Natural Cycle IVF

[cjcraig]

Has anyone at all had any experience of this? No drugs required (or they can use mild stimulation.) Sounds like there are lots of pros but success rate per cycle is lower than normal IVF. However - you can do it every month and it's much cheaper... would be good to hear of anyone who has done this / considered this. Thanks v. much x

[Vickyp]

Hi

I did natural cycle IVF 3 times twice the embryo over fertilised - too many sperm got into the egg and the last time I had ICSI and and the egg did not fertilise. I was told adamantly by my consultant that there was nothing wrong with the eggs or sperm but that when you only have one chance (as opposed to having seeral eggs) the chances of success of course are much lower. After this I said I wld try with drugs but my consultant then recommended that I try a new protocol with a drug called letrozole (an anti cancer drug that keeps oestrogen low) - anyway - bit of a long story but I had a baby after doing it this way. (I will tell you story if your interested - let me know - it was specifically to keep my oestrogen low).

So I suppose you just have to be really realistic about the success rates of natural IVF - and although I think it is much healthier and you can try more frequently - it is actually probably not that much cheaper as you may have to do it several times. The 4th cycle I did with letrozole cost about £1000 more but was successful.

Lastly you have to be available to go into hospital much more frequently with natural cycle IVF so it can also be tricky if you are having travek a distance (as I was).

You could look up a lady called Dr Nargund who is very into this. Right I must do some work now. Take care. Vicky

[cjcraig]

Thanks for your message. I am seeing Dr Nargund- is that who you saw? If so - what did you think of her / her set up? I had ovarian reserve scan the other day and have follow up appointment with her soon. Would like to know your story - why did you go for natural cycle? And what is the oestrogen problem? I didn't respond to stim drugs and have no idea why..Anyway happy to hear you are pregnant - hope all going well. You can message me privately (someone else did) but have no idea how to do that!

[nimble]

vicky - just read your post - out of interest was this with the clinic near wimbledon?

I have looked into it and was due to see them in the summer however get pg but unfort m/c but by then had canx appt - really interested in the natural way. Having last IVF at the mo so it is my back up plan should this not work.

Would love to hear more.

congratulations on your pg - hope it is all going well.

nimble x

[Vickyp]

Hi - Sorry for long time since last post.

I did all my IVF at Hammersmith with Stuart Lavery. I found them mainly very good.

I have a long history of breast cancer in my family so have to be checked every 6 months at guys, because of this when I found out that I had to have fertility treatment I mentioned it to the docs at Guys and they were very unhappy about be doing IVF the standard way as it involves a massively increasing oestrogen to produce multiple eggs and many breast cancers are oestrogen sensitive.
So I tried it naturally 3 times but then after this didn't work said that I wanted to try normally - as by this point I was totally desperate and at least wanted to have a chance of having an embryo put back. Lavery said that he had found a recent study in America that had used letrozole to stimulate the ovaries. This is an anti-cancer drug (sometimes given to ladies post menopause) but also stimulates ovaries whilst keeping oestrogen very low. So we tried that. I got 15 eggs, 7 fertilised but I then had to have them frozen as my oestrogen levels were too low to put them back.
So 3 months later I thawed 3 and 2 suvived. They were frozen at 1 cell (as this increases chances of surviving thaw) so when they were put back were only 2 & 3 cells. This was the first time I had had an embryo put back and I found out I was pregnant 2 weeks later.
Nimble - thanks - sorry to read about your miscarriage - so late as well - how awful. I am having my 12 week scan on Monday and am very nervous about it. Vicky