Fresh or Frozen transfer best?

[Littlepeax]

Hi everyone, I haven't been on here for a while as I haven’t been doing too good so needed a break from everything. I have had so many setbacks over the last 2 years but hopefully I can start my medication this week for a new cycle. I hope you guys are well ❤

My question is, do I do a fresh or frozen transfer? I read that frozen ones can be more successful as it gives your body a chance to recover after egg collection? But then frozen is risky too as thaw might not go well. What do you guys recommend please? I want to do all I can to make this one successful ❤⭐ so any advice is hugely appreciated 🙏 xxx

Also if you have any advice or tips of how you got your BFP I'd love to hear them. Anything is helpful! X

[KiboXX]

Hey Littlepeax,

Lovely to see you back ☺️

I don’t really have any advice but my frozen transfers have been the ones that worked, my fresh ones never did. I don’t think we would have opted to do a freeze all on our fourth round if we weren’t doing PGS testing but as we were, we had to freeze and transfer later.

There is more recent research that shows frozen transfers are overtaking fresh in terms of success rates as well xx

[Millbanks]

Hi lovely, hope you’re doing ok. So pleased that you’re able to start a new cycle!I think frozen are much easier on the body as I’ve had OHSS a couple of times after egg collection which was painful and stressful and made a fresh transfer a bit touch and go!

I also find that I prefer the meds in a frozen protocol as I feel like I trust my body being supported by the drugs, rather than just hoping my body is doing what it should…

I’ve never had a problem with the thaw (we’ve had 10 thawed over the process) I think it’s quite rare for them not to survive.

I also took steroids on my last transfer which helped to lower my immune system and I really think this hugely contributed to our BFP xxx

[Lagoon in reply to Millbanks]

Hi Millibanks, did you have your ft through the NHS ? I have had two different consultations nhs ans privately. NHS never mentioned steroids to me, whilst my private doctor said that it would help lowering the immune response. We’re your steroids in the form of an injection ? Thanks in advance

[Millbanks in reply to Lagoon]

Hi Lagoon

I actually had both (due to Covid closures). My NHS ones were before we started doing any testing really, so we never got as far as talking about immunes.

So it was just through my private clinic that we did the Chigaco blood tests and they prescribed prednisolone and intralipids. The prednisolone was 5mg tablets (x 4 a day) and the intralipid was a solution administered via intravenous drip over about 2 hours.

xx

[Fruitandflowers]

I had it in my head that fresh transfers were better for some reason and I was nervous about the thawing so I went for another fresh round rather than a FET, even though I was probably too unwell to have done the transfer. My two BFPs on fresh transfers ended around 6 weeks (second one probably because I was ill) whereas the FET stuck immediately and was much stronger (BFP from 3dpt and HCG went up very fast). I read after that FETs can sometimes be more successful as your body's not been through so much, which makes sense. For me the FET was much gentler and quicker. The other things we changed on the FET were the amount and form of progesterone (cyclogest rectally to Ultrogestan vaginally as I seem to have progesterone resistance and this way may get more to where it's needed rather than in the blood generally, plus lubion injections), plus folate rather then folic acid, took ubiquionl co10, b-vits, and aspirin. No idea what if any of this worked or if it was chance, but I suspect it was a combination of the more natural process of a FET and the progesterone. There are probably loads of examples the other way though. Best of luck x

[Sparklylife]

Hi 👋 We have only had a fresh transfer and it worked well for us, so grateful. My body seemed to handle the stims drugs well and only had mild bloating which eased right before transfer - so I suppose it depends individually what happens and perhaps even past medical history etc. I would ask my clinic for advice if I were you. Benefit and risk from your consultant - they specialise in this field and should hopefully be able to help you so you can make an informed decision 🥰 Wishing you all the best with your upcoming cycle!!

[Positivechangeplease]

It’s all down to statistics I’m afraid. There’s a very slightly higher chance a FET is more successful than fresh but they’re basically awash. For costs I’d assume a fresh is the first route then freeze any more and so FETs with the rest?

[Faith103]

Lovely to see you’re back.

I am back on this ivf journey too. I must be mad. 😉 I would say go for frozen and give yourself time to recover. That’s what I did and I got a successful pregnancy with stage 4 endo. I think us with endo are a little more fragile. Give yourself time to recover. Good luck 😉 🍀 xxx

[L0zza]

I've had one fresh and one frozen cycle previously neither of which worked. Just done another round with egg collection last week and have done a freeze all this round. Advised to do this due to ohss but clinic said that there is a better chance of success with a frozen transfer than fresh as your body has had chance to recover and reset from the trauma of egg collection. We had our treatment planning meeting today for the fet and the stats the Dr gave regarding potential issues with thawing is that 95% of embryos survive the thaw. So there is a small risk of it not surviving this process but we've been told if it doesn't survive the thaw then it is highly unlikely that it would have resulted in a successful pregnancy anyway.

Its a tough decision made slightly easier if you have multiple embryos available to freeze so that you know you have some back ups.

Our clinic let us wait to see how things were going right up to the final scan before trigger to decide if we were going to do fresh or freeze all as it is a different trigger depending on which you do. In the end I didn't get a choice the clinic said it would have to be a freeze all due to the amount of eggs and ohss risk but I had pretty much made my mind up that I wanted a freeze all anyway.

Wishing you lots of luck xx

[Littlepeax]

Thank you so much for all your replies ❤ so helpful xxx I had a scan today and have to wait again as I have a large cyst on my ovary. So eager to go again but just have to be patient. Thanks again girls, means alot xxx