3x Mild IVF with Create or not - at crossroad

[aCupOfTeaSunday]

Hi everyone,

I researched a lot but still not sure about what the next step would be.

I currently have 3x 5day blasts from the eggs I frozen when I was 36/37, they are untested.

I am 43.5 now, AMH 29.0 Pol. Baseline scan showed 19 follicles.

I am in the middle of a short protocol and taking birth control now with the same clinic. I will do one round with them including PGT test. I am seriously considering change clinic after this round as it is too expensive (they hiked their price by 30% for exactly same service) and are not doing anything special. If I can find somewhere cheaper, it means I can do more circles with the same Money.

After talking to a few clinics and quite impressed with Create St Pauls and their offer of multiple cycles for my age as I plan to embryo banking. However, I am hesitate for a couple reasons: 1. Create St.Pauls has quite a few bad feedback online comparing to other clinics despite the experience I had so far are very good. But it is hard to ignore the online reviews. 2. Mild IVF will not use birth control, will this increate the uncertainty of the treatment. 3. I used to have period like clock work but it is a little bit irregular after Covid. Will this make mild IVF start time unpredictable?

Given my age, I don't want to waste any time and just want to do multiple cycles and get on with it (is this a bad strategy?), and this is why I am cautious of choosing clinics.

I know there is a lot of information, but I appreciate if anyone can provide some feedback on my plan or give some advice. I take full responsibility for my decision.

Thank you so much. Wish you a lot of luck and sending tons of baby dust.

Is there a reason you don’t want to start transferring the 5 blasts from when you were 36/37? I know they are untested but statistically there are likely to be some euploids in that batch. Is age your only fertility issue?

We did the 3 cycle embryo banking package with Create St Paul’s when I was 38/39. The admin side was infuriating but I responded well to their protocol and got a good number of euploid blasts. I felt they knew what they were doing with doses and timing of egg collections etc. I’m 33 weeks pregnant now. That said I was under another clinic for recurrent miscarriages and I credit them with getting me this far. Create don’t seem to have much expertise with complex cases so though I don’t think I would have stayed pregnant if I was working with them alone. But if you don’t have complex issues they’d be ok.

@Ifitistobesaid - thank you so much for the reply. It is so helpful! And huge congratulation on the pregnancy.
I don't have 5 blasts, I only got 3, and all of them are day 5. So it is risky to transfer now and waste my time due to potential complications. If I had 5 blasts, I would consider transfer now.
No, I have no other complex issues as far as I know as I haven't been pregnant before, single for a long time + always use protection. My TSH (not sure if how it is spelled) was high, but I have taking medicine and it is back to normal now.

Hello @Ifitistobesaid ,

I have similar issues with recurrent miscarriages (I've been pregnant 10 times with no live births) and have been found to have high UNK cells. I've been put on a protocol of prednisolone but that hasn't helped. Is it possible to maybe DM you to maybe be pointed in the right direction of a clinic that is able to help with this issue??

@Chebellagina hey, that’s fine though I’m happy to answer here for anyone else it might help.

I was under Dr Shehata at the CRP clinic (Centre for Reproductive immunology in pregnancy) in Epsom. https://www.crpclinic.co.uk/

He is focused on NK cells and immune issues but prescribes more than just prednisolone. I was on humira, prednisolone, hydroxychloriquin, intralipids, progesterone, metformin, fragmin, inofolic alpha, aspirin, omega 3 and vitamin D. Some of those meds were prescribed because I have PCOS and was doing IVF but he tailors the protocol to your case.

There are long running threads about him and other miscarriage clinics on the conception board. If you search for the immune/ nk cells/ pred thread you should find it.

@aCupOfTeaSunday sorry I must have misread your original post where it said you have 3 blasts. Best of luck with the round at your current clinic and future rounds if you decide to do them.

@Ifitistobesaid Many thanks for providing the information! My husband and I were actually scheduled to see Mr Shehata but we ended up finding out that my husband had cancer and had to begin immediate aggressive chemo/radiation treatment, so we never saw Mr Shahata. Perhaps I should set up an appointment now that my husband is cancer-free!

@Chebellagina Sorry to hear about your husband but glad he’s ok now.

I’d recommend Dr Shehata, he’s expensive but very thorough.