Natural vs Assisted Conception

[LostInTheTriangle]

Hi, I'm keen to hear some experiences of women who have experienced pregnancies as a result of both assisted and natural conception.

I had IVF in June 2013 and knew from about day 7 post embryo transfer that I was pregnant. I had a strange full feeling and nausea (but no sickness) for my entire pregnancy. I had severe aversions to food and drink that I had previously loved. I definitely didn't feel 'normal' and found it hard to believe that anyone could be pregnant and not know it!

Then I fell pregnant naturally in Feb 2015 and was symptomless, except tiredness. Unfortunately, I miscarried at 9 weeks (8 week mmc according to scan).

So I'm now newly pregnant again (4+5) and aside from tiredness (standard toddler/work induced), I have no symptoms. I suppose I'm just worried that it means this pregnancy will end up like the last one.

I know people say every pregnancy is different etc, but my symptoms were so strong with my successful IVF pregnancy, I was just wondering if others had experienced similar after assisted conception due to being pumped with so many drugs, followed by progesterone for 12 weeks?

Anyone got any pearls of wisdom to share? If you've experienced IVF and natural conception, were your pregnancies very different?

Thanks in advance.

My OH and I casually tried au naturale and conceived after about 3 months. First pregnancy and I'm about 13 weeks now.

The first thing thing I noticed, was that I was weeing and napping all of the time. All of the other symptoms, like bloat and nausea, gradually set in afterwards.

It was the constant weeing that made me use a pregnancy test actually.

I can't compare both types but in my first pregnancy I had no symptoms really.

I'm now 11 weeks with the second and have felt really sick most of the day, pretty much every day since about a week before I poas!

I think symptoms can vary in the same person I don't think it's connected to the type of conception.

My sister in law was the other way around IamChipmunk, every symptom under the sun for her first pregnancy, but nothing for her current and she's nearly 30 weeks. It's amazing how much it differs.

Thanks for the input. Maybe it's connected to the sex of the baby?! Wishing you both the best for your pregnancies.

I like to think that it might be more to do with the personality of the baby. Everyone has a different personality, thus everyone gestates differently! But I wouldn't base anything on that lol :P

Really interesting subject though, have you found any studies? I reckon that your body would still react in the same manner, regardless of the method of conception, because you still have a cycle and release the same hormones in response to conception. The main problem is that there's such variety of symptoms, which every woman seems to experience in such a different way. So it would be difficult to nail down whether there was a difference in how the symptoms were experienced.

I had absolutely no idea I was pregnant until 10 weeks. I had no symptoms at all and one day I just thought 'I definitely haven't had a period for awhile' and POAS.

Anyway my son is 10 weeks old and the only time I was even sick during pregnancy was during labour.

like gunting I had no symptoms at all and also found out at 10 weeks I was pregnant. I only have one or two a year as I have PCOS. the only reason why I checked was I just came back from holiday and took the tablets to delay your period just incase I did come on. normally when I stop them the following day I come on heavy and I had nothing. I went to see a pharmacist and she went its just my PCOS playing up and if be wasting my time and money on a pregnancy test. I ignored her as I knew something was up and low and behold I was 10 weeks gone. due date today and no sign of my little monster :)

First baby was conceived naturally and I had a trouble free pregnancy, slight nausea but utterly easy time.
Second was IVF and my first symptom was veiny boobs but no sickness just tiredness. It was very problematic though because I had unexplained very heavy bleeding all the way through.
I have no idea if this was anything to do with IVF but I know I'm definitely not going through that again.

I'm currently 17 weeks with my first - an IVF baby, and like you, I had a feeling from a week post transfer. I had a strange tiredness that would hit me every lunchtime and would last an hour or so. However, I wasn't sure if that was done to the progesterone support, as that can also make you tired. I think that since then my symptoms have been normal - sickness from 6 weeks, tender breasts from about 4 days post transfer and constant weeing, which has got much worse since 15 weeks!

*down, not done

I got pregnant naturally but was on progesterone from ovulation to 12 weeks and I had no symptoms from when I found out to 7 weeks when I had 3 weeks of sickness then back to no symptoms.

I had long-protocol IVF to conceive DD - preceded by three months of hormone therapy (downregging to treat endometriosis) and that preceded by a laparoscopy (endo treatment and removal of a fallopian tube). So that was all rather intense! My pregnancy was very, very easy. No sickness at all, no problems of any kind.

I am now 29 weeks with my second DD, conceived naturally (much to our shock). I had some nausea in the first few weeks, but nothing to write home about really. I am having more twingey pains, but that's likely simply because it's a second pregnancy.

So, no particular correlation between treatment and pregnancy experience so far.

Evilgiraffe, congrats! Great story to hear, as my initial difficulty to conceive was also due to endo. I had a lap and diathermy prior to the IVF. Like you, it's a (happy) shock being able to get pregnant, just like that, after 2 years' trying last time and feels very very strange. Just crossing everything that this pregnancy progresses...

Osirus, maybe I'm getting ahead of myself and the symptoms will kick in soon. Congrats on your successful IVF. It's a lot to go through and glad treatment worked for you!

Turquoise, I remember thinking, never again, as I was injecting myself and having the egg retrieval. But I would have done it again if it hadn't have worked. It kills me when those who conceived easily say "oh you can just do IVF" (as some of my well-meaning friends casually said when we were struggling to conceive).

Congratulations!

You may have had more symptoms with the IVF pregnancy because of the additional drugs, specifically progesterone. Or it might be because now you have a LO to run after, there's less time to concentrate/dwell/obsess over symptoms. Or it might just be one of those things.

Wishing you a trouble free and happy pregnancy.

Lost I would definitely have done at least one more round of IVF if it hadn't worked but I have my two children now thankfully so I never have to go through those feelings again.
Infertility was a very unhappy time for me so I wouldn't feel strong enough mentally to even consider a third baby. I couldn't spend months in hospital with two children at home either.

Congratulations on your hard won pregnancy!!