December 2025 FET

[CoolSummer89]

Is anyone going to have a FET in December?

I was expecting to have one in January but when I went to the clinic yesterday they are going to try and squeeze a natural FET cycle in before the Christmas break!

I am 36, had my first egg collection last month but wasn't suitable for a fresh transfer. If my cycle plays ball my transfer will be 15th-17th December.

Hopeful for a lovely Christmas present but also being realistic given age and first transfer etc.

Aaaand transfer is done! I’ll be keeping an eye on how everyone is doing as well! Good luck to everyone!

@Poppy9991congrats to you! I bet this one will work just the same then.

Exciting and glad all went smoothly today @Bees28 @CoolSummer89 !

@wishinghard2 I'm glad you are feeling better! And that's great you got another blast as tells you your egg quality must be quite decent I think?! To have 75% make it to blast?

@CoolSummer89 and @Bees28 congrats on your transfers, fingers crossed for you.

@AnonTTC I'm testing Sunday (evening as I'm away), otd is Monday but I'm working 12 hours and wouldn't sleep the night before.
Convinced myself it's not worked as felt no symptoms whatsoever, no cramping, nothing!
Would be equivalent of 10dpo though so keep telling myself it's still early and not everyone feels implantation.

@AnonTTC so glad you’re feeling better now, I agree day 5 was the worst for me too, it all got a lot easier from day 6 onwards cause I knew if anything had to implant it had already done so.
my exciting update of the day is that I went and paid for a beta hcg test to get some reassurance, came back at 2370 (or 2730), so the consultant said they’re happy with the level, I don’t need to take it again and that they’ll see me at my 6 week scan, which because of Christmas will actually be exactly 7 weeks post transfer, but I suppose it could be worse. Is this what people refer to as the “viability scan”?
also, when do people usually notify their gp about being pregnant? Are there any scans or checks the nhs would do normally that we can do in parallel with the fertility treatments?

Ohh lots of transfers and testing days approaching!! Wishing you all the best of luck! Hope the testing goes well for you all and that the transfer TWW go okay, I find it so difficult just wishing life away!
I feel like it’s forever a count down! Count down to test day, count down to the next transfer when unsuccessful or count down to bloods, scan etc!
it’s all so tough! Hopefully Christmas will be the distraction we all need!

@zirafica when did you have your bloods taken? Sounds like a great number and great they don’t need to test them again! Yes my clinic calls that the viability scanner

so my NHS forms say they can be filled in any time after the 6 week mark, so think I’ll wait for my scan and then fill them in!
I think it’s a booking appointment at around 10 weeks with the midwife and then a scan a few weeks later!

Ah we’re all here any time @wishinghard2 . I agree it’s nice to have a group of people to talk to who understand the process etc when others in your life might not. Sounds like such a stressful few days for you and your partner and I can imagine an emotional rollercoaster. I’m really glad you’re feeling as okay as you can about it and have managed to see a silver lining in that you’d have panicked if the transfer had gone ahead. Hope you have some nice plans together over the weekend so you can switch off and enjoy ❤️

@Klmno you sound like me yesterday! Turned myself inside out with worry that it hadn’t worked for whatever reason and gave myself a bit of a talking to because I was getting so worked up with 0 evidence. Reminded myself worrying won’t change and all I’m doing is making myself miserable for nearly a week which is not worth it. Keeping all the positive vibes for us ✨

Great news on your HCG @zirafica - hope you can relax a little on your trip home now and enjoy the festive period before your scan. My clinic’s instructions are come in for the viability scan and then after that has all been given the okay contact my GP to register the “pregnancy” as I’d then be on the usual maternity process and discharged from fertility clinic. Hopefully that helps x

Thanks @AnonTTC and @Peonies94 , I’ll wait for the viability scan before I speak to the GP then!
Blood test was this morning, 14 days post transfer.

@zirafica grwat you got the results so quickly and seems a brilliant number!

Hi, only just found out about this thread. I had my transfer on 11th Dec at Ark IVF in Athens, we transferred a 4AB embryo, first transfer with this clinic but 7th transfer overall 😬

everything went really well with the transfer and was feeling hopeful. My last bfp was from a fresh transfer and I got my first positive at 5dp5dt so I started testing and got bfn, I’m 6dp5dt and still testing negative 😩

seen a lot of stories where bfp comes later with a frozen transfer and I’m really hoping that’s the case for me, my OTD is the 23rd 😅

Sadly I tested negative this morning. Feeling pretty rubbish, but I’ve got the day off work so going to take it easy.

It’s our third failed transfer so although we have one more frozen embryo, we’ll probably do some additional testing in the new year before any more transfers/egg collections. If anyone has any recommendations or advice about what to test for at this stage then please share.

Wishing everyone else the best of luck with upcoming testing. It’s been great having your support this round ✨

Awe i'm so so sorry to read that @Blueskycat . I'm glad you've got today off and are taking it easy. I have no advice as it's my first attempt but sending lots of love and wishing you all the best for your next transfer.

@SarahA24 sounds like you've had quite the journey so far so I'm not surprised you want to test early. It is still a wee while away from your OTD if you think you'd be able to hang on till then? The wait is brutal but one of the only guarantees in life is that time does pass, even when it feels slow and Tuesday isn't far away. I have seen on other forums where people tested negative at your stage and turned out to be positive so it's not a definite yet.

Morning @Blueskycat, I'm sorry to hear about your sad news this morning. Like @BlueSkyWinterSun I don't have any tips from personal experience, but I'm sure your doctors will be able to suggest some tests or strategies now that you've had 3 transfers that haven't stuck.

