awaiting natural FET

[louise31]

Hi all!
I wonder if anyone can help me as I am driving myself mad with this at the moment!? I did IVF with ICSI at the end of September but during the cycle they found a polyp in my womb which they wanted to remove before transfer of any embryos could go ahead. I have two frozen blastocysts waiting to be transferred but I have been advised to do natural transfer rather than a medicated one, wich I was happy with. This cycle I have purchased clearblue digi opks and started temping on day 8 of my cycle. I have been temping every day since and sometimes twice so I don't miss my surge, but unfortunately today is CD18 and still I have not detected a surge. I have tried using cheaper sticks many cycles before and have always struggled to detect a surge, but when I have temped this has always showed ovulation has taken place. I spoke with the hospital about my concerns regarding not thinking the sticks will ever detect a surge and they have advised to continue testing to CD22 and then if no surge have a bleed and test again the following month. If no surge then then they will look to do something. I am finding this so frustrating and depressing that I cant even detect a surge. Does anyone have any experience of this?? I have purchased cheaper sticks ro run alongside the clearblue but I am worried that I may have had my surge already and the clearblue just didn't pick it up. I actually feel as though I am ovulating now with twinges and back ache, but the hospital don't want to take my word they want the sticks to show a surge!!! Does anyone have experience of clearblue sticks not detecting their surge?
Sorry to ramble and thanks for reading

 

[MoBaby]

With my natural fet that worked to give me my lo the cb digital ones took a day longer To register my siege compared to the wondfo cheapies.
When do you normally ovulate / how long are your normal cycles?

 

[HisSweetheart]

Me too.. waiting for a natural FET this month or next whichever works out, depending on my ET lining. Reading your mail, I guess you ovulate on ur own, normally. Last month (Dec'14) I had my ER, and didnt produce a good lining, so my ET was cancelled, and embies frozen for FET.

Apparently, this month too, my lining is showing up rather slow, y'day being CD11, it was 6.4mm triple lining, with 2 follies coming up, and now, so late. My RE told me that as a result of all the meds in the ER cycle, the subsequent cycles may take a while to spring back to their normal course. However, she is not relying on the OPKs alone, and doing a scan on CD15 to confirm that there is an ovulation/one going to happen.

My RE says that unlike the medicated FET (where docs do a lot of pre-calculation, and prevent ovulation), timing is very important in natural FET, where "seeing" the evidence of follicle rupture (ovulation) is "believing". And ur's being a blastocyst tfr, the timing becomes even more crucial for natural FET. So I feel its better that you dont rely completely on the OPKs and insist ur RE for a scan if she's very particular about a natural FET.

Wishing you all the best...

 

[louise31]

Hi thanks for your replies ladies. I have tracked my cycles for 2 years and my cycles in that time have ranged from 25 - 34 days. Ovulation tends to happen between days 13 - 17. I have contacted my clinic this morning to request that they scan me this cycle as I think I had my surge new years eve and the opks have not picked it up for whatever reason. The nurse said that someone would ring me back later today so we will have to see what happens then... I know that the timing has to be perfect but wish they would have monitored me more closely this cycle rather than solely relying on opks.
Good luck Hissweetheart I hope it works out for you this cycle Let me know how things go.

 

[louise31]

Me too.. waiting for a natural FET this month or next whichever works out, depending on my ET lining. Reading your mail, I guess you ovulate on ur own, normally. Last month (Dec'14) I had my ER, and didnt produce a good lining, so my ET was cancelled, and embies frozen for FET.

Apparently, this month too, my lining is showing up rather slow, y'day being CD11, it was 6.4mm triple lining, with 2 follies coming up, and now, so late. My RE told me that as a result of all the meds in the ER cycle, the subsequent cycles may take a while to spring back to their normal course. However, she is not relying on the OPKs alone, and doing a scan on CD15 to confirm that there is an ovulation/one going to happen.

My RE says that unlike the medicated FET (where docs do a lot of pre-calculation, and prevent ovulation), timing is very important in natural FET, where "seeing" the evidence of follicle rupture (ovulation) is "believing". And ur's being a blastocyst tfr, the timing becomes even more crucial for natural FET. So I feel its better that you dont rely completely on the OPKs and insist ur RE for a scan if she's very particular about a natural FET.

