Anyone have success going from long to short cycle? Am panicking about the small amount of follicles growing!

[Clarence80]

Hello all!

I'm on my 3rd IVF cycle which is a short flare. Our first was a long protocol with about 16 eggs of which 8 fertilised but only 2 got to day 5. The second one was a shorter protocol with Luveris and we got about 12 eggs but only 6 fertilised with 4 getting to blastocyst.

We are starting the whole process again from scratch after our FET ended in a missed miscarriage with this being our final round. We have changed from Luveris to Menupor. I went for our first scan today and there are only 6 follicles in total. Although the clinic have always stated that it's quality over quantity this has totally freaked me & hubby out!

The clinic have now upped my dosage of Menopur and told me to take it in the evening with the Gonal F. They hadn't previously told me a specific time to take it so I'd been doing it in the morning alongside the Burserilin like an idiot as I'd just been told it was to help egg quality!!

I'm so worried that (a) I've buggered up the process on our final go & (b) we could end up with no fertilised embryos!

I know it only takes one embryo to make a baby but I think that's more positivity than I've got at the moment! 😣

[abcgirl]

I think you might be confused about what the short vs long protocol is... if you’re taking Buserlin right now along with stimms i believe you’re on the ‘long protocol’.

My first round I did the short protocol - was on birth control for a few weeks, started stimms (menopur) injections on day 2 of my period and used buserlin to trigger.

My second round on the long protocol, buserlin was started to shut off my ovaries, then I did the stimms (same dose of menopur as before) ... triggered with HCG. I took the buserlin and the Menopur at the same time in the evening. I don’t think it makes a difference as long as it’s the same time everyday.

And buserlin doesn’t help with egg quality - it down regulates your hormones.

Both time I was on Menopur for the same amount of time (around 10 days) the difference in long vs short is the amount of time spent down-regulating, the way it’s done and the drugs used to do it.

Anyway that’s how I’ve understood all this.

[Clarence80 in reply to abcgirl]

Thanks for your reply.

I started Burserilin day 2 then everything else day 3 & am only injecting for 12 days in theory. Thought that was a short protocol?

Totally get that Burserilin is for down regulating not egg quality just thought Menopur & Luveris were for egg quality rather than for stimming. Have been told I must take Menopur with Gonal F in the evening.

Either way, it's the amount of follicles that have me concerned as I've never responded so poorly in the past. Feel like I'm going backwards!

[abcgirl in reply to Clarence80]

Ok interesting... never heard of that protocol but I’m not an expert! Every clinic is seems does different things.

Frustratingly IVF is trial and error and I suppose they are trying something new. Everyone responds so differently.

On my second round I thought I screwed things up too - I started Menopur a day early so actually stimmed for longer than they had planned. A bunch of other things went wrong too but it ended up being a good cycle.

I have read that Menopur generally produces less eggs but better quality compared to Gonal F but again that’s just anecdotal. I had 150iu of Menopur both cycles and round 1 gave me 8 mature eggs and round 2, there were 15. So who knows! So many factors at play and even each natural cycle is different from one to the next.

Good luck xx

[Sarah_S]

I went to short cycle after 3 failed long cycles. I never produced many eggs on any cycles, but the short cycle did seem to produce better quality. I had 6 collected, 3 fertilised, 2 transferred and got my bfp. Each round they learn more about you and how you respond, but in the end they are the experts and are in their hands to recommend the right thing for you. Try to relax and not worry, but ring in if you do have questions which are causing you anxiety. It's tough to do but don't worry too much about the quantity. I saw short cycle as less forced and more natural, as you're not blasting the ovaries to make them over-produce, so it made sense why the resulting eggs would be better quality. That allowed me to relax a bit more. Crossing my fingers for you xx