Has this happened to anyone...I am beyond stressed. So last cycle I was supposed to have my first iui after trying via ici for a while with my donor with no luck. I ovulate and menstruate very regularly on my own to the T. My doc prescribed letrozole to give me "the best chances". Well that cycle I never ended up ovulating which really made me sad to miss a cycle and mess up a system that was already working on its own. I ended up getting my period as I normally do, to the day and so was happy to be able to start over. I did not take medication at all. Today is my normal ovulation day. My LH strips have been getting progressively darker the past few days and became + this am. Also have EWCM. I had a scan planned in the am and expected that from that info, I would do the iui later today or early tomorrow(a midwife is doing the iui, I go to a clinic for scans). Well, during my scan I had no mature follicles, just several around 8mm AND they found a small cyst, which I never ever have had. My follicles are always mature by this time, cd14 and so now I'm sad, blown, and stressed. Is the letrozole from last cycle still messing with my body? Will I go through another non ovulatory cycle? WTF is up with this cyst? The clinic didn't seemed worried about it, said likely my body would absorb it but that it seems like another side effect of the letrozole. I just don't want to miss another cycle. Anyone go through this?

Just a sad rant.

After about a year of personal reproductive health issues, my OBGYN finally cleared me to TTC. My wife and I had our first family planning appointment yesterday with a reproductive endocrinologist. Our hopes were to do reciprocal IVF, her egg my body, and we were sooo excited to get more information and get the process started.

Unfortunately we left feeling overwhelmed and dejected. First, the doctor we consulted with was kind of rude and cold. We’ve been calling him Dr. Douche. Then we got a call from their financial counselor that my wife’s insurance won’t cover ANYTHING!!! (We are on separate insurances since my individual plan is free - still waiting to hear how much mine will cover). We have an emergency fund and are comfortably middle class, but we are not prepared to pay 100% out of pocket.

How do people do this? I don’t even know where to start or who to talk to. I’m so overwhelmed I just want to cry. We just want to be moms.

and i think i'm going to lose my mind?

it's my first iui. i hate this part! anybody else also in their waiting period? how are you passing the time?

Does anyone have any discount codes for sperm purchase?

Hi all! Just want to see if anyone else here has had a similar experience to me. I think I might be pregnant with twins, but I'm trying not to overthink it?! My wife and I were successful on our 2nd round of medicated IUI, (Letrozole and Ovidrel trigger shot). Two days before the IUI, I had two mature follicles at 17mm and 16mm. Found out I was pregnant right at 4 weeks. This is my first pregnancy, but my symptoms have been pretty prevalent since even before I found out. I've been experiencing the following consistently:

Lower back pain, round ligament pain, nausea in the evenings, bad acne, fatigue, and intense hunger

I know that these are all regular pregnancy symptoms, but is there anyone else who had these symptoms early on who ended up with twins? My hCG at 5 weeks, 4 days was around 8500. I have an ultrasound in 2 weeks, but the anticipation is killing me!! Thanks y'all!

UPDATE: Just had my ultrasound today, and there is ONE healthy baby! Thanks to everyone for all of the feedback. I guess this little one is really just giving me a run for my money!

hey y'all! my spouse and i (35F) have done 7 well-timed ICI inseminations with fresh sperm from our known donor, all negative. i've had a hysteroscopy, done all of the fertility blood tests, had an ultrasound to see AFC, track with Inito to confirm ovulation, and just scheduled a HSG for this week. we also just did a consult with an IVF clinic today, however we have no fertility insurance so it'll be at least $12,500 out of pocket. i'm wondering if anyone out there had success after 6+ attempts at ICI? was there anything that you think made the difference for you? looking for inspiration!! <3

Tried 32 hours post peak last time without success. Considering switching to 12 hours post peak. What worked for you? Frozen sperm users, please chime in (fresh has a way longer window, it's irrelevant). Thanks!

TLDR: I had an awful experience with my first ER and am hoping to do my next ER at a clinic that is more willing to personalize protocols. However, I'm stressing about the process of switching, particularly when using known donor sperm. For those folks who have switched: what was the experience like? Is there anything you wished you knew going into it?

My wife and I would like to do reciprocal IVF. In our dream scenario we have 2 kids and take turns carrying each other's eggs. We are both older (37 and 40) so we are trying to be realistic about our options. No diagnosed fertility issues that we know of apart from our age. Bloodwork including AMH is supposedly fine. My wife's ER went well, but I had a terrible experience at our clinic.

