Thin lining: anyone had better luck with natural FETs than medicated?

[AlanTitsmarsh]

I've had issues with lining being 'on the thinner side'.

2 medicated FETS, 1 medicated FET cancelled and 2 IVF cycles all had my lining between 6-7.5 mm.

However on the cancelled medicated FET cycle and a previous IVF cycle my lining had started to disintegrate.

On the cancelled FET it collapsed from 6.7 to 6.2 and on an IVF cycle it went from 7.3 down to 7.

My consultant said if it happens again he wants to try a natural cycle. I don't really understand why it collapses.

I am on very high amounts of eostrogen. I'm trying all the normal measures, acupuncture, pomegranate juice, vit e etc.

Just wondered if anyone has had bad luck with medicated FETS and went on to have success with natural FETs?

I naturally have quite light periods so I'm worried doing a natural FET will be even worse.

@AlanTitsmarsh I'm afraid I can't really answer your question but feel I'm in a similar position!

I've recently had a natural FET with a bit of help (4mg progynova daily from day 6) which got abandoned as my lining was increasing ok, got to 6.4 then at the next scan had gone down to 6.2. I've had a history of scarring after a D&C and have always had light periods anyway so I thought natural was ambitious!

I'm hopefully having another stab at it soon with a lot more oestrogen this time, both pills and patches, which is a modified natural cycle apparently, so will see how that goes... if your cycles are medicated, have you done down regulation and taken meds to stop ovulation happening as well? Bit of a new area for me

Hi @Orangewillow have you ever had treatment for the scarring?

Yes for medicated they make me have down regulation first, then start with eostrogen (pills and patches) and when they are happy with the lining then I start progesterone and have transfer on the 6th day of progesterone.

That's interesting that your look at it from the other way around and switching from natural to something different.

My consultant said we may try natural or a super ovulation cycle.. no idea what either of these really involved. I think the super ovulation one might involve stims but I am not sure.

@Orangewillow also interesting that your lining decreased. I haven't yet met anyone else whose lining has done this.

@AlanTitsmarsh yeah I think their rational was I have normal cycles ovulate and gave gotten pregnant before so the less intervention the better - but lining always thin so trying to do more to boost makes sense to me! I've had hysteroscopies to remove the adhesions i had after TFMR surgery and it looks fine now apparently, but lining has remained pretty thin aside from in my 2nd round of stims for egg collection. I have read about people basically doing egg collection stims to get to thr right lining level for a FET which seems a lot!

I've fallen into a lot of reddit threads about this and saw quite a few people having their lining go down a little bit, but not much consensus about why... I think it often seems a case of trying different approaches and what works best for the individual which is tedious when you just want it to work! I'm back at my clinic tomorrow to see if modified natural is doing the trick for me, lining was still thin last scan and I'm not feeling super hopeful

Hi. I consistently have thin uterus lining, tends to be 5.2mm even with all that estrogen they made me take. Tried medicated, natural and finally natural modified, that worked. On a previous complete natural cycle, I released 2 eggs and my lining was amazing. So they introduced letrozole between cycle day 2-6, with no other meds - it's usually used for people with PCO to help them ovulate. They wanted my body to mimic the 2 egg release, which it does and my lining tends to get between 7.8mm-8.4mm. Have you tried Letrozole? Haven't had a successful FET yet, im going into my 6th one.

I also had the ERA test, which upon scanning they found out I had a Y shaped uterus, which also gives thin lining as the area is much smaller.

I mean T shape not Y!

Thank you @AnonSthat is so useful. On another medicated FET at the moment and likely to be cancelled due to thin lining again. Really want to try something different and feeling so frustrated

How is it going @Orangewillow?

@AlanTitsmarsh sorry to hear your medicated FET might get cancelled. Its really tough! Do you have more scans?

So I did have a FET in late Feb, unfortunately it wasn't successful. My lining got to 6.8, triple layer, and they were happy to go ahead - they aim for 7 or more but felt such a tiny difference wasn't a big deal. Maybe the lining being thinner is why it didn't work, who knows! But it was pretty painful getting there, I was on max dose oestrogen (patches, pills and pessaries) for about 3 weeks and it went up from 5.4 to 6.8 in a few days which was unexpected, I'd expected another cancelled cycle.

I've since had another hysteroscopy with some scar tissue removed, they hadn't thought that the little bit I had left would be a problem necessarily, but because my lining was thin, they felt it warranted sorting out. I'm in for a scan next week to see how recovery post hysteroscopy is going and make a plan for the next FET, we've discussed doing stims but I think it depends how my lining is looking now after 4 weeks on 6mg progynova. Will let you know what their suggestion is!

I had one cycle which involved taking Cetrotide for a week (alongside progynova) and had problems with the lining. The second time I only took progynova and had much better results.

Hi @AlanTitsmarsh another possible route to try is a mild stimulation cycle (as if you’re doing an egg collection) to gro more follicles and get them to release more oestrogen. It didn’t work for me (only got to 6.9mm and transfer failed) but my consultant thought it could work so maybe it would for you. Best of luck, I know how frustrating it is so hang in there.

@Orangewillowim sorry your last transfer didn’t work. It’s so hard. That’s good that they have removed the scar tissue.

I’ve had my scan today and my lining has dropped from 5.8 to 5. Can’t believe it has shrank AGAIN. However rather than cancel my consultant wants to see what it’s like on Saturday. Normally by this point we’d cancel so it’s going to be quite interesting to see what the lining does now.

