My last periods came through on the 6th of June which is exactly 5 weeks ago.

Surprise, surprise, today which I could hardly believe. 

Would this be the start of a more regular cycle? This would be absolutely fantastic news but I suppose it's too early to cry victory on this front as we have been there and done it.

Maybe, the reason is because my weight is dropping big time! I now have lost 15 kg which is +/- 2,5 stone since March - not a bad result in my view.

Does anybody have a positive result with a pregnancy after having lost weigth? 

My last period dates from the 3rd of December which is now exactly 2 months ago. One thing is for sure, I am not pregnant as I checked that already. When you do acupuncture, it’s always best to check whether you are pregnant or not as certain points do certain things and to maximise the desired effect it’s better to have the clear. But despite all that, it’s not working yet.

Last time, I thought I was getting some sort of regularity back but it seems to be gone again. It seems it was only short-lived positive news.

I am trying very hard to be good with the food and when I did my weekly shopping, I did not buy anything like biscuits, ice cream, cakes, puddings, etc. so I was really proud of myself, however, I do not know why, maybe because of my periods, but from yesterday onwards, I got terrible sugar cravings.

It almost feels like I am desperate for some sugar. It's definitely a long time ago that I suffered from this. So, I discussed this with my husband and we decided to give in in a controlled manor. He will go to the supermarket and will buy one cake and one pack of my favourite biscuits. This means that I can still have some while not emptying the whole supermarket and have a trolley full. Hopefully, the sugar cravings will disappear later this week. 

Today, we got the news that from our 4 eggs, only one fertilised. On one hand disappointing but on the other hand, it's not lost yet. You only need one embryo to nest to be pregnant. I will get another call tomorrow to know how the embryo continued to develop.

Went to hospital this morning for the egg collection as part of the IVF cycle. When arriving at the hospital, we were brought to our room straight away. It's a nice environment and from the room, you have a fantastic view on the mid downs. We went through the admin process, had a check on the blood pressure and all was prepared for the anesthetic administration.

We discussed the potential result and we all expected 5 eggs knowing that usually the fertility consultant manages to collect a few more so we thought it would be 8 or so. Eventually, he managed 4 eggs and a very painful surgery. Slightly frustrating but I like to think and to focus more on the quality and the fertilisation versus on the quantity - let's try to be optimistic for the moment. But also, we should not forget that as a patient suffering from Polycystic Ovary Syndrom (PCOS) and being very close to the menopauze, in the very beginning when we started IVF, we were not sure at all whether I would ever be able to produce eggs at all and one of the options discussed at that point in time was egg donation.

As preparation for my egg collection, I was not allowed to eat or drink from midnight before the egg collection.

I woke up early this morning to do a bit of work prior to heading off to the clinic as I know for sure that this afternoon and tonight, I will be very sleepy from the anesthetic from the egg collection. Initially, I thought about taking my laptop with me as usually as you need to wait a little in your room prior to the procedure. However, this would have been the old me and I am not going to do it this time. I will use the time in the clinic to relax and wind down and have a read in one of the newspapers or magazines.

My forth scan showed that the follicles are growing well but on the other hand, it was difficult to tell for sure which will be the date for the egg colllection and therefore embryo transfer.

With PCOS, it's always a challenge when starting a new IVF cycle as your periods are irregular so you never know when your IVF cycle will start. Therefore, this always results in a real juggling act to organise the scans and the days for egg collection and embryo transfer as usually, due to work commitments from both me and my husband, there's already a busy agenda. This sometimes creates a certain level of stress for me as I am the type of person who wants to plan everything but of course, I can't in this situation as my body is the one who will tell what's happening when. So, I just need to make sure that I do not get too much stress which is not good which brings me back to some of the relaxation tools I learned from the hypnotherapy such as the breathing techniques and some other relaxation tools.

I tried really hard not to get too nervous as I am waiting for my periods to come through but they came quicker as I thought and got a bleed this morning. You can image that I got this overwhelming feeling of happiness as it's the start of a new opportunity towards a pregnancy.

It's really amazing what acupuncture can achieve. In the past, I used a certain type of fertility drugs to bring my periods on to start a new IVF cycle but it's always nicer to get your periods naturally. I agree that I got some help through the acupuncture but it feels totally different from a pyschological perspective whether periods came with a little help but still naturally versus induced with drugs.

Research shows the impact of acupuncture when used when going through IVF - see German study published in 2002 and led by Dr. Wolfgang Paulus at the University of Ulm which found that those women who used acupuncture with IVF achieved a 42 per cent pregnancy rate compared with 26 per cent in the group who got pregnant with IVF but did not receive acupuncture treatment.

However, acupuncture is also used with PCOS patients to stimulate irregular periods such as in my situation. Irregular periods is a typical sympton for Polycystic Ovary Syndrom or PCOS and as a result, generates a lot of stress as you never know when your periods are coming. At the end of the day, the problem can be solved either through acupuncture which is a more natural way or through medication from the fertiloity clinic which also help to bring on your periods.

Because of my PCOS, I have very irregular periods which makes it very difficult to determine the length of my cycle. However, from an acupuncture's perspective, it's quite important to know where a women is in her cycle to know which points to do as part of the acupuncture treatment as you do not want to unsettle the body. Can you imagine the situation whereby I would be very early stages pregnant, having acupuncture thinking to bring on my periods and then because of the treatment completely unsettle the embryos which are just about to nest. Obviously, neither me nor the acupuncturist were willing to take this risk.