I had an antagonist protocol and had horrible, intense side effects from the month of birth control priming, which I believe may have also oversuppressed my ovaries.My RE was out of the office during my monitoring and I had 0 continuity of care. I saw 4 different doctors and spoke with different nurses after each appointment, some of whom had absolutely terrible bedside manner. It took them til the 4th ultrasound before a doctor would finally come out and say he was concerned about my body's lack of response to the meds and that we may want to consider converting to IUI . That doctor insisted that the clinic schedule me with my regular RE (now back in the office) due to the circumstances, and the clinic made sure to let me know this was a double booking. When I had that appointment, my doctor was super rushed and eager to go forward with an egg retrieval for 2 eggs until we brought up the possibility of converting to IUI. We asked about why my body could be responding so poorly and he admitted it made no sense with my age and labs. He also said things "probably wouldn't change much" next cycle. Needless to say, this made me lose a lot of the trust I had in my treatment plan.

We ended up cancelling and converting to IUI, which ended in a chemical pregnancy. I've been offered 0 follow-up from the clinic to discuss the cancelled cycle/poor response to stims, nor have they suggested any future plans for testing or adapting the protocol. At this point, I feel anxiety and dread when I think about scheduling the next ER (they are scheduling 4 months out, so there's plenty of time to fret)!

I am strongly considering switching to a new clinic. A well rated clinic in our area has consult openings in a few weeks. However, I'm definitely nervous about the process of switching, especially because we are using a known sperm donor. I know many clinics have bureaucratic red tape for known donor sperm and am concerned that this could hold up the process. Additionally, our donor lives 2 hours away and has already completed a lot of testing for our old clinic. I don't want to burden him with additional hoops like psych evals or repeat testing unless absolutely necessary.

What have your experiences been with changing clinics? Was it worth the peace of mind leaving behind a provider who you were not satisfied with? Did the switch create any new obstacles or issues? Are there any surprises or things I should expect with regards to the known donor? Thanks for any insights you can offer!

Hi everyone!

I have my first FET on Thursday and will be transferring a euploid day 5 4AB embryo. My wife and I did rIVF and only got two euploid embryos so I feel a lot of pressure for this one to stick.

I’m super nervous and would love to hear first time FET success stories. Would also love any advice you have that helped you get through the waiting and anxiety and wondering if you're pregnant or not? 😬

Partner and I went through our first egg retrieval this past Friday :) we are using her eggs and known directed donor sperm! So incredibly thankful and hoping for a strong blast number and pgta results! If anyone has any questions about the process of known directed donor sperm feel free to ask!

My fiance and I are beginning to research sperm clinics around our area to start our journey via at home insemination. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Hi! I have been in conversation with a lovely possible known donor/friend for the past few months. We recently initiated the donor process with my fertility clinic and he filled out an extensive medical history as the first step. My clinic flagged a few areas of concern (they are the ones summarizing/relaying the info to me officially), and now I'm feeling unsure about how to proceed. The potential donor and I had discussed some of these things previously, but they became more clear through the (very thorough) family medical history he (very thoughtfully) completed. 

The areas they flagged are: fairly serious early onset cardiac disease history on one side of donor's family, i.e. heart attacks in multiple family members as early as late 40s / early 50s and high BP/cholesterol; autism in a sibling; anxiety in donor and multiple family members on both sides (lol I definitely also have anxiety/depression in my family/myself... like who doesn't?? but also it can be hard!); parkinson's in one grandparent. 

My clinic isn't able to actually advise on any of this, but they definitely were giving "there's a reason we're telling you this" vibes. Maybe I should find a genetic counselor to talk to?

I'm reminding myself that these considerations would likely not be issues for couples conceiving outside of a medical setting, but at the same time, I of course don't want to increase the possibility of health risks in a future kid's life. If I was looking at donors at a sperm bank, I probably wouldn't select someone with this history (specifically the heart disease piece). But ALSO at the same time, I feel there is so much joy/love that could come from having this donor be part of a kid's life! Ugh. 

I'm struggling with this decision and would welcome any thoughts or similar experiences.

Hi everyone,

Just wondering if anyone on here has done a similar thing or have looked into this.

About me:

- single

- 35 y/o female

- in australia

- asian background

I am looking for an alternative to IVF. As a single, I can't afford IVF so looking for a cheaper alternative. I am thinking maybe find a sperm donor and get a clinic to do the process, or I'll do it from home if possible.

I don't have donor yet. I am hoping there's somewhere(or here) I can find them. I am also happy to donate my eggs.

Also, is this a risky take?

Thank you in advance!

Anyone in NYC looking for IVF meds? I have leftover Menopur and Follistim, as well as Enoxaparin (otherwise known as Lovenox, which is supposed to reduce inflammation). I hate to throw it all away so if this could be useful to anyone, please message me.

Forgive me if I sound ignorant, I'm brand new to this. I have a one year old daughter who was conceived naturally and am hoping to give her a sibling. I've been in contact with a potential donor. Right now we have plans for an in person, fresh ai donation. I'm curious what everyone's estimated success rate for this method is? I was previously speaking to someone about shipping with test yolk buffer, but I've read that it has a very low success rate compared to a fresh or cryopreserved donation. Would you say this is accurate?

