Try naturally or straight to IVF?

[lottie198]

My son was conceived via ICSI IVF. He's now 1.
The IVF worked first time for us, we were very lucky. He was our only good quality embryo (we have none frozen).
My question is , would you try naturally for baby number 2 or go straight to IVF ?
For context, fertility issues are
Low sperm count (caused by a varoceile)
PCOS (irregular ovulation).
We tried for 18 months before having IVF.
I'm 26, my partner is 36.
Thanks for reading

Hey OP, similar in that my husband has a varicocele, we tried for 12 months before having our ivf cycle and got pregnant on 2nd transfer of first round. For me those 8 months of actively trying then 4 months after varicocele diagnosis of hoping for a miracle trying, was just so mentally draining that I'd not pin my hopes on a natural conception again. It depends how you found that 18 months really, and how hard IVF was as sometimes I'm not sure I'd do another transfer despite having 4 frozen embryos. It's tricky! Some people do catch naturally and if you're willing to give it time to try, otherwise icsi might be the only way for a sibling, so hard to know x

@Imisscoffee2021 Thanks for sharing your experience. We didn't actually find the cause of the low sperm count until after the IVF because tests and consultant appointments were so delayed etc. I also had minimal testing, didn't have a Hy cosy to check tubes or anything. I wonder if they'd do that on the nhs now?
Did your husband get offered an operation to correct the varoceile?
For us, IVF was draining and I was quite poorly at the start of pregnancy due to OHSS, I was in and out of hospital and in so much pain. I wouldn't really want to go through that again but I suppose they'd be more cautious this time round. Also it's the financial side of IVF, we haven't got spare money really so would have to look into financing options or a loan,

At 26 and now with a known cause of low sperm for your husband I’d try naturally for a while, time is on your side. Maybe give yourself a year cut off or set a date by which point you know you’ve tried naturally and then move onto IVF… that time period will also give you time to save.

@lottie198 sounds like a natural try would be better as you had a rough time of it! I had a good experience and still wouldn't want to stim again!

My husbands varicocele is severe so we tried to embolise it before ivf but the surgeon couldn't get to the vein, this happens to 10% of men apparently. So disappointing as we paid privately to try and avoid ivf. The only choice then was full surgical intervention which can (rarely but we have been hit by those 'low' odds before!) cause damage to testicle or chronic pain so we decided to go for ivf with ICSI.