Hi,

I have been told that it takes an average of 3 attempts (but I'm not sure if they are talking about full stim cycles or that includes FET) for women who have no major fertility problems (i.e. cases where they may need to do IVF because of the partner's low sperm count etc). If the woman has fertility issues then it will obviously take longer on average.
I am just about to start my first IVF cycle (currently on nasal spray and due for egg pick up around the 10th May). I'm hoping that I fall within the 3 attempts as I can't afford to try more than 3 times - actually at this stage I can only afford 2 tries but hoping if they don't work I might manage to scrape enough together for a 3rd try.

I know a few women who got pregnant on first attempt or 2nd attempt, and others who tried for 6 goes before falling pregnant (one of those then lost that pregnancy around 16 weeks). One who had an eptopic pregnancy and a miscarriage while on IVF but eventually successful after a total of 5 cycles (now due to give birth end of this month).

At my clinic I was told the chance with a full stim cycle is 35% and the chance with a frozen embryo transfer is 20%. So I guess if you look at those odds then since you have only had 1 full stim cycle and the rest were FET then the odds weren't that great anyway.

Hang in there if you want to, but I think it's also okay to say "I've had enough". I've done this at different times in my journey and had a break for a while and re-evaluated things. It is certainly an emotional rollercoaster and sometimes we do need to get off and stretch our legs for a while... I havent' started IVF yet but I was on the donor search for a couple of years and then donor insemination without luck... lots of ups and downs and tears during that time... even if I could afford more tries of IVF I don't think I could cope with too much more of this rollercoaster.

Best wishes
Lori
Started donor search Dec 06, Started Donor insemination Jan 09, Started IVF process Feb 10