Natural/ mild ivf

[Orangeflowers]

Hi all,

I'm considering natural/ mild IVF (as 41 and wanting to bank all then transfer asap). I have found one national provider that enables banking before transfers. They do a 3 cycle package and have a few questions:

(1) Can all collection cycles be done none stop in 3 months with no 'break' periods in between?

(2) Are few eggs/ blastocysts generally produced? I had 20 eggs on my last collection (14 fertilised, resulting in 3 blastocysts, 1 transferred, which failed). I'm assuming natural/mild IVF would result in fewer, so I'm not sure it would offer advantage? E.g. if only one blastocyst produced per cycle, would there be much advantage over continuing to try completely naturally (ie without IVF). How many blastocysts have people got from natural/ mild IVF?

(3) In my NHS funded cycle I had 225 merifert and only one trigger shot instead of the 2. I'm not actually sure of the drug procol for natural/ mild IVF and whether it would be too dissimilar?

(4) Do the national private providers generally effectively stop for Xmas like the NHS?

Any advice appreciated, Thanks

[Nicoma22]

Hi there, I did mild IVF with a clinic specialising in natural and mild IVF. I am not sure on your specific questions, as I think it all depends on your personal case and history, but generally you are working on quality rather than quantity with those treatments. Protocols are also tailored to your specific case so no one size fits all. The most eggs I’ve had retrieved was 12 and the least was 8. As far as I’m aware my clinic allowed 3 cycle packages and you could do them back to back opting to freeze all of preferred. They were open 7 days a week including Christmas period but I think they may close for the actual Christmas Day only. but that’s it. It all depends on your clinic. Have you had a consultation with the clinic you’ve found?

[Ivfgotadream]

It maybe that you are considering the same clinic I went to.....

I did a 3 cycle package of natural modified

- yes I cycled back to back with no break in between for the first 2 and the embryos/blastocysts were frozen on a mix of day 3 and 5 (company policy to have at least one day 3 frozen - they’ll freeze the best quality ones on day 3)

I would have done the 3rd cycle straight away but had some dodgy hormone levels so clinic felt it best to give me a break (that would have been my 5th egg collection in a year). Then obviously we went into lockdown so did the collection 3 months later than expected

- yes fewer eggs will be collected. For me on normal IVF I was getting 14 eggs per cycle. With natural modified I got between 2 and 7. For me though the quality was much much better. I only got 30% fertilised from 28 eggs on normal IVF and this increased to 100% with natural modified. I got 2 top quality blastocysts frozen from a total of 9 eggs with natural modified. My friend through who did natural modified got 5 blastocysts from 7 follicles

The benefit of continuing with the IVF vs natural conception is that at least the lab can look at the quality of the egg, assist with the fertilisation if needed and then watch how it progresses days 1-5 to see if there are any underlying issues - all knowledge you wouldn’t have trying naturally. Also obviously you would be transferring under a controlled environment

- drug protocol will be different. My natural modified consisted of tamoxifen tablets daily from cycle day 3 and then 150ml Bemfola every OTHER days, cetrotide as needed to prevent ovulation and single or double trigger depending on hormone levels. Second natural modified bemfola was changed to 75ml Bemfola and 75ml luveris

- private clinics work much longer hours than solely NHS ones. Mine only closed for Xmas day I think - collections and transfers done on Saturdays and Sunday’s as required

[Ivfgotadream in reply to Ivfgotadream]

I should also say that from my 4 natural modified blastocysts I’m pregnant with twins from 2 of them with 2 more top quality frozen

(Compared to 3 transfers from short protocol IVF there were BFN)

[Rumi40 in reply to Ivfgotadream]

hi Ivf got a dream. wow congratulations. i have mild stimulation last month but the IVF was cancelled due to me being a poor responder. I'm not sure what to do next as my Follow up is on thur. my AMH is low 2.58. do you have low AMH and was able to get to grade embryo? so happy for you

[Ivfgotadream in reply to Rumi40]

Thankyou!

My AMH is 12.9 but my antral follicle count tends to be low as I’ve had lots of operations around my ovaries.

I was given the option of cancelling when there was only 2 follicles but I decided to risk it and actually it worked better for me as they were really high quality - I think clinics are sometimes too hung up on reaching the minimum number for egg collection when with a low AMH like yours they should be realistic that you’re only likely to get low numbers In the first place x

[Rumi40 in reply to Ivfgotadream]

wow thanks for that. 2 good quality ones speaks volumes. next time i will push to collect even the 1 or 2 i may get. thanks

[Rumi40]

hello

you are good to get 3 cycles on a package. i didn't know they offer that for women over 40. natural IVF sounds better due to the lack of the drugs but will it give you the result you are looking for?

[Bistbee]

Hi, i’ve not done mild ivf but am currently embryo banking having just had no1 egg collection out of a planned 3 in total. It’s possible to do them back to back - if you down regulate you just start taking meds again the day after egg collection and then have your baseline after your next cd1. I’ve chosen to have a cycles break now so will be waiting until my next cd14 to start down reg (mainly so we can have a much needed staycation at the end of this month without the risk of it clashing with stims!) but am planning on doing rounds 2 & 3 back to back in Oct/Nov, if my body can take it! If you’re doing mild ivf then hopefully you won’t feel so gross from the injections and can just keep going.

I’ve heard than the focus of mild ivf is on quality rather than quantity so I assume you would have far less eggs in total but hopefully a comparable number of embryos if the quality is there?

Good luck!