Wishing you all the best...

Are you NHS or a private patient?? Just wondered wherther on the NHS during a natural FET they do not monitor you with scans.

 

[HisSweetheart]

Louise31, I believe u r based in U.K. Here in Stuttgart, natural FETs are monitored thru scans as well as OPKs just as a precautionary measure in case surge is detected a day before or after the scheduled scan. It does cost extra bucks but worth bcoz me having endo stage 4, natural FET is more suitable.

 

[MoBaby]

I had a baseline ultrasound then one at cd 10 to make sure I looked like o was approaching then opks from then on. I had my surge late cd 15, scan an cd 16 and transfer 5 days later.

My clinic would have scanned at cd 21 if no surge too. They also took progesterone, estrogen and LH to confirm.

Hope it all works out! Our bodies seen to go on fritz when waiting for it to work right.

 

[louise31]

Hi I spoke to a nurse who called me back this afternoon. She said that they don't monitor at all on natural FET only medicated and they just take patients word for it on the surge. She sad that if I was to say I had detected a surge they would pobably go ahead with embryo transfer on Monday. I did get two lines on a supermarket opk but they weren't the same density so I am not 100% sure that was my surge. The nurse said that it would be a shame to waste one of my chances. She said if I continue testing for 2 more days just in case I surge late. Then she said that if no surge have a bleed and test again the following cycle. She said as a back up plan order meds. I think I am going to do this as I do not feel 100% certain that I have had my surge.

 

[MoBaby]

That's a good plan. You would hate to waste your embryos of timing wasn't rigjt. I can't believe they don't even offer an ultrasound or blood work

 

[louise31]

I can't believe they don't either. There must be other people who struggle to detect their surge. Surely it would be worth it to just check things are ok to proceed rather than completely relying on us checking for our surge.

 

[louise31]

Really want to try to do a natural cycle if my body will play the game!! Don't want to have to take meds again not when we have got to this stage.

 

[MoBaby]

Natural fet is the way to go IMO. Easy to do and your body does all the work

 

[louise31]

going to go for it on my next cycle!! I have everything crossed!!!!

 

[louise31]

Well I did a test first thing yesterday and one at 2.30pm and both were negative on clearblue digi. Then something made me check again at 9.30pm and I got my first smiley!!!! I checked again this morning but it was negative. I rang my clinic and the first thing they said is that they advise patients to check first thing in the nmorning and that my surge should have still been present this morning. They are going to speak with the embryologist and doctor and get back to me regarding possible transfer on Monday. She mentioned it possibly being 6-7 days from my surge. That would take me very close to my expected AF. Does that matter with FET?? Soooo confused with all this and don't know what to do for the best!!

 

[HisSweetheart]

Louise31, I can really feel how confused you must be Especially when the scans are not offered and to top it, the body plays tricks..

As far as I know, as much important the LH surge is, so is the endometrial triple lining, preferably above 8mm, and the documented evidence of follicle rupture - for timing the FET in a natural cycle. Even if LH surge is seen on OPK, there is no guarantee that endometrium is well prepared for an FET. LH surge cant conclude everything, ET has to look receptive to the embryo. Otherwise you are risking your chance at conception.

The OPK cant give you all these vital details, so I really wonder how your health service provider can risk your embryos, without an analysis using scans!.. At this stage all I can suggest is, just browse around some threads to see how people in similar situation as ur's handled it, or better, u can start a thread with a title that can help you get people share their experiences with similar situation.

Wish u the Best...

 

[HisSweetheart]

louise31, I think you can get in touch with people on this thread, they seem to be quite through FET. "FET two week wait: need support!"

 

[HisSweetheart]

Hello Louise31, how are you doing? Did u catch the LH surge?
What are ur next plans?
Louise, seems like u too had a polyp come up and so ur transfer is delayed. How big was it? how was it removed?... any chances of recurrence after the removal... I'm like so frustrated as I'm also going through the same situation you went through last October.

