We had our follow up appointment this morning. Nothing we didn't already know, really - everything looked excellent, nothing went wrong, great transfer..it's just that there is about a 1 in 3 chance of a couple becoming pregnant with an FET. And we weren't the ones the odds were in favor of. Yada, yada...yep, thanks. I could have told you that.
We did talk about the next transfer with our final embryo He is really hesitant for us to do a transfer at all with only one embryo. He actually wanted us to contact our agency and ask to be matched with more embryos so we could have more to transfer this time around!! That made me laugh inside and it was hard not to laugh right out loud in his office.
If this baby is going to survive, it will survive whether or not it has others to go with it. It may improve my chance of pregnancy if we transfer more, but my goal isn't to improve a chance of pregnancy - it is to give this baby...our baby...the one we have left a chance at life.
So I explained to our dr. that we would be doing an FET with our one embryo, and we were okay with that. And THEN I broached the forbidden topic...a natural FET. Our clinic (whom I love, by the way - they are great!), always does programmed, medicated FET's. They have only done ONE natural FET, and that did not result in a pregnancy. But our dr. agreed that if we wanted to do a natural FET (especially since weonly have one - his words), he would understand and be willing to do it. Which excited me, because I hated the birth control and medications they put me on.
So...now we have to decide if we are going to try for a medicated or natural FET. I have feelings both ways. And that's where I need you to help a girl out!
I need your experiences, girls - have any of you done a natural FET? What do you think? Please know that I'm seriously considering a natural FET, so please don't bash it and make me feel silly for even thinking about it! I'm really just wondering if I'm totally crazy...and I hope I'm not!
So...help a girl out! Talk to me! :)
16 comments:
I would have LOVED to do a natural FET! My body, however, would not cooperate with such an idea. But, if you have had fairly regular cycles and your doctor thinks there is no reason NOT to, then I would go for it. Have you had your hormone levels check throughout your cycle? Your reason for IF may have some impact on whether or not it would be something to consider?
Hi there Christina :) Thanks for your input! I have an extremely regular cycle, I've always ovulated regularly, and my levels were great throughout my medicated FET. They did do a check during one of my regular cycles early on and things were fine. Our IF appears to be strictly severe male factor, and not on my end...
My clinic does not do natural cycles either, though I would have done it if I had the option. I do have endo but my cycles are extremely regular and I would have considered it just to avoid all of the meds if my odds were about the same. That is what I would ask the RE, what are your chances between the two. If they are similar I would go for it. If not, then maybe consider the meds. Praying for you as you consider your options.
Jess - Thanks for your thoughts! My RE said he's only ever done one un-medicated cycle, so he can't really give me rates of a natural cycle.
I'm thinking I'd still want to do at least progesterone, and maybe the estrogen, too - but I'm just very wary of doing the birth control and l. upron again...
I think that you need to do whatever is best for you and the babies. For me, I have to do medicated because my cycles are irregular. It would be impossible for the doctor to know when to transfer. But for you, because you're *SO* regular, the extra medications might be unnecessary. If you think your doctor would have the knowledge and tools he needs without the added "scheduling" of the meds, go for it! You're that baby's mama...you know what's best.
I do think that progesterone and estrogen are good ideas because there's still a certain amount of "tricking" of our bodies we have to do to get them to catch on that we're pregnant, since we didn't generate the pregnancies ourselves (thus we also wouldn't generate the necessary hormones right off the bat). But I think you can separate the scheduling meds from the pregnancy meds.
A couple other things to consider--if you do decide to do medicated, see if they can do a different BCP. I had a wicked reaction to this one, but the one I was on for my first transfer didn't give me trouble at all.
Lastly, give yourself some time, too. Your body may have changed through this and what may have been true before, might not be accurate now. For a PCOS woman I actually used to be fairly regular...I had a range of 5 days during which I always started. So I wasn't clock work, but 5 days was still pretty good considering PCOS. But since my miscarriage, I've been ALL over the map--varying by dozens of days. So you need to make sure your body goes back to behaving the way it did before you make decisions based on its old behavior. It may not have been affected since the babies didn't implant, but all those hormones still might have altered things a bit.
I don't have any experience with natural so I can't help. I think whatever God leads you guys to do will be perfect!
Jen - Thanks for the great advice, sweetie. I definitely don't know that we're looking to do anything right away. It's just in my mind right now as we had our follow up today and talked to the dr., etc. I don't know when we're thinking of cycling again...but I definitely want to wait until both my body and our emotions are ready to handle it all again.
