FET experiences please...

[Jenbot78]

Hello, trying to make some decisions about when and how to go through a FET cycle for baby 2. My DD is 8 months from IVF 1 and we have 2 frozen ones. Can anyone with experience of FET tell me how it went in terms of drugs/hormones etc? I have a dx of unexplained infertility although I feel it is my Hashimotos disease that has caused this as the IVF was successful due to steroids (had 1 IVF that failed without these.) Working very hard on this health wise (under supervision of a functional practitioner) but it could take some time to sort out. DH and I keep thinking maybe it will happen naturally. Cycles and hormones still a bit all over the place since weaning from Breastfeeding and so I dread putting more hormones, steroids etc. into my poor body. CARE say that I will have down reg and then oestrogen to thicken lining. I worry that if this doesn't work it will mess everything up, hormones etc. for ages.

So, to summmarise my very long post:

1.Anyone had FET and it not work? How long did it take cycles to return to normal?

1. Should I wait to get my body back in some sort of balance before going ahead with the FET?

I am 39...

Thanks in advance for any replies/advice!!

Hello! I have a DS from my first FET and then my next FET failed so I've had both sides of the coin.He was a year when I started looking into going for it again but 17 months by the time we got to transfer. I'm going to be starting my final FET (last embryo) soon.
After the failed FET, my cycle returned to normal pretty much straight away - I bled and then got a period 29 days straight away.
It sounds like CARE offer the same protocol as my clinic, Homerton. I've heard some other clinics don't do down regulation for an FET but mine do, which I've always found frustrating as you get day 1 of your cycle then have to wait until day 21 to start injecting, then it's roughly 2 weeks of injecting. So that's 5 weeks so far! Then injecting doseage is reduced and start taking oestrogen tablets for about 10 days, injecting then stops but tablets continue and embryo transfer is approx a week after that. Then the dreaded 2ww - that's if the embryo defrosted!
I would have a chat with your clinic regarding getting your body back to normal but they do control your cycle with the medication in a medicated FET so if may be ok.

Thanks Clickncollect for your response, really helpful. I wonder what the reason is for doing down reg for FETs? I hated that bit during IVF! . It turns out that I have a surgical procedure in early April due to botched forceps (arghh, and I still want to go back for more!) so it will be May now before we get going. My DD will be a year by then so maybe for the best to get PP body back to some normality.

When are you starting your FET? Fingers crossed for you

Thanks @jenbot78 - my clinic seem to think that destroying the lining and rebuilding it from scratch gives better results. But it really adds time on to the process and most other clinics don't down reg during an FET so I can't help but wonder if it's worth it or not.
So when I read other ladies saying that FET is much quicker/no injections/less hard on the body I always think 'not at my clinic'!! Obviously I don't have to stim or do Egg collection thankfully!
I found it I will be starting in March so, because of my clinics protocol, I won't actually get to embryo transfer stage until end of April so that's aaaagggeess away.

Definitely worth getting the medical procedure out of the way first - I can only imagine how horrid botched forceps was - and get your body in tip top condition ready for the FET. Good luck xx