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Natural, mini, mild (etc) IVF chat thread

87K views 379 replies 66 participants last post by  SuperMaria 
#1 ·
I have noticed quite a few ladies recently have mentioned natural, mild, mini IVF so thought I would set up a chat thread for all the people who are thinking about, are planning on starting, or have started this type of IVF.

It's not intended to replace the Cycle Buddies, and not for pregnancy chat (as per the normal rules), but I just thought we could give it a try and see if there are any takers as I know that there isn't a specific "home" for this type of IVF.

I hope it's helpful, but if not the thread can slip into obscurity just like the amazing band that was Let Loose! ;D

 
#2 ·
HI, thank you for starting the thread. Yes I would love to speak to more women considering/going through mild or natural IVF treatment. I am with IVI in spain, and started mild/modified (what is the difference??) IVF. The reason (I guess) why my DR choose this protocol, is that I only have 1 ovary and no tubes. So the idea is to do several rounds of EC & EF.

I started taking Clomid daily with Menopur 150iu every 48hrs. At the first scan I had 2 tinny follicles. At the second scan I only had 1 left, but that one is definitely growing (currently day 14 of stimms, next scan tomorrow)

I have asked for a meeting with my ER to discuss my treatment and "strategy". I am worried they want to cancel. But I don't want to cancel, because with this strategy it was never about quantity. I am worried that I am not thinking objectively/logically or being realistic because I am obviously a believer in miracles and feeling pretty hormonal.

I want them to collect this one egg. My non-medically-educated brain tells me that this one must have more chance of being a "surviver" as it must be the natural dominant follicle which is growing. Going for quality over quantity, no?

I don't actually want them to stuff me with more drugs, because with 1 ovary I will never get any serious quantities of follicles/eggs. I am thinking at most I could get 2 eggs (from 4 or so follicles). I don't want to stress my ovaries either and having to delay treatment. So I want to ask them if I should do a natural IVF with back to back cycles, after this current cycle. I fell pregnant naturally in August 2014, in September I had my only tube removed because the pregnancy was ectopic. Though this proofs that I can get pregnant, I know I ovulate, I know I have still (fingers crossed) a few eggs left. So would the best strategy possibly be: natural cycle, EC, ICSI and transfer, if BFN than go straight into the next cycle? Though it would have to be a cycle without Clomid, otherwise its best to do egg-freezing.  ????

Anybody any advice, or am I just hormonally/stressed ranting???
xxx  :-\
 
#3 ·
Hi, Cloudy, many thanks for setting up this thread. I had a recent miscarriage and am coping by trying to figure out what I can tolerate in terms of future OE cycles; my conclusion has been that I need to find an approach that is easier on my body. There seem to be multiple clinics in Czech Republic that offer natural and mild IVF treatment, and I am going to start contacting them next week.

AnnaMathilde, in your shoes I would go to egg collection, but that's because I know at this point that my DH and I have excellent fertilisation rates -- it sounds like you and your partner don't have that info yet about what your fertilisation rates will be. I guess the question is how much will you wonder about the what-ifs if you don't go to egg collection, vs. how much benefit will you get from being able to use the balance refunded from the current cycle to fund another go on a different protocol. It's a very personal decision, but if you feel strongly that you should give this egg a chance, you should do it. I followed my doctor's advice on my first cycle and didn't, and I regret that now.

Here's my situation:

- Preexisting issues: Age, low AMH, elevated FSH (not premenopausal levels, however), intramural and subserosal fibroids, presumed endo w/ tubal involvement (no lap performed, but long history of endo symptoms and tubes not patent on HSG). TTC naturally 5 years, never a whiff of BFP.

- IVF Cycle 1: "Poor response" on short protocol with 225 iu/day Gonal-F plus Cetrotide. 13 days of stims, 1 lead follicle on each ovary (one much further ahead that became a follicular cyst). No problems with side effects on Gonal-F and Cetrotide. Cycle cancelled and converted to IUI (a decision I regret, in light of my subsequent 100% fertilisation rate). BFN.

