freeze all cycle

tifga · July 2014

I am so confused, we are reading/signing all the paper work for our IVF tonight when it said the numbers for a FET are 8-28% less then fresh cycle. But the only reason we agreed to the freeze all cycle was because the Dr. said some studies say it gives a better chance.
What have you have heard about freeze all vs. fresh transfer? Also if you did freeze all and FET what was that like?
I do instead to email my Dr and say wtf or see if I can talk to him when Im there for my baseline in the morning, I just wanted opinions now.
Thanks.

airidh80 · July 2014

Each clinic has their own stats re: fresh vs frozen transfers. You have to refer to the in-house numbers on success rates. In general, yes, many doctors are seeing increased success in FETs because it gives the woman's body time to rest, recover, and then be "built up" to perfect specs for transfer.

You should ask your clinic what method they use to freeze the embryos. Vitrification is best, and has a 98% thaw rate success. Traditional slow-freezing has only about an 80% thaw success rate.

FET prep is long, I'm not gonna lie. The whole process is about 49 days (although 21 of those are just sittin' around, waiting on AF.)

tifga · July 2014

I am supposed to go on a progesterone suppository after the ER for a week I thought AF started right after that?

airidh80 · July 2014

I was referring to your second AF in the prep process (yes, there are two

Also, depending on how your body reacts to the ER, they might want to put at least one additional month of rest in there. But that will all be determined after ER.

For example, here's what mine looks like:

CD1 - period one starts

CD21 - go in for progesterone blood test. If P4 > 5, then start lupron.

CD1 - second cycle starts. Estrogen replacement begins CD3. And from there it's about 3 weeks of actual drug prep.

airidh80 · July 2014

IFinTN said:

You may want to do a freeze all just so they can be more aggressive with stims. If your E2 gets high or you are at risk for OHSS, you may have to do a freeze all anyway.

This is a good point, too. When you're doing a fresh cycle, the doctors have to balance getting the maximum number of eggs with maintaining a favorable hormonal balance for transfer. When you separate the transfer from the retrieval, you can really give each element the focus and time it deserves.

gsancho · July 2014

Most everything I've seen is that FET has a slightly higher success rate...but it is skewed due to either the fact that your RE wanted your body to calm down after meds, and also b/c often times it is a 2nd or 3rd try for a couple after a failed fresh cycle, so law of averages says they'd have a slightly better chance. But in reality, I think odds are fairly even. Then again, I'm no specialist.

Our RE wanted to do an all freeze, partly b/c he thought we may have to do banking (2+ ERs) in order to get 2 good embies. But we got 2 good ones from our first ER in June and we'll do FET in about a month.

przemosbabe · July 2014

I've seen a lot that says FET are better especially for girls that have endo or immune issues

tifga · July 2014

Thank you guys you have made me feel a lot better. And when we woke up this morning we had an email from our DR. (love him!) he pointed out exactly what snegde said that they haven't updated their paper work but the research is showing it gives better results and apparently better birth weight, which I didn't know.

Also przemosbabe made a good point with the immunological issues, which while no one thinks it is an issue with us trying to conceive I do have a host of unrelated immune problems. And thanks airidh80 for pointing out the E2 levels, the whole reason we are doing this is to bank a lot of babies for the future so more stims is more better.

Thank you all so much I once again feel sane!

airidh80 · July 2014

Credit where credit's due, @IFinTN pointed out the E2 issues, I just nodded along vigorously

tifga · July 2014

Oops thanks @IFinTN!

jbasore1123 · July 2014

Thanks @snegde

From what I have read, more and more research is coming out saying that FET's are preferred over fresh transfers. My doc and embryologist (which was also backed up from what I read in research articles) says that the hormones left in the body from stimming can negatively affect success rates since it doesn't make for an optimal environment (since that amount of hormones is not normally there during a normal, non-IVF cycle) so many docs are now doing a freeze-all.

I was confused at first as well, because I noticed that the success rates on SART were much lower for FETs than fresh transfers. They explained to me that, up until now, most of the time they would do a fresh transfer with the top 1-2 embryos in the bunch and then freeze the rest. Then when they went to transfer the frozen ones, they were the embryos that weren't the best quality, therefore, weren't as likely to implant or grow anyway. In a freeze-all, you would still have your top quality embryos to transfer, so therefore if they are just comparing fresh transfers to FETs with the top quality embryos, success rates actually increase.

I hope that makes sense.

tifga · July 2014

That is really cook thank you @jbasore1123.

Justone13 · July 2014

@tifga‌ thank you for asking this question. I'm doing a freeze all cycle in September. I haven't researched anything because honestly I need a break but this Q helped answer some I had! So thanks!

Mrs.Ess · July 2014

Thank you for all of this info; I had been wondering about this as well.

RunCC37 · July 2014

Lots of good info above. Pardon me if I repeat anything (just skimmed). My FET prep process was really easy and pretty quick. I was on Estrace (orally at first then vaginally) until my lining was ready for the next phase. My lining has always been a tad stubborn, so it took a few more days than they expected. Then 5 days of PIO and then the transfer!

That particular clinic preferred FETs if you had slow growing embryos so that they could ensure the uterus was in sync with the embryos.

pblge · July 2014

You might be interested in reading this thread:
https://forums.thebump.com/discussion/12373373/tell-me-about-your-fet-calendars-update#latest
I asked about others' FET schedules and pretty much everyone was doing something different! It's not always a long protocol.

freeze all cycle

Re: freeze all cycle

Me 33, DH 37 -- TTC since Jan'12 -- Low AMH (0.78) & endo, SA w/ low motility
IUI's 1-3 = BFN, IVF converted to IUI 4/13 = BFN
IVF 1.2: 8R 6M 4F -- 2 blastocysts frozen, FET 8/15 = BFP!!
Beta #s = 445;1,098; 9,545 -- EDD 5/2 -- Team Pink!

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freeze all cycle

Re: freeze all cycle

Me 33, DH 37 -- TTC since Jan'12 -- Low AMH (0.78) & endo, SA w/ low motilityIUI's 1-3 = BFN, IVF converted to IUI 4/13 = BFNIVF 1.2: 8R 6M 4F -- 2 blastocysts frozen, FET 8/15 = BFP!!Beta #s = 445;1,098; 9,545 -- EDD 5/2 -- Team Pink!

Choose Another Board

Search Boards

Me 33, DH 37 -- TTC since Jan'12 -- Low AMH (0.78) & endo, SA w/ low motility
IUI's 1-3 = BFN, IVF converted to IUI 4/13 = BFN
IVF 1.2: 8R 6M 4F -- 2 blastocysts frozen, FET 8/15 = BFP!!
Beta #s = 445;1,098; 9,545 -- EDD 5/2 -- Team Pink!