IVF first timer

[Gardenlady543]

My husband and I have been trying to conceive without any luck, I never thought I’d be in the position, we both follow really healthy lifestyles, we are normal in weight, fit and active, never smoked, I don’t drink alcohol, I don’t even drink caffeine. All our tests are within normal limits, my husband’s sperm was grade 2 agglutinisation and I have an arculate uterus but apparently these are normal findings. I’m 35, my AFC is 34 and we’re planning on starting IVF within my next cycle which is due to start in the next couple of days. I always get really down at this point, once the hope fades and another inevitable “not pregnant” period is about to come on. I was hoping I would be a bit more positive about trying something different but obviously not. I usually perk up in the first few days of my cycle.

The clinic are optimistic that they’ll get a good amount of eggs with my AFC and if needed will use ICSI. So I guess whether we’re successful will come down to if the blastocyst implants, I’m going to speak to the specialist tomorrow to discuss if she would be happy to transfer 2 blastocysts to increase the odds. I haven’t decided whether to pay the clinic directly or go with access fertility, even though I’ll be on a short protocol the meds will cost £1,800 and the 2 cycle no refund package I was considering is over £7000 to begin with. I’ve worked out that I could get the egg collection and 2 x FET for the same cost with the clinic, so essentially any thing less than 3 transfers and we’ve saved money. Anything more and it’s ££££.

It would be great to hear feedback from people, any recommendations on access fertility vs the clinic. How did others feels when at this point in the process?

Just on the double transfer point - highly unlikely a clinic will agree to that due to your age and the fact it's only your first cycle. Most clinics like Care have a minimum age of 37 for double transfers and others it could be over 40, also most wont even discuss it unless you've had more than 1 or 2 failed transfers previously

We had a double transfer on our 4th transfer and I'm pregnant with twins

We did look at Access as it would certainly take the stress out of it all - we ended up needing 5 rounds which we had for pay for but if you have a complicated medical history like miscarriages etc they won't always accept you.

@ivfbeenbusy yeah, I have heard that might be the case with a double transfer. I have no idea how IVF will go so it’s so hard to decide between the clinic and access. If it happens first time then we’ve saved a lot of money paying the clinic directly. But if it takes a lot of implantation attempts then access fertility would save a lot of money. The package I’m thinking of isn’t a refund package, but would allow unlimited FET (until you run out of embryos).

We did 2 individual cycles and then did a 3 cycle package which was cheaper than the first 2 combined! But it is hard to know how things are going to go? At 36 my AMH was 12.9 so yours is really good! We only got 2 blastocysts to transfer per cycle which is why we wended you having to do multiple cycles but I've known some people especially when it's male factor get 6+ blastocysts on their first cycle

My AMH is 17.3, the AFC of 34 is the follicles they could see on my ultrasound, which can develop into eggs, so the hope is that we will get a good amount. So it’s tricky, the access packages are good for people that need multiple cycles to accumulate eggs. But then since I have no history who knows! And eggs aren’t going to be any help if they don’t implant.