Natural IVF Cycle?

Sunny1s

Has anyone discussed or completed a natural (no drugs) IVF cycle?  If yes, what was the protocol?

Thanks!

anangelbug

I did a natural IVF cycle back in November.  Not many doctors want to do it or will do. I got lucky...I guess.  You need to start with a fairly regular cycle then they monitor you via ultrasound daily and told me when to trigger. They had also given me a vial of ganilrelix and follistim as just in case but I never needed or was instructed to use them.  The only injection I got was a trigger shot.  I also had to take the antibiotics for the retrieval. I also did my retrieval awake (no meds for that either, that was a breeze, no pain at all).  

I wouldn't do it again, especially at my age!  They did retreive an egg and it did fertizlie however poorly. It was only a 5-cell on day 3 and it didn't work.  It's expensive too ($5,200) and only one egg (IIF you getT IT and IF it fertilizes).  There are a ton of if''s in a natural cycle.  If I had to do it over I would have done a regular IVF but less aggressive (shoot for 10-12 eggs VS 20-30).    You just have a much better chance having a lot of embies and then hopefully some left over to freeze for the future.    I don't regret it. I hate meds, I have fears but I would do it differently.  I guess IVF just wasn't in the cards for me and we are now in the adoption process. Time got away from me, age crept up....

If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask!  Hope that helps.  Good luck in your journey 

may2806

I've been taking a mental break from the boards (just occasional lurking), but I wanted to respond to your post because not many people have done natural cycle. Last summer I did a natural cycle sort of by accident - it was supposed to be mini-stim, but after my baseline they wouldn't let me stim at all because of a cyst. However, I did make my own egg, which is really rare for me, so my dr wanted to go through with the retrieval. I did one FSH shot and then the trigger. The egg fertilized and I got pg - only to sadly m/c later. BUT it did work.

I would only attempt natural if you don't respond to drugs and still want a shot at IVF. Otherwise, like pp said, it's really not worth it and you should use at least a small amount of drugs. I think I got really lucky (until the m/c that is, which made it all the more devastating). HTH! 

itsmevkb

I haven't done a natural IVF but have been interested in the mini-ivf idea for quite a while.  There are some clinics that do IVFs and have you just use clomid for stims.  Others use clomid and very low doses of injectables.

There is a clinic near Madison that does this in case you're interested, although I do not think the offer a truly natural cycle IVF option.