Hi Dawn - saw your post under Diaphanta's below, and just wanted to say congratulations on your pregnancy, and hope that you have an absolutely quiet and uneventful one!

I have such fond memories of Dr Le Roux and Cathy at Renew, not to mention how wonderful being in SA was. I hope to go back sometime in the future, and I want my son to know his roots.

So happy for you!

Roni

Hello Everyone.

Di - sorry for your BFN. Bummer. So glad you had a lovely trip though.

As for me, my twins turn 1 in 2 days. Wow. Can't believe it!

I've tentatively setup a return trip to CT for FET in October 2007. Also wow!

Teresa

Hi everyone

It was good to see a bit of life being breathed into this site - thank you Roni! I'd kind of given up on it, then checked and saw all of your comments.

Here is my news -

We returned to the UK from Cape Town on Friday. It was our second trip. Last time was January 2006 and resulted in 11 week miscarriage of twins - heartbreaking. This time round we really researched all our other options, mainly to see if we could get a cheaper, better deal from somewhere in Europe. (We also researched known donor in the UK and this was more than twice as expensive as going to Cape Town and using Renew!) Well, we probably could get a cheaper deal if we were willing to sacrifice the wonderful service that Renew provide, which I was really able to appreciate this time round. Mainly the amount of information you get about donors, because in Europe you only get eye and hair colour and blood type - yuk. Totally faceless and anonymous. With Renew, we were able to talk through our concerns about our last donor (unproven, only 2 viable embryos produced) and were offered the most amazing donor who was worth travelling half way round the world for, believe me. She produced 15 eggs, 10 Grade 2 embies, two transferred and 8 frozen. It was such an easy process compared to last time, when I was so worried about the donor. And of course Dr Le Roux was just great - I feel so safe with this guy.

I am sat here waiting for the results of my HCG test, 14dpt, but I just feel so positive about my experience, whatever happens.

I have been meaning to do this for ages ( sorry Roni ).

I am a New Zealand lass aged 41. I have had 2 cycles in Cape Town ( Renew/CFC ). The first was Nov 2006 and our donor did not stim well. Result was 3 over cooked eggs. BFN. ( unproven 21 yo )

We did a second cycle was a breeze. We had a 23 y.o 3 X proven donor. She stimmed faster than expected - so that ER took place whilst we were still on safari at Madikwe ( using a frozen sample left in Nov )We got 11 eggs, 10 mature, 9 fert and we transferred 3 perfect 8 celled embies on valentines day.

We are currently 14.5 weeks pg with a singleton. It's a biggie. At 12.5 weeks measured over a week ahead. Yet to find out the sex.

Very sick - but also very happy.

Hi to all. Hope things are going well for you too. Great to hear Liana's news. She is a real trooper.

TESSA

For those of you who know Liana, her adopted baby was born this past week! She posted about the birth on her blog - teendoc.livejournal.com

Please go and congratulate her - hopefully everything will go as planned with the birth mother, who sounds wonderful. She's even doing this beautiful Entrustment Ceremony when the baby is given to Liana.

For newbies, Liana started this blog and had 2 trips to SA, the first of which resulted in a pregnancy and a devastating second trimester loss, and her 2nd trip ended in a BFN. She went the route of adoption, and is now realizing her dream.

I am thrilled for Liana - she deserves so much happiness. Please make sure you visit and say congrats to her.

Roni

Hi all -

Thanks Roni, for breathing some life into this great forum!

My update/story: We went to Cape Town last summer and were so fortunate to be successful at our first DE cycle. We are currently pg with a singleton girl.

We saw Dr Le Roux at CFC and used an unproven first time Renew donor for our cycle. I am a few weeks away from delivering and am busy trying to juggle everything and get ready - we cannot wait to meet our girl!

I look forward to seeing everyone's updates!

Best Wishes - moo

HI girls

I went to Cape Town in Janaury 2007 and I am now 16 weeks pregnant with twins.

I am currently feeling like a heiffer :)

Chris

Hi everyone - it's been a long time since this board was active and I'd like to try to resurrect it.

Please post to say hello, tell a little about yourself and your current status (been to SA, going to SA, successful cycles, new cycler, need to do additional cycles, etc).

I'd love to hear from everyone and get this board going again!!

Roni

I'm having an interesting time choosing a donor. Contacted Karen at the clinic in South Africa directly and she said that they had no donors at present and certainly not for March 07 as we had planned. She said to get back to her June/July. Well, that seems a long time with no definite outcome - last time we contacted her was November 06 and she said March was likely...

So - we have realised the benefits of Renew who obviously have a lot of wonderful donors to choose from who are ready to go right away. Hmm - lots of money but probably worth it - waiting is awful.

So we contact Renew again and look on the list of current donors. We have promised outselves that we would choose a proven donor (unlike last time) and there are a few to choose from but nobody who jumps out at us like our previous donor. But still thinking...

Then a completely chance phone call with a friend of a friend who attended our wedding results in an offer to donate eggs. Now, this woman is famous for her good sense, unflappability, fertility and stunning looking children. We are not close, but I know enough of her to like her a lot. We both hung up to discuss with our husbands and then rang back to say both of our partners were OK with the idea. We're speaking to the local clinic to organise a session to speak about the process. We haven't decided anything - but it's interesting.

At the same time I am finding out about egg donation elsewhere in Europe.

This feels very different to the panic I felt last time when organising the process and I like it - I feel hopeful without feeling hysterical. I feel like it's a rational process. I'm trying to hang on to all the medical advice I've received which has been overwhelmingly encouraging for us to try again.

Don't know how long this emotional state will last - but it feels good at the moment.