Possible second round NHS fund

[Rettafun]

Hey guys just need a bit of advice.
We are eligible for three rounds on the NHS and are currently in the midst of our first round.
We had our egg retrieval and none of our eggs were fertilized they performed rescue ICSI and we have 1 embryo which has made it to day 5 we are just waiting until tomorrow to see if it's suitable to freeze.
However, we want to go for another egg collection but there procedure is we would have use the frozen embryo( and for it to fail) or not freeze the embryo at all tomorrow in order to have another round on NHS.
We are thinking about going to self-fund it but then that could cut our funding for the NHS 🫤Also if we decided to not freeze our egg tomorrow we would have to wait until next year for another round. ( even though it is 3 months away it seems like forever)

Does anyone know any loopholes ( wishful thinking)
Also anyone who has been on the nhs funding how long did you have to wait for a second round ( exact months of your first and second round would be useful)

That must have been a real shock and rollercoaster of emotions.

Unfortunately it will be unlikely to be useful for you to know how long others had to wait at other NHS facilities as it won't give you any useful information about your clinic, and it's not like you can negotiate with them (much).

Can I ask why you wouldn't transfer this embryo? Is it that you think there is no hope? Are you hoping to create more embryos for future use if this one doesn't work? It will be difficult to make a decision under pressure so think about what you feel most comfortable with and do that.

Its great your rescue ICSI has produced an embryo - I would definitely transfer it first, and see what happens. And I wouldn't write it off straight away x

@finiteelement it is such a tough decision I am grateful that we have 1 embryo that we potentially can use. Yes, we were hoping to create embryos for future use. I don't want to be considered greedy and say let's dispose of a perfect good embryo just so we can see if we can get more in the next round. However, if we wanted more kids in future it would be hard for us to source that money.

@Rettafun I do think you maybe need to accept that this might be an embryo that can work, and not using this embryo may be throwing away your only shot at having a child. There is absolutely no guarantee with fertility treatment. The next round you could end up with no embryos, or 5 embryos that all result in BFN. You just don't know. I think you need to focus on what's in front of you - a potential viable embryo that could potentially result in a child.

I would use it. I know of someone who also had similar experience but subsequent rounds yielded no embryos.

It's not 'greedy' to want more than one child, but bear in mind that if you get more embryos you may need to pay a storage fee and would later need to pay to transfer those embryos. Also, sadly, lots of embryos does not always equal more children. Good luck with whatever you decide.

Hi, thought I’d add my experience in here. I did 2 private rounds of embryo freezing before I made it to the top of the NHS list for my area, as I had low ovarian reserve. My NHS area (north & central london) offers 3 funded rounds of IVF, but my two freezing rounds counted as two already so I only got one funded go via NHS. I am now slowly putting the NHS frozen embryos back one by one, about a 3-5 month wait between one failing and next attempt starting. They have let me try to freeze more privately between embryo transfers though, without invalidating my funding. But I just know I can’t have any more NHS egg collection rounds. Good luck!

@Rettafun Any update on your first embryo?

We had IVF ICSI on the NHS, but we had a fresh transfer and our first embryo worked, currently pregnant! I know this means we are no longer eligible for any more funded rounds, but our goal was to have a healthy child, and hopefully it all works out for us.

Thank you all for all the great advice. @Goldpanther unfortunately our embryo did make it.
That really brought me back down to reality. We would have just been happy if one had made it and we got a chance to transfer back into us.
I am even scared to do a second round because what if it doesn't work? The hospital seems optimistic as we are young and we have time but the heartbreak of it all is so mentally draining

@Rettafun sorry to hear that. For what it’s worth each round really can have very different outcomes and they will have learnt lots from your first round. I have low ovarian reserve, a blocked tube and MFI, so have been on this journey for a while. To show the variation, for me this has looked like:

Round 1 - 5 eggs collected, ICSI 1 embryo made it to freeze

Round 2 - 5 eggs collected, ICSI & PIMSI, 1 embryo made it to freeze

Round 3 - cancelled cycle, poor response, looked like max 1-2 eggs would make it if any.

-changed protocols to slightly different drugs -

Round 4 - 12 eggs collected, ICSI, 5 embryos made it to freeze.

Round 5 - cancelled cycle, same issue as round 3 despite new protocol.

Now transferring the frozen embryos back one by one.