Sex before IVF

[Hopeful_88]

Hi everyone, I'm booked in for IVF with egg collection planned for the end of March. This will be my first IVF cycle, been TTC coming up to 4 years in August. I've never been pregnant/never had a positive test.

We have a details appointment next week so I called my clinic asking about the appointment and if I need to do anything beforehand. She asked if we have had unprotected sex since my last period, I said yes, once just after my period finished, and she said we shouldn't have had sex and should have been told not to (I haven't received any correspondence, which is why I called up, so I didn't know!). I think this was more to do with the possibility of affecting the trial embryo transfer but I wasn't fully sure. I'm now super scared it's going to affect our first IVF attempt although she said it should be OK because it was right after my period, but I haven't heard anything since, so I'm freaking out.

My question is, has anyone else had a similar experience, or had to postpone their IVF due to having sex in the lead up to it?

Thanks for any information or support xxx

[Millbanks]

Hi lovely,

They usually tell you not to because they don't want the possibility of a pregnancy during treatment. If they pump you full of drugs while you're pregnant the outcome would probably not be great. My clinic always asked us to do a pregnancy test before commencing any treatment.

I wouldn't worry about it affecting your treatment (unless of course you are - in which case win / win).

xx

[Hopeful_88 in reply to Millbanks]

Hi hun thank you so much for your reply and for the explanation. That makes sense. I'm so annoyed at myself!

I don't know how strict they are but my main worry is that the clinic will cancel, so I'll call them tomorrow if I still haven't had the appointment information sent through yet. That's a good shout that I can ask if it's ok for me to do pregnancy tests throughout the treatment just in case. I feel it's highly unlikely I won't be pregnant coz it's so early in the cycle (and nothings happened in 4 years) so i will keep track of when I ovulate to see if I should be worried about pregnancy.

Such a worrying time thinking it might not happen after waiting years for this opportunity! Feeling so stupid and adding to the stress!

Thanks so much Millbanks xxx

[Millbanks in reply to Hopeful_88]

Ah don't beat yourself up - they should have said!!

I'm sure it'll be fine xx

[Hopeful_88 in reply to Millbanks]

Thank you so much for the reassurance Millbanks, really appreciate it xxx

[TTC0011]

Hey, my clinic asked no unprotected sex - must use condoms. It was a non-negotiable. It’s do with the possibility of pregnancy and the drugs - they can be harmful. As above poster mentioned if you ask to take a test they’ll probably be ok with it.

[K_LNB]

no expert here but I would have thought having sex pre treatment would only be a concern if you are on a long protocol. With short protocol you’d only start drugs once you have a bleed (which obviously wouldn’t happen if you did turn out to be pregnant!). The exception to this would be if your clinic insists upon norithisterone before your bleed for scheduling reasons, however the advice I got from my clinic was that it wouldn’t be harmful to a growing baby in the event one was pregnant (the internet disagrees so not sure!).

[Fruitandflowers]

Agree with Millbanks that it's more about the chance of you getting pregnant, not knowing and then taking all the meds. I think they did warn us not to have intercourse on our first round which I thought was pretty ironic given we'd been TTC for 6 or 7 years by then and never had even a snifter of natural pregnancy. I was thinking how if that had happened how brilliant it would have been and how much money etc we could have saved! Plus all they/you need to do is a urine pregnancy test or two. I guess there's always a chance and there were quite a few ladies on here who did get pregnant whilst on meds (especially down regging I think) but they were ok.

[Hopeful_88]

Hi all, thanks so much for the replies and sharing your experiences. I will try not to worry to much as it was early in the cycle and haven't had a positive test in 3.5 years so I suspect the chances are low, and ofc we will be 100% safe from now on whilst going through this process! Xxx

[LittlePea23]

Thanks for the question I was going to ask the same thing. We are hoping to start come my next period and have our next appointment next week. It's around my ovulation window now but don't want to impact starting!

[Hopeful_88 in reply to LittlePea23]

Makes sense LittlePea23 , it's pretty confusing going through it for the first time and not having the full guidance from the clinic. Good luck with everything!