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Success after IF
JillRock96
member
Tell me about your FET (poll)
JillRock96
member
I realized that while I'm probably an IVF expert, I know very little about FETs. ?If you've done one, would you mind answering some questions? ?I want to be armed with info before our consult in a few weeks!
And if someone wouldn't mind laying out the basics of an FET cycle for me (how long it takes from start to finish), I would really appreciate it. ?:)?
1)?What medications did you take during your cycle?
2) Tell me about your embryos -- What day frozen? ?How many did you thaw? ?How many did you transfer?
3) What was the outcome of your FET?
4) Anything else I should know??
Thanks, ladies!?
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Re: Tell me about your FET (poll)
My FET was so smooth and stress free compared to a fresh cycle.
1) What medications did you take during your cycle? Estrace (this ramped up gradually for me), endometrin supps, antibiotic, & prednisone.
2) Tell me about your embryos -- What day frozen? How many did you thaw? How many did you transfer? I had 6 frozen on day 3. We thawed all 6 with the goal of growing them out to blast. They all survived the thaw and on Day 6 we had 3 blasts to choose from. We tx the best 2, one had hatched on its own and they used AH on the other. The rest were given a chance to grow out one more day and ended up being discarded. They have to be perfect to refreeze.
3) What was the outcome of your FET? BFP - singleton
4) Anything else I should know? I told we would tx on either day 5 or day 6 and that was a little stressful. I was really pulling for day 5 and was really thinking something was "wrong" when they pushed me to day 6 and it really was for the best.
I documented everything almost daily in my blog if you want to check it out. I can't remember some of the specific details right now. It was only a month or so from start to beta...
GL!!! Very exciting!
How exciting that you are thinking about this!!
Gosh, we did our FET in August and I don't remember much about it. THere's a bit of info in my blog from that time. It starts about here I think. https://myinfertileworldsm.blogspot.com/2008/09/ivf-vs-fet.html
1) Was on Estrace for about 3 weeks, then FET, then PIO
2) We had 3 frozen on day 5. All 3 survived the thaw, although one looked kinda funny. Transferred all 3.
3) BFN
Hi there!
Everyone's cycle/RE is a little different just like IVF but for me, the FET was 6 weeks start to finish, from first BCP to ET. It is possible to do unmedicated FETs also, where you get more frequently monitoring and they time transfer with your cycle.
1)?What medications did you take during your cycle?
I took BCPs (a full pack, so 3 weeks), daily lupron starting at the end of BCP pack (followed by suppression check), then estrogen patches that gradually increase (overlapping with lupron and a estradiol check in there somewhere). ?Then when all is good w/ estrogen levels, progesterone (PIO/PEO) for at least 6 days before transfer (in addition to the estrogen patches). The end is where some of the variability/convenience comes with an FET, you can be on the prog & estr patches for longer than 6 days & can schedule the ET at your convenience or that of your RE's schedule. I also used ovidrel prior to ET, I don't think that is the norm but my RE likes to use it to mimic a real cycle/ovulation. ?
(ETA: I forgot about medrol & doxy, took those around ET also).?
Then you're on the estr patches & PIO/PEO after ET also. With BFP, I switched to supps & continued them & the estr patches until between 7 & 8 weeks (basically until I ran out).
2) Tell me about your embryos -- What day frozen? ?How many did you thaw? ?How many did you transfer?
I had 2 6 day blasts frozen & transferred both b/c they were frozen together. My RE only freezes on day 6 if you do a 5dt for the fresh. Out of the 5 I had left, only ?2 made it to 6 day at a high enough quality that he was willing to freeze them. And, in reality, my frozen blasts were rated a better quality than the fresh ones that were transferred the day before.
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3) What was the outcome of your FET? BFP, I'm 26 weeks pg with twins.
4) Anything else I should know??
Things to ask your RE about are-
the quality of the frozen ones (some REs will freeze all, some will only freeze at a certain quality level etc).
