*Sensitive* How long did you wait to try again after a successful IVF cycle?

[Melian44]

Hi everyone,

I am writing from the extremely privileged position of having had a successful FET this year, which resulted in our now three month old son.

We always imagined we would have two or three children, before we realized I had stage four endometriosis and my partner a low sperm count.

We are both 35 and have one mid quality blastocyst frozen from our first IVF cycle (known as the « little wooly mammoth »). As I work in a developing country (and will likely remain there for the next three years), planning a new IVF cycle or even just a FET is not easy, as it means coming back to Europe for several weeks. Considering our age, I’d like to try again as soon as possible, hopefully before the end of my current maternity leave which is 6 months-long.

How long did you wait after your first successful IVF pregnancy? Do you have any advice?

Sending lots of love and hope to everyone during the holiday season, which is never easy when facing infertility. 💫

[CyclingAddict]

Congratulations! We are in a similar position. We have a 2 month old son from a successful FET and have 6 embryos in the freezer. We definitely want to try again. For context, I'm 33 and my husband is 12 years older. We've decided to wait for another 12 months from now to try again. The advice we were given is to wait atleast a year before trying to get pregnant as apparently trying again so soon can increase the risk of complications. I also want to enjoy the time with my son before attending loads of appointments and things.

Sorry I can't give more helpful advice! Wishing you luck x

[Allotmenteer16]

I had my daughter in July 2020, we went for an initial meeting with the clinic about an embryo transfer in Dec 2022. Started meds in Jan 2023, but they found a polyp, which I then had to wait until June to have dealt with on NHS. In that time our clinic was closed by the HFEA so we moved our embryo to a new clinic which took a lot of time as some of our paperwork was missing (part of the HFEA's concerns were documentation!). Eventually went to start meds for FET in Sept 2023 at the new clinic, but by this time the stress had taken its toll and I became unwell with chronic dizziness and had to stop the meds again. Thankfully got better, had a FET in January this year but it didn't work. No other embryos frozen, so we decided to go for a full cycle again but this would be our last try. I needed to lose some weight first. Finally started in July, we got one embryo but thankfully a high grade one, transferred in August and it worked. I'm now 20 weeks....but I'm also now 41 so a bit older than I hoped, but it is what it is as they say!

Anything can happen, so work out how long you want with your first child and time for your body to recover if you aren't there already, I'm glad I've had some dedicated time with my daughter until she started school this year but equally would have liked for things to happen sooner.

[Kitkat10]

hi, congratulations 🩷🩷 I tried again when my son was 10 months old. Had four transfers for it to work and got my BFP when my son was 22 months old. This included a switch to DE which took a little longer logistically but has resulted in a nice age gap (2.5 years) between my little boy and little girl. Good luck xx

[StarsAllAround]

I had a meeting with my clinic to discuss this when my LG was 10 months. If you had a C-section you have to wait at least a year. If it was natural birth then they recommend a year but will allow you to try sooner. Also if your breastfeeding they recommend that you have stopped before trying again and if you have embryos in the freezer and are going down the FET route they recommend a 3 month gap from stopping breastfeeding so you can track your cycle. I was breastfeeding at the time so we were aiming to try again when she turn 18 months but I started to night wean and within a week she just started refusing boob completely so we actually tried again when she turned 13 months. Sadly I had a miscarriage at 7 weeks. We took a few weeks break and recently did another FET I'm now 11 weeks and my LG is 21 months.

[Twiglet2]

had my son in April 2021, phoned the clinic in July 2021 to get the paperwork rolling and had my first transfer trying for a sibling in November 2021. We had 2 frozen embryos. They didn’t work and it took another 5/6 egg collections. And I’m now finally 30 weeks pregnant 3.5 years later so I’m so glad I started asap! Bigger age gap than we wanted but hopefully they will still be close ☺️

Ps if you are breast feeding or had a c-section you may have to wait a little longer, some clinics say up to a year xx

[Belldandy]

Hi there! We had our son in August 2022 and my clinic advised to stop breastfeeding before a new transfer. I stopped when he was roughly 18 months and went for a transfer in March 2024. That didn’t work and then our final embryo didn’t thaw…we had to do a new ER in June/July and did our transfer in August which resulted in BFP. Currently 20 weeks.

