IVF vs Natural IVF confused - advice really appreciaed

[Earhat]

I am interested in some advice on whether it is worth trying natural IVF over the full medical route?
I was pregnant last year but unfortunately had to have a termination at 14 weeks due to chromosomal abnormalities and since then we have had no luck. I saw a fertility specialist who said to try 3 months naturally before returning for IVF . I turned 40 this year and don't want to risk missing my chance but I am very nervous of the drugs - and the whole process frankly.
The specialist said I am a good candidate for IVF but I have read about natural IVF which appears to be less invasive. If anyone has any advice on the difference between the two or information on either experience it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time in advance.

bump...

Try the excellent egg buddies thread - one of the regulars has natural IVF.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Hi there,

I'm the person fish mentioned from the egg buddies thread.

I started on a full round of IVF last summer, reacted badly to the drugs and so stopped the cycle and then found natural IVF. I did my first cycle in January. I got pregnant from it, but miscarried. I've since done 2 more cycles and got chem pregs from them both. We are now deciding where we go from here - more natural IVF or maybe a short protocol round that might give us more information about what is going on with our embryos.

The pros to natural IVF are: you don't use the nastiest drugs (there are still some drugs involved though, but they tend not to have much in the way of side effects), there is no risk of OHSS, egg collection tends to be short and easy without much in the way of pain afterwards as there is only one follicle to aspirate, the naturally selected egg is thought to be the "strongest" one, each round is cheaper as you are not using the expensive IVF drugs.

The cons are: lower success rates due to there only being one egg, it can be more expensive in the long run if you don't get lucky early on as you may need more rounds in total, more rounds mean several egg collections (the biggest and for me the most stressful "event" in an IVF cycle), they might not collect an egg, or a mature egg, meaning that whole cycle is done, as there will be one embryo (if any) they are put back on day 2 or day 3 whereas if there are many they take them to day 5 which can give a better idea of which ones will make it.

I hate taking drugs and find I get every side effect in the book, so it was right for me to try it. The first cycle was stressful (I think this is the case for everyone trying IVF for the first time) but not too bad and the next two cycles were easier because I knew what would happen. It did work for us, in that I got pregnant, but after 3 cycles and a miscarriage I am now a bit exhausted by the process and can see the attraction in trying a conventional cycle and hopefully getting multiple embryos from it.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Thanks euro i didnt want to out you!

Thank you Lifesafish - will look at that thread.

Thank you so much Euro, for taking the time to describe your experiences to me. Sounds like you have the patience of a saint! So sorry you haven't had any luck so far, you deserve a break after all that.

I have been to visit a specialist who advised I start IVF as I have had three months of trying since my last appointment without success. I have to admit the 'trying' bit should have been more often but the idea of the focus being ttc puts me off (Aghh the irony). To be fair, overall we have been trying for 4 years now and I have been pregnant once naturally in that time.

Your information is really useful, it is the drugs which put me off conventional IVF. Can I ask why you turned to IVF? I am 40 and so mostly my reason is just due to timing. The original problem with fertility turned out to be a polyp and I became pregnant almost immediately after its removal. Now the specialist is worried that if I wait too long I may not be a good candidate for IVF. I could still get pregnant naturally but I don't know how long to put off treatment for- aggghh!

I have also read about Modified Natural Cycle IVF - is this something you have looked at? I think it means more drugs but less than conventional IVF as I think they take more than one egg per cycle.

Good luck with your next move. I think it is very brave to go the natural IVF route as it still involves the roller coaster of IVF but in order to stay off drugs you risk less success. Your story is inspiring as I guess in an ordinary time frame of ttc you have been successful in terms of getting pregnant; and if the following year were the same, without the sadness of miscarriage, this may be a better outcome than conventional IVF.
Thank you so much again Euro, and I really hope things go well for you in the coming months. Earhat

Thanks Earhat. We turned to IVF as we had been trying for a while (I'm currently on cycle 35 of ttc and age 37) and have a "diagnosis" of unexplained infertility. The NHS reached that conclusion and then referred us for IVF. It all happened very quickly.

In actual fact, my second "natural" cycle was turned into a natural modified one. It was about 3 months after my miscarriage and my hormones were still a bit haywire. We were planning on a natural cycle, but when I went for my first scan on day 6, it appeared that I had several follicles all trying to grow at once, so the dr suggested switching to natural modified (low dose stimms for a few days). I did it and they actually got 4 eggs all from one ovary (there were a couple on the other side too, but they couldn't get to them - that ovary has a tendancy to "hide"). So I produced a decent number of follies from not a huge quantity of drugs. Those 4 eggs gave us two embryos but they were not great quality and that ended in our first chem preg. To be honest, I wouldn't bother with natural modified again and we went back to natural for our third cycle. It didn't give me the peace of mind that I wasn't filling my body with hormones like the natural cycles (it uses the same stimming drugs as a stimulated cycle albeit in lower doses), but nor did it give a good number of follicles like a full cycle. I went with the advice at the time to try it, but I now feel that if I was going to take drugs again, I might as well do the full dose and see where we end up with that. Natural modified is not really one thing or the other.

The biggest success factor in any IVF is maternal age, so if you feel like you might go for it, tbh, I wouldn't put it off. Good luck with whatever you decide.

If you do go down the IVF route, you might like to join us on the egg buddies thread fish mentioned. I've found it to be a good source of information and support. And I'm always happy to answer any other questions you have.

Thanks for that Euro. I have a lot to think about. You are right about the age thing - think it's time to book an app with the consultant, then may see you on the other thread.

Thanks for answering all my questions. Sure I'll be asking many more soon! Earhat.

Have you considered clomid style drugs that enhance egg release? It might boost success without ivf angle. But might not be suitable, just putting the idea out there...

Hi Jenny

No one has suggested this to me. I think I asked the GP once and she said that if you ovulated regularly it wouldn't make any difference. I am not sure this is right though and will ask again at next appointment. Thanks for the tip.

My fertility clinic said there was no point to clomid if you already ovulate, and I think this accords with NICE guidelines. I did see a private gynae who used Letrozole for what he called "superovulation" (to try to get 2 or 3 eggs out so there are more "targets"). I tried it for 3 months but all it seemed to do was move my ovulation date, so I stopped as it was just messing with my predictable cycles and making ttc harder.

Thanks Euro - Sounds like you have been through the wars with this! I have booked to see consultant in two weeks time - aghhh. Will be asking lots of questions.