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Infertility
Kathy4678
member
Natural Cycle IVF?
Kathy4678
member
in Infertility
Hi there- I usually post on 3T, but thought I'd throw this out to see if anyone's had any experiences with Natural Cycle IVF. If so- care to share what lead you to that option?
Pros and cons?
DH and I are going to a consult just to educate ourselves a bit, but I just wanted to see if anyone knew anything.
Thanks!
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Natural Cycle IVF?
Hi Kathy,
I see you're in Northern VA - so am I.
My DH and I consulted with two different clinics - we chose the clinic based on which doctor we liked best. Since the clinic I'm at (Dominion which is where I'm assuming you'll do your consult) recommended NC-IVF b/c of my diagnosis (DOR) and the fact that I have regular cycles.
It's hard for me to completely compare pros and cons since I've never done a stimulated cycle but here're my thoughts:
Pros:
- none of the stimulation drugs
- can cycle every month so if your first month is a bust - you're right back cycling the next month
- much better cost (much, much better)
- While my diagnosis precludes this as a real concern, I don't really want to have too many embryos to ever reasonably transfer.
Cons:
- b/c there is nothing to keep you from ovulating early, it is possible to be unable to retrieve and egg. While the clinic has quite a bit of experience, I happen to be that gal that's a hair trigger ovulator, so I'm 0 for 2. B/c of this, we're doing a WTF to re-evaluate the treatment. I expect they'll recommend we do a modified NC-IVF with the modification of using something to preclude ovulation so we can actually retrieve an egg. Now the clinic has said that the vast majority of patients make it past the egg retrieval - I just haven't yet.
Other things to consider:
- according to the clinic (and actually according to several abstracts from various studies I found on the internet), it is more reasonable to compare 3 NC-IVF transfers to a single regular IVF transfer (I'm paraphrasing, but that's the gist). using that - the rates of pregnancy are comparable, but it is hard to keep that in mind. Of course there are other studies that do comparisons and dismiss NC-IVF out of hand. You just have to determine if you think their methodology was fair. I was inclined to favor the more favorable studies' methodology than the less favorable.
- it's a rapid turnover rate - just as you're dealing with missing an ER, you're soon into your next cycle and starting all over again - that can be good or bad. It just depends.
Hope this is a little helpful. Please feel free to ask me anything else.
Best of luck to you and your hubby!
Really appreciate your response- thank you!
Yes- we're going to Dominion- Dr. Gordon. I have a lot of questions for them, but I'm interested to see if this is a better option for us. We're 100% OOP and currently seeing a doc with Shady Grove. We applied to their shared risk program, but even with shared risk- because of the cost of the drugs on top of the shared risk program, we can really only afford to cycle once. So we're hoping this may provide a better option with less pressure to be THE CYCLE - if that makes sense.
Anyway- good luck to you- and I appreciate the feedback!
Dr. DiMattina is my RE, but Dr. Gordon was at my last ER. He's awesome and I think you'll like him (I like Dr. D, too). They'll give you a book - 100 Questions and Answers about Infertility.
The way the billing has worked for us is this:
We paid for an entire cycle. Since we couldn't retrieve an egg on the first cycle, the remainder of our payment was rolled to the next cycle. So at the next cycle, we paid only the difference. That was uber-helpful.
I would inquire about the success rates. I think anyone that is claiming that a single follicle ER has the same pregnancy rate as a traditional IVF needs to back that syptatement up with hard data. ER and embryo culturing is the most expensive part of an IVF cycle, so yiu ar paying for the loins share of the treatment just for potentially one embryo, and even the best cycles where there are 20+ eggs to work with fail. A lot. Some protocols use low stim meds so that you're still working with 3 or so follicles, but it doesn't sound like you're doing that. I would also ask about how much meds would cost you (price out discount programs and or overseas) because it may not be as high as you anticipate.
IVF is a numbers game and you can count on embryos to arrest between ER and blast. In a previous post I think the rate was 2/3 good looking d3 cleavage stage embryos arrest befor reaching blastocyst. Historically mini-IVF was an option for women who make very few eggs even on super high stims and aggressive protocols anyway, with the intent to avoid high level stims that could compromise egg quality or for those that want to avoid high stims for whatever reason. I have heard people mention it as a cost saving option but I really haven't seen compelling argument supporting that. Meds are not the most expensive aspect of an entire IVF cycle.
Do a search, this has been discussed here a fair amount. And good luck!