Natural treatment

[Sparky76]

Hi I’m 37 years old and been TTC for 4 years. I’ve been told I have low ovarian reserve and conventional IVF is not suitable for me and a natural cycle is the only option. Has anyone has has experience with a natural cycle treatment? I’m looking at going to nurture in Nottingham. TIA

37 been TTC for 3 years, I'm with Create on mild IVF not on a natural cycle, completed one cycle which unfortunately failed I have one more embryo to do another FET
I got 3 eggs from collection of which 2 got to 5 day blasts

I'm also with Create as they specialise in natural IVF. I did 5 rounds in the end. But 3 cycles were specifically natural modified (so a couple of injections to give the follicles a push). In my natural modified cycles I got 7 eggs and 4 blastocysts and am currently 7 weeks pregnant with twins

I would have a look at Create as they are well known specialists in treating women with low AMH with natural IVF. It's pretty much all they do compared to Nurture or a couple of other clinics that don't do it as much

Congratulations! That’s brilliant news! We didn’t have the best experience with create. They hardly explained anything to us (to the point I had to ask them what the actual procedure is as we were about to leave!) and kept pushing the 3 cycles - to me it sounded like a massive sales push. They advised I will need all the medications and ICSI so you can imagine what the cost at the end would have been! Can I ask who your consultant was?

Really hope you get your bundle of joy at the end of all this. Sending love and prayers your way 💕

@Sparky76

I'm with Create Birmingham and I have to say they've been amazing with me. Gone above and beyond - even when I fell pregnant naturally in between IVF cycles they did try everything they could to try and prevent a miscarriage, and then when I had an ectopic and was fobbed off by my hospital they scanned me within 30 mins and called an ambulance. The nurses cried when they found out it was twins this week.

I would say I'm very well informed about it all though - I do a LOT of online research (I'm pretty geeky!) and so I understand most of what we discuss (although most of the consultants speak English as a second language and often things can get lost in translation but anything I'm not sure on I follow up on email with the nurses)

I found the opposite in terms of "hard sell". I went in with a list of things and the doctor crossed most of them out as unlikely to make a difference or no scientific evidence. I actually pushed to have PGS testing last year and also to sign up to the 3 cycle natural modified and I felt I was consulted on everything to the point the embryologist and I had several hour long phone calls debating what embryos to transfer and whether to do day 3 or 5 transfers.

@ivfdreaming congratulations, double blessing!

@Sparky76 can I ask who told you that conventional IVF is unsuitable and how low your ovarian reserve is? That would inform next steps a bit because if you have test results you can use those as a starting point for treatment with a potential clinic.

Have you already tried IVF before?

Hi thank you for your message, I haven’t tried ivf before as I have been told I have high FSH so won’t be suitable.
I went to nurture and my follicle count was 9, a few months later I went to create and it was 3 - I’m so confused!
Also I’ve read 5 natural cycles is equivalent to one conventional cycle - I couldn’t possibly afford this as 3 cycles was costing is over 16k! (Is this a normal price to pay with only one transfer?)

Am I right in reading you’re pregnant with twins? Congratulations! That’s amazing news! Thank you for your advice, can I ask who the consultant was you saw?

I went to care in Nottingham and they totally ruled ivf out - they didn’t mention natural cycle. I was told my only option was an egg donor.

@JeNeBaguetteRien Hi thank you for your message, I haven’t tried ivf before as I have been told I have high FSH so won’t be suitable.
I went to nurture and my follicle count was 9, a few months later I went to create and it was 3 - I’m so confused!
Also I’ve read 5 natural cycles is equivalent to one conventional cycle - I couldn’t possibly afford this as 3 cycles was costing is over 16k! (Is this a normal price to pay with only one transfer?)

@JeNeBaguetteRien
I went to care in Nottingham and they totally ruled ivf out - they didn’t mention natural cycle. I was told my only option was an egg donor.

@ivfdreaming Congratulations! That’s brilliant news! We didn’t have the best experience with create. They hardly explained anything to us (to the point I had to ask them what the actual procedure is as we were about to leave!) and kept pushing the 3 cycles - to me it sounded like a massive sales push. They advised I will need all the medications and ICSI so you can imagine what the cost at the end would have been! Can I ask who your consultant was?

@Ijustlikefood Really hope you get your bundle of joy at the end of all this. Sending love and prayers your way 💕

@Sparky76

Yes our 3 cycle package of natural modified including ICSI and all the drugs etc was £13.5k but actually we got significantly better results with natural than with the short protocol I did last year which was a lot more expensive.

My consultant is Dr Datta

Yup twins! 🤣

@Sparky76 your follicle count can vary quite a lot from one cycle to another. Mine does so before deciding whether to start stimulation medication I have a baseline scan. If there are not enough follicles I will wait until the next cycle.

Maybe IVF isn't suitable for you, but I wouldn't take the word of just one clinic. Even with private treatment it is worth being your own advocate to a degree and doing some research.

If donor eggs are the most likely route to a family then different clinics will have different ways of working, some do exclusive donor where you get all the eggs, some do egg share with other women having IVF sharing their eggs to reduce their costs.

@JeNeBaguetteRien are you also going through natural IVF? I was told they can only collect one egg maximum on each cycle.
I’m not sure how I feel about egg donor, it’s a huge huge decision and I’m not sure it’ll be the right thing for me.

@ivfdreaming oh amazing !!! You must be over the moon (and no doubt a tad bit scared). I’ll have a look into create again, thank you for your advice. They told me I have a 10-15% chance of take home baby with a single natural cycle and 25-30% with 3 cycles - was this similar to what they told you? (Sorry for asking all these questions)