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.

@AnonTTC thank you, the spotting became pink then red and was quite heavy for an hour or so last night, I didn’t have any cramps with it and it stopped on its own, I’m now just spotting brown again. I completely panicked and was convinced I was losing the baby, so went to a private scan as my clinic couldn’t scan me until tomorrow.

The sonographer said the reason for the bleed is likely a SCH he found, measuring 37mm x 17mm, he said it’s resolving though and quite common. Baby is measuring 6+3 and has a “very strong heart beat”. He was very optimistic and said he put the scan and numbers into AI and it said very likely of a good outcome, but obviously nothing is guaranteed.

I’ve been reading about SCHs and mine is moderate to large which increases miscarriage risk, but I’m just trying to stay positive as the sonographer was so positive and said it looks like it’s resolving. This pregnancy is shredding my nerves and I’m only 6 weeks into it.

I’m 6+4, my sickness comes and goes tbh, I felt good yesterday, then threw up three times this morning, I feel okay again now. I wouldn’t worry about not having much, because nausea doesn’t correlate with pregnancy success, my best friend had two healthy pregnancies and no morning sickness at all. My sister in law only felt sick a few days in her pregnancy and everything was fine.

@OneQuirkyPanda. Thanks for the that!

I’ve had 2 missed miscarriages in the past, so I’m just nervous and hoping this isn’t one of those.
My pregnancy with my son I started getting sick around 8 weeks but I’ve always heard that girl pregnancies the morning sickness tends to be worse and begins sooner, like around 6 weeks, so…
we shall see!

@OneQuirkyPanda I've felt so anxious as well, mine has kept going now since Sunday night but literally just a very small amount of spotting coming and going. I did get through to my local early pregnancy unit and the midwife there was so lovely, she confirmed that spotting with no other symptoms is not something to be concerned about but she's booked me in for a scan this Thurs for reassurance.

My GP was awful and said I should go immediately to A&E, really freaked me out for no reason. But BOTH the midwife and my IVF clinic told me that brown spotting or even a bit of red blood with the absence of other symptoms is not in itself an uncommon pregnancy symptom. I'm trying to stay calm and think 'I'm pregnant until I know I'm not' and that's all I can do. (Just edited to say I saw your post today - that's great news, looks really positive). I hope you can feel a bit less anxious now, although god knows it's hard isn't it?

@Bees28 I'm not helpful as I did have brutal morning sickness early, but interestingly it went away/subsided massively around the start of week 7 and has since been a lot more manageable...coming back now I'm in week 8. So I do think symptoms can be very variable at this early stage and lack of morning sickness isn't something to worry about - you could just have a very good baby that isn't making you suffer!

Ah I’m sorry to see ladies with bleeds, I know those are never nice to see despite being so common!
my morning sickness was bad week 5/6 but has settled since and is now more like mild nausea if I don’t eat regularly. I can definitely tell it’s always lurking in the background though. And I’m still bloody exhausted!!!! Hoping all of this will subside after week 12…

Hi all,

thanks for checking in @AnonTTC. my scan is on Thursday. Trying not to think too much about it but have been feeling ‘of’ this week so I’m assuming all is OK until I know otherwise.

i’m not having any actual sickness or even retching @Bees28 i have just had a horrible taste in my mouth since 6 weeks, which is making me feel a bit ill. But nothing major. Hope your scan goes well on Thursday.

sorry about the scare @OneQuirkyPanda but I am glad that the baby is doing well. Do you have another scan with your clinic tomorrow?

Sorry for everybody else who is anxious with bleeds etc.. don't blame you for going and getting checked @OneQuirkyPanda and it's reassuring that the sonographer could see a reason for the bleeding. I believe those SCH are really common and it's good to hear it's resolving on it's own. Keeping everything crossed for no more scares for you! 🤞

Also shame on your GP for scaring you @whysohardtogetusername. when I had my bleeds, I have to say that the EPU was also not concerned about spotting but I know they'd have seen me if I was concerned so maybe push for that if you want some reassurance? (Obviously mine turned into full on heavy flow + clotting so at that point they told me to come in!)

& amazing, will be thinking of you tomorrow @CoolSummer89 .. our 'first official' scan was always meant to be yesterday (13th) and honestly I can't believe how much has happened between us finding out and that date. Feels like a lifetime ago!! I remember at the time thinking 'ah that's only 3 weeks away' but now I'm like wow making that date feels like 9 months in itself. I was only thinking yesterday I wonder if I'd be able to wait for it when we get pregnant next time, or whether I'd cave and book a private one after everything that went on with this pregnancy.