- IVF Cycle 2: 6 follies on long protocol with Buserelin and 300 iu/day Gonal-F. 3 weeks downreg, 18 days' stims (coasting last 3 days at 150 iu/day Gonal-F). Daily migraines from the Buserelin. 3 eggs, 100% fert. 2 embies transferred on Day 3, one good quality, one with small amount of multinucleation. BFN. 3rd embie cultured to blasto, but not suitable for freezing due to multinucleation.

- IVF Cycle 3: 3 follies on flare protocol. 3 weeks downreg on Yasmin (hormonal BCP) followed by 5 days of Synarel, 13 days' stims on 300 iu/day Gonal-F plus Synarel. Depression from the Yasmin, headaches from the Synarel (albeit less severe than from the Buserelin). 1 egg, fertilised. Good-quality embie transferred on Day 2, BFP. Miscarriage at 8w6d.

I have regular cycles (usually about 25-26 days long, occasionally shorter, very seldom a couple of days longer, but I've never had a "missed" period) and ovulate regularly as indicated by LH test strips and EWCM 14 days before my period. Basically, it's very difficult to persuade my body to deviate from its normal routine. When downregging on long protocol, I had to do a 3rd week at a double-dose to thin my lining out; when on Cetrotide, I still developed a very strong dominant follicle, and also had to take a double dose of Cetrotide one day to stop a natural LH surge.

I will never produce more than 2 or 3 eggs at a time on any protocol, but my egg quality is clearly good for my age or we would not have such a high fertilisation rate (also, one out of 3 embies put back so far resulted in pregnancy). I believe that my egg quality suffered from the lengthy stimulation required on the long protocol, and that's why we saw the multinucleation. At this point, I think we have to work on maximising egg quality, because higher quantity is off the table.

What I want to do is "natural" IVF with Cetrotide to control ovulation, and adding in low-dose Gonal-F or Menopur if the follicle does not seem to be maturing fully without additional stimulation. I'm aware that there's a risk of retrieving zero eggs on this kind of cycle, but I think we'll have a much better shot with any eggs that we do retrieve.

Currently I am working only part-time, doing consulting from home (or wherever I and my laptop are). At this point, I intend to continue this, even though I would like to have more face-to-face time with colleagues and actually grow my career -- but realistically this is my last year to conceive with OE. So I intend to keep my flexibility high to enable whatever travel I need to do to catch the egg each month.

Has anyone here had natural IVF at a clinic abroad? If so, at what points in your cycle did you have to travel? I'm sure I'll get some answers when I start calling clinics next week, but I'm very interested in what other ladies have actually experienced. :)
 
#4 ·
I completely agree and understand. I don't think that for some the full-on drugs is productive. I had my meeting at the clinic on Friday. The doctor was brilliant. Before I mentioned anything she already said exactly what I would have liked her to say. Wednesday they are going to collect my 1 follicle from this long-cycle (Japanese mini-IVF). She agreed that obviously the drugs don't do much to me (except for sweats and headaches, but I don't mind as its all for the cause!). So once this follicle is collected ( ^pray^that its a big fat wonderful quality egg), then for the next cycle we'll do a mild IVF. If that doesn't give me more than 1 follicle, then the third cycle will be just a modified-natural cycle. She also said, that no point in taking the drugs if the results are no different from a natural cycle. I always ovulate, have regular cycles and fell pregnant naturally twice in 2 years of trying (mc + ectopic, and now no more tubes).

I was worried that the egg freezing has worse statistics than embryo freezing. Though she said that at their clinic they actually have better stats on egg freezing than embryo freezing. Fingers crossed this is true and true for me.

Also to ICSI at each cycle, would be way too expensive, so egg collection a better option. I am thinking of doing another 2-3 cycles for collection and then going to transfer.

About the travel for natural IVF, i am not sure. The doctor did say that there will be less ultrasounds with mild & natural IVF cycles, and that they will only use the drugs to control ovulation. I am with IVI in Spain (Bilbao).

