Tips for successful FET

[Dot457]

Hi all - now I know the subject line sounds like I'm expecting a miracle, But I guess I am in a way!

Had one fresh transfer in March 2019, ended in Chemical.

After lots of set backs and further complications, finally was able to have IVF again in March 2020, as we all know, covid struck and we had to freeze the two embryos we managed to get (Which I am so grateful for only getting two!)

Finally had one transferred back on Friday 24th July, after having a blood test on Monday it confirmed we were Negative and the FET was unsuccessful.

I hear a lot about "It starts with the egg" but I'm obviously too late for that as I have one frozen embryo left to try. But is there anything I can do to help with the transfer possibly ending in a better result? Is there anything you have done that you think might have helped you be successful?

Just to give a bit of background:

I'm 27, pretty healthy, not over weight, diet is everything in moderation but mainly healthy foods and meals as I genuinely enjoy that, especially when going through IVF. (I have treat myself since getting the news on Monday but feel thats allowed)

Fertility background is:
PCOS, 16cm cyst removed from left ovary and left tube, resulting in another op to remove left tube and most of left ovary due to scarring, endometriosis, Unicornate Uterus (so only half a womb) which is on my right side so not connected to the only tube and "normal" ovary I have.

First round was NHS at Leeds, Second round was with ABC Manchester who actually have been great despite the result. They gave me a 30-50% of being successful, so I know it's not guaranteed! But obviously I'd do anything to try and make this work.

Thanks for reading my long message! x

Oh and I forgot to mention, just before they made the most recent transfer, they had to advise me that my Embryo had "Collapsed" which can happen as it's part of the process at some point anyway or something? I looked it up and it didnt sound too worrying so I sort of forgot about it, but now I'm wondering if that could have played a factor? Has anyone else every experienced a collapsed Embryo at FET?

@Dot457

To be honest I think it's very much luck of the draw and also unless you have a diagnosed reason for things like recurrent miscarriage such as high NK cells etc then it's all down to the quality of the embryo

I did have a transfer with an embryo that was very slow to "wake" up after thawing and hadn't re-expanded when they put it back and that was also A BFN so I do think knit plays a part. I'm currently 11 weeks with twins (via Create - ABCs sister clinic) and the two we out back re expanded quickly and were very "active" on transfer

I didn't do anything different for this transfer - in fact I did less than I have on previous transfers due to covid - no prednisolone no acupuncture no reflexology etc

I think we all look for that magic "thing" that will guarantee it working but I think you have to take it in milestones - lining thickness, embryo thawing etc

@ivfdreaming - thanks for your reply, and congratulations on your twins! Thats brilliant news.

I feel like I've been in this journey for so long but yet still feel quite uneducated, I'm not sure what to do from here to be honest in terms of if the next FET doesn't work, is it worth doing some further investigations? But I have no idea what.

How long has your journey been if you dont mind me asking? How many rounds of IVF etc? x

I've had 5 rounds of IVF and 4 transfers over 18 months - due to losing both tubes to ectopic pregnancies and also multiple miscarriages.

It feels like it's been a long journey but I know for some people IVF goes on for years and years but we chose to change to natural modified IVF for the last 3 cycles and so could cycle back to back rather than have months in between

For us the only thing which made a difference was changing IVF protocols with Create from short protocol to natural modified - I went from rubbish egg quality and less than 30% of 28 eggs over 2 cycles fertilising and 4 average quality blastocysts to a total of 9 eggs over 3 cycles of natural modified 100% fertilised and 4 top quality blastocysts