Are ICIS and FET really needed here?

[itsLKtoday]

My husband and I had a consultation with TPF yesterday and it has been suggested that we should require both ICIS and FET.

The ICIS is for sperm morphology which is showing as 2%. However reading shows me this is under the normal of 4%.

The FET is recommended due to a cycle break to avoid OHSS. My AMH is "high for age" at 32.7 but again this is within normal 5.5 - 37.4.

We're very inexperienced with this and are confused by these recommendations.

We do have two children who were conceived very quickly and easily with no conditions or complications. It seems that an infection after an unrelated surgery has left my fallopian tubes swollen and blocked.

It feels like these unnecessary and unexpected expenses are being added to the plan and if course the break in the cycle must be stressful for all who experience it.

Looking for someone more knowledgeable than me to explain in real people terms!

ICSI was recommended for us due to low morphology (1-2% - it varied) so I think that's probably pretty standard. Anything below 4% is considered poor so 2% isn't great. I think you could say no and opt for standard IVF if you wanted but I'd probably go for ICSI if I was you - it's worth maximising your odds to reduce the amount of rounds it might take. You might be able to persuade them to hold off and see on the freeze all depending on how many eggs you collect and how high your estrogen is. But if either of those markers are over what the clinic is happy with then they won't let you proceed with a fresh transfer - it won't be an option. But it might be that you don't respond as they anticipate and then you might be able to go ahead with a fresh. So perhaps that's one to wait and see. There's some evidence that frozen cycles actually have better success rates, perhaps because it gives your body a chance to recover and calm down from all the drugs.

The clinic we used do ICSI as standard as it kinda guarantees better results etc. They also only did frozen transfers to let the body rest and go ‘back to normal’ to be honest I was glad to have a rest from medication, let my ovaries calm down and feel my best self, ready for the transfer. They waited until I had two periods, so just over a month and i was glad for it to be honest. It’s such an emotional journey and I wish you the best of luck! 🤞🏻💓

We had ICSI to maximise results too. Why go through all that and not throw everything at it? To add, we are same sex couple with no fertility issues using good quality donor sperm.

We used TFP & didn’t find they did a hard sell at all. We wanted to use embryo glue and they said they add it for no extra cost anyway. I do think they act on what’s going to get best results not just the money!

Thank you all for your replies on this.
I'm sorry I didn't respond.
I got a bit "in my head" about it all.
I was just so disappointed that ivf wasn't going to be the solution I'd hoped for.
It's been very difficult to accept and seems impossible for anyone to explain why we're suddenly infertile after previously conceiving with no effort.

We have decided not to do the IVF as I just couldn't bear that expense if it didn't work.

Instead we're going to go on an amazing holiday and start saying yes to things again!

Ohhh I’m so happy for you! You sound like you’re in a good place now & have made the best decision for you both 💕 Have a wonderful holiday!!