Let me know how you get on. I am very interested as well in hearing stories about modified-natural IVF. Preferably success stories!

:) :) :)
 
#5 ·
ladies, I hope you do not mind me joining.

Cloudy, thanks so much for starting this thread! I was looking for something like this but could only find very old threads mostly related to Create.

CrazyHorse, hi! Thanks for the link! from reading your story I have a very similar response to cetrotide i.e. I also develop a very strong dominant follicle, and my natural LH surges while I am still on cetrotide.

A little about me:

I started my "IVF career" at Create, London. we had two cycles: (i) natural/modified and (ii) mild stims. natural/modified was probably the best cycle so far as we had a chemical pregnancy - the closest we ever got to a real BFP. They were very supportive all the way. I was on 150 menopur from day 6 + cetrotide, trigger, and progesterone after ET. Our second mild stims cycle involved stimming from day 2 with Gonal F on 125 which was then upped to 250, we had 3 follicles but got only 2 eggs as the dominant ovulated early - all eggs were of poor quality and did not fertilise. Opinions divided: some said we should go back to natural, others said mild stims is silly we should do proper stims.

I have high FSH but was still eligible for the NHS funding in the UK so we decided to give full-on stims a go, spent a year waiting for our 3rd cycle but it was a complete disaster. I was on short protocol with 450 menopur from day 3 + cetrotide (which btw does not work for me and my LH goes up when my body wants to ovulate regardless), we had 4 eggs but it was the same story as mild stims - all eggs of poor quality and none fertilised. it's something to do with maturation and cetrotide not working that in the end affects egg quality because on my natural cycles when I get 1 egg - it's of good quality and it fertilises. unfortunately something also went wrong during EC and I started bleeding internally which I did not realise immediately as I was told pain is normal after EC (I had no pain with natural IVF), in the end I was hospitalised and was on morphine. I lost about a litre of blood which was trapped in my abdomen causing a lot of pain and it took 5-6 weeks to recover. Nobody tells you this can happen as IVF is considered safe. At this point we made a decision that we are going to stick to natural IVF but we need some help with sperm selection as ICSI is just not enough. Also, we started looking at clinics abroad as the cost of natural IVf in London is similar to stim IVF while in Europe you can do it so much cheaper. we are saving b/w 3-5K depending on the clinic on each cycle by going abroad.

I am preparing for my 3rd back to back natural IVF cycle. the first two we had in Brno, Czech Republic and now we are moving to a clinic in Munich. the main reason is that they offer IMSI (we have severe male factor) and Brno clinic can only offer PICSI (but DH's SA was not suitable for PICSI so we could not do it). I know my body quite well so I like clinics that are prepared to be flexible. I really liked Reprofit in Brno. I had all my scans in London and then just flew to Brno for EC/ET. The first cycle was a failure, I had 2 follicles growing (naturally with no stims!) but they are most likely ovulated just before the procedure, they did not collect any eggs. I did feel I was ovulating but the procedure was delayed and I think that's why we lost them. For our second cycle our doctor agreed to have the procedure very early on, I was in the theatre before 8am! also, even though she personally did not believe in this she agree for me to take indometacin from the trigger to EC. since I have this issue of losing eggs to early ovulation I believe indometacin really helps because on the 3 cycles I was taking it we did not lose the eggs even the second time when my dominant follicle virtually started ovulating the egg was still inside and they got it. so I am a firm believer in indometacin. Our second cycle with them was very well managed and we got that egg. unfortunately sperm let us down, the sample was not suitable for PICSI so we had to rely on ICSI, it did fertilise but it was a BFN.

