IVF advise

[confused107]

We are due to start our first and only funded IVF cycle. I am 37 with low AMH (4.something)

The clinic called today with my appointments and asked if I wanted any 'extras' the options were an endoscratch, timelatch watching and the glue. Apparently the consultant should have spoken to us about this but didn't!

Has anyone had any experience of any of these and are any worth doing?

I had the scratch and the glue

you look on the hfea website you'll see that current thinking is they don't make much difference....

However we decided just to go full throttle at it. We were paying privately and in the grand scheme it wasn't a lot extra

We were successful. Obv you can't say if the extras made the difference but I'm now 18 weeks pregnant. No regrets

Personally I wouldn't bother with the scratch; the most recent evidence seems to indicate that it doesn't do anything. Can't remember about the glue - my clinic include it as standard so I've never really thought about it.

The timelapse monitoring seems like promising technology; it provides the embryologist with more information than they'd have otherwise (and reduces the need to take the embryos in and out all the time to look at them). So of the three, it's the one that would interest me most.

Thank you- I was a little shocked when they called today as it hadn't come up in conversation before but as this is our one and only funded go, and I can't see how we will have the money for a full private cycle I'm tempted to throw everything at this one. I will call the clinic back in the morning

I wouldn't bother with scratch or glue as no real evidence behind either and I have seen smaller studies where pregnancy rates have been lower in the groups that had them, I would consider timelapse imaging as it may be a useful selection tool however it's obviously more useful if you have a lot of embryos

Definitely go on the HFEA website - they colour code the extras green amber red as to whether there is any evidence to suggest they might be beneficial?

As PP the scratch is being phased out by many clinics as no real evidence it makes a difference - same with glue

I did go for time lapse though (although each clinic calls it something different) on the basis that the embryology team can watch the time lapse back to see how an embryo is developing and help determine how "strong" it might be - also means they don't have to keep taking the embryos in and out of the fridge thus exposing them to different temperature/environments so apparently keeps them happier!

I researched this a lot - there is evidence time lapse helps them decide which embryos to transfer and therefore can help achieve a successful pregnancy - assuming you have more than one embryo to choose from. For us the time lapse gave them lots of information and why our embryos all died off and helped make cycle 2 successful.

There is no evidence for scratch (recent big study) and lots of clinics don’t even offer anymore.

Sorry I haven’t researched the glue!

I had the glue and laser assisted hatching. Four cycles, two worked.

Thanks all

I'm tempted by the scratch as when I went for my HSG they really struggled to get the catheter into my cervix. Apparently this is likely to be caused by when I had some pre-cancerous cells removed around 10 years ago. They did it in the end but it was the third person that had a go at it (it was a bit awkward) and they nearly gave up. I've explained this to the clinic who don't seem worried but I'm concerned this will cause us problems during the iVF treatment. From what I read it's a similar procedure for the scratch so at least it might but my mind at rest on that front if they can do it or find out they can't before we start

In that case, you might want to talk to them about doing a mock transfer?

My clinic include the glue and the time-lapse recording, so I didn't have to pay extra. I would pay extra for the recording though as it is meant to be very useful and I would probably pay extra for the glue if I had to.

I would not pay for a scratch unless there was a real reason and even then may not. As others have said, lots of clinics are cutting back on them. I think it is more a mock transfer you want then a scratch.

I haven't had one, but to warn you, from what others have posted, the scratch is not 'like having a smear test' as clinics often say but a lot more painful.

Thanks everyone, seems like the timelatch is really worth while, and the others less likely to proven to be a success. Not much green on the HFEA website is there? Seems like such a lottery

I'm waiting for a call back from the clinic, but would anyone be happy to share roughly what the cost was for each of these?

Actually don't worry clinic have called and given me all the prices. Will have a good chat over with the DH over the weekend and decide what we want to do