IVF hormone positive

youngdogmum

Hi guys.
2 days post mastectomy and axillary clearance and I’m doing very well! Discharged this morning.

If you had oestrogen/progesterone +ve cancer and you underwent IVF to freeze eggs/embryos before chemo id like to know:
did you take a receptor blocker ie tamoxifen/letrozole/zoladex with the stimulants to prevent a significant surge in oestrogen?

Thank you

iserbrown

Hi!  Perhaps go to the Young Women group and post in there 
https://onlinenetwork.bcna.org.au/group/10-young-women

Hopefully a wider range of people to read and support your question

Trust you are feeling okay considering what you've just experienced

Take care

primek

@InkPetal you might have info about this.

I believe femera or letrozole is commonly used as it doesn't prevrnt ovulation but helps block it's use elsewhere.

InkPetal

Thanks for the tag-in Prim.

Hello @youngdogmum, 
Yes! I was placed on Letrozole. In my consultation with the service I felt it was a very understood and established practice for breast cancer patients through the IVF process. Do you have some concerns? Ask anything at all.

kmakm

Well done @youngdogmum! Two days is great. Look after yourself. K xoc

youngdogmum

InkPetal said:

Thanks for the tag-in Prim.

Hello @youngdogmum, 
Yes! I was placed on Letrozole. In my consultation with the service I felt it was a very understood and established practice for breast cancer patients through the IVF process. Do you have some concerns? Ask anything at all.

Hi InkPetal thanks for sharing your experience.
My IVF dr doesn’t feel it’s necessary. I am going to ask to see him Monday to establish why. The more I read the more I see it’s a common occurrence. I may ask for a new referral if he doesn’t allow
me to start IVF with letrozole.
Im not sure if it’s because he’s controlling my cycle, as he’s already given me a shot of zoladex.
Thank you again

Sister

I don't know about IVF on AIs as I did it years ago pre-BC but good luck with it @youngdogmum.  

youngdogmum

Hi everyone 
Wanting to share my experience of IVF in case other young women need some guidance. 
Im currently day 8 of follicle stimulating hormone injections (FSH). Being young and quite fertile I have responded well to a small dose and this morning have several quality follicles on each ovary looking promising. I feel quite swollen and full everywhere, quite like I’m about to get a big period. I haven’t felt this way for a long time since taking a break from the OCP a few years back. 
I am scheduled for an egg harvest Monday. These will then be fertilised with my husbands sample and hopefully most of those embryos survive to day 5 and can be frozen in time.
If you don’t have a partner at the time you can freeze eggs or use a sperm donor to create embryos. 

If you’re reading this and have recently been diagnosed with breast cancer and are hopeful of a family in the future, my advice is to speak to a fertility doctor ASAP, even before you meet oncology if need be. This whole process has taken almost 5 weeks and my oncologists were very relieved I had sorted this out once I met them, as they advised they wouldn’t want any further delay in chemotherapy beginning. I will be starting chemo one week after egg collection and have no intention of pursuing another egg harvest if this isn’t successful, as that could detriment my health by delaying chemo. 

Its all a big big learning curve if you’ve never looked into IVF, or even falling pregnant before. Heck I’m a nurse and know a fair bit about it but still had to do a lot of research to feel comfortable pursuing this. 
The main thing is that this gives you an option if you feel you may want a child or more children in the future post cancer. 

The good thing is that a lot of the cost will be covered by Medicare at the moment before treatment, as this is a medical reason for fertility preservation. My biggest expense will be the day surgery fee for the egg harvest (~$500) and the anaesthetist fee if they choose not to bulk bill me. If you have insurance these could be waived depending on your cover. 
We then pay $480 annually for the cost of keeping them frozen.
If we choose to use them one day we then pay the costs any other woman would at the time for an IVF implantation etc 

I hope this helps someone in the future  
Feel free to message me if you ever need! 

lrb_03

Your generosity in sharing some of this experience is amazing. Even as someone well past childbearing age at diagnosis 4 years ago, I found this information interesting.
Here's hoping the egg harvest goes well.
Take care

youngdogmum

Hi everyone; 
So today was egg day! 
This was done at a small day surgery in Brisbane. 
I was in surgery for about 25 minutes underneath general. 

The process is they insert the needle into each follicle, extract what they think is the egg and then the lab examines it immediately to confirm the egg has been extracted. If not they keep going until the egg is taken. And then repeat. I had 10 eggs extracted. We will find out tomorrow how many fertilised and then on Saturday how many made it to day 5 for freezing. 

Uncomfortable and fatigued and quite emotional, very different to post mastectomy. I believe very hormone related.. heat pack and rest is all I’ve done since.

All up IVF has so far cost me:
$120 in injections, $80 for one blood test that Medicare doesn’t cover and $500 for the day surgery fee. My anaesthetist bulk billed me very kindly. Plus around 8 trips to the doctors rooms in terms of petrol; this office kindly validates parking for one hour for their patients and most appointments are done by then too. 
Quite a reasonable cost to close this chapter and decide how we feel in a few years once this has all settled down.
Ongoing cost is $240 every 6 months for freezing. 

Once again I hope this helps someone else one day.  

Afraser

Very best wishes! 

Sister

I know the emotional and physical effects of IVF but never had to do it while on the rollercoaster of bc.  You've done the best you can @youngdogmum.  Now you can park it and move on with the more immediate concerns.  Best wishes and take care.

Blossom1961

@youngdogmum Big hugs as you move forward

kmakm

Thank you for writing the details here. It's very generous of you and I'm sure it will help those who come after you. Good luck with your treatment. K xox

AllyJay

@youngdogmum I so admire you for your generosity in sharing your details about such an intimate part of your life. I'm sure there will be other young women who will find this information very helpful in theirs too. I wish you all of the very best of my best wishes as you forge ahead with what lies before you now and am sending you a big cyber (((hug))). Ally.

arpie

Well done, @youngdogmum  -  all the best xx