I have to say that all the planning and travelling - everything has to be booked the last minute cos natural IVf is very unpredictable - all very stressful. If I could get success with stim IVf I'd rather do one stim IVF than many natural IVfs but unfortunately I cannot, stims just do not work for me. I am just happy a lot of clinics are prepared to go natural IVF route however painful it is and this is probably the only chance we got.

here is a success story from a friend on B&B, very inspiring - http://babyandbump.momtastic.com/assisted-conception/1934573-7th-natural-cycle-ivf-w-o-meds-finally-bfp.html

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#6 ·
I am sorry that you are on such a roller coaster! I have no idea what to advice you on, as I am far from an expert. However I do agree with you, that just pumping lots of drugs into the system, doesn't really work for some of us.
I am sure that the stress and travel doesn't help either. What is you next plan?

Egg collection (only 1 follicle) for me on Wednesday and trigger tonight. Next round will be mild-IVF, and see how we go with that one...

:) :)
 
#7 ·
Just popping in to say hello!

Briss - im glad you joined up, I am a Reprofit thread stalker (its somewhere we may consider going in the future) and have been following your situation. Good luck with Munich x

AM - good luck for EC x

CH - hope you are ok honey, thinking of you  ^hugme^

Good luck everyone xxx
 
#8 ·
Cloudy, thanks! I have only good things to say about Reprofit but you probably know that from Reprofit thread. I just wish they offered IMSI.

AnnaMathilde, best of luck with your EC! I hope you will get that egg and it will be your lucky one. I strongly believe that you body knows best and it chooses carefully the right follicle to become the dominant one so you can be sure this is the best egg this cycle.

Are you going to have any sedation? In CR and I think in Germany as well you can have EC without any sedation. I had it two months ago and it was actually fine, a bit painful but very quick.

I have my scan tomorrow so we will see if we can try again this cycle. I already decided that we are going natural IVF route every month until we are lucky. I may change my mind of course and try stims again probably long protocol but at the moment I am sticking to natural IVF. It's much easier on the body.
 
#9 ·
Hello,

Do you mind if I join?

A bit about me. I am on my third round of natural modified ivf at Create in London. I am having three rounds of collection, with (I hope) ET next month.
I had one round on the nhs before age cut me off, and was on max Stims. I had three weeks down reg on burserelin, and then 23 days of 450 gonal f. It was quite hard going. I only have one ovary, have endo and a fibroid, so things are stacked against me. The nhs cycle resulted in 5 eggs, 2 were no good, but non fertilised as we weren't given the option of ICSI.
The natural modified we have opted for ICSI, and the first round gave the exact same results with only 150 menopur, but two of the three ok eggs fertilised. My second round got one of two, and my third... Well who knows, as EC is sometime this week. It is so much easier on this protocol, and for me the results have been much better so far, but as still have not had any et, we cannot tell.

Good luck to all out there what ever the protocol.
 
#10 ·
Lizzie, good luck with your EC! can I ask on what day after EC do they freeze your embryos? do they take them to blastocyst stage? how are they going to select which ones to transfer?
 
#11 ·
Hi Briss,

They freeze day2, and as far as I know transfer day 3, but haven't got there yet. Have been saving them all and if they survive the thaw will use the four in two goes if needed. So defrost two and have them, then if that doesn't work try another fet with the remaining two.

Its amazing that1/3 of the drugs has given me the same eggs, and I have coped so much  better with this approach.

All the best
 
#12 ·
Just had my day 8 scan and not sure what to make of it. I do not have a dominant follicle. The largest is only 7.5 mm. Usually by day 9 I have at least 16 mm dominant follicle. Does this mean I am going to ovulate later than usual and the follicle is just taking its time to grow or something is not right about this cycle? My lining is 8.7 which is as it should be so it's basically ready for ovulation. My CBFM has been giving my HIGH readings last two days so I guess my estrogen must be high and I thought I will be ovulating soon. Now I am just puzzled. Still waiting for my blood test results of this morning and a response from the clinic.

Lizzie, how does this work to increase your chances compared to having ET every cycle? If you transfer fresh embryo every cycle you can obviously get BFN/Chemical if the embryo is not viable but wont you get the same result if you transfer them later but by freezing them wont you be decreasing your chances as maybe a viable embryo wont survive the freeze? I might be completely wrong here it's just how logic goes in my head, I heard of people doing 3 cycle thing with one transfer but just trying to work it out in my head. Did create explain the benefits of this approach?
 
