FET - stopping breastfeeding?

[johendy]

We were lucky enough to have our daughter via ivf and we're now thinking about going through a FET cycle in a couples of months.

I'm still breastfeeding our 9 month old, just 1 feed a day. How long before our cycle do I need to give this up? I've just had my first period.

I'm with the Lister in London if anyone knows their approach specifically.

Hiya, not much help (and not at the same clinic) but I was told to give up BFing before our FET (which we've not had yet) but wasn't told how long after stopping that we could proceed. The consultant said "finish BFing and ring us when you're ready on day 1 of your cycle". I finished BFing a couple of days before Christmas, have had one period and probably going to call the clinic when next period comes in a couple of weeks. My little girl is 15 months. My periods started back in August and seem to be pretty regular.
Can we be lucky a second time??

I know what you mean with that question! This would be my third after an easy natural first and 2 rounds of ivf for the second. I wonder if I'm being greedy or asking too much by expecting it to work again. But if it weren't for infertility we'd be naively planning for a third. So why not us Fisherwoman!

I've emailed my clinic to get an idea about breastfeeding and number of cycles, so I can start to think about timing. And of course, we're still hoping for a natural miracle in the meantime.

I think though, I might have to give up the morning feed a little sooner than I'd like so we can get on with the next cycle (or cycles if it goes that way ).

Let me know what your clinic says if you get a reply to your email! Thinking back to my (brief) chat with the consultant, he very much gave the impression that there didn't need to be a long time between finishing BFing and having the FET. I saw him in early Dec and he virtually said "see you when you're ready", suggesting it was when we were ready rather than after a certain amount of time.
It doesn't get that much easier after IVF success does it?!

The response I got was pretty vague - book in for a consult the month before I want to cycle - no comment on the breastfeeding. ...

If it is any help, I know that I stopped b/fing my first mid August. I then got a period 5 weeks later. I went for a scan at 3 weeks into that cycle and even though it showed I had ovulated, my lining was still in the late proliferative stage (which is where it should be at prior to ovulation) rather than at the secretory stage (which is where it should be at after ovulation in order to be at the correct stage to receive an embryo). My scan was just for me to ensure all was okay as it took a long time to conceive my first and then I had low milk supply breast feeding so I was just trying to find the cause to try to help in conceiving DC2, My second period still arrived four weeks later so I wouldn't have known any different if I didn't happen to get that scan but if I had of been in your shoes and done an FET that cycle after my first period, it would have been a waste of an embryo because it would have failed if my lining was out of sync.

So while I don't know if my second cycle was back to normal, I know that from my personal experience, I would not do an FET the first cycle after I completely stopped breastfeeding. Although, then you always hear stories of women who unexpectedly conceive while breast feeding - so who knows! Perhaps that why your consultants don't really know the answer either!

It's tough for women with fertility issues. We have to make the decision to stop breastfeeding and take away from our current little miracle, because we know that it won't be easy to have another. It took my 4 years and 11 IVF attempts to produce my second. Best wishes.

Oooh that's interesting about the womb lining variation. My periods returned when my LG was 10 months old so I assumed I was "back to normal" but internally I might still have been off kilter due to the BFing. I've finished BFing now and had one period since. When/if my period arrives this cycle I'll be phoning the clinic I think.
You're right, I do feel rubbishy that I've had to think (unlike women with no fertility issues) about when to stop BFing rather than let it take its course. That said, I fed her till 14 months, she wasn't too fussed when we stopped and I do feel quite liberated now!

14 months is an amazing effort! Enjoy the liberation before it (hopefully!) all starts again. How many embryos do you have frozen? What stage are they at?

We have two 5 day embryos. On embryo transfer day we had 6 and used one (DD) and I guess 3 didn't survive freezing - that's quite a big loss! No idea what quality they are - they didn't tell us and we were too clueless to ask!

I guess the fact that they've made it to the end of day 5 to freeze is the best indicator of quality. They've made it that far and all they have to do is implant at day 6. I can imagine that losing 3 would feel like quite a loss, although I only ever produced 3-4 eggs for each of my 7 egg collections, and was lucky to have 1-2 embryos to transfer on day 2-3, (4 of the 7 cycles resulted in nothing to transfer!) let alone have anything make it to day 5 to freeze. So to me, two at day 5 sounds like you're in with a great chance. Although there really are no guarantees in this game are there. I hope your period arrives on time so you can feel confident things are back to normal and get on with things rather than waiting and wondering.

Hey this is interesting - Fisherwoman quite like you I have just finished BFing my 14mo DD who was an IVF baby (we were v lucky and she was conceived on our first cycle). We are hoping to go for a FET in June if we haven't got lucky naturally before then (hollow laugh, how are we supposed to find the time and energy to manage that!). We are officially unexplained although I'm naively hoping something in my reproductive system might have changed since DD as my periods are quite different to how they used to be (I mean not massively different, it's not like I've suddenly got confetti coming out of my fanny instead of blood).

Is the issue about whether BF is stopping ovulation, or the worry about drugs being present in the breast milk? I started my periods again when DD was 4m despite exclusively breastfeeding, she slept through the nights a few times at 12 weeks, but by the time my period came back we were well into sleep regression and waking for hours every night. I remember I was so tired I didn't even make it to the shops to buy anything for a few days so was using leftover maternity pads :-S

Good luck to everyone with their FETs!

Just popping in to say Good Luck to all going for FETs.
We have a now 19 month old first FET DS, I did fall pregnant naturally while bf-ing when he turned 1. I noticed because my supply fell really badly and my DS refused the boob. I miscarried that pregnancy soon after - perhaps due to lining issues as discussed above, but I've had a mc before in the endless TTC period. We went back for a FET two cycles after the mc, which worked and I am now 24 weeks (and since my boobs are painful enough as they are, quite glad we stopped bf-ing a while ago). My clinic were happy to do FET providing you'd stopped bf-ing and had normal cycles (although I am sure they kept an eye on lining as well).