OK, so I had never heard of a natural cycle. It helped to read these comments. I have VERY regular cycles and was only put on estrogen and progesterone. Is that natural? My tushy didn't think so! So maybe you can clarify what a natural cycle would be. Is that w/o any hormones?
Been there, Heather...our 6 other embryos were perfect, too. Regardless, the Lord just sent them home to live in heaven instead of with us. However, third transfer, by His grace and mercy, He blessed us with our daughter. As for a natural transfer? We did them naturally all 3 times. Clinic was totally fine with it, in fact, stated their stats are no better or worse doing it on a medicated cycle. So no BCP's for this girl! We worked with Seattle Reproductive Medicine if you want to Google them. Excellent clinic.
Heather I forgot to mention my only issue is severe endo. Cycles naturally are like clockwork. I did have one med - progesterone, but, it was done via a suppository so I didn't have to do shots. It was totally a piece of cake.
Hi Heather! If your odds are approximately the same either way, then Im not sure it makes a difference. You just need to go with your heart. Obviously you want to choose whichever option gives you the best chances of getting pregnant. But if the doctor doesnt think the meds will improve your odds, then dont take them. Although I dont know why they would have almost all their patients taking the meds if they didnt help at least a little. I know I was always extremely regular, too, but then there would be those random cycles that would throw us off. I would hate for your cycle to go whacky the month you plan to transfer. That lends itself to you always wondering "what if we'd just used the bcps?" and questioning your decision. "What ifs" are tough to get through after a failed cycle. Since embryo tranfers are such controlled situations, wouldnt the meds give just one more level of control? We know He is in control ultimately, so you just need to go with the answer that will give you peace in the end. I know Im probably not helping...just giving you my first thoughts.
Interesting idea. I had not considered this for myself (we are flirting with the idea of embryo adoption), but on the practical side, I assume you would save quite a bit of money by doing it this way. Maybe not though... would you have to go in for daily ultrasounds to monitor your lining thickness? Certainly there would be a lot less stress and side effects associated with the daily injections.
I think for me it would come down to maximizing my odds of a successful implantation and I agree with KSB, it would be good to have as much control as possible and not have any regrets later. I know for me, I was always second guessing myself- maybe I didn't inject the right amount, maybe I should have gotten the Follistim into the fridge sooner, what about that time I was one hour late taking the shot, etc. So whatever would make you feel like you did EVERYTHING POSSIBLE for you and the baby would be the best option. I'd research it some more, it definitely seems worth considering.
Heather, you know your body and if you are a very regular person then I go with the natural honestly! there really is no reason not to!
I think I'd do the progetrone.
We did 2 medicated FET cyles after losing tyler and Erin and sadly neither worked both with very good embryos.
After having Kaylee and knowing I couldn't ever carry again my SIL offered to try a surrogeny for us! Her first cycle was natural with 3 perfect embryos and sadly didn't work. I honestly feel deep down she didn't do as she was told though with progestrone and such though.......you have to know her to know what I mean! We had two left and with no one else willing did another transfer with her naturally again! However this time they were not good embryo AT ALL but we couldn't give up, thought maybe another miracle could happen for us! :) Didn't though!
Sorry for the book but I just wanted to tell you sort of in depth how our FET went both ways!
I truely feel if you are very comfortable and content with a natural cycle then you should. I feel if that lil embabie is gonna stick then it will naturally or medicated! HUGS!
The last sentence of what April said is what I was going to say. If the baby is meant to be here on Earth it will happen. Even with drugs, I would think there would still be a chance your body will do its own thing.
I've never really shared this publicly, but I've been an egg donor and 2 out of 3 times they had to reschedule the ER because even with the drugs and daily u/s, I was a little behind schedule.
So I think you should continue to pray about it, and if you feel at peace with a natural cycle than go for it!
Heather! I did a natural FET and successfully got pregnant with my twins and LOVED it!!!! We had just done our first fresh IVF cycle and it failed and when we were talking to our doctor we brought it up b/c we really didn't like all the bc, etc. as well...he said he doesn't do it a lot b/c in all honesty it is more work for them because of the monitoring, etc...so they checked me out on days 7 and I think 10 and 14, did the trigger shot and then put our blasts in 5 days later:) If we ever go back I will definitely opt to do a natural FET again! Good luck! If you have any questions just let me know:)
After reading everyone's comments I have clockwork cycles and did estrogen (I think) and progesterone...unknown infertility with a blood clotting disorder...
Post a Comment