Hey Natalie,
I have to take cetrotide too, but they have not told me when to start taking it yet. I got all of my medication in the mail today. Feeling a little overwhelmed... interested to hear what you find out.

So- I double checked and they do want me to take it for the first 3 days and then it'll also come in later in the cycle. I'll let you know how the first shots go. I was really looking forward of 3 days of just pills to have an easy start. :P

We also got the majority of our meds today in the mail. My husband worked from home and made sure the package didn't get stolen (ya know since it was around $2K worth of meds!) Then he carefully read each storage label and put them away properly. It's nice when he can do something to show his investment in this process since so much of it falls on me by default. <3 I was amazed it was a huuugeee package and is now taking up a whole shelf of my fridge!

It sounds like they are having us do different approaches with our medications... I'll learn more about it soon I am sure. And way to go to your hubby!!! That's pretty sweet for him to read the labels for ya! Thinking of you my friend.
-All the best.

Thinking of you too! I'm going to be mixing up a vial of Cetrotide and doing my first injection first thing tomorrow morning- so hope my coffee kicks in before then! :D

First shot of my IVF cycle down! The ice trick was really helpful- I iced for 5 minutes while my husband mixed up the Cetrotide. I couldn't even feel it! Niceee!!

Way to go! Lets cross our fingers it stays like that LOL! Good luck!

Right! You too! LMK how your first few days go! Make sure you ice your injection spot and let the vial warm up a little bit (if it's a refrigerated one). I know when I used to get allergy shots if it didn't let the vial warm up a bit- it would really sting. And that was way less serum going in. So I can imagine it wouldn't feel great.

Thanks for the pointer, I didn't even think of that!

Great job on your first round of shots! I've also had a protocol once where I primed with estrace before cycle start, then cetrotide from day 3-6 while I simultaneously took clomid and then stopped the estrace. From my experience, the estrace and cetrotide were the easiest to take and I had zero side effects. Also, one reason why I love cetrotide is because when you take it in the days leading up to retrieval, I find it relaxes the pressure my busy ovaries. The pressure I feel leading up to retrieval is brutal! Ovaries really stretch out and expand. I typically feel like I am going to explode. As far as shots, I did like a whole year of IVF. It gets better. I am no longer scared of needles and things are pretty painless. The only thing that burned me going in was a drug called Menopur.

Thanks @hope114! Good to know I'll eventually be looking forward to the cetrotide.. hah. My only side effect right now is itching at the injection site. It's listed as normal so no worries.

Update-I'm at day 8 of stims and my E2 is still below 100, they didn't even have me do an ultrasound today because on Thursday the 5 follies were still there (yay) but all less than <10mm (boo).

Seeing that I wasn't progressing, on Thursday they adjusted my meds to add an additional 50mg of Gonal F (done in two 225mg shots AM/PM).

Then today they told me to stop the Cetrotide because they believe it is suppressing my development. Ha-I'm not shocked and in fact a little annoyed. I had a feeling from the start that the continuous Cetrotide was not the best choice for me. And my Dr. noted in our first meeting that I might be susceptible to over-suppression based on my follie count during birth control vs. my non-medicated follie count. I really wish we could go back and start this cycle over -BUT if there is ANY chance can finish it out successfully I'm all in!!

If anything-it does give me some hope that if this cycle doesn't work it will be for a reason.. and therefore motivate us to try another go at it. The only real side effects I've felt so far is the discomfort on my injection sites (especially with pants on) and one or two nights I've been super overheated and couldn't sleep because of it. I have a feeling dropping the cetrotide is going to unleash more side effects.. but we'll see!

Thanks for reading- thinking of you all! <3

Well.. I stopped cetrotide and my E2 is going up! 115! Yayyyy! We're moving the right direction finally!

@Natalie, glad to hear you are moving in the right direction!!!