How many IVF cycles can you do in a year?

[wishfulbean]

Hi all,

My partner and I are looking to start IVF. We are looking at financing options and one of the options is to pay up front for unlimited IVF for two years. This is understandably quite expensive and there are other options such us paying upfront for 3 cycles at a discount instead etc.

What I'm trying to find out is: realistically how many cycles could we potentially do in year. Both how many are physically possible but perhaps more importantly for anyone who has had multiple rounds: how many have you found you were able to tolerate in a year. I realise that's very subjective and everyone is different but it would be good to hear about people's experience.

It depends if you are testing your eggs (pgta), it depends how many egg transfers you will be doing (are they fresh or frozen, etc).

I think in a hypothetical world, if you are just doing one fresh transfer per 1 ivf cycle, then you can do IVF every other month. They like you to have 1 cycle of break time.

In reality, you can probably have 4 cycles max in a year. Because you will be exhausted and shattered (sorry), or you will have multiple egg transfers per cycle or you will want to pgta test your eggs or other reasons....

We started IVF in May and have done 2 egg transfers and 3 IVF cycles total.

Also. We bought a 3 cycle package. I think this makes the most sense as most people will need 3 cycles minimum i think.....

I suppose it depends on what/if any additional testing will be added. There will also be many other factors such as how you react to meds/cancelled rounds/follicle count etc.

My timeline is below, I hope this helps :)

Round 1
First lot of meds started end of April 2022, dosage was too low so that round was cancelled mid May 2022. Needed to wait for a bleed before starting next round (some clinics like 2 bleeds between cycles)
Meds started again end of May-Mid June 2022, collection end of that month with transfer in July 2022. That resulted in a positive but miscarried at 8 weeks.

Round 2
Used the frozen embryo from above collection, meds started end of November 2022, knew within a week this had failed so stopped progesterone. (obviously a larger wait time between due to the miscarriage, they wanted 2 bleeds between miscarriage and the new cycle)

Round 3
Fresh transfer, meds started early February 2023 with the transfer taking place end of February. Knew within a week this had failed.

Round 4
Frozen cycle using above embryos, meds started end of June with the transfer mid July. Resulted in BFP and now 25 weeks pregnant :). I had additional tests in between cycle 3 and 4 which looked into possible reasons for implantation failure, these went missing so I think I waited about 8 weeks for the results, the treatment could have been started sooner had the results been received sooner.

Overall time scale from round 1 to round 4 was approx. 15 months.

Don't forget to take the number of follicles into account, 1 cycle is not classed as complete until you have used all embryos per cycle, 1 collection could result in 3 blastocycts so that cycle alone could take maybe 9 months etc unless you bank these.

Good luck.

I think it really depends on how your body reacts to ivf. Ivf was brutal on me and there would no way I could have contemplated an ivf cycle back to back. It took me several months and I still didn't feel physically ready.i was tender and bloated for months after my cycle.
Had ivf again in October and currently preg from that but I've practically been on bed rest this time again. I think you won't know how your body reacts until you've done one . I really don't think others experiences can give you any sort of idea as you just don't know how it's going to go foe you. Ivf is very much an individual experience

@wishfulbean that's a very odd 'offer' in my opinion and sounds like a clinic focused on money making rather than clinical outcome. I wouldn't go down the route of an unlimited cycle when you haven't yet had any treatment (and therefore don't know how you respond). The only exemption to this might be if you know you are a poor responder and have a need for high egg/embryo yield for genetic testing for some reason. Robert Winston had a very pragmatic and helpful book - 'the essential fertility guide'. I'd highly recommend reading it before getting sucked into some of the unscrupulous behaviour that goes on in private clinics.