When to start 2nd cycle?

[try9ng]

Our first ivf cycle failed in November and we are meeting our consultant on Wednesday to discuss next steps. How long did you leave between cycles? I had thought of trying again end of February but partner thinks we should give it at least 3 months from now to give ourselves best chance trying accupuncture, vitamins etc. With the way Easter is falling that will mean late April and I will have turned 39 by then. Is it better to go ahead as quick as possible with my age as a factor or will a couple of months not make a lot of difference. If we are lucky I would be almost 40 when baby is born, does that decrease our chances of a successful birth? Appreciate your opinions. Thanks x

By cycle are you referring to a collection cycle or a FET?

If it's a collection cycle, I would go by your specialist's opinion as that will be evidence based. My friend has DOR and she cycles back to back if there are a good amount of follicles.

If it's a FET most clinics have one cycle off and then go into it the next cycle. But again people can go back to back if needed.

How many eggs did you get and embryos did you create?

It would be another fresh cycle. We only got 2 eggs both fertilised one day 5 blast but didn't stick. I think we need to be doing something to get my egg numbers up but not sure x

Yeah it sounds like the focus of the meeting should be to discuss the protocol, people often say the first cycle is a learning experience so that things can be adjusted. What's your AFC?

Yea I think so something went wrong. What's AFC? I know he said my AMH I think it was called is average for my age but expected to get more that 2

AFC is a better indicator of how you'll respond to treatment than AMH. AFC is the number of your follicles you have (follicles in left ovary + follicles in right ovary). Did you just have 2 follicles at baseline? If so you should discuss monitoring early in the cycle before starting the stims, the follicles vary month to month so you will only want to start a cycle when there is a good amount of follicles.

I had 4 on baseline scan and went on the day 8 and 7 of different sizes, so they stopped sims on day 10 and had collection day 12. They actually got 3 I think but one was empty. I'm not sure if they will suggest different meds or just try same again

@try9ng it sounds like there is scope to improve on the protocol then. I would advise that you take your specialist's advice as to when to start a cycle and ask for a baseline scan before starting stims to check the number of follicles is good.

do it straight away, when my 1st cycle failed they said best chances are going straight in again, I didn’t know what to do so left it 1 month to think about it then did it the month after.. so basically 1 period and go again… it worked too :)

Thanks for advise. The Dr is going to change from gonal f to menopur and monitor more closely possibly start the cetrotide later to give the follicles a chance to grow. He has recommended starting as soon as there is a slot, nurse is ringing January so probably March or April for next us. He has also said possibly take DHEA and CoQ10 so going to try that as long as bloods OK for the DHEA