A little confused after first IVF consultation

[HopingforIVF]

Hi all - we had our first (online) IVF consultation recently. Although the consultant was lovely and went through a lot of it in detail, I'm a little confused about a couple of things and was hoping some of you can shed some light if pos.

Firstly, he said that the NHS funding gives us a total of four transfers - 2 fresh and 2 frozen. Does this mean that we get a total of four 'goes'? Asking as I always thought that my CCG/area only offers two funded cycles, but 2 fresh and 3 frozen suggests four funded cycles - is this correct?

Also, my consultant said that they are putting me on a short protocol for the IVF. I was a little disappointed to hear this as I'm sure I read somewhere that a short protocol is less effective and also results in a lower number of embryos (I'm assuming I need a good number of embryos to take advantage of the frozen transfers)?

The consultant said that they are putting me on the short protocol as there is a reduced risk of hospital intervention (important due to pressures around COVID-19) and my relatively high AMH.

I appreciate any help on this. XXX

I'm sure someone more knowledgeable will be along shortly but my understanding is as follows :

• if he says 2 fresh, 2 frozen you may get as many as 4 - but you may also not. If there is nothing to freeze, I'm guessing you don't get the frozen transfers. Then you only get two actual cycles (which is already pretty good as far as nhs funding goes...)

• long vs. Short protocols : I think which is better really depends on your body and age and the exact nature of your fertility issues.

Do bear in mind that the number of eggs isn't the be all, end all. Many people think that too many eggs means lesser quality. Based on what I've seen here, it does look like you're not getting that many more embryos with lots of eggs.

Fingers crossed for you !

What your CCG will fund is upto 2 egg collections.
If you are lucky enough to have embryos that are suitable to freeze from those collections, then they will also find upto 2 frozen transfers from each fresh collection.
If at any point you become pregnant, and have a live birth you will be entitled to no further funded IVF from the NHS.
If you do have frozen embryos from your first egg collection, then you will have to transfer those before your second egg collection is funded.

Hope all that makes sense and feel free to ask further questions, I've had a lot of IVF!

Sorry, just re-read your OP, it seems that your CCG actually offer 1 frozen transfer with each fresh cycle. The wording on the documents is usually that a 'cycle' means an egg collection and upto 1 frozen transfer if you have embryos suitable to freeze.

Sorry to confuse things there!

The short protocol is for women that have a higher AMH and therefore more at risk of OHSS and is perfectly usual. You will have more chance of more embryos because of your AMH. Plus you have a lot less medication to take as you don't have to down regulate, you go straight into the stimulation phase.

My AMH was 25 at 34 and I've always been prescribed the short protocol. Out of 3 egg collections I had 3 frozen on the first, none on the second and 2 frozen on the third.

Wishing you the best of luck on your journey

Sounds likes it's two cycles on the NHS - hence the 2 fresh transfers - most clinics hope to get you at least one spare embryo to freeze so that's the 2 frozen ones (one for each egg collection)

If your AMH is high then you are high risk for OHSS which is one of the reasons why IVF was stopped as requires hospital treatment and is likely what the clinic has had to agree to do to be able to reopen

I've done 2 cycles of short protocol and got the same numbers of eggs as my friends on long protocol

In fact I'm doing natural modified IVF now so targeting even fewer follicles and my egg quality is 100s of times better

Here are my stats

2 cycles short protocol - total 28 eggs - less than 30% fertilised with ICSI and got total 5 average quality blastocysts to freeze. Had 3 transfers - 2 were BFN and 1 was a BFP ending in ruptured ectopic

2 cycles of natural modified - total 9 eggs - 100% fertilised - 4 top quality blastocysts currently frozen and waiting for transfers

So please don't get hung up on quantity - for me it's all about quality over quantity