Natural or medicated cycle for our next FET???

[Pineapplebaby]

Hi all,

Our first go at IVF (fresh transfer with a 4AA blast) resulted in a chem pregnancy, we had 3 happy days of positive tests and then it all went wrong :(
Our consultant is now recommending a medicated short cycle for our next FET; using cetrorelix and progynova. However several people we know that have done a FET after a fresh transfer have gone down the natural cycle route.
We've been given the option of both but don't know which to go for; a natural appeals more as I like the idea of my body doing the work with less meds, but apparently it's more of a risk as if I don't ovulate or they miss my ovulation day, then the cycle could be cancelled. A med cycle is also easier to control in terms of dates, etc.
Has anyone got any experience or advice as to whether natural or meds is better?
Thanks x

Hi there, sorry to hear about your chemical pregnancy last time. My clinics policy is always to offer a natural transfer, providing you have regular cycles. I think many others don’t do this, as they have more control if it’s medicated i.e if they are closed weekends they can keep you going on meds longer to do transfer on a Monday.

I was very wary about having a natural fet, as although I have regular cycles, I just didn’t trust my body to do what it was meant to, having never fallen pregnant before. However I went ahead as I decided it was best to trust the experts and my first attempt worked.

Having never had a medicated fet, I can’t compare. However, it really was great to do it without any meds. I didn’t even have to do progesterone pessaries after transfer!

Hope this is of help to you but if I’ve missed anything out, feel free to ask questions.

I opted for natural non medicated transfers as it's MUCH quicker and also means if it fails your body gets back to normal cycles straight away so you can start trying again quicker (hope for the best plan for the worst has always been my motto!)

I've just done my second non medicated FET but did do a trigger shot to release the egg so at least the clinic were certain on ovulation dates

Non medicated means you can also try naturally that month as well so you don't waste the egg and means you can double your chances 🤪 (I did a double transfer and also tried naturally this month and my clinic were absolutely fine with this - they said perfectly fine as long as didn't mind multiples!)

Thanks ladies for your responses. We were leaving towards natural already, as we had a lot of drugs the first time round and liked the idea of giving my body a rest this time! Friends of ours have got two daughters from natural FETs as well so that also swayed us.
We’re a same sex couple so trying naturally isn’t an option for us unfortunately.
Congrats to you Windy on your positive 😊
Good luck with your cycle Dream 😘, wishing you all the best of luck.

I've only done a medicated FET and will be doing another one soon. I've had 2 MCs (1 from fresh transfer, 1 from FET) because of this I feel like I don't trust my body so would prefer the extra help. Also I think a natural FET requires more monitoring (I could be wrong). The only downside of the medicated FET was I had to down reg with Buserelin which was awful, I felt so down and not myself, but as soon as I started the patches I was fine.

My clinic automatically does medicated FETs, but I was allergic to prognova so opted for a natural FET. There is more monitoring - I went in for a scan five days running to check when I ovulated - but am now only on extra progesterone and clexane.

If you do a medicated FET, you need to be on the drugs for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. So, if the extra monitoring doesn’t bother you and you have regular cycles, I’d definitely opt for a natural.