Back to back IVF for embryo banking

[Magix86]

I originally posted this calling this a duo stim round but understand that may have a different meaning and what we're doing is actually more of a back to back round than duo stim.
I'm looking for anyone that's had experience with back to back cycles and could help me understand things a little better!
I've booked what my clinic are calling a duostim round and had my first egg collection a couple of days ago. I responded well to stims and had 21 follicles. However on collection we got 16 eggs, 12 mature and only 8 fertilised with ICSI. I'm currently waiting to see if any make it to blastocyst stage.

Initially my clinic said they don't recommend going for the second cycle following the withdrawal bleed, adding that they often have to cancel these cycles. They said to go again after my natural bleed following the withdrawal bleed. I'm on short protocol, norethisterone on day 21 and then gonal f stims. Either way it would be starting norethisterone on day 21 after the bleed.

However I've then had another message from my clinic saying I can now start after my withdrawal bleed so am a little confused! I do have a follow up consultation booked in so will obviously ask the doctor then, but that's not until July.
Has anyone been through back to back cycles and can tell me when you had the second cycle, and also whether the second one was as successful compared to the first? I'm starting to worry we might need to think about a third cycle 😒
Thank you!

I did two back to back cycles in autumn 2024. My clinic said it was fine, and I could have also done a 3rd in a rowin theory, although my doctor strongly recommended a break for my sanity, in the end I didn't need a 3rd. My 2nd round of egg collection was more successful than the first but think that's just dumb luck!

@Orangewillow thanks so much for replying! It's good to know your second collection was better than the first and you didn't need to go for a third.
Did you have your second collection after your withdrawal bleed or did you wait for your normal bleed after that?
Do you mind sharing your numbers for the 2 collections you had? Did you change anything for the second collection to have gone better?

Yes 2nd was just after the withdrawal bleed, which I think arrived quite quickly, so I didn't have much time between egg collection and starting the next cycle at all

1st collection was 8 eggs, 5 mature, 4 fertilised, 1 blast. 2nd was 9 eggs, we did ICSI and all were mature and fertilised, we got 7 blastocyst (day 5 and 1 day 6). After pgta testing the embryo from the 1st collection and 5 of the 2nd were euploid. I was 38 at the time of collection. 1st FET didn't work, the 2nd is my 4 month old son!

Aside from doing ICSI the second time round, I was also on a higher dose of stims and changed from ovaleap to menopur, and I stayed on stims slightly longer and had a different trigger shot. I think a lot of the difference is luck but the meds probably played a part too

@Orangewillow ohh that's amazing!! Such a successful second round. I bet you were over the moon. Congratulations on your son 🩵
We did ivf in 2024 and had 150 ovaleap and a hcg trigger, ovitrelle. This time we went with 175 gonal f and a buserelin trigger as they were worried about risk of OHSS. Both rounds ICSI. First round was so much better with the same amount of eggs collected, 16, but 13 were mature and 11 fertilised. Although we were only left with 2 blastocyst on day 5 and yet to see what we'll have day 5 this time. Our first fresh transfer is our 10 month old son. Trying again now to embryo batch for a sibling as I'm 39 now.

I did three consecutive cycles in 2022/23 when I was 38. We didn’t plan it like that, we just decided to try again once the PGT-A results came back after each of the first two cycles. The way it worked for us was I had the withdrawal bleed and then started Norethisterone on day fourteen of that cycle to time my next bleed to start the stimulation again (so no natural bleed at all), it was about six weeks between each of the egg collections. The ultimate results of my first two rounds were exactly the same (each producing one euploid embryo) and my third round yielded more (three euploid embryos). Round one was standard IVF, round two added ICSI (due to high level of abnormal fertilisation seen in round one, believed to be due to egg quality), round three was ICSI and also swapped one of the meds to Ovaleap (same dose). My consultant said it was just a better cycle all round and the results were probably not entirely due to the medication switch. Best of luck with your treatment

@CharlotteYorkMacDougal thanks so much for taking the time to reply and sharing this, that's really helpful. It sounds like it might be absolutely fine then for me to go ahead after the withdrawal bleed. I'm just keen to avoid another month of waiting really but if our clinic is clear it wouldn't be a good idea then I guess we'll wait. Good to hear your third round was more successful. It's so hard to know if it was just a lucky month with better numbers or if any changes contributed to it isn't it! I've been wondering if our trigger might have made a difference this time with having less mature and fertilise but will never know the answer. I think for our third round I'll be asking for the hcg trigger again we had on our first round - especially as we'd want a fresh transfer at that point.