#13 ·
Given my poor response, I wasn't sure I would get any fertilised as nothing worked on my first cycle. Therefore I thought this approach would give me a chance of one et after the three cycles as aiming for just one quality egg each cycle would give me a chance of fertilisation. I have been lucky to get three and on ny third cycle am working on a fourth.
with freezing I figure if its strong enough to survive that, it should have a chance, and have been told figures for fresh vs frozen are pretty equal.
I am day 11 and my folicle is only 14 so I don't think your progress is too bad, but maybe your bloods will give a better clue if the other signs are contrary.
good luck
 
#14 ·
Had a very disappointing day today, my blood test results were even more confusing. my LH was quite high at 12 so looks like my body wants to ovulate soon but estrogen is lower than usual at below 600 (while on previous cycles when I had a dominant follicle it was 1,400-1,800 on day 9). On top of that the clinic said that they think I already ovulated because my progesterone was elevated at 1.8 ng/ml. I am now beyond confused. How is this possible it's only day 8, my temp is still low and I thought 1.8 is rather low for ovulation? There only way this could possible happen if progesterone really messed up my cycle by delaying my period so that there was a mismatch between the start of the next cycle (i.e. AF) and follicle development which started a few days earlier. This could logically explain abnormally early ovulation if follicles started growing 3-4 days before I got my AF but is this really possible?

anyway, my doc was not even in today so I am hoping he will clear things up tomorrow but I think I would still like to repeat my bloods/scan later this week even if only for my own understanding. Quite an expensive exercise but I feel I need to understand what happens if synthetic progesterone really affects my follicle development and makes me ovulate early the next cycle cos I may need this for my future natural IVF cycles
 
#15 ·
Hi Lizzie, Can I ask, do they fertilize at each collection? my clinic told me that that would be way to expensive to have ICSI at each collection. So for finances its better to collect a few before going to ICSI. But I would possibly be interested in fertilizing at each cycle, so you know a little better what your chances are before transfer. I am thinking of waiting a month between last collection and transfer so that the drugs get out of the system... Though I don't know at what stage I should stop collection.... that's why fertilization at each collection would be a good option...

Briss, I have no idea what is happening tomorrow with EC... maybe best be a little ignorant otherwise I won't sleep. I'll just let it happen, I guess. No idea if there is sedation or not... For your disappointing day, I have no idea as not an expert. However I sometimes get a little annoyed with statistics and test results.... I sometimes prefer not to look at them. Remember that the benchmarks are just averages and "ideal"-levels. I have read on this board people with abnormal levels who according to the benchmark had 0% chance of falling pregnant/having successful IVF and still they did. I don't think my estrogen has gone anywhere near your 1400, and I don't even know what it should be. So if your estrogen is "too low" according to the "theory", then firstly you can't do anything about it this instant, so maybe just go with the flow and stay healthy and focussed.... and secondly the stress of worrying that you may not get to the "right" level will only have a negative effect. Stay Zen...

I started my first IVF for EC cycle on 5 december (long protocol), and I feel I have joined a hidden/secret/silent society of IVF-'sufferers'... I just cant believe the hard work/stress/hormonal-effects etc IVF has on you, and that there are sooooo many women going through this and you never hear a single moan in public, they do it all in secret. I told someone today that if men had to do IVF, the whole world would know about the stress of it, the agony of it, the side effects of all the drugs, the injections.... This is not a moan as I am grateful that IVF exists and is an option for us, and I am just in admiration of the female-sex for their stamina! ....Amen
 
#16 ·
Just in case anybody is reading... I did my egg-collection today. I did get sedated... only a light one, but it worked a treat for me. Didn't feel a thing and was only "out" for 10minutes.

However there were no eggs. Just 1 empty follicle.... Not sure what to think of it. Obviously very disappointed. And just worried this is a very bad sign for any success in the future. Worried that I am wasting my money, being stubborn and naive.

