Natural FET Vs medicated

[IVFmumma]

Hello and happy weekend!

I have had three failed FETs this year. Most recently in August. I had my follow up consultation recently to discuss the outcome and plan next steps. I have come away feeling more confused that ever about the right thing to do.

FET 1 in Feb, top quality 5 day hatching, ended in chemical.

FET 2 in May, another top quality day 5, failed to implant

FET 3 in August, another good quality day 5, hatching, ended in chemical.

The consultant gave lots of options including PGS testing (we have 4 embies left, 2 x day 5 decent quality and 2 x day 6) blood work (which I had done at the end of last year and all fine), a test of the lining of my uterus to see if I need probiotics (need to look into this more but it involves basically a simulated cycle with all the meds to then test the environment of my womb at the time I'd normally have the transfer). Maybe I just take probiotics anyway?! We're pretty sure we won't do PGS testing.

And then she said we could choose to do a natural FET instead of medicated. All my previous have been medicated and I've responded really well. Textbook.

So I'm not sure why I'd try a natural cycle - the doctor basically said "to try something different..." I just feel like it's a big gamble!

But I also am not sure on what to change for next time.

Sorry such a long post. I just feel lost as to where to go from here.

Any stories about moving from medicated to natural cycle and it being a success? X

[Cricket2]

Hi IVFmumma,

I’m in a similar boat to you, failed FT and 2 failed FETs as of Monday.

The last one was natural, which I requested as my cycles are regular and usually bang on 29 days long so it just made sense to allow my body to do its thing rather than controlling it with HRT.

They have also suggested testing the lining before the next transfer. I do need to read more into that but would love to hear if anyone here has had it done.

[bapl in reply to Cricket2]

Hi I also am in sI molar boat I had bad effect with medication I felt very anxious and depressed on my 1st failed cycle and now was given option of natural cycle ... but don't know much about the successame stories ... I looking into it...

[Rhwy1456]

I had a medicated FET which failed, followed by a natural FET which was successful. I have no idea whether the fact it was natural played a part in the success, but I had pushed for a natural FET as I had regular cycles and no lining issues and I had felt the medication was putting my body under extra stress that wasn’t required (also the meds are a huge expense). I had to have more frequent scans but other than that I felt that the process was far more relaxing. Wishing you all the best!

[IVFmumma in reply to Rhwy1456]

Thank you so much! We opted for medicated again - and our transfer is hooked for Tuesday! Excited but also anxious. Hoping it's our time x

[Hidden]

Hi IVFmumma,

I feel the same way as you, it's just a number game. I had 2 medicated FETs and 2 natural one FETs and the outcome was exactly the same - one didn't implant and one ended up in miscarriage in each case. All the embryos were top quality. I liked the natural cycle because it was literally no meds but it's the risk of a cancellation in case you won't ovulate this particular cycle (I had one cancelled cycle as didn't ovulate).

I'm not sure why consultant is asking you to do ERA test (to check if the transfer time is right) as your embryo did implant twice? That would mean the transfer happened in the right time, right?

[IVFmumma in reply to Hidden]

Thanks Zytajones for sharing! Yes we didn't end up going for the ERA. And we chose to do a medicated FET again mainly because I respond well to it and it's only one monitoring scan (which makes it more convenient). I actually have my transfer booked for Tuesday! So I am on countdown. We had a long break (since I posted this thread) but now hearing up again we have 4 embryos left so hopefully the number game is on our side this time 🙏🏻✨ x

[Hidden]

Cross fingers for you!

[Boo718]

Hiya, I’m so sorry your going through this, I would honestly recommend the pgs. we had 3, 5 day great quality embryos and 1, 5 day crap quality embryo. We did the test on all 4 …

The 3 good quality embryos were alll abnormal.

The shite embryo was normal 🤷‍♀️🤦‍♀️ It saved us sooo much money transferring them.

[IVFmumma in reply to Boo718]

Oh wow! That's crazy. You'd normally assume the best quality would be the best ones to go back... It's too late now for us to do PGS I think as you need a minimum of 4 and we're about to use one of 4 - hopefully we won't even need to think about it again (I have my transfer happening this Tuesday) if it works 🙏🏻🙏🏻 we have 2 x 5 day and 2 x 6 day left, all a decent quality

I think my plan is if this transfer fails I'll do 2 next time. But really hope I don't need to consider that!

[Boo718 in reply to IVFmumma]

Fingers crossed for you. Our transfer should hopefully be in a few weeks. I think we may go for transfer two but havent decided. We only have two left. But I’m kind of done with the ivf taking over our life so part of me just thinks go for two and see what happens xxx hope u are good xxx

[IVFmumma in reply to Boo718]

Thanks Hun. Good luck for yours in a few weeks 🙏🏻 can totally understand wanting to try two at once, IVF takes over everything doesn't it. Whatever you decide it'll be the right thing. Xx take care