QuestionQUESTION: Hello, I am a 33 year old woman with one beautiful 2 year, conceived via iui with letrazole. My husband and I are trying for number 2. He has low morphology and I have irregular ovulation. We live in Washington State.
We have had 2 failed fresh cycles and 1 failed FET cycle. We have no more frozen embryos. A few questions for you
1) On average, how many ivf cycles does it take to conceive? What is a typically range of cycles? I'm trying to set expectations for myself
2) When a FET cycle fails, what are your options? Personally I would like to do a fresh cycle again as soon as possible but how long do you recommend we wait?
A huge thank you for offering this service and for sharing your opinion!
Kylie
ANSWER: Hello Kylie from the U.S. (Washington State),
The statistics on how many IVF attempts it takes to be successful are very dependent on the clinic that you are going to. You should ask them what their statistic for this is. In my center, 55% get pregnant on their first attempt, 86% by the second attempt and 92% by the third attempt. I counsel my patients to expect that it will take more than one attempt to be successful (just as it takes more than one month of trying to get pregnant naturally). This is because that last two steps of the process, even with IVF, are natural steps. Given that there are 9 steps that have to occur for a woman to achieve pregnancy, IVF helps with steps 1-7 only. Your chances of pregnancy per attempt, however, is 50-76% depending on the clinic you go to.
If an FET cycle fails, and you don't have any more embryos, then your only option is to attempt a fresh cycle again. This can be as soon as the following month, although I require my patients to take a month off to let the ovaries rest.
Good Luck,
Dr. Edward J. Ramirez, M.D., FACOG
Executive Medical Director
The Fertility and Gynecology Center
Monterey Bay IVF Program
www.montereybayivf.com
Monterey, California, U.S.A.
for additional information check out my blog at http://womenshealthandfertility.blogspot.com check me out on twitter with me at @montereybayivf and facebook @montereybayivf
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Excellent and thank you for such a prompt response! One follow up question...do you consider a frozen cycle to be the same as a fresh or should we consider it to be part of our 2nd cycle?
Also, why do you think your clinic has such great success rates?
Much thanks,
Kylie
AnswerHello Again,
Average frozen cycle pregnancy rates are lower than fresh cycle pregnancy rates. That is because usually the frozen embryos are not the best ones (the bests ones were transferred, and freezing/thawing embryos does have a negative effect. That being said, there is still a pretty good chance of pregnancy with frozen embryos.
Good Luck,
Dr. Edward J. Ramirez, M.D., FACOG
Executive Medical Director
The Fertility and Gynecology Center
Monterey Bay IVF Program
www.montereybayivf.com
Monterey, California, U.S.A.
for additional information check out my blog at http://womenshealthandfertility.blogspot.com check me out on twitter with me at @montereybayivf and facebook @montereybayivf
