Next step in treatment dilemma

[Sultanafan]

Hi all, hoping for some advice please if anyone has been through a similar decision. I’m 40 and have had two rounds of IVF so far. One fresh transfer from 1st round (negative) with none to freeze and one FET from 2nd round (chemical). I have one good quality blastocyst from the 2nd round left and can go ahead with the FET in July. My doctor has said this is one option and the other option he is to do another round of IVF before FET given my last round was fairly decent in term of embryos and quality.

In that scenario I could do a third round of IVF with my current clinic in July or August, or change clinics to one of the London ‘boot camp’ style clinics although that could delay me to September or October. I’m very confused in terms of what to do next and the ticking clock isn’t helping! Sensible thing may be to do another round of IVF to bank some embryos but I am really tempted to do the FET although I keep thinking that if it was successful (big if) then I’d have missed my chance to bank some more embryos this year. If the July FET failed then at either clinic I’d be doing another IVF round in Sept/Oct anyway.

We are unexplained infertility, TTC for 2 years, no known issues and all treatment is/will be self funded.

Any advice very much appreciated! Thank you 🙂

Hello @Sultanafan , did you end up deciding on your next steps? I’m in a similar situation myself, debating whether to go straight for a 2nd FET or to do another round of collection first.

I’m 39 1/2, had 1 mc last year, then did IVF last summer to get embryos.

I then had one natural pregnancy this spring that resulted in early Mc. And have just finished my first FET with BFN (now left with 4 average/poor embryos in the freezer).

I completely get the ticking clock and as such am really keen to get going and would like to have the second FET rather than doing another collection. But still debating…

Hi @autumn25 I ended up going with the next FET rather than another full cycle. Actually having the embryo transfer tomorrow all being well! If it doesn’t work then will be starting a new cycle probably in October. My rationale was that we are still trying naturally so if it happened that way then we’d lose the time anyway. Plus anything to avoid another full cycle if possible, I don’t find them too bad when actually doing it but the thought of it is not much fun!

@Sultanafan thanks for your reply and that’s great to hear you decided to do a 2nd FET! And wish you good luck tomorrow, hope it all goes smoothly! 🤩

Before deciding, did your clinic offer you an ERA test (mock transfer)? This is one option my consultant suggested instead of doing another retrieval cycle…so I might do this and then go for another FET hopefully straight after x

Hi @autumn25 I didn’t get offered an ERA test and didn’t ask about it either. My thinking is if this FET doesn’t work then I will throw more at it next time! My first fresh transfer wasn’t a great quality embryo and next frozen transfer did take but didn’t last long so felt like it was worth another try with no add ons then will do more if needed next time. Good luck with whatever you decide