[Sarah770]

hi there, I did my first and only IVF when I was 35 , my eldest was 11yo at the time. I had another son on the first transfer, and tried a l other transfer a year later and had a third son, so my second and third sons are 23months apart. My youngest is 20mo now and I am trying for a fourth child. I had a + last month which I miscarried but I would have been very happy with 28months apart between baby 3 and 4. Now they are going to be a bit more apart and that’s perfectly fine too.

My advice: go for anything you want, make it happen, don’t overthink it.

[Hidden in reply to Sarah770]

That’s a great result, I am starting IVF and I am 35 too, it’s amazing to see you are going to have 3 babies with IVF, do you mind me asking how many embryos you froze and how many cycles did you need ? Did you have low AMH or any other infertility issue ?

[Sarah770 in reply to Hidden]

I had 101 ovocytes retrieved, 65 embryos and I have now a bit less than half. Just one cycle, only transfers after that. I had an AMH of 12 which is abnormally high because of polycistic ovaries. We have many follicules but the quality is not great, and as a result we don’t ovulate. I don’t have any other issues.

Making your embryos at your age is amazing. My transfers have very good results now because my embryos were made at your age and also because I PGD’d 15 of them and only pick from that list so I only transfer euploids. I still had a failed implantation and a miscarriage.

[Hidden in reply to Sarah770]

Oh wow that’s absolutely amazing!

Yes the main reason goal is to bank PGT tested embryos for future because I can fall pregnant naturally now but I have low AMH which means I may struggle in future!

I can’t believe miscarriages still happen after PGT testing ☹️

[Sarah770 in reply to Hidden]

That was exactly my reasoning and frankly I don’t regret it. I took advantage of being in the US to do it, because if I had been in my country they would have never let me do it. On the US, you pay, you do it: I would have been prego quite easily at the time but I thought and was confirmed that it would be way more difficult a few years later, which is now. I now have peace of mind. Your reasoning is the smartest one ever for all sorts of reasons, the most important of which is that you will now that your % of success will be substantially higher whatever happens in the future.

Regarding the miscarriage I was also very surprised, and also very disappointed. They say that PGD might harm embryos, quite rarely but still, as it is a biopsy. But it is very very rare, and it is a chance to go through such an experience without being worried about the number of embryos left in the bank or having to do an IVF ever again: I make transfers only.

Wishing you the best of luck, your strategy is I think the smartest ever.

[Hidden in reply to Sarah770]

Thank you so much for taking time to share your experience you have given me a lot of hope 🙏

I have been beating myself up recently as I felt I should have done it earlier than 35 because 35 to me sounds like that scary age when it comes to fertility but hearing you reassured me that there are still good amount of hope and I shouldn’t ever doubt my decision about embryo banking.

It’s a hassle and a lot of stress on the body for sure with all the hormones and since I am a health freak I overthink putting anything into my body that is unnecessary but after chatting to you I’m pretty sure I have made the smartest decision let’s just cross our fingers that I will get good number of eggs due to my AMH 🙏

Wishing you all the best of luck with planning the 4th pregnancy xxx

[Sarah770 in reply to Hidden]

In my experience 35 is still a great age. What you are doing is extremely smart. Ladies who start trying at 40/41 have a lot of stress as at that age, there is a chance that the process does not work. With embryos made at 35 and a clinic that truly understand the purpose, ie not a one shot but putting an entire family in the fridge, you have the best insurance plan possible.

Many women wish now they had planned as you do at your age. Go for it, do not have any doubts.

You’ve got this girl!

And many thanks for your kind words

[OnRoundEleven]

Congratulations on the birth of your son.

I waited a month after I stopped breastfeeding, and then started a frozen embyro transfer of a PGT-A tested egg. It failed to implant. I really wish I had waited more between breastfeeding and doing another IVF FET transfer, as although my period had returned, the cycle had not settled down - I think I ovulated about 5 days later than usual. The clinic didn't say anything to me about this, but I'm sure it helped contribute to my failure.

I see another poster said they were told 3 months between breastfeeding and IVF and that sounds much more sensible in retrospect. Best wishes and good luck.