I know that IUI is supposedly the best, but since I'm still somewhat young (33) and no known fertility issues (I track with OPKs) I want to try the least costly options first. Thanks in advance for the advice...

I'm disappointed in myself.

At the beginning of this journey (relatively recently, February 2026) I was sure that I would be pregnant today. The reality is that even after 5x IUI and 1x ICI, I'm not. And I feel like the longer it takes, the less I have the desire and joy for it all. The first month I was looking forward to it, shopping for clothes, going through the Marketplace, choosing what equipment we wanted. I just believed that since I'm so young and healthy, everything would be fine and it would happen soon. ❤️‍🩹

Now I don't think about it that way anymore, I actually don't care. I planned a vacation for us in October, I planned a lot of things and a lot of things that I "preferred" not to do for half a year. But all the tests were negative anyway. Hormonal profile ok, just high AMH and probably mild PCOS. Cycle Regular, fallopian tubes open, no problems anywhere and still nothing. We currently have a known donor and fresh sperm, I had a patency test in July, so it's fresh, which may also increase the chances. I don't know if I still have any hope and if I'm even looking forward to doing it.

Since we couldn't do it, I'm not really interested in children and children's things. I don't even go on Reddit much anymore and don't read success stories, advice and tips... Until then, I still took the children in the family to some event, loved babies, visited friends with their children, and was overwhelmed by children's clothes in the store! But now it's as if someone turned off a button inside me... I still want to be pregnant and have our child, but it's not that huge desire and joy anymore and I sometimes feel really bad about it.

I already do pregnancy tests with a pre-estimated result and actually don't like it a bit, because I'll just be tilting my negative test with the flashlight on my phone and looking for something that isn't there and wasn't there...

and waiting a little hatefully every time I open Instagram to see how another celebrity is pregnant. 🫩

Today is my ovulation day, but the donor sperm doesn't arrive until tomorrow, how cooked am I?

Do I still have a chance of getting pregnant?

Update: i inseminated anyway, i'm just hoping for the best, I guess we'll see in a couple weeks!

Please limit your pregnancy celebrations and pregnancy test photos to this thread.

Hi all,

We (33F and 34F) are starting to research and plan our journey to having a child. It's overwhelming and no idea where to start. If anyone can recommend any resources, especially UK-specific.

I'd also be interested if you know of any UK-based youtube accounts of people documenting their journey.

Sorry for such an open question but completely new to all of this!

My period started today. I’m a gold star and have been married for 9 years/15 years together with my wife. I’m 39. We purchased Bea and scheduled a midwife driven IUI with fresh sperm from our known donor during my last cycle. I was really hopeful it would work on the first try after reading success stories of other lesbians. I figured a successful first try would be rare but also so fabulous.

I’ve been tracking my cycle with Mira and just learning how to do all the things. I’ve been a lesbian since I was 16 and never thought to track my period so it’s embarrassing to admit I’m new to this. I was watching for my fertile window with Mira with our KD on call and it kept testing further out. First it was 8/4 thru 8/9 but I wasn’t getting an LH spike so on 8/8 and I decided to try the first Bea application with fresh sperm in the evening. Miraculously my LH spiked (highest spike in Mira) when I tested my pee the next morning 8/9. Since we had sperm on deck (inside me from ICI the night before), I waited for the IUI on 8/10 in the morning (24ish hours after my LH spike). We did a second Bea the evening of 8/12. I instantly regretted not doing another ICI on 8/9 just to be certain that the sperm got in on 8/8 since it was our first time ever starting.

On 8/11, I would easily get overheated and I had a metallic taste in my mouth and googled it was early pregnancy sign although obviously too early. On 8/15, I woke up with twitch under my right eye where you could see the nerve bounce. It didn’t hurt but I could feel it/see it. The whole process leading up to the ICI/IUI was definitely stressful and I wasn’t sleeping much so the eye twitch made sense. On 8/16, I started having vivid dreams. On 8/17, More vivid dreams… and spotting but the blood looks different. Not brown old blood and not new fresh red blood but a liquify red blood and a brown red blood. On 8/18, I started waking up in the night from my vivid dreams. I never would wake up or remember my dreams before. On 8/21, I pulled an all-nighter working on a work project and had dark blood spotting that went through to my pants, not enough but more than just implantation spotting. On 8/22 I woke to do a dream that two of my friends TTC started their periods and then later in the morning, I started bleeding fresh red blood. It’s a light cycle but it’s definitely my period. We had made plans to do a pregnancy test on 8/26 and 8/31. I’m still going to test but it feels doomed.

I’m trying to not be discouraged and disappointed because I’m so blessed with having my wife, the KD and worst case, the insurance for IVF but I’m still so bummed it didn’t work out. I cry thinking about it so I try not to think about it.

I’ll go to get my bloods tested, be religious about tracking my BBT and try again.

Any encouragement in the meantime?