Not sure if I should just "accept" the worst and be grateful ( ^pray^ ^pray^ I sooooo am) for the beautiful daughter I have and give up on this immense desire to have a larger family (I come from a big family myself, and my brothers and sisters are my most precious thing in my life!!). Or should I consider donor egg? My partner will never ever accept that... so....

Am going straight into a next cycle with a new protocol... we'll wait and see what happens...

:'( :'( :'(
 
#17 ·
Anna, I'm sorry for your disappointing result today. The follicle may have been empty, or the doctor may simply have been unable to capture the egg. Unfortunately, there's never a guarantee that the egg will be captured during aspiration of the follicle, as it's a very inexact process. This is one of the reasons that most clinics really prefer the standard IVF methods if you can get good results with them -- no one wants to have to tell a patient that they went through the heartache of a cycle and didn't even get a single egg.

Wishing you lots of luck with your new cycle. I don't know your partner, but many, many people find their feelings on donor eggs change over time, as they experience the heartbreak of BFNs and/or miscarriages, and watching their loved one's disappointment. My husband didn't like the idea at all at first, but he's accepted that's what we'll eventually do if my own eggs just can't get the job done.
 
#18 ·
Hi Anna, Sorry to hear your news. I wish you much luck for your next steps.

I have fertilisation after each EC and freeze at day 2. ICSI is a bit more expensive and I do have to pay for each one, so this is the third, but I got zero fertilisation with normal ivf, so this seems the best option.  I have one folicle this time, the others stopped at about 7mm, I am having a scan tomorrow where I am hoping that it will be ready to trigger (it was 14 at the last scan).

No of folicles not so great this time, but not sure if this is because I didn't have a gap between cycles this time (getting impatient).

 
#19 ·
AnnaMathilde, I have been reading a lot on empty follicles situation and apparently in most cases it's just pure human error in retrieving the egg. do you know your oestrogen levels on the day of trigger? in any event if your levels were too low they would not have proceeded with EC as they would have suspected there is no egg or poor quality egg but if oestrogen levels were good you most likely had an egg but either it got away or they failed to get it. I happens all the time. I totally support your decision to carry on with the next cycle. on my first cycle they did not get any eggs but we did get one the very next cycle so you just never know.

afm, my temp was up this morning so it's possible I ovulated by day 8 of my cycle which is quite shocking. still trying to get to the bottom of what's happening but to me it's quite clear that this is to do with my ET/progesterone from previous cycle. I was hoping to do back to back natural IVF but it looks like if we get to ET and get BFN then the next cycle might need to be skipped to get my body recover from progesterone.
 
#20 ·
Anna- so sorry for your disappointing result. Wishing all the best for your next steps.
Unfortunately, there is a high cancellation rate for (japanese) mini Ivfs.
Don't know how old are you but for my age group it's more than 50%.

Briss - sorry cant comment in ovul symptoms as don't think I ever could feel them.
Hopefully bloods retest will give an answer.

Lizzie - good luck with scan.

Afm- have started japanese mini ivf. The plan is to do 3 rounds of embryo banking. Was on femara this cycle, grew 3 follies but only got 2 eggs, both fertilised and were put in on D3.  I had a fresh trf this cycle due to the cost. But if this round is not successful, then straight to banking.
Next cycle is planned as tamixofen combo. Praying I won't need it.

 
#21 ·
Altai, I am very curious about Japanese IVF - what is it? also why would you take tamixofen? My DH was taking it to improve his FSH/Testosterone levels which it did, however it did not result in sperm improvement.

afm, My today's bloods showed that progesterone levels have increased suggestive of ovulation and since my temp has been up I reconciled to the fact that it's all over this cycle. I was not even sure I was going for a scan - seemed like a waste of money. The scan actually made it all even more confusing than before. On one hand it showed that one of the follicles on the left side had irregular shape and signs of haemorrhage - suggestive of rapture/ovulation. however, at the same time my estrogen levels have also increased and follicles have actually grown since Tuesday (the largest were 12.9/10.3/9.4 compared to 7.5/6.4/5.1 on Tuesday)!! How is this even possible to have both estrogen and progesterone increasing?? progesterone is supposed to stop follicles from developing and yet they are growing. I do not even know what to think anymore

waiting for the Munich clinic to tell me if we can still do natural IVF this cycle or not. probably not cos progesterone levels are just too high but then what do I know
 