I had my ultrasound at the clinic today, everything looks perfect, baby is measuring slightly ahead at 6w5d, we could see their little arms and legs, well the start of them, it was amazing. They were so positive and said chance of miscarriage is never 0, but with a scan like this it’s very low.

They couldn’t see any haematoma at all, so I assume it’s either resolved or there never was one. They think the bleeding was from my cervix because of the pessaries. They’ve discharged us now, feels surreal tbh, I feel like I can finally breathe.

Sorry, I meant measuring ahead at 6w6d, I’m 6w5d today

Aww that's great news @OneQuirkyPanda - so pleased it went well and you're feeling reassured. Can imagine it's so surreal when you start to see proper features appear, especially before a bump has even started to arrive! I'm sure I've read somewhere that once a heartbeat is confirmed the risk of miscarriage drops dramatically to only a couple of %.

I had the cervix/pessary thing too.. I think it's quite common because of the sensitivity and they just told me to rotate the way I was putting them in. Fingers crossed you'll be off them soon anyway (have to say I was only thinking yesterday I can't imagine having to start them and the patches all over again!!! 🫠🤣) x

@AnonTTC thank you, I feel like it probably is my cervix because I’ve had cervical ectropions on and off my whole adult life. So would make sense.

@OneQuirkyPanda so glad to hear this. my dr said the exact same, and also said it keeps decreasing every week with it basically being 1-2% when you get to 13 weeks so counting down. does this mean you've graduated from the clinic? have you already signed up with a midwife? are they keeping you on the pessaries (i think you had a fully medicated, correct)?
i have my 12 week scan with the nhs booked for 9th feb and it is SO LONG TO GO...

@zirafica thank you :) How far along are you now? Have you graduated too?

Yes, they’ve discharged me so I guess that means I’ve graduated! Got to stay on the pessaries and patches until I’m 12 weeks as I was put into the menopause prior to my transfer to suppress my endometriosis, so my ovaries are doing nothing.

Yes I had my first midwife appointment today, I was so surprised to get it this early! She did everything except bloods and swabs because she said they would do that at the hospital (I’ve asked to give birth at the hospital I work at). I’ve not heard from that hospital yet so need to chase them if I haven’t heard anything by next Friday as I will be 8 weeks then.

One thing that has taken me by surprise is she’s put on my notes that I’m high risk and for consultant led care, she said it’s because I’ve had IVF and have had the LLETZ procedure. I’m not really sure what this means though tbh, I assume it means I have to see a consultant at some point and have more appointments/scans?

@OneQuirkyPanda That's fantastic - so happy for you! Impressed you got your midwife appointment as well, I don't think mine's for a few weeks and I'm 8 weeks 5 days now.

Do you think the high risk is just the LLETZ? I didn't think IVF was automatically putting you on a high risk pathway, interesting. I suppose it doesn't hurt to have a bit more monitoring?

And thank you @AnonTTC. I was really mad at my GP too in retrospect. I spoke to EPU and they said I don't need to come in but I have got a scan tomorrow anyway for reassurance.

@OneQuirkyPanda yeah we graduated at our 7w3d scan last week! I’m 9 weeks tomorrow but my hospital gave me an appointment for 22/02 with the midwife and then 09/02 for the 12 week scan. I think because I noted I come form IVF they’re aware someone has been keeping an eye on me and I’ve done the bloods and STD checks so probably a bit more relaxed with me meeting the midwife.
oh interesting I thought IVF automatically does put you in the high risk group! I had LLETZ about 3 years ago… I wonder if that’ll play a part when I speak to the midwife!

Good afternoon. Adding to the good news, scan today went well. Measuring at 7w, saw the heartbeat and the start of the head forming. Sadly my clinic doesn’t allow filming, but we got a very blurry scan photo for the fridge 😊
They also saw a big corpus luteum so have let me reduce my progesterone pessaries to just twice a day.
got my booking appointment in two weeks so then will be in the system proper.
wishing best of luck to everyone on this thread and where the journey takes them next ❤️

congratulations @CoolSummer89 , i think you were the last one waiting for the scan from the december cohort?
insane how many of us had positives and how few are still left - just goes to show how fragile the whole process is despite all the stats and reassurances of succes rates. best of luck to everyone who's going for another transfer and please keep us updated!

