I used just a low dose of E2 as precycle suppression. Lupron/buserelin had oversuppressed me in the past, and birth control also seemed a bit heavy duty, so we took a minimalist approach.

You can see full details of my cycles (and especially about the one that worked) on the “Elizabeth’s Story” page.

Good luck!
Elizabeth

Could you please tell me if you used birth control and lupron/buserelin for suppression during IVF cycle? If so what doses did you use? Thank you

It’s incredibly hard to decide when it’s your last shot, or close to it.

If you decide to go with your own eggs, then the high stim/low stim question you just need to think hard about, research it, then go with your gut. Your RE is big on high stim; others are big on low, and they each have plausible arguments. You need to work out which set of arguments makes the most sense in your case.

See also the post called Conflicting expert opinions – how do I know who’s right? http://infertilityinfo.co.nz/conflicting-expert-opinions-how-do-i-know-whos-right/

It’s fantastic your sister is prepared to be a donor (how old is she?), so that leaves you with another option, and one that is presumably less urgent if she’s young.

Good luck with it all! Are you hooked into a good support site or two? There are some links here under Support BBs that are great places to start.

When I access it, it says:

Navigating the Fertility Treatment Maze: Where to Start, What to Ask [article] [Kindle Edition]
Elizabeth Brydone (Author)
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Digital List Price: $1.99 What’s this?
Kindle Price: $0.00 includes free international wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet
You Save: $1.99 (100%)

Length: 50 pages (estimated)

You don’t get this? Let me know …

Thank you,

Duncan

Thanks so much for replying, and so promptly too. I found what you had to say very helpful. Before I read your reply I had spoken with another acupuncturist on your list and, like you, she also thought the loose herbs are better than the pills, at least in an experienced person’s hands. She used to prescribe the loose herbs, but patient compliance was low because of the time and hassle involved in brewing up the herbs. She said that for Kidney yin and blood the herbs work way faster than acupuncture.

I had been concerned when seeing the Chinese woman that I only had acupuncture every 6 weeks and then with only 4 needles, but the woman I spoke with yesterday said Chinese often only use a few needles, but can do a very powerful type of acupuncture. These weren’t her exact words, but I think that’s the gist of what she was saying.

Another concern I had with the Chinese woman was that the day I had the acupuncture, that was done and herbs were chosen before I’d even had my pulses taken or my tongue looked at, but the woman I spoke with yesterday said the very good Chinese practitioners are trained in how to read the face as well.

After this conversation, I have decided to go back to the Chinese woman. For those interested her name is Diana Mei and she has clinics in at least Dunedin, Auckland and Christchurch. I got great results with increased libido and good cervical mucus and had only been seeing her for 3 and a half cycles. I also had improvements in other non-fertility-related symptoms. Diana Mei comes from a family of doctors, is a gynecologist and is 47 so has been doing this work for quite some time.

The loose herbs are very expensive and I did wonder if I was being overcharged, but after speaking to two practitioners who either prescribe loose herbs now or used to, it would appear that I wasn’t overcharged, at least not for the majority of what I bought. Chinese practitioners charge differently too in that they tend not to charge for consultations, but just the herbs and acupuncture. According to the two women I spoke with, it takes a lot of time to measure out the herbs, which was surprising to me, and this is where a good bit of the cost of the herbs comes from.

With Diana Mei you don’t have to take the whole package of herbs so you can end up spending differing amounts based on what you can afford. The cheapest option does end up being more per week than the cost of an appointment with an acupuncturist and you can spend up to around $315 a week. If you choose to spend less, I was told it would just take a bit longer to get there.

I’m sure all acupuncturists have their success stories. I will share one Diana told me about with one of her clients. She had very large fibroids and hadn’t been able to conceive. Western gynecologists had basically told her she wouldn’t be able to have a child, but with Diana’s treatment her fibroids shrunk and she conceived a child at 43. She is now trying for a second child with Diana’s herbs and is now 45. I hope it is OK to give out this much information.

My understanding is that the loose herbs are generally better BUT it requires really really serious expertise to be able to put the right mix together for each person. So, just because someone prescribes loose herbs doesn’t mean you are getting a better brew for you than, say, if someone prescribed you the pill versions (which are pretty good).

So, once again, it’s all about the competence of the practitioner, which is so hard to evaluate. If you personally were getting much better results in terms of libido and CM, then that in my view is a really good sign the mix is about right.

“Credible expert source” means a trained and very competent acupuncturist who is familiar with the work of someone. When a patient recommended someone to go on the list, I asked an acupuncturist I knew to be competent if they had ever met, worked with, or seen that person’s work. As you can imagine, many know each other professionally. And, as in other professions, it’s often quite obvious when talking with colleagues whether they know what they are doing …

So, I don’t claim to have used any systematic or scientific method here; just trying to share what little information I have, which is unfortunately incomplete.

The fact that I only have patient endorsements about some of these doesn’t mean that they are any less competent than the others; just that I only have that one perspective. No, it doesn’t mean they were less highly recommended by the patients.

It’s really hard to know whether to even offer a list like this. But for me, going into the whole infertility rollercoaster blind, I was searching for something less random than just asking Dr Google … Don’t take the list as gospel, by any means, but if anyone finds it useful as a place to start, then I’m glad.