FET confused at Process and Choices

Hi All,

This is the first time I have posted after stalking for a few weeks seeking information and answers..

I did my first IVF cycle in November 17 eggs collected and now 10 day 3 embryos frozen. Due to a risk of OHSS unfortunately I wasn't able to have a fresh transfer. Have had to wait until post Xmas and now in my first natural FET cycle just when I thought all was going well, my Oestrogen failed to rise so I was started on Puregon.

I am now day 15 and am unclear as to what happens next. I am hoping to ovulate naturally, but so far there has been no FSH surge. If this doesn't change in the next day or so I am assuming my FS will trigger ovulation - does this mean I am in a HRT FET cycle? If yes - can anyone advise - is HRT less favorable for success than natural FET?

Also - I would love some information regarding day3 embies vs day 5 blasts. Would I be better to thaw a couple of day 3 embies and try to culture to day5 blasts prior to putting one back?

Is it true that day 5 blasts have a better chance of success?

Thanks so much in advance....

Xx

Hi thirdtimelucky, the whole natural cycle for FET is another waiting game. I had fairly long cycles so I tended to ovulate anywhere from CD20-30 but my FS was happy just to monitor and wait for me to finally OV. We always knew I had long cycles (about 35days) so it was more a matter of waiting. My lining always developed in line with when I ovulated so I never had any problems. He did ask if I wanted to trigger or keep waiting and when I said I wanted to go as drug free as I could he was fine with waiting.

Have you had scans to see if you do have a follicle and that its growing?

As far as medicated vs natural FET's some people swear by one or the other but I wanted to try natural cause I thought my body would respond better (I had a natural pregnancy before and we were IVF due to MFI) so I wanted to try that. I had Day 2 and Day 3 embryos transfered and out of 7 transfers (4 we transfered 2 embies) I got a BFP 4 times so they can work!

Goodluck its a hard decision....

There often is no choice as to whether you are medicated or not. Without medicated cycles, I would never have had my children with IVF! Try not to worry about things you can't control, think instead that the medicated cycles are helping your body get to the place they need to be so that it can respond and be ready to create the environment for your new bub!
Re: day 3/day 5 - there will be multiple threads on this issue, so I won't try and repeat, but the best thing I suggest is to call your clinic and speak to the embryologist. They can tell you the quality of your embeds and give you advice from there as to whether they should be grown to blast (day 5). The tough thing to remember is that while day 5's absolutely have a adapter success rate than day 3's, This doesn't mean that a day 3 won't succeed!

Good luck :)

Guys I forgot to ask.....

If I did decide to thaw say 3 x 3 day emboss - with a view to culturing to day 5 blasts - ideally to transfer 1 day 5 and refreeze the other two... I'd none of the 3 made it to day 5 - would they transfer one where it was at - or would all 3 be lost?

Sorry and I hope that makes sense!

Dan x

Def speak to the embryologist at your clinic - if a embryo doesn't survive the thaw, the definition of this would be determined by your clinic (eg what % of the embryo survived). Basically, if none survived to a decent %, say 70%, a good clinic won't transfer- you would have very low chances of success but would be charged for the transfer and hospital time which would be the full cost of the FET.

Given you have a few embies, all likely at different qualities, you should speak to the embryologist about the best approach to take. You want to take as many to blast as you can ( it's expensive to do it then freeze, then do it again later to other day 3 embryos) - my question is also why didn't they take them to blast seeing that you had so many? Normally they only do day 3's these days if they only have a few because you do lose more going to blast so they want to try and make sure you have something to transfer. I have a day 3 IVF bub and a day 5 - it's sadly not as simple as saying which one to transfer as there are a few complexities to it. If you call your clinic, a decent embryologist can help you with a plan of attack for your unique circumstance, I had quite a few different stage embies so they helped me work out the best way to do it.

Thannks Sunshine!

I am going to call the embryologist tomorrow. To be honest your question is the one that keeps me awake at night!

Why with 10 embryos did they freeze them all at Day 3? I know I have 8 very good quality and 2 not bad quality. If I had have known more, then, I would have probably asked to freeze some at day 3 and take the other half to day 5 blasto freezing.

Anyway your advice is great - I wasn't sure if I was even able to call the embryologist now they are frozen, but ican scared about not being consulted on what comes next..... My FS is brilliant! But they don't have much time...

Dan xx