We had a day 5 embryo transferred. 5 days later I started bleeding - started off as brown discharge but has got heavier and is now full flow period (complete with cramps) so my period came a week early. I am on progesterone pessaries 3 times a day (600mg urogestan). My understanding is that progesterone should have stopped the period. Has anyone else had an early period after transfer? what does this mean for other cycles?
Would appreciate any replies as we are devastated -had only 1 embryo to transfer.
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SD5117
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I'm so sorry. It is such a brutal way to end a cycle. I had this on my first cycle with a fresh transfer. I was on 2 x cyclogest and my period came on 8dp5dt (brown spotting from 6dp5dt), which was around 6 days early on my usual cycle. I was told it was likely a drop in/low progesterone. I've had 3 subsequent frozen cycles with 2xcyclogest 400mg and lubion injections and my period has been held back each time since. It is quite common and they can increase your progesterone in future cycles to try to stop it happening again x
I’m so sorry. This whole process is just exhausting isn’t it. Similar situation for me- first transfer I got spotting 7 days past which turned into my period. I was on progesterone pessaries 3x day and I also have pretty good levels of progesterone as it is, so was really surprised that it didn’t delay my period.
I was fortunate enough to be able to do a second transfer, 7 days after which I got my first ever positive test in two years of TTC. Will you look at doing any more retrievals? Hoping for the very best for you x
hi there, I’m really sorry about your outcome, I have been though this myself. Two things I’ll say here: your embryo didn’t implant and your progesterone was too low to delay your period. Unfortunately ivf is a trial and error, pessaries three times a day during a fresh cycle is enough for many women, but not all.
My advice would be to get them to test your progesterone levels a day before transfer in the future.
hi lovely it’s so heartbreaking isn’t it. This will be due to low progesterone, some women just need a lot more I’m afraid. I was on 400mg cyclogest 3x a day and 1 Lubion injection a day which is what I needed to successfully sustain a pregnancy.
So sorry. It’s a crap way to find out and happened to me on my first 2 transfers. I now have a blood test the day before transfer (now on transfer 5) to check progesterone levels but still only on 2 pessaries a day. X
Sorry this happened 😢 this happened to me on my second transfer, doctor said it was because the embryo failed to implant. Added lubion for my third transfer and was successful so for me I credited the lubion with this but it was probably a combination of that an an embryo which was going to implant anyway. It’s completely heart breaking. I only had one embryo for transfer after each egg collection but the third one worked so keep positive for your next one 🤞🤞🍀🍀 always worth asking about lubion and see what they say. Best of luck with everything xx
I had a fresh transfer in October and 8 days later in the evening I have noticed some brown discharge, but then it became very heavy bleed over the night. Still done the tests as doctors said there is still a small chance, but I knew it’s going to be negative. I have been on Crinone 8%, the clinic haven’t done any bloods to check progesterone. NHS thinks this would make no difference.
Luckily I do have one frozen and going to start the next cycle before Xmas and then a transfer in early January. Doctors going to put me on Estradiol tablets and then Cyclogest 400mg twice a day. It’s going to be a challenge with pessaries, because I’m working on rotating shifts. I’ve heard that you have to lie down if using them vaginaly, not sure if you have to do if using rectally. Also they said that they will check on my progesterone levels on a day of transfer, but I will have to pay £75 for them as NHS doesn’t cover this. Hopefully next year will be on my side.
Hi Whooper, did you find anything which helped with your progesterone levels? I'm having the same problem now, I just bled 4 days post FET. My NHS clinic also say it's not a problem, and told me not to purchase private Lubion injections. Please let me know if you find something which worked as I'm at a loss as to what to do next!
They have increased pessaries I was on to 6 a day and I have purchased lubions, because even 6 pessaries wasn’t giving me enough of progesterone. So with lubions my body was getting enough of progesterone and I didn’t bleed. But most likely I got those lubions a bit too late and my embryo didn’t implant. My plan was to start my second IVF journey from the very beginning and doctor made the plan with lubions etc… but then I fell pregnant naturally after hysteroscopy for my 40th birthday… I’m 6 months in so far….
Thank you so much for replying and congratulations, so happy for you!
I have also looked into getting a hysteroscopy to see if there is anything affecting implantation. Do you mind me asking if and how your hysteroscopy helped you get pregnant? I will have to go private for mine as over a 2 year wait on NHS to even see a gynae (no other form of medicine has anywhere near as a long a waiting list than gynae, looks like us women have more fighting to do for women's health to be taken seriously!).
They say that the chance is increasing of getting pregnant shortly after hysteroscopy as the lining gets disturbed if they do the biopsy ( they took the biopsy to see if there is anything causing implantation failure). Results came out all normal. But this is more like a grandmas saying, I wouldn’t rely on this. Maybe I was just lucky after 7 years of trying, maybe the body decided that now it’s the time…. I’ve had my hysteroscopy done privately at the same clinic where they do IVF. As I didn’t want to waste more time on NHS waiting list. P.s. I have been very naughty that month too, ate a lot of bbqs and other processed foods, plus plenty of red wine on top of that. I just wanted to relax for a bit before starting another journey and being strict with all the foods I eat and stuff. IVF journey is very hard especially then you get negative result at the end.
Wishing you all the best, hopefully miracle will happen soon.
I’ve just had the exact same thing with bleeding on day 6pt.
I’m 10 days on now and still waiting for my clinic to contact me regarding a review/follow up appointment ☹️, but I’m assuming a progesterone issue xx
sounds like you need a follow up appointment. A progesterone blood test pre ET will be helpful to establish if it’s low and if you need to increase the pessaries or add in progesterone in oil.
I'm soo sorry this has happened to you I know how devastating it is to bleed before OTD especially when you don't have anything frozen. I had period before OTD on my first two transfers both times only one embryo made it to be transfered, because of this I asked for my progesterone levels to be checked for my 3rd transfer which at the time my clinic refused as they said it wasn't necessary so I pushed for extra progesterone they gave me lubion injections twice a day along with the 3 ultrogestan pessaries, they told me at the time it wasn't necessary and basically only prescribed it too me to stop me worrying (I really had to argue for it). That cycle worked for me and I now have a 21 month old. We tried for a sibling earlier this year and I was given 400mg cyclogest twice a day and Lubion once a day I had bleeding on and off from just before OTD and ended in miscarriage at 7 weeks. I recently had another transfer and my clinic have just changed there policy they now test your progesterone levels day before transfer and if it's below 100 they increase your progesterone mine was 59 day before so they uped me to 400mg cyclogest pessaries 3 times a day and Lubion injections twice a day. It really annoyed me and makes me wonder if my unsuccessful cycles would've worked if they'd done this then! Your body will only absorb what progesterone you need the rest will be secreted in your urine so push hard for more progesterone next time. Good luck an
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