FET: Natural or Medicated?

[Lozj91]

Hi,

Ive recently gone through a cycle of ‘Mild’ IVF, and had my egg collection last month. They ended up collecting 4 eggs, 3 of which fertilised.

1 embryo was frozen at day 3, and I was told it was an 8 cell grade 1.

The other two were 5 cell Grade 4’s and so I was told they weren't of high enough quality to be frozen so had to be discarded. (I decided against fresh transfer due to how rough I was feeling after egg collection).

so I currently have one shot on my FET.

I’ve decided to go for transfer on my next cycle, but was only told about the medicated FET at the clinic, I’ve since found out that there is a natural option, and after raising this with my clinic they said it was an option for me if I preferred to do that, but they normally do medicated for everyone.

im 33 years old, solo mum journey was the reason for doing Mild IVF, so as far as I’m aware I don’t have any fertility issues.
I have regular periods, normally around 30 days.

can anyone give me advice on which to choose?

I really like the idea of a natural FET as I think it would be easier on my body (I can suffer really bad with hormone changes - the IVF injections made me feel really low). but at the end of the day, I want to go with the best option as I only have one embryo from the cycle.

thanks

Does the clinic suggest a medicated cycle because it has a better chance of working? Do they have stats on both approaches? That's what I'd be asking.
The thing is, with only 1 embryo you only have this one chance, so I'd lean towards the statistically lower risk approach. Unless you're happy enough to go through the egg collection process again and all that it entails. Having extreme reactions to the meds is not nice at all, but is it a short term pain for a long term gain?
I hope you come to a decision you're happy with and that it all works out for you! 🤞🏼

I’ve had 2 IUI’s and 1 cycle of IVF with a fresh transfer and personally I would always go medicated. It’s a personal decision but I’d rather be in control completely rather than leaving it down to chance, especially if it was a 1 shot before needing another egg collection.

My clinic didn’t give the option. They said the evidence is that medicated has a higher success rate so that’s what they do. They have some of the best results in three country so I’m trusting them.

I would (and did) have medicated. You want to maximise your chances and this helps them optimise. Otherwise you increase the chances you have to go back through egg collection.

Hi Everyone, so I’ve decided to go for natural modified.

The clinic said they are happy for me to do natural as I have regular periods and I ovulate. The reason they do more medicated they said is for ease as it reduces the amount of clinic visits.
they said both protocols have a very similar success rate. there’s just a slightly higher chance of cancellation before the FET due to it being more natural. Which I’m fine with as I would still have the embryo.

they will use Ovetrlle injection at a certain point in the cycle to have more control over it.

after weighing pros and cons I think this is the best option for me :-)

fingers crossed all goes well this month! ❤️

**I will also be using progesterone still for luteal phase support. So it’s a nice inbetween option :-)

the consultant also said that NC-FET seems to be associated with lower risk of adverse obstetric and neonatal outcomes compared with AC-FET cycles.

so I feel good about the decision:-)

thanks for everyone’s opinions! Very much appreciated ❤️