ERA (Endometrial Receptivity Analysis) ??

[Vmi9]

hi everyone, have anyone done a ERA? I just had my first FET done and I received my results today… BFN. 😞 I was told by my nurse if I wanted to do an ERA to know how much progesterone to receive that might help. Has anyone done this?

[Eggfreezer2015]

I have done an ERA and it tests for bacterial infection of womb lining, microbiome and your receptivity window for transfer - how long you should take progesterone rather than how much prior to transfer. This is what my consultant told me when I queried around progesterone. I would go back and clarify with your clinic re is it about duration prior to transfer, rather how much to take. Sadly I still got a BFN even after following all of the ERA outcomes. Let me know if you have anymore questions about it. All the best on your journey 💜

[Joeysjourney in reply to Eggfreezer2015]

Hi I'm getting an era soon, is it painful? Thanks x

[Greyeverything in reply to Joeysjourney]

It feels very similar to an embryo transfer until they take the sample, for me that was a bit painful but for literally 3 seconds then it was done. I took paracetamol before hand and if you really try to relax everything that helps a lot. It’s over so quick it’s honestly fine x

[Joeysjourney in reply to Greyeverything]

Thank you! I had a scratch recently and it was quite painful but as you say, over quickly xxx

[Greyeverything in reply to Joeysjourney]

Yes I had a scratch too and it was quite similar to be fair. Over in seconds 👍🏻

[Eggfreezer2015 in reply to Joeysjourney]

I was sedated for mine but felt a bit tender afterwards. When I had the endo scratch I literally yelped so my consultant thought it best to put me under!

[Greyeverything]

As the previous comment says the ERA tells you how many hours you need to take progesterone for prior to transfer. It gives you a tailored amount of hours and an exact transfer window for you which your clinic will then use for your next transfer and any future ones.

I had 3 failed transfers so decided to have the ERA. My transfer window wasn’t that different to the standard 5 days we had already been doing, it was only different by a few hours but never the less we used that exact timing for my next transfer and it was successful. Will never know if that was the reason or if it was the blood thinners I was on or just luck 🤷🏼‍♀️

It’s one of those things that you won’t know if there is any benefit until you do it. You could have it and find out you need an extra day of progesterone in which case that’s definitely worth knowing! You could have it and find out you are already using the right timings. It’s a bit of a gamble but for me, after 3 failed transfers, I wanted to rule everything out.

Good luck xxx

[Greyeverything]

The real pain for me was that you have to go through the whole process of an embryo transfer but at the end of it all you don’t get an embryo transferred you just have the sample taken. It was a bit disheartening for me as I was doing medicated cycles so needed to go through the whole annoying process for what felt like nothing at the end 🙄

[Millbanks]

I had the ERA done and it did show that I needed 6.5 days of progesterone rather than the standard 5 days. We used this timing for the next FET and it was still a BFN. We then had another FET with a PGS tested embryo and steroids because I had the Chicago bloods done and they showed I had high NK cells. This one was successful.

So I think if you have no other issues (like over active immune system) then the ERA can be very successful. I believe that ours worked due to a 3 factors - and even with the steroids and PGS embryo, without the right timing (ERA) it still wouldn't have worked.

xx

[Millbanks]

I took 20mg too from the day of starting progesterone xx

[Meliana]

I'm sorry you got a negative! IVF is such a rollercoaster. I was told that on average it can take up to three transfers to be successful. I'm one of the unlucky 5-10 percent who has not been successful yet. I did an ERA two months ago after having three failed transfers of PGT normal embryos. My ERA showed I needed an additional day of progesterone. This was a painful experience for me as they take a sample of your uterine lining for the ERA on the day you would typically have a transfer done- at least the actual tissue sampling is done quickly. The usefulness of the ERA is controversial as some doctors say it's helpful and others say it's very expensive and hasn't proven to be accurate in pinpointing the implantation window. An ERA is also expensive and it took at least a month to get my results back. I don't know if adding more progesterone will be effective for this next transfer, but will let you know. Good luck!

[Vmi9 in reply to Meliana]

I heard it was painful. 😣 I also heard some doctors don’t do the testing anymore which makes me worried, because, I feel like I’m just throwing money down the drain? It’s been such an expensive and frustrating journey. However, I’m willing to try anything. Please let me know your results and I will keep you in my prayers. 🙏🏼

[Meliana in reply to Vmi9]

Hi I don't know if you had an ERA done but in my case it didn't help at all. The ERA recommendation was to add an extra day of progesterone and with my doctor we added 12 hours to " split the difference" she said in case the ERA was wrong . I had a 3AA embryo from donor eggs transfered and it was negative. I think the ERA made me miss the window of receptivity as my only chemical pregnancy with IVF was during my first frozen embryo transfer with standard days of progesterone. Now I have one lesser quality 6 day 3BA embryo left and little hope left. I hope you were / are successful.

[Boo718 in reply to Meliana]

I’m so sorry to hear this 😢 I hope you’re doing ok. We had the era after a chemical at 5 day transfer the results came back saying we needed an extra day progesterone so we transferred on day 6 a full day later and it worked xxx