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.

My first scan is next week at 7 weeks exactly. I don’t have any symptoms yet, which is unsettling. But I tested with a digital yesterday and got 3+ weeks so I am just trying to have faith and remind myself that it’s out of my control and I will know soon enough. Being back at work has helped a bit.

best of luck to everyone else still waiting on scans etc.

@whysohardtogetusername omg congrats on graduating! I’m off the pessaries now too and I keep having a niggling feeling I’ve forgotten something 😂 I’m so glad that’s done though. I’ve got my 12 week scan booked in with my hospital of choice on 9th Feb - now THAT is gonna be a long wait! On the bright side the worst of my symptoms have loosened up so I feel a bit more normal which I am really appreciating.

@CoolSummer89 fingers crossed for your scan next week. I know I’ve said this a million times but not having symptoms isn’t a bad sign, especially if the test is showing everything’s ok! The limbo between beta and scan is the worst though but this too shall pass. It’s the unknown that gets to you!

good luck to everyone else having scans this week and next ♥️

@CoolSummer89 I have booked a private scan next Saturday when I’m 7 weeks and 1 day (my clinic won’t scan me until I’m 8 weeks).

I wouldn’t worry about not having symptoms tbh, I think most of my symptoms are from the progesterone and estrogen I’m taking rather than hcg as it’s still quite early. To be honest, I wish I didn’t have any as when they come and go it causes me so much anxiety, would be easier if I didn’t have them at all.

I’m also clinging onto getting a 3+ and a dye stealer at 5w as a sign things are moving in the right direction, I’m too scared to test again, so just trying to stay positive. What day is your scan?

@zirafica glad your scan went well! My clinic won’t let me stop taking the pessaries until I’m 12w, do you know why they’ve stopped yours earlier? I assume you’ve had a modified natural transfer rather than a fully medicated one?

@Peonies94 Im so sorry for your loss. Terrible news. Grieve as long as you need. You don’t need to bounce back or move on. This is heartbreaking & awful. I’m sorry.

Thanks @OneQuirkyPanda and @zirafica I am not worrying too much, as what will that achieve. And ultimately I should be grateful that I am able to live a relatively normal life, and it's still very early. The test yesterday was good reassurance for now and my scan is next Thursday.

I am on 3 x cyclogest until 10 weeks. I was in touch with my clinic asking if I could reduce it because the combination of them and unhealthy Christmas food at my in-laws meant that I now have (TMI) piles. 😫

I am unfortunately quite prone to them because I have had digestive issues in the past but I have been really good this year with my diet while preparing for IVF and they have been under control for a long time. And I learnt that you can't treat them with medication when you're pregnant, so there is a chance I might have them for the whole pregnancy.

I'm a natural cycle so I didn't really need to take them at all which is annoying. But I know I need to count my blessings, but I have never felt less sexy.

Yes I had a natural modified (so just had a trigger). I was initially told I might need them till 12 weeks but I think they were reassured from the results of the scan yesterday so decided I’m good to stop - my understanding is they help with uterus environment and implantation so I suppose if that’s all good they’re fine to go? TBH I don’t question my doctor I just do as I’m told, they definitely know better than I do 😂

@CoolSummer89 psyllium husk has been a lifesaver for me as I have constipation issues as is and there was about 2 weeks when I couldn’t go to the loo without it. It’s calmed down now thankfully but still very conscious of my fibre intake.

@zirafica ah that makes sense, I’ve had a fully medicated FET and got put into the menopause a month before via Prostap, so my ovaries are basically shut off (was to help suppress endo) so I have no choice but to take the hormones. Yes I am the same I don’t really question anything with my clinic, they’re the experts!

Hey I am terrible at responding here but wanted to say thanks to everyone who responded to me before it was very useful hearing opinions and perspectives. Its difficult to balance the emotional side and practical side and we really do not know if we ought to try and get more Embryos before potentially proceeding but we wont answer that yet, just going to take a month out to properly process things!

My heart continues to go out to those of us who are not quite there yet BUT I am delighted for the people behind the posts where things are progressing well! It gives me hope for the future and its also amazing news.

To those who have had failed transfers at any point....how long after stopping the meds did you get a bleed? I know everyone will be different but I like to hear others experiences! I've stopped both oestrogen and progesterone as of today.

Hi @AnxiousHopeful good idea to take some time out. How many embryos do you have left? I'm not sure if you have shared that?

@BellaTink647 I had a chemical and it took 10 days for me to bleed after stopping everything, I was testing negative by OTD (10dpt), so no idea why it took so long as the clinic told me it should be 5 days. I have very high progesterone levels on the pessaries though (128 on day of transfer) so that could be why.

Not sure if this is helpful @BellaTink647 but I only stopped yesterday and am already bleeding. I do think my body was trying to bleed before I stopped though because I was getting heavy spotting the past couple of days and I think the only thing stopping it was the progesterone. My clinic said a lot of it is to do with your hcg dropping as well as the meds and my hcg has depleted almost back to 0 so that could be why? X

@onequirkypanda and @AnonTTC thanks both! Yesterday my hcg was still at 25 which was more more expected since I guess the bleeding I had one 22nd December was when I lost the pregnancy so thought it would have decreased more since then. Having more bloods tomorrow so will interesting to see how much its dropped. Obviously now I just want it to drop super quick and a bleed to come 🤣 I can't remember exactly what my progesterone was on transfer day but I know it was really high so appreciate that might have an effect too.

So we are very fortunate to have 3 embryos left which we cannot overstate at all to be fortunate for. They are lower quality Embryos though which worries us only in the sense for various reasons (our ages, how long our protocol takes etc) if they did not work we may be at a stage where it is unlikely we would get more.

