Fresh IVF? Think twice.

[patatina]

A couple years ago, I posted something I thought my RE had said about fresh vs. frozen cycles--that fresh cycles chemically "advance" the uterus too much and make it hard for embryos to implant. My post suggested my overstimulation was responsible for the failure of one of my two fresh embryos to implant (no complaints, but we wanted twins). Ghost, who BTW should be sainted, weighed in to say I was probably wrong, because overresponders like me had high rates of pregnancy, and I ate my words. Well, turns out Ghost was right--but so was I.

Overresponders are much likelier than underresponders to get pregnant, but they're far MORE likely to get pregnant in FROZEN cycles. Here's an article: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21737072. These guys studied 103 transfers (half fresh, half vitrification) and found 84% pregnancy for frozen cycles, 55% for fresh. And some of the women and eggs were 40!

We recently did a frozen transfer for a second baby and were presented with the choice of how many to put in. Remembering our fresh cycle, and now hoping to get just one, we wrote "Two." Well, thank God for white-out, because Google showed me that I had understood my RE perfectly well. Frozen cycles may soon be the IVF gold standard for many couples, especially ones with male-factor infertility. We ended up putting in one embryo, which has since become a gurgling baby boy.

I'm sure this isn't news to a lot of you, so forgive me, but I thought it was worth highlighting again.

[brit1612]

I am a big believer in the FET as well. Not to say that babies are not born all the time via fresh cycles, just that there are great things about doing a frozen cycle. Your body is under so much less stress because you haven't just recently went through all the hormones, surgery, stress, etc of IVF. Also, most clinics only freeze good quality embryos (I know this is not always the case, but majority of the time.....), so you know you are likely transferring the "best of the best" out of your original batch of embryos.

For most people though time is something they do not feel they have when it comes to IVF and wanting to start their family. So the idea of taking out the embryos, waiting a couple months, then returning them, is something that is hard to convince someone to do. If they have "left over" on the other hand, it is an obvious choice.

We went through 4 fresh cycles (two of them miscarriages) before going on to have our two little miracles. Both were FET's (donor embryos). If you would like to read more of our story, please visit my blog, link is in my signature.

[mariamaria]

I am just getting ready for a frozen IVF with Donor eggs. Never had an FET before, my eggs never made it to freezing. Putting a lot of hope in the FET with DE! Wish me luck! Anyone else looking for donors right now or getting ready for donor cycle? Looking for buddies to cycle with. DId it on my own the previous times but thought that the forum might help.

[Myche20]

I recently had my ER last week. We found out we had 17 eggs and we decided to only fertilize 12. We were lucky to find out that all 12 fertilized. I however was upset because my doc told me I had to wait a cycle before we could do the transfer because my progesterone level was too high. After reading this, I am more hopeful that frozen is the way to go. Ultimately I had an initial shock of waiting a whole month, but I know it was for the best. Anyone else in this situation?

[Transnational1]

Where I currently live you can only freeze fresh egss not embryos. During the stimms I was diagnosed with OHS so had two options: 1) cancel the cycle (after 10 days of injections) or 2) egg collection and freezing for until 2nd period. My crucial question is as to whether anyone had to freeze fresh eggs and did they survive after thawing? I will find out next week whether my frozen eggs have survived and then it will have to fertilize and implant. It's a long journey and this is my 2nd ivf cycle (I had an early miscarriage with the 1st cycle).

[mcfarland2213]

Thanks for posting - we did 1 fresh/2 frozen/another fresh which were all unsuccessful but our last try - IVF #5 was a FET/5 day expanded embryo and it took (our son is almost 2!) - I truly believe your body is not ready to do a transfer after cycling like that...I've always told my husband I'm so much more calm with a frozen cycle and my body feels much better. This is an interesting study - thanks again for sharing & best of luck to you!

[Ghost]

A couple years ago, I posted something I thought my RE had said about fresh vs. frozen cycles--that fresh cycles chemically "advance" the uterus too much and make it hard for embryos to implant. My post suggested my overstimulation was responsible for the failure of one of my two fresh embryos to implant (no complaints, but we wanted twins). Ghost, who BTW should be sainted, weighed in to say I was probably wrong, because overresponders like me had high rates of pregnancy, and I ate my words. Well, turns out Ghost was right--but so was I.

Overresponders are much likelier than underresponders to get pregnant, but they're far MORE likely to get pregnant in FROZEN cycles. Here's an article: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21737072. These guys studied 103 transfers (half fresh, half vitrification) and found 84% pregnancy for frozen cycles, 55% for fresh. And some of the women and eggs were 40!

We recently did a frozen transfer for a second baby and were presented with the choice of how many to put in. Remembering our fresh cycle, and now hoping to get just one, we wrote "Two." Well, thank God for white-out, because Google showed me that I had understood my RE perfectly well. Frozen cycles may soon be the IVF gold standard for many couples, especially ones with male-factor infertility. We ended up putting in one embryo, which has since become a gurgling baby boy.

I'm sure this isn't news to a lot of you, so forgive me, but I thought it was worth highlighting again.

This is an interesting finding. The methods are unusual and the finding needs confirmation by other researchers.