Antagonist Protocol your thoughts!!!!!!

[Prettyasanangel]

Hello Ladies,

I will be doing an antagonist protocol. Has anyone ever done an antagonist protocol? If so how many days did you stim? Was the cycle successful? Would you do it again?

Any info will be greatly appreciated it.

[soso-lynn]

In my experience, antagonist protocols have great results for people who are not good candidates for a long protocol. The exact length of your stim will depend on how you respond so no one can know in advance.

One thing to discuss with your doctor is whether they are making you start the antagonist (orgalutran, cetrotide, etc) on a fixed day (usually day 5 of stim) or only after seeing your ultrasound. I have been seeing a tendency towards a variable start and it seems to help with getting better results but the drawback is that doctors do seem to forget to instruct people in the 5 minute of the ultrasound. Make sure you are on top of that.

Good luck!

[Prettyasanangel]

SosoLynn - I dont understand what you meant by "I have been seeing a tendency towards a variable start and it seems to help with getting better results but the drawback is that doctors do seem to forget to instruct people in the 5 minute of the ultrasound."

So when I am having a ultrasound what exactly am I going to look for? Better yet what should trigger me to ask questions during my ultrasound?

What should the Dr be instructing me to do during the 5 minute ultrasound?

Sorry for all of the questions.

[soso-lynn]

Sorry for not being clear.

In an antagonist protocol, there are 2 types of meds during the stimulation phase. The first one is your regular stimulation med (or agonist) that contains FHS and sometimes LH to make your follicles grow. A problem with this is that all the follicles may not grow at the same rate and be ready for retrieval on the same day. That's why the second med (antagonist) will be introduced at some point to prevent any follicle from getting too much ahead of the others.

The question is when to start that antagonist to get the best results. One option that is the most common is to instruct patients to start it on a specific day of stimulation such as day 5 or day 6 (fixed start). Another option is to wait until the first ultrasound (those are done every 2 days or so starting on day 6 to monitor follicle growth) and then decide if the antagonist should be started that day or later (variable start).

What I was saying before is that there is some evidence that a variable start might give better results but many doctors forget to mention when to start the antagonist when they do the ultrasound. So, if you have a variable start date for the antagonist, you should be proactive and make sure to ask the doctor about it while you are in the ultrasound room.

Hope that makes a bit more sense.

[Prettyasanangel]

Thanks Sosolynn!!!!  I understand and thank you for explainging it in further detail. I have not received my calendar as of yet so I dont know if I am on a set schedule or variable. I have a consultation coming up this month and I will definitely voice my concerns and ask about the variable. This is very valuable information and I appreciate your advice.

[Keria]

I did antagonist on november and was not succesful, I don;t have anything to compare it to but I don't think the protocol was the cause that I'm not pregnant, we will probably use the same protocol with higher stims for our second go aorund. I liked the fact that there were fewer shots. I ended up stimming for 8 days the last 3 days with cetrotide.