Confused about Mild IVF

[CurlewCalls]

Hi Everyone,

My partner and I have been TTC for 12 months, I have an AMH of 12.6, and he has low semen morphology. We are thinking about going for IVF (we'll probably need ICSI) and it seems that having mild IVF from ABC-IVF is about £3500 cheaper than conventional IVF, so very tempting..!

I'm just struggling to understand the advantages and disadvantages of mild IVF. Tbh, I'm not hugely concerned about risks etc., but more concerned about chances of success. Create and ABC-IVF say that although in mild IVF, they collect less eggs, the egg quality tends to be higher and therefore it's equitable to conventional IVF. Other sources say that mild IVF is just less successful than conventional IVF because they don't collect as many eggs. I'm not sure how to figure it out, as I know if I have consultations with the clinics they'll just recommend their own IVF...

Just wondering if anyone shed any light or could share why they decided to do, or not do, mild IVF? Thank you so much and baby dust to all!

I would personally have preferred regular over mild as i can't get past the mental barrier of only collecting one or two eggs. It would also mean you'd have none in the freezer for a sibling or if the first ends up in a miscarriage?

I had mild IVF. It was our fourth try and successful - I now have DS7! The previous cycles were the longer version IVF. I opted for it because the treatment time is much shorter because it works with your cycle rather than artificially stopping it and starting it. From memory, I think we had 5 decent embryos. Three we froze and two were implanted. I lost one at 6 weeks but the other one carried on with no problems. I was 44 at the time.

Thank you so much for your responses both - it's so helpful to hear your perspectives.

@Juno231, thanks for your thoughts, that makes sense about the lower egg collections, and I would really like to freeze an embryo for a sibling if possible. I suppose it's really hard to know how your body will respond, because you're right, if I thought I'd only get one or two eggs, I'd probably go for the conventional...

@SaintVal thank you for your reply, it's so lovely to hear a successful story. Do you mind me asking what your AMH was?

Hi OP, I'm sorry I can't remember the exact number but it was good enough to proceed and I recall it was good 'for my age'.

It very much depends on your specific medical background

I did 5 rounds with Create - cycles 1 and 2 were mild IVF with ICSI and I got the same numbers of follicles/eggs as my friends/people I know who did "conventional" IVF (14 both times) I also got 2 blastocysts at the end of it twice - which is pretty much the same outcome as others doing "conventional" IVF

My egg quality was found to be poor though (I was age 36-37 with AMH of 12.9 - DH semen morphology below average generally)

I then changed to natural modified IVF which was an even bigger risk as even less drugs and even fewer follicles - did embryo banking cycles 3-5 and had twins on first transfer with 2 more top quality embryos frozen

My friend doing natural modified got 4 blastocysts from only one egg collection - she is older with a lower AMH

If Create's method of low dose, fewer follicles but better quality ethos was flawed then they would have much lower than average national success rates when in fact they are on a par if not higher for certain age brackets like older women. They also treat women most other clinics refuse ie with very very low AMH

It's very specific to you, your background, and the specific mix of hormones in that particular month. What might work one month may not the next

My doctor said there was no point in pushing my body to behave like a Ferrari when it's more like a Ford Focus - some (most?) women are not capable of making more than a couple of good quality eggs per month. And for me this was true. Cycles I got 14 follicles the eggs were low quality, poor fertilisation, blastocysts not great, PGS testing came back with chromosome issues. The cycles I got between 2 and 7 follicles quality was massively improved and I had my twins

But you won't know until you try it but most clinics don't want to admit that the first £10k you drop on that first round is an experiment, a tester round as it were and from that they learn what will work better next time - that's why even the NHS guidelines state that women should factor in 3 cycles of IVF to have success

IVF is very much a leap of faith whichever clinic you decide to go with x

I did mild IVF last February and just welcomed my baby girl in November. It was our 1st try so we were really lucky. I’m 34 and my AMH was 11.5 husbands sperm count was low so we had ICSI. The process was really quick and not that hard for the body i had 7 eggs retrieved. Hope this helps