was IVF. The doctor did ask us if we knew why we hadn't gotten pregnant yet.....duh.....that was why we were there.

I did about 15 days on birth control pills, 4 days of nothing, 11 days of stimulation, and then two days later my retrieval. If the concern for ohss was not present we would have done, most likely, a 5 day transfer. I hope that this maybe helps give you a timeline.

I hope that this helps some!

[Lash]

You'll have to see the doc usually every other day for blood work and ultrasounds, so travel really isn't possible during the cycle, even after retrieval. We were on 3 days bedrest and no way did I even feel like traveling for anything.

If you are only doing one cycle, I'd never want to complicate it at all with traveling.

Your meds change daily based on your bloodwork, so that is imperative to have done daily or every other day or something along those lines.

As far as being educated, start researching heavily. My doctor asked me what protocol I wanted to use because I walked in there with a binder full of medical journals and research to discuss with him. And we discussed it together. And then he asked which I was most comfortable with and which he suggested. We both picked antagonist.

[TwoMamas]

We only had frequent monitoring during the 10 days of stimulation meds. We traveled frequently with the Lupron and estrogen shots prior to stim meds without an issue. if you are flying, you need to check on how to pack your syringes for carry on. I think you just need a prescription sticker on them.