@whysohardtogetusername @zirafica thank you, I did some googling and it looks like they do a risk assessment score and if you score above a certain number you’re high risk, so maybe the IVF and LLETZ together put me over the edge. I did tell her I’m suffering a lot with anxiety as well, especially since I had the bleed, so that could have added to it.

@CoolSummer89 amazing news! So happy for you ❤️

@OneQuirkyPanda thanks for following up! I had an open myomectomy (to save you a google search, i had a massive fibroid of 9cm in my uterine wall, it was "the size of a newborn's head" to quote my surgeon, removed with an open abdominal surgery 2 years ago - the equivalent of a c-section with a corresponding scar). kind of hoping this will put me in the high risk category as i'd love to see more of a consultant and less of a midwife. i understand the anxiety (although mine has fallen so much since the viability scan!) so just talking to a proper doctor vs a midwife would really be a massive plus going forward!

I think the statistics are IVF leads to a live birth about 30% of the time, so we should unfortunately expect about a 70% failure rate, which is pretty brutal!

I’m no expert, but I would imagine you would be considered high risk then. Yeah I feel a bit better about potentially being more closely monitored, but I’m hoping it doesn’t stop me giving birth in the birth centre, as that’s my preference any way!

I definitely feel better since my scan, but I think I spent too much time googling when I had my bleed and now my head is full of horror stories of things going wrong. I’m trying to think positive, because the clinic told me it’s rare after you’ve had a good scan, but I suffer with anxiety anyway so sometimes it’s really hard!

It’s like I’m scared to think too far ahead in case it all goes away, I don’t know how I’m going to manage the next 7 months, hoping as time goes on I feel less and less anxious.

@OneQuirkyPanda totally! if being high risk brings me more scans I AM SO HERE FOR IT!
completely agree, although i think after 13 weeks we're probably ok-ish. of course bad things can happen at any point, but they can really happen to anyone and are out of our control (well most things are really).
i'm still not calling the embryo a "baby", i feel like it'll take the 20 week scan for me to be ok with that, but what i'm focusing on is knowing that things are as good as they could be at this point and just trusting what all the checks and scans say.
but again, the more scans and checks, the better, so please give the high risk status to me!

sorry for the lack of knowledge but what's the difference between a birth centre and a... normal maternity ward? hospital?

this is what i always said and then got corrected that it's actually more like idk 60% success and that ivf doesn't make us more risky and i was just like... ok... well just look at the stats on this forum and tell the women who've had chemicals or MMC that they should statistically still be pregnant... so fragile!

Yes, I would add to this. For me personally, the stats were around 55-65% of a positive test, but 45-55% of a live birth.. so you can clearly see around 10% of all positive tests can drop off even from those stats.

Also, I obviously spoke to my clinic after it all happened and she did say IVF puts you at a slightly higher risk than usual for miscarriage. I know @zirafica had mentioned this previously but everything I read suggested there was no added risk so wasn't sure. However, obviously being told by my clinic who do this everyday made me realise clearly it is a thing!

Anyway, super happy for all of you that have gone on to receive positive news so far & wishing you all healthy pregnancies. Fingers crossed those of us who either had negative tests or early losses will be joining you on that journey soon! ❤️

@zirafica I think they’re only that high if you’ve genetically tested your embryos, but even then, there are outliers, I’ve seen women have a baby first time from a poor quality untested embryo and I’ve seen women who’ve had 5+ transfers of high grade euploid embryos and not even had one pregnancy. Seems a bit of a lottery tbh, thinking positively is good, but we should be aware nothing is guaranteed.

I used to work at a women’s hospital and from what I’ve seen a birthing centre often has larger rooms that are a bit more like spas, with mood lighting, birthing pools etc, where as delivery suite has a couple of rooms like that, but most are just standard hospital rooms. Statistically there is a higher intervention rate when giving birth on delivery suite, but that could be because the pregnancies are higher risk, but I’ve found midwives tend to focus on more holistic natural births and doctors seem more keen to intervene.

I think some women feel comfort from being overseen by a doctor and trust them to intervene when necessary, but I’m very much in the camp of I want to be left alone to give birth as much as is safely possible and only want interventions if something is wrong, not just because the doctor is fed up of waiting, wants the baby born before the end of their shift, wants to train a junior doctor/registrar or practice a skill (which unfortunately I have seen quite a few times in my line of work).