My ET was 9.3mm triple layer today with a nice follie waiting to rupture. Everything looked so rosy. My RE was like, "ur uterus looks beautiful and just perfect for the transfer". But then suddenly she saw a polyp of 4mm inside the endometrium, so she's now very very apprehensive to do the transfer and risk the embies (i have only 2 day3embies). She's anyway asked to wait till saturday with a hope that this wretched polyp will disappear, as its small. But I've lost all hope that the embies will go in this cycle... This stupid polyp has just come out of nowhere! I'm feeling so disappointed that though my ET was so good, I'm helplessly missing this cycle. We'll be trying naturally anyway, as we dont have much option this cycle.

Hopefully I'll get to hear some good news from u girls so that my morale is boosted.

 

[louise31]

Hello Louise31, how are you doing? Did u catch the LH surge?
What are ur next plans?
Louise, seems like u too had a polyp come up and so ur transfer is delayed. How big was it? how was it removed?... any chances of recurrence after the removal... I'm like so frustrated as I'm also going through the same situation you went through last October.

My ET was 9.3mm triple layer today with a nice follie waiting to rupture. Everything looked so rosy. My RE was like, "ur uterus looks beautiful and just perfect for the transfer". But then suddenly she saw a polyp of 4mm inside the endometrium, so she's now very very apprehensive to do the transfer and risk the embies (i have only 2 day3embies). She's anyway asked to wait till saturday with a hope that this wretched polyp will disappear, as its small. But I've lost all hope that the embies will go in this cycle... This stupid polyp has just come out of nowhere! I'm feeling so disappointed that though my ET was so good, I'm helplessly missing this cycle. We'll be trying naturally anyway, as we dont have much option this cycle.

Hopefully I'll get to hear some good news from u girls so that my morale is boosted.

Awwww hon... so sorry to hear that! What a nightmare for you. Does sound so much like what happened to me. They completely missed the polyp earlier on and then said they noticed it and then when I was rescanned they missed it again!!! I have had it removed and the consultant said it would be very unlikely that I would get another.
I have my fingers crossed for you that it will disappear so that you can proceed with transfer. We deceided not to proceed this cycle as I spoke on the phone with the consultant and they really made me feel that we would be risking one of our two precious embies and they just couldn't be sure it is the optimal time. I am going all out on this coming cycle to ensure I have no doubt about my surge and ovulation. I am having intensive accupuncture sessions from this saturaday with an accupuncturist who specialises in fertility and is going to try to regulate my cycle and strengthen ovulation. I have a docs appointment on monday and am booking in for bloods day 3 and day 21 to confirm ovulation and also restarting my duofertility monitor subscription where people study my temps and advise on my cycle and ovulation etc... I really want to try and give my body a chance to do this naturally. If all that fails I will start meds from approx day 23 of this coming cycle. Got to feel like I am doing all I can otherwise I might go crazy!!!!
Looooooooads of luck to you and I truly hope its good news for you xxxx

 

[louise31]

Sorry I didn't answer your questions - it was 4-5 mm and I could have had it removed without any anaesthetic but I really didn't fancy that. I had a general but controlled amount and it was over and done with in 15mins. No problems after. They just begin it like a smear and use a untensil to twist the polyp until it detatches and that minimises any bleeding. Honestly don't worry if you have to have it done. I was stressing but it was absolutely fine x

 

[HisSweetheart]

Hey louise31, sorry, I was out of action for a few day as there was so much action happening in the meanwhile.

How are you doing? Hows the accupuncture sessions making u feel?.. And yes, accupuncture definitely helps time natural FET very much better.

Here's my update.

I went in for a scan on 10th Jan, and the polyp was not there, as it was not a polyp in the first place. It was some flimsy "adhesion". My lining and LH levels were favourable for the FET.
So, my FET happened yesterday, 2 nice day-3 embies were thawed and transferred.
My RE was happy that both embies survived the thaw with no cell loss. In fact one started dividing as soon as it was warmed...

From a high possibility of no transfer this month, it still happened as a natural FET, which I least expected, I guess because it was destined to happen!.. Nothing is in our hands, truly, we can only make honest efforts. Rest is all in His hands.
Hope we all get our much awaited BFP's soon!
Will always keep u in my prayers.


Cheers,
Marlene