Mini-IVF anyone?

[Mei19]

Has anyone here tried Mini-IVF treatment? I just read about this - developed in Japan and especially for women over 40 to try and get much less eggs but of better quality.

[Redpixie]

Is this like a natural ivf?

[Mei19 in reply to Redpixie]

It’s with mild stimulation meds; I read they use clomid for a whole cycle (instead of 3 or 5 days) and then a trigger shot

[AliceMoonpie]

I tried mild ivf where you get lower levels of the drugs. Don't know if that's the same thing. Can't remember how many eggs we got. I think it was 4. From that we got 1 good quality embryo and 1 not good quality embryo. I was 39/40. It's hard to know how good the embryos were because the doctors gave me steroids when they shouldn't have done because I have diabetes, which however good the embryos were would have prevented implantation. When we brought this up with the doctors they said it didn't work because the embryos weren't good enough. If that's correct (I think the reason they said this was to stop us taking legal action against them) then it doesn't say much about the mild ivf protocol. We went with normal ivf next time round and got maybe 11 eggs? 8 fertilised, 4 blastocysts, 2 good quality, 2 frozen. Got one child from them.

I found the mild ivf harder because you need more scans so it's nore intrusive on your life.

[Mei19 in reply to AliceMoonpie]

Thank you for sharing your experience - so sorry you didn't receive the best medical treatment with the mild-ivf. My clinic prefers trying another conventional IVF they argument is that we need as many eggs as possible to then get at least 2 good quality embryos.

I had one frozen embryo from last ivf but not ready to do FET as the lab messed up with my ERA test sample and since I underwent surgery (unrelated to fertility) I have to wait 6 months to take any hormonal treatment - so due to my age and this unforeseen surgery restricción my dr wants us to harvest more eggs first to have better chance of success.

It’s wonderful you got your baby !

[DianeArnold Partner Nurse Fertility Network UK]

Hi Mei. I think it is referring to a mild form of IVF which is less taxing on the ovaries. You tend to retrieve eggs that want to come out, rather than being forced out. Good luck with whatever you decide. Diane

[CLDxxx]

Hi Mei19,

I had mild IVF - It involves less meds and slightly shorter time frame I believe. It suited me ok and I got 17 eggs but this is the only method I have tried so don’t have anything to compare it to x

[Mei19]

Hello,

I also just had one IVF treatment that consisted of a low dosage of ovarian stimulation meds (injections) and got 13 eggs which was not bad for my age (41) at the time. Quality however I think is another story...

[articsnowfox]

i had lower doses of drugs on my last cycle and fewer eggs, but the eggs were of a much better quality: out of 7, 6 fertilised and there were 2 excellent quality blastocysts by day 5, one of which stuck and now i am 15 weeks pregnant

[SharlyWarly]

Hi, I just wondered if you found anyone who has done mini-IVF or have you? I've just been googling and might be interested in it too

[Mei19 in reply to SharlyWarly]

Hi, I won’t be doing a mini-IVF for next cycle as My doctor wants us to get as many eggs as posible and says with mini quantity might be limited -I will however have a mild dosage of stimulation meds due to other health issues.

[SharlyWarly in reply to Mei19]

Thanks for coming back to me and I wish you all the luck for your next cycle. May I ask which clinic you are with? I'm having trouble finding anyone who even does mini-IVF.

[Mei19 in reply to SharlyWarly]

Thank you for the good wishes and likewise! My clinic is in Mexico but I live in Scotland (due to my age I’m not longer eligible for nhs ) my clinic doesn’t do mini as such (whole cycle with clomid and then trigger shot) for women over 40, like me, but they do mild ivf’s .

[SharlyWarly in reply to Mei19]

Nice place to have treatment - good luck! The only place I've seen mini IVF is in the US. It seems like it could work, though I just can't find anywhere else that does it. I'm based in London but it seems like UK clinic just don't do it.