Their thaw survival rate (I think the places with higher survival rates tend to only freeze the higher quality ones but I think the thaw process has come a long way in recent years regardless)
How the thawing process works if you have a bunch frozen (like, if they thaw 2 and only one survives, what will be the plan, how many are frozen per straw, etc). They will probably make you sign something stating what you want to be done prior to ET anyway. For example, if they're frozen in straws by 2 & you thaw 2 & only 1 survives, if you go to thaw another straw, then you have 3- are you going to transfer all 3 or discard one or what? Hard decisions. I only had 2 so never had to make that choice. ?
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GL! It is definitely easier than a fresh cycle but still involves a bit of meds, although fewer visits for monitoring which is nice!
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1) What medications did you take during your cycle? did a month of suppression w lupron and bcp like in a fresh, then, I used vivelle estrogen patches, continued with lupron to transfer, then stopped lupron and continued w estrogen, endometrin (prog supps). I think that is it!
2) Tell me about your embryos -- What day frozen? How many did you thaw? How many did you transfer? they were either frozen on day 5 or 6, I'm not sure which ones were transferred. Thawed 2, transferred 2 but my embryos were frozen using vitrification due to the CGH testing, it's a little different
3) What was the outcome of your FET? pregnant w a singleton
4) Anything else I should know? so much easier than a fresh!!
From start to finish very quick - but not sure - but a month about...
1) I think I was just on estradiol and birth control pills (just a few)...no lupron....i can't remember if I was on birth control - I'll check my blog. I had 2 lining checks - 1 at baseline and 1 a few days before transfer. I liked the FET process as I hated lupron and BCPs.
2) 2 embryos frozen day 6 i think. may have been late on day 5. We thawed 2 ----both thawed and one started hatching. Transferred 2
3) BFP, but it was a chemical pregnancy
4) I've read that if you did ICSI on your embryos they thaw better, but i'm not sure if that means if they were frozen on day 3 or day 5/6. It worked for me since mine thawed out beautifully.
Good luck!
1. I was on the same meds for all 3 FETs. Here is my schedule from one: https://to-infertility-and-beyond.blogspot.com/2008/09/and-were-off.html
2& 3. All 7 embryos were frozen on day 5 or 6 (I'm not 100% sure)
FET #1-Thawed 2, transferred 2-BFN
FET #2-Thawed 3, transferred 2, refroze 1!-BFN
FET #3-Thawed 3, transferred 3, 1 stuck!-BFP
(We also did assisted hatching each time)
4. For FET #1, my doctor suggested that I start on a low carb diet. She had research that showed that it could help. I did, to the extreme, about 2 weeks before the transfer. I think it really shocked my body and effected that cycle. I did 2 days of strict bedrest, per my doc. For FET #2, I was still doing the low carb, but it had been long enough for my body to get used to it, and I wasn't quite as strict. I did 2 days of strict bedrest. For FET #3, I drank Pomegranate juice starting on cycle day 1. I really think this helped with my lining. I also was on strict bedrest for 2 days and then stayed off my feet for as much as possible the whole week.
Good luck!!
I only did one FET but it was so much simplier than a fresh cycle.
1. I took Estrace (starting on CD2) and PIO.
2. I had 11 embryos in freeze. 6 were frozen at CD1 and 5 were frozen at CD3. We lost all 6 CD1 embryos in the thaw. Only 2 of our CD3 embryos survived for transfer.
3. BFP with Hayden
My protocol was exactly the same at groovygirls. ?We had 7 embryos and three were transferred. ?Sophie and Hannah were the end result:) ?
My FET's were the result of a cancelled IVF due to OHSS so we had a lot of frozen embryos to work with. ?Plus our embryos were frozen on Day 1. ?A lot of women who do FET's have left over embryos from a fresh cycle and their embryos are usually frozen on Day 5.
1. I did BCP, then Lupron and Estrace (gradual ramp up) to build up my lining. Once the lining was thick enough I stopped the Lupron and started PIO (6 days before transfer) plus doxycycline, medrol and anaprox.
2. We just had one embryo left from our fresh cycle - it was frozen at day 6 and we were just happy that it survived and looked good after thaw.
3. Don't know yet - beta is scheduled for June 8th.