I'm not sure if you are a data fan, but I found this study quite encouraging. For women under 37 (which I think you are?) almost all women will have a live birth of an untested embryo, even if it takes a few transfers to get there. At three transfers only around 50-60% of women will lead to having a live birth (different from the pregnancy rate, which will be slightly higher).

So if you're in the head space that it will never happen for you... the data says otherwise: https://www.remembryo.com/cumulative-live-birth-rates-after-up-to-15-transfers-with-untested-embryos/

Sending you lots of love today, give yourself time to grieve, get angry and feel your feelings xxx

Hi @SarahA24 and welcome I'm so sorry the wait is excruciating and you of course want an answer as soon as possible. I think what @BlueSkyWinterSun says is very wise that the time will pass anyway. So if you can try and protect your peace until you are a bit further along and any test will be more reliable, it may stop the looking for answers before they are conclusive. It will conclude!

Sorry that you have had to deal with 7 two-week waits from transfers, that must be so tough!

I’m really sorry @Blueskycat . That’s rough news. Definitely treat yourself today and be kind to yourself.

I can’t believe the IVF protocol is to wait for 3 failed transfers before offering more test. 3 failed transfers is a huge mental toll.

After one failed transfer I was offered additional tests but it was my choice… they weren’t seen as necessary. But they were!! We spent £12.000 on donor eggs to make 3 embryos & one failed.

Paid about £5.000 (including drugs) to have ERA, EMMA & ALICE test. The good news is all the tests show things that can be treated. They all showed abnormal results for me. ERA (for optimal timing) showed I’d benefit from an extra 24hrs before embryo transfer. ALICE test showed I have Natural Killer Cells (NKC) which can kill an embryo. EMMA showed I don’t have bad bacteria in endometrial (which would have required antibiotics cause bad bacteria can kill an embryos) but I had low good bacteria so I needed to take a probiotic pessary.

After these 3 tests, and adjusting for results, I had an embryo transfer that worked. I really think one failure should be enough to discuss the tests and two failures should be a reason to do the tests.

The tests took 2 months (prep month & month of drugs as normal as if doing FET). Results took 4-5 weeks. Then took a month off for my mental health & started with prep for second embryo transfer. If I’d had bad bacteria in endometrial lining my clinic would have given more than a month of antibiotics and then wanted a repeat test to check clear (that test was the cheapest and didn’t require drugs).

Hope that information helps you in some way.

@Sequins04 this is my 5th egg collection and 7th embryo transfer 🙏🏻

we conceived our daughter on our third embryo transfer and had a sibling cycle last year that ended in miscarriage at 18 weeks due to infection 💔 we tried again but the clinic messed up my stimulation protocol and took no accountability for it - the 4th round gave us an early blastocyst and a day 6 5BB which we transferred and it didn’t implant.
we went to Greece and they found a polyp and I had a septate uterus which was repaired so we were able to do a transfer just before Christmas 🤞🏻

im not feeling very hopeful but we do have 3 more embryos in storage in Athens but I am already considering another egg collection as I’m almost 40 and 2 of our embryos aren’t the best quality (3BC and day 6 4BC)

@CoolSummer89 yup you’d think after 7 transfers I’d be used to it now and know what to expect 😬 it’s hard not to compare previous cycles that worked/didn’t work to try and figure out if something being different or the same is a good sign but every embryo, cycle, protocol is different so it’s hard to know.

I’m halfway through the wait - only 6 more days to OTD, I’m back to work tomorrow and we have a busy weekend to keep me distracted and away from poas 😬😅 xx

@Blueskycat oh yes. Daye offers a microbiome test where you use a tampon and you can get results very quickly. Probably not as thorough as others but a good indicator you can get for £100 and I have a 20% off code if you want to use it:

Use my referral code at checkout: joindaye-5a4b9d https://www.yourdaye.com/products/at-home-vaginal-screening/

@Blueskycat Im so sorry about your results today… take the time you need to digest. Don’t hesitate to ask your clinic for counselling if you feel this would help (they are all required to offer it after failed transfer) and yes take the time to regroup with your partner and medical team and explore testing if this is a possibility. Also as someone said, sometimes it is just probabilities. It is really unfair that infertility lottery. All my thoughts with you.

Thanks everyone for your supportive and helpful messages ❤️ My clinic have booked a consultant appointment in for January so I will read up on the tests you’ve all suggested in the meantime.

@Blueskycat I'm so sorry to hear about your results, I hope you can take some time to process and grieve.

I think what @CoolSummer89 said was reassuring, and hopefully you are able to take some next steps to investigate in case anything else is going on.

@CollsR has some great info - I don't have direct experience but the only other thing that might be worth investigating is APS (antiphospholipid syndrome) and blood clotting tests. I looked into these as my father has a blood clotting condition, but my doctor said his condition is an unrelated one so we didn't test in the end.

Hi @SarahA24. I'm so sorry for your loss and long journey and I completely get why you'd want to test every day. I think that would be early to be seeing a bfp with a frozen, the research I did said earliest day 5/6 but could be all the way up to day 10. I remember reading a reddit thread where one person was still getting a negative the day before their clinic blood test (they were in the US) but did get a positive in the end.

On embryo grading, my best friend's son is from an untested 3CC or a 3BC (it was a while ago but it was definitely one of those two grades). So even if you do another egg retrieval don't count them out completely.

I just had the most uncontrollable urge to test so I did, using a First Response Early Detection & it was faulty. It was totally blank 😅. Glad I got it out my system and back to waiting for OTD on Sat and I'll order some new tests incase the other one in the box has the same issue.

Haha, the test really said “not so fast missy!”