FET after MMC

[Tiredtoddlerma]

TW: IVF loss

Our first embryo transfer this round split and we lost both babies at 8w (very lucky to have a 23mo from our first round 💙). I'm currently going through medical management and wondering if anyone has any experience of a FET after loss? I think I'd like to get moving as soon as possible but that could be the grief talking. We only have one good quality embryo in the freezer which we feel very grateful for, so I don't want to waste our last opportunity if my body needs longer to repair. Clinic says all I have to wait for is a period. Any advice very welcome.

Hi, sorry to hear of your loss, it’s a horrible time. We lost our first transfer after almost 9 weeks last year. I had medical management as well. It took me 6 weeks to get my period which was not 100% what I’d call a normal period. I started down regulating (norethisterone) for the second half of that cycle to then went onto FET on the next cycle. That was a BFN. Don’t know why. I felt pretty stressed at the time though.

After my first period they did a HyCoSy and some sort of saline solution to ensure ‘disinfecting’ of my uterus. So they knew everything was good to go again!

The FET all went fine, I got a good lining etc. I’m not sure if you are looking to start FET meds immediately or if you are doing a down/prep cycle beforehand which sort of gives your body (and mind) another month which is probably worthwhile.

For what it’s worth it’s taking me a long time to process that loss and I perhaps don’t think I realised that initially.

good luck whatever you choose!

Thanks so much for your reply @Zypig. I'm so sorry to hear you went through this then a negative FET. How was medical management for you? Ok, I hope? I take my second tablet tomorrow (miso - I had mife yesterday) and am dreading it.

It's hard to know how much to let things sink in before I give another transfer much thought. There are a few practical things that mean sooner would be better, but to continue this level of stress and anxiety doesn't seem very healthy.

Hi @Tiredtoddlerma, I did the one step process so just a big dose of miso in the hospital then went home. Honestly - take pain meds before it’s too late. I thought: oh I’ll wait until/if I think I need them and then I started vomiting and couldn’t keep them down which was so shit. Eventually I managed to take them after a couple of hours but it was such and easy error that I didn’t need to make. If you want detail how, how long, how I felt after the tablets etc I actually wrote it down afterwards, so I’m happy to share depending on if you think that would be helpful. I read a blog before I had the tablets that helped me so much so I figured I’d write it down to pass on the favour.

Silver lining, now a year later I’m 20 weeks tomorrow from our 3rd FET. Keeping everything crossed for your little miracle ❤️

@Zypig That makes me so happy to hear! Congratulations 💕 I hope it's been an easy going pregnancy for you so far.

Anything you can share on the miso would be great, thank you. I'll definitely get ahead on pain relief. That's awful you were so sick as well. I've been really sick in this pregnancy (twins to thank, I guess!) so I'm ready to put that feeling behind me but I guess not yet. The mife has left me feeling SO tired.

Ok so here we go, obviously everyone will be different but this was my experience:

I was given x4 misopristol vaginally in the hospital at 12:30 and told to lie there for 30 mins. They checked my blood pressure and pulse then I went home. They prescribed metoclopramide for sickness and dihydrocodine for pain if I felt I needed these.

13:00 arrived home, sat on the sofa, did some work emails.
14:30 very light bleeding and very light cramps, still sat on the sofa doing emails.
15:00 more cramps so took paracetamol and ibuprofen, stopped working and just laid on the sofa with the tv.
15:30 started to feel sick so took anti sickness tablet.
15:45 suddenly felt very nauseous and contractions coming in waves. Bad diarrhoea and vomited quite a lot. Started bleeding in toilet. I could see my anti sickness tablet had come back up so I took another. Pain base score 3/10 during contraction 6/10.
16:00 same as 15:45 again slightly more pain. At this point I’m a total mess and struggled to stand up to get to the toilet. Pain base score 4/10 during contraction 7/10. Husband and mum on hand to help me.
16:15 Retook anti sickness tablet again along with first dihydrocodine. Third time lucky, I managed to hold these down (with some effort). Laid on the sofa in a lot of pain but feeling pretty out of it. Pain base score 5/10 during contraction 7/10 contractions coming every minute or two. But the pain meds sort of meant I didn’t care.

This pain slowly wore off throughout the evening.

21:00 passed what I think was the gestational sac/pregnancy tissue. This wasn’t particularly painful.

I slept well that night. I bled properly for 5 days and then it went to brown discharge for maybe another week or so. As I said above, it took me 6 weeks to get a fully negative test and just under 7 weeks for my next period.

@Zypig wow, that sounds so intense. I'm so sorry you had to go through that. It's good to have an idea of the build up and timings, thank you. We have a toddler who will be coming home from nursery at 5:30 and no family around to help so that is going to be tough if it's still severe by then. I don't think the NHS give anti sickness meds either. I just want tomorrow to be over now.

Hi, honestly if I’d just taken the stupid anti sickness and pain meds up front I think it would have been much better. Mine was via NHS so I suspect the prescribe it as standard. Good luck 🙏🏻

Oh that's good to know, I'll ask for those! And a good reminder to dose up on pain relief as soon as possible. I'll let you know how I get on, thank you again for the support 💛 @Zypig

@Zypig well, what a day that turned out to be. The miso started working in 1/2h, severe cramps in the car on the way home then heavy bleeding and clots as soon as I got in. I bled through pads several times then passed what I assume was the sac in the loo (I couldn't see it but it felt quite big - really awful sensation), then followed incredibly painful contractions for about 3-4 hours that codeine didn't even touch. At one point I considered going back into the hospital it was so unrelenting. Then passed two more clots and everything has been much calmer since. I think the worst is over but my god, that was the hardest thing I've ever done.

Hi @Tiredtoddlerma I was thinking about you today, I’m so sorry you had to go through this. It’s so so awful. Hopefully that’s the worst of it over now. It totally floored me on how painful it was but for what it’s worth after that first intense contractions it didn’t hurt again bar some mild cramping occasionally (like moderate period pain). Be kind to yourself over the next few weeks.