Hi Molly,
I have Alan Beer's book but I stopped reading it, I found it difficult finding out all these new treatment and knowing that my fertility Doctor was dismissing them, but I think I'm going to go back and read it again. I think you're doing the right thing going to Sims, I'd love to change to them but as we're based down the country I think it would only add to my stress levels having to travel to Dublin every couple of days for scans. Have you tried looking at clinics in the UK, they seem to be more pro-active with testing for NK Cells. I'm going for a Laparoscopy this week, am praying that they discover why we can't get pregnant and be able to fix it.
Thanks for your reply and the best of luck on your journey. x
Hi Covie,
You're obviously in the same boat as me and I haven't met too many others over the past number of years.(appart from those one meets in the waiting room of the fertility clinic and everyone wishing they could be somewhere else.) Speaking of distance, I think S*Ms have satellite clinics in various parts of the country which may alleviate the stress of travelling for at least some appointments. You could query this when you make contact with them.
I am in the process of reading Dr. Beer's book myself so that I will be able to ask the relevant questions when I go for my appointment. I hope to do some research on clinics in London too over the week end. We have an appointment early next month at S*ms and will know more after that. I will be asking some very direct questions at that meeting and requesting a referral elsewhere if they are not able to help us. I will keep you posted.
Best of luck with the laparoscopy, I hope everything goes well for you. Molly
I've read up a lot on the NK cells, and have met online few girls that they themselves were having some treatments such as intralipid and taking aspirin for elevated NK cells. From what I've read up, most clinics testing for NK cells are doing so by drawing peripheral blood, however, the NK cells in the uterus and those in our blood are different types. I read some articles that are based on real research, done here in the USA that do proof that elevated NK cells in the blood stream are really not that much of a concern, again those are different from the NK cells in the uterus. I do feel your pain as well. As you know we've had 3 failures, but our story is a bit more complicated. Have you looked at clinics abroad? I have a co-worker that went to the Check Republic couple of months ago. She used donor eggs, now she is pregnant, I think she is 9 or 10 weeks along. The clinic over there told her what tests she needed and her OBGYN here in the USA did those for her. I am not sure how things work out in Ireland, but if you could have your GP or OBGYN order all the test for you 1st prior to the lap. that might be of more help. I've head lap. once to remove dermoid cyst & endometriosis, and surely do not want to head down that road, unless I must.
Keep your chin up. Wishing you the best of luck on this road.
Hi girls, all the very best to you with your appts with your respective clinics. Be prepared to be knocked back when it comes to AI issues, though. I came up against quite a lot of resistance to it when I was questioning why repeated IUI and then 5 IVF cycles were failing without explanation - and I knew I had (mild) endometriosis which is an AI condition. After reading Dr Beer's book, I felt that we had to make a change and try this out. We went to one of the UK clinics that specialises in this field - a clinic in Nottingham, one of the CARE clinics. There's a doctor there called George Ndukwe who worked closely with Dr Beer before his death on developing for use with IVF the treatments Dr Beer was advancing for multiple miscarriage. You'll see Dr Ndukwe thanked by Dr Beer in his book. He also thanked Mohammed Taranissi who works with ARGC in London.
The stress factor re changing clinics is definitely something to be considered - but sometimes there are ways around travelling many times to a clinic. I had some scanning done at the Beacon instead of travelling to the UK, for example.
I'm delighted to see that Sims are now doing the Chicago tests, as the Beer testing is called - however, I believe that they do not do the full range of tests that Care Notts run. Just for info ...
By the way - it didn't take a huge change in my protocol to make the difference - I had prednisolone (steroids) as well as heparin and aspirin (blood thinners) added and that was all - 6th time lucky
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