This is really interesting as I’m on cetrotide alongside the eostrogen …

Thank you! My consultant mentioned a ‘super ovulation’ cycle if this medicated FET gets cancelled so I wonder if this is the same thing!

@AlanTitsmarsh Hi. How are you? Just been catching up on thread.

My 6 FET was cancelled due to bleeding, I was literally in the gown on the bed. They figured out my body doesn't respond well to ovulation, I always bleed after. The 3 cycles where I ovulated, I bleed either before transfer or immediately after. However, my lining responds better when i naturally ovulate - I can't win!

A miracle happened on the 2nd attempt. Was taking 2 oestrogen patches every other day from cycle day 2 and 2 baby aspirin daily, so no ovulation has occurred. They manage to get lining readings of 7.6mm and 8.5mm, so FET number 6 went ahead today. They are throwing everything at me - estrogen patches x 2, baby aspirin x 2, cyclogest x 3, clexane x 1 and lubion x 1.

Dreading the 12 day wait!

My cycles were at different clinics but the medication seemed the same except the additional cetrotide at the first clinic. My lining took 2 weeks longer the first time and the cycle was almost cancelled but the second one was successful fingers crossed (got a BFP but waiting for the scan).

Good luck @AnonSi am keeping everything crossed for you! 7.6 and 8.5 are amazing readings!!

tentative congrats @wishIwasonholiday10i hope the scan goes ok! Do you mind me asking what your lining got up to?

update from me, my FET was cancelled today 🫠 I knew it was coming, sadly. Lining was 5.8mm, after a few days it dropped to 5 and after a few more days it is now under 5. So once again my lining has collapsed 😩

deffo need to try a different approach now as it seems most of the time medicated FETS are just not working for me!!!!

@AlanTitsmarsh sorry your FET was cancelled. Lining issues are so frustrating!

I'm also feeling the frustration... had a scan on Thursday, 4 weeks after my latest hysteroscopy and have been on 3 x progynova since. Day 16 of my cycle and lining averaging 4.8 which is the lowest I've had at this stage of a cycle, lower even then when I had a completely unmedicated cycle scan a while ago. I've been told to have another saline scan to check nothing funny going on but otherwise... don't know.

Dr is going to come up with a plan which presumably won't be progynova as it just doesn't seem to work for me, I reckon stims as my lining grew better in my EC cycles than it has since. I was just hoping for better news and to get going on another FET soon but now it's just more waiting around and I'm so sick of it!

Sorry to hear this @Orangewillowit really is so frustrating.
I had my follow up consultation today. We are going to do a mock cycle as soon as my period comes .. basically just a natural cycle but a scan on day 12 to see how thick my lining gets naturally.

My consultant said it’s better to check on a mock cycle rather than a proper paid for cycle, so if it doesn’t get thick it won’t end up in a cancelled cycle (as every time it’s cancelled I have to pay a cancellation fee!).

Then depending how thick it is we will know for next cycle whether to do a natural FET or a super ovulation FET, which is where I will take low dose stims every other day.

I am happy with this approach as I am interested to see what my body does naturally. It’s just more waiting 🫠

how are you feeling now?

@AlanTitsmarsh that's interesting, thanks for sharing - might take that to my consultation with my Dr next week as an option as well!

I had my saline scan today and all looking fine and my lining is at 6 which the Dr was happy with. So now I can stop the meds at least and that's one worry off the table

Had a bit of a potential spanner in the works though with a microbiome test coming back with some bad bacteria, so am waiting to get test results for bacterial vaginosis. So I might need to be on antibiotics and spend a bit of time sorting that. If so then I think I'll try a mid cycle scan to see where I'm at without any drugs after the hysteroscopy! Such a saga this...

Hi @Orangewillow how did your consultation go?

Hi @AlanTitsmarsh yeah fine thanks, Dr has recommended a stims cycle FET and will start that with my next period, towards the end of the month. Need to squeeze in a quick microbiome repeat test, I didn't end up needing antibiotics which is good, so now am taking aaaall the probiotics and hoping things are fine to crack on. Certainly my consultant wants to not wait around any longer, which works for me!

I totally forgot to ask about whether it would be worth checking what's happening this (unmedicated) cycle, it wasn't suggested anyway so will see how I go with the stims. Hope to god it works, I'm not feeling very positive about anything really

How are you getting on?

@AlanTitsmarsh hello! Wanted to respond to you as this is the exact problem I had two years ago.

I had a transfer which unfortunately resulted in a mmc and a d&c. Following the d&c I think tried to have transfers every month but my lining wouldn’t get thick enough literally stayed at like 4mm despite being on stims to increase it. It was terrible and my mh took a huge hit!
they were telling me I would need a further op to get rid of any scar tissue from the d&c.

I had a break for a month and then decided to try one more transfer before booking in for op. That transfer was natural so no stims except a trigger just before ovulation and this time my lining got to 7mm and resulted in my son.
not 100% sure what the difference was but if you ask me I think it was the break from all the medication and just letting my body do its thing. If I was you I think natural fet is worth a try!

wishing you lots of luck I get how horrible cancelled fets are! Xxxxxx

Just jumping back on as someone with consistently thin lining. My 6th transfer they decided to not let me ovulate, which was a change and it got thick enough. And I finally got my BFP, currently 6+1 weeks. I'm still in disbelief tbh won't believe it until I see it on the first scan in 2 weeks. 6 years of ttc and 6th transfer 🙏🏼

Hey @AnonS gentle congratulations, hope you're doing ok!

Can I ask what medication you were on, was it progynova? I found that stopped me ovulating in high enough dosage, but didn't do much else for me!