BD before Transfer?

oxinfree

A woman in my instagram ttc community was having her transfer and mentioned she knew she should bd the night before transfer... I had never heard about this before so googled it and came up with this in a separate forum. Very interesting... 

She wrote:
So I looked up an article from the Oxford Journal of Medicine and this is what it stated (VERY Interesting): They did a study to see if people who had sex during or around the time of embryo transfer would have a higher pregnancy rate and these were the results. "There was no significant difference between the intercourse and abstain groups in relation to the pregnancy rate (23.6 and 21.2% respectively), but the proportion of transferred embryos that were viable at 6–8 weeks was significantly higher in women exposed to semen compared to those who abstained (11.01 versus 7.69 viable embryos per 100 transferred embryos, P = 0.036, odds ratio 1.48, 95% confidence interval 1.01-2.19). Hence exposure to semen around the time of embryo transfer increases the likelihood of successful early embryo implantation and development." -Oxford Journal of Medicine 

I googled further and found at the following link:
"This study is the first to indicate that intercourse during the peri-transfer period of an IVF cycle is beneficial to pregnancy outcome. This is important information to convey to infertile couples since abstinence is commonly practised during infertility treatment and often recommended by the treating physician. Encouraging couples to engage in intercourse during IVF treatment might also have additional psychological advantages in terms of normalizing the `conception' process by allowing couples to participate actively in their reproductive outcome."


Has anyone had their RE actually recommend intercourse the night before transfer? Anyone tried this and been successful? It's all news to me and I've had 3 transfers so a little surprised I never heard of it before.

Monica54321

Wow, nope!  We actually got the exact opposite advice, NO BD from mid-stims to after Beta.  I read a medical journal article that my clinic published almost 10 years ago about a couple who ended up pregnant with sextuplets after a single embryo transfer... because they BD after retrieval and some eggs that didn't get retrieved ended up getting fertilized the old-fashioned way.  

2legbaby

**TW**
Our FET written instructions included directions to bd the night before transfer...we some how missed this instruction our first transfer (failed) but did the deed second transfer (bfp)! 

AandDM2014

We did not for our fresh transfer as we were told not to, but before this last FET we did and got a bfp. We chose to because we knew sex was going to be a no-no for a long time if we got a bfp, so we wanted to do it. 

oxinfree

@AandDM2014 - oh my goodness congrats! I'm so happy you finally got your BFP!!!! Thanks for stopping by and responding. Hope your triplet pregnancy is going smoothly. 

@2legbaby - yes.... super interesting. Congrats to you as well! Love hearing this success... going to have to give it a try for our FET.

@Monica54321 - I can see why for a fresh transfer after egg retrieval etc. That makes a lot of sense. Perhaps for FET given this isn't a concern I'd be curious if your RE would have still said no, or if they recommend it. 

Food for thought for sure. I'm adding it to my "protocol" haha. Will of course talk to my doc about it. xx

joneser1281

@oxinfree Thanks for posting, that was very interesting!  I'd never heard of that either.  My clinic didn't tell us either way really... They said sex was fine, as long as it was comfortable... So we weren't told to do it, or to abstain.  Hmm... Shall I try it the night before FET this time???

mtpbadger

This is really interesting! My clinics only restriction was following an FET to abstain for 3-5 days, nothing either way before. Can't hurt to give it a try and I'm sure DH won't complain! 

oxinfree

Totally @joneser1281 give it a go...  hopefully you can be our first successful test subject and @mtpbadger - figure can't hurt. Hubs was all like "if I haaaaaave too" totally jokingly, obviously 100% down haha. But ya, I was surprised after all these years to only have learned about this now. Crazy.

AandDM2014

@oxinfree Thank you! I'd been wondering when you'd be back. I hope this next cycle goes so well for you! And, I guess as far as growing three humans goes, it hasn't been too bad, though in the last week I've had killer headaches (that I will talk to my MFM about on Tuesday).

joneser1281

@oxinfree I may have to try it... Of course if things don't work out, the head case that I am I will blame it on the fact that we BD the night before...    I will check with my RE... If there are no qualms with her about it, we may just try it haha.

oxinfree

Totally @joneser1281 I guess I've had so many unsuccessful where we have actively AVOIDED intercourse, that I'm like, maybe the opposite will work. I'm going to give a it a go, but totally know what you mean by if it doesn't work, you look for things to blame. I do that too!

Monica54321

I told DH about this study and he is enthusiastically supportive of giving it a go for our FET in Nov.

oxinfree

That was my hubby's response too @Monica54321 haha.

mtpbadger

Mine too!