I have a 2 year old son conceived naturally a month before ivf. I have a hisory of fluid in my stomach surounding my ovaries. We drained it twice and it keeps coming back. I did get pregnant with this the first time. The fluid is normal (old Blood). Doctors are saying that I must have scar tissue and that is what causing the fluid build up. We've been trying for 10 months to have a second child and have done 3 IUI's and have moved on to IVF. I had a mock transfer yesterday and the doctor that did it seems to think that the fluid is in the way of retreiving the eggs. I will probably have it drained again but it comes back quickely. I know I should be happy that I have one healthy child but I sould like him to have a brother or sister. It doesn't helpo that I am 39 years old as well.

I have no advice to offer, just sending my best wishes to you. I hope your difficulties are resolved soon.

I am in a similar situation - looking at IVF (for the first time in my case) & have a large amount of peritoneal fluid around my left ovary that keeps coming back after drainage. The RE said that she should be able to drain the fluid at the same time as the retreival & that the drainage might be more effective because it would be done trans-vaginally (other drains were abdominal & they might be able to get more of the fluid out). Didn't seem to think there would be a problem with it at all. You might ask your doc about doing something like this...good luck!
-Jen

Thanks. I sww that you live in Petaluma. I grew up in San Francisco. I'm glad to see someone else has the a similar problem. My situation is that the fluid is so large that it pushes 1 ovary behind my usterous and the other one sits right in it. I never though about draining it trans vaginally though. I will ask the doctor about it. What clinic are you using? I've looked into a few in SF. My family this lives their. I live in AZ now.

1 more question Have they said what is causing your fluid pull up?

I am going through Dr. Lane w/ Advanced Fertility Associates - they are a smaller North Bay clinic - but seem to have pretty good success rates & are very nice - the docs are all primarily younger women which I like, that and the fact that they tend to explain technically what is going on (I do have a science background, so that does help) and generally don't treat me like I am 5 - which I find is often the case with older (and male) doctors. It was actually the RE who suggested doing the drainage vaginally (I guess because they are used to doing things that way)- my regular GYN had it done abdominally (which was not fun!). The docs are not quite sure what has been causing the fluid build up since I had my last surgery in 95 so it's not like the scar tissue is new. Personally I think it has something to do with going off the pill & the hormone changes that go along with it as I started getting symptomatic a few months after stopping. Currently I am trying to hold off on getting mine re-drained until we can get around to the IVF (still trying to figure out the finances) - we'll see how that goes. Good luck with yours.

-Jen

Where did you have your surgery done at. Ihad mine at UCSF Dr. Shrock. I had a consultation yesterday with Dr. Zouves in Daly city. He told me that there wasn't a ovary he couldn't reach. He has actualy done a few IVF with J-pouchers and Fluid build up. We may end up coming up there for IVF. We are very fortumate that our insurance pays for some of this.

I had mine done at CPMC w/Dr Russel - nice hospital, sergon was a complete jerk. I ended up getting septic after the step 1 surgery & was in the hospital & in and out of surgery for about 6 months - which is probably a large part of why I have so many problems with scar tissue these days...I have heard good things about Dr. Zouves - good luck with that.