Its really hard to guage much information but we have seen statistics from a clinic showing a 25% chance of a live birth from euploid embryos with our quality and that has us a little worried. It seems the odds of getting a live birth from 3 euploid embryos is considered quite strong BUT equally the odds are impacted by the embryo quality so while we are in a strong position, we do feel vulnerable. We are planning to try one more after some investigations and then decide whether we do another retrieval or not.

Thanks so much for asking, fingers crossed things are going well on your side! Being back to work is probably equally helpful and annoying when wanting to try and focus on this stuff, ultimately its probably best to be busy and not try and read into it and to trust the experts!

Hi all. I'm so sorry to hear about the sad news from a few of you the past few days. Absolutely gutted for you. It must be so hard to finally feel like you've finally got there and then have it end...very cruel.

I have been feeling pretty down since my second embryo failed but the clinic said it could just have been bag luck and both could have been genetically abnormal which is why they failed. With this in mind we decided to do one more transfer and then if that failed do some bloods to check for clotting disorders etc. however annoyingly I think I either missed ovulation or I'm not going to ovulate this cycle. So decided to just get the bloods done this cycle so that it's not a completely wasted cycle! Feel really pissed off about more delays though. I've not missed ovulation in all the time we've been trying, always got a positive test, so feel like my body's let me down!

Sending love to everyone else struggling ATM. It's all so hard isn't it.

Lovely to hear some positive scan news from a few people though 😃

@Klmno so lovely to see you back here, I’ve thought about you often. Your plan forwards sounds like a good one and bummer about the ovulation - by far the waiting is the worst part of ivf!! On the other hand your body might benefit from a little break so it might be for the best ♥️

@AnxiousHopeful I’ve only seen research of euploid embryo to live birth ratio and as you said, 3 is basically a sure hit. They don’t correlate them to grading so I think it might be less relevant when you’re dealing with a euploid? I’ve found Claude/chatGPT/your ai engine of choice helpful when trying to assess the probabilities with similar scenarios so might be worth trying if you haven’t?

sending you loads of baby dust ♥️

Thanks @zirafica I have been trying to take a break from Mumsnet/the internet in general but was checking in occasionally to see how you're all doing.
Perhaps you're right the break will do me some good. My diet wasn't ideal over Christmas (who's is?!) so focussing on lots of fruit and veg in the lead up to my next transfer. And I guess it will be good to have the blood results although in all honesty I'll be surprised if they flag something, think it's more a tick box thing tbh.

@AnxiousHopeful my consultant basically said embryo quality is like an aesthetic thing and really good grades can still be abnormal.
Both my fails were top quality, one was even hatching. My friend's top quality one failed to thaw but her poor quality one worked fine.

Thanks both its very reassuring to hear that. @Klmno I think for us the fact it was top quality and hatching hit us quite hard but we know there is so much unknown and so much you cannot take for granted. Its really good to hear that for your friend the lower one went on to be successful.

@zirafica I think our problem is actually probably reading things and using things like ChatGPT a little too much haha. I think we would be more relaxed if we didnt have all the 'what ifs' and vague statistics on things. The three embryo figure is often stated but its not clear on if those who do not have luck are the ones with three poor quality embryos or not. Its not a rabbit hole worth veering down as without the context it will basically be impossible to read into so we are just going to be thankful for having more Embryos and do the only thing you can do in this process and go for it and hope for the best!

Wishing everyone here luck, its strangely nice to recognize usernames I am hopeful to catch some of you in future FET threads!

@AnxiousHopeful gotcha! Bear in mind I said euploids, not embryos. So PGT-A tested genetically cleared embryos. Genetic issues cause a huge percentage of early pregnancy miscarriages. Transferring a euploid doesn’t eliminate the risk completely but does decrease it significantly! The grading of the embryo (number-letter-letter) becomes a lot less relevant when dealing with a euploid!

Hi Everyone,

I hope everyone is keeping as well as can be. Still thinking of those who've had bad news.

We had a scan yesterday at 6 weeks 6 days & all was well. The heart was beating away & was measuring at 7 weeks so almost spot on.

Hi @BlueSkyWinterSun that's great news!! Fantastic 💖

I've also been trying to step back from being online as I think it's making me anxious. I had some brown spotting today as well, which I know is not necessarily a sign of anything but is not helping!

I'm going to see if it gets any worse, but hopefully just a one off. My next scan is now on the 27th Jan which is not too far away so waiting for that.

I had a tiny bit of brown spotting at lunch time today as well, it’s totally thrown me, I know it can be normal, but I feel very anxious now, even though I’ve not had any more since. I have moved my scan forward to Thursday, will be 6+6 then, so hoping everything is fine and we see a heartbeat.

Weirdly, I had a call today from a midwife at my GP surgery saying I missed an appointment with her that I didn’t even know I had, they’ve rebooked it for Wednesday morning so I will mention it to her then.

So sorry you're going through an anxious time @OneQuirkyPanda .. I think no matter what reassurance we offer or you knowing spotting is very common, you're naturally going to worry as it's built into us that seeing blood when pregnant is not what we want to see!

I do think that brown spotting when not accompanied by cramps is likely nothing to worry about (particularly as it's stopped too which is super reassuring), but you're definitely doing the right thing speaking to your midwife and having a scan even if it's just to put your mind at ease rather than spend days worrying.

Also thinking of you @CoolSummer89 as I know your scan is this week. Hope everything goes well, and same for anybody else who is waiting on scans this week! x

Anyone in their 6th week of pregnancy and not feeling much morning sickness?
I’m 6 weeks and 5 days, first scan is this Thursday …@CoolSummer89