#22 ·
Briss- so called Japanese ivf is mini stim ivf, first pioneered by Kato clinic in Japan. There have been different modifications/developments to the protocol since then.
Initially started with clomiphene citrate/femara or combo.
Here is one link. I also put more links in another thread with clomid.
http://www.infertilitysolutions.com/teramoto.html

I don't know why the dr suggested tamixofen instead but it is similar drug to clomid. Though I've done ok with femara getting 2 embryos. With full stimm (300u) I usually get 3 on D3, too.
So not a big difference.

Sorry, things are so confusing with you. I don't know abt progesterone and not sure why you already testing it. In all my previous clinics I tested @ trigger shot day and ET.

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#23 ·
Altai, thank you! That's really helpful

afm, got my verdict today - no surprises: "progesterone indicates ovulation already happened so repeat scan/bloods on day 7 of your next cycle". the doc did not answer any of my questions as to why and what's happening with estrogen and follicle growth. I will be sending my forms and documents to Gennet next week to start the process with them as their waiting list is quite long but I am still giving Munich a chance. after all they were really spot on saying from the outset that ovulation took place. even though at the time it seemed ridiculous to me. honestly day 8 ovulation?? I am not even sure this was proper ovulation, the follicle cant just disappear, in case of ovulation it collapses but it's still there and they can usually see it changes it's colour and form. on day 8 there was no such follicle or maybe they just did not see it cos they were not looking for it. The sonographers are pretty useless I must say, they keep thinking my cyst is a dominant follicle pretty much every time

I also contacted another clinic in Munich but they have not responded yet.
 
#24 ·
Briss- sorry this cycle didn't work out as expected. I think the follicle can disappear. I had the same on femara and read that some women had it on clomid, too.
Do you have your scans in fertility clinic?
scanning skills vary, so perhaps the best option would be to have scan in fertility clinic. Especially when doing natural/mini/mild because of high cancellation rate or when closer to EC.

I found this study on chromosomal abnormality of embryos resulting from mild and conventional ivf. But their patients were <38, bmi 19-19 , good sperm = good prognosis patients. Resulting embryos were PGS-ed for 10 chromosomes.
They concluded that proportion of chromosomally normal embryos is higher with mini ivf.

But mini ivf cancellation rate was high, too in their study, so perhaps a bit biased towards natural selection of strongest or 'bestest' embryos.

http://humrep.oxfordjournals.org/content/22/4/980.full.pdf

Still sounds very encouraging.

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#25 ·
Hi Ladies

I have a question.  I've never had IVF before and I'm researching clinics abroad because of the cost. Who decides whether you should have full or natural ivf, would it be the clinic or do I have to state which option I want at the outset?

To be honest I'm nervous about the prospect of my cycle being messed around by loads of drugs but obviously I want the best outcome as I don't think we'll be able to afford more than 2 cycles.

Decisions, decisions.
 
#26 ·
Banjo, I think the important thing is to find a clinic you can trust. I'd approach several clinics and explain your history and see what they offer: stims, mild stims or natural. tbh it's unlikely anyone will offer natural because the success rates are too low so it's most likely b/w stims and low stims/mini IVF. until you try it's really hard to say which is going to work best for you. when i started IVF I knew I was going to be a poor responder because of my high FSH levels and I was convinced low stims are going to work for me. they almost did but not quite. then I thought I really need to try full on stims but it was a disaster so we are now back to natural. all clinics I approach are trying to persuade me to do at least mild stims but I have been there before and know that it's most likely not going to work so I usually tell them what i want (but that's because I have already tried many things).
 
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