Hi all, I was wondering if anyone could explain a few things about a natural FET process. How do you/the clinic track ovulation? And what are the benefits and risks associated with it?
Do you receive any hormone support at any stage?
Thanks so much in advance x
Hi I haven't tried natural FET so I can't give you advice. But I can send you lots of hugs. I hope you will get more responses soon.
In natural FET cycle the lining is allowed to thicken naturally as part of your normal cycle - this is monitored by scan when lining right thickness & follicle right size then they may give you a trigger [ injection] to encourage ovulation Sometimes after embryo transfer they may use progesterone [ either injection or pessaries ] to help support the lining of the womb May vary from clinic to clinic - ask your nurse/clinic to explain the process and time line as this can vary depending on history, blood results etc
Good luck with your treatment
Janet -Partner
I was about to do a natural FET with my clinic as I don't respond well to the hormones (although I have had one successful medicated FET) so can share what I was told and the rationale, as I didn't find much online:My consultant said 99% of their patients do a medicated FET, that's partly because of timing and control for the clinic - sometimes they can't schedule or fit you in based on your natural cycle (my prior NHS clinic in particular wouldn't even go off a natural period start for a medicated FET amd categoricall ruled out natural FETs). But the main risk is that your ovulation date results in a transfer day that the clinic isn't open, in which case they'd cancel - that didn't seem too much of a big deal to me as it was only a month, no wasted meds and my clinic was only closed on Sundays so odds of that happening were low. They also said the meds can allow them to tweak the timing and give more time to get the lining thicker etc. However for me, my lining's always been much better naturally and my progesterone is high naturally too. They said the main things they'd need to know are do you ovulate (they confirm this with a day 21 progesterone blood test, or if you don't have a 28 day cycle, use ovulation test sticks to identify when it's most likely, then do blood test 7 days later), and is your progesterone naturally high enough (the same test they use for ovulation will tell you this). Providing the result is OK, you ring in on your period day 1, start ovulation testing about 7-10 days later (and the clinic may do a scan or two to check lining) then you call when you get a positive ovulation result and they'll book you in for transfer around 5 days later. My clinic said I didn't need progesterone support but they said I could also take that from shortly after ovulation if I wanted to.
They also said that the success rates for medicated vs natural were similar for them, but to bear in mind hardly anyone went for natural, so they didn't have as much data.
Your clinic may be a little different, but I hope this helps.
This is so thorough and has made me understand it so much more and to know what to ask the clinic about, thank you so much!! Xx
I couldn't find much info online so I quizzed my consultant. May be a little different at your clinic and many seem reluctant to do them at all, but hopefully of they do offer it it would be roughly similar x
Yes I’ll def ask more info thank you! Agreed not much online that I could find so was a bit confused, this has really helped 😊xx
it depends on the clinic if it’s fully ‘natural’ or not as some support with meds. Ours is completely med free you track your ovulation with at home tests, when you get a sold smiley you phone the clinic and they get you in for bloods that day to confirm LH surge then they transfer the embryo 5-6dYs later. That’s it just completely timed to when your body would normally be implanting a fertilised egg. There’s no risks really as it is just a natural monthly cycle. If you don’t have any other issues identified and regular cycles then the stats show about the same chance as a medicated FET. It didn’t work for me but neither did the medicated one the month after so I can’t say either way. It’s only ever a medicated FET before that that did work for me previously but I felt like I did need to try the natural one as I was getting a bit tired of the down reg meds for FET and how they made me feel so had no regrets on giving it a go xx
Thanks so much that’s really useful to know, yep the down regs and meds can really take their toll cant they! My cycle was cancelled as after estrogen they found a fibroid/polyp-don’t know which at the moment waiting for another baseline scan so might need to do natural next if it’s affected by the estrogen! Xx
Honestly if it does end up that way I wouldn’t worry they can defo be successful and a lot less in the body! My clinic just prefer medicated to time it for their purposes and can only fit 2 natural in per week so you have to wait some months that’s why I went back to medicated the next time xx
My second transfer was natural FET. My clinic wanted to try a natural cycle to see if it made a difference. It didn’t for me and still got BFN. I just found it more stressful and more costly (as my clinic is abroad I have to pay for scans in UK). They still gave me the same meds (oestrogen and progesterone) as for medicated but didn’t down reg so let me ovulate. They didn’t make me test for ovulation though just went off my natural cycle. Now they give me the choice of medicated or natural as they said same odds of success, so I go with medicated as I prefer to control the cycle and take away the worry of my body not doing what it should when it should
Thanks for replying, I don’t blame you, mine may not be out of choice due to explanation above do a bit nervous but let’s see what results are. Hope things go well for you xx
hi I have done 2 medicated followed by 2 modified natural. Both medicated were negative and both modified naturals needed in positives. The first I lost at 6 weeks and the second I am now 30 weeks pregnant with. If you need any help please just shout. I did slightly different protocols for both modifiers but they’re broadly based on the same principle of tracking your natural cycle and timing transfer according to natural or triggered ovulation. As it’s FET you will have progesterone support immediately prior to and following transfer and I had some other things due to high NK cells. If you would like some details about my cycles please feel free to message me 😊
How many days after lh surge did you all have transfer? Clinics seem to do different things. One I was with 5 days after and another 7 thanks
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