Natural Cycle IVF
What is Natural Cycle IVF?
Natural cycle IVF is IVF with no stimulation drugs. In normal IVF, drugs are used to produce more than one egg, which usually generates more than one embryo and allows better selection of the embryo for transfer. In natural cycle IVF, as no drugs are given, usually only one egg is obtained. Once the egg is collected, it is treated as for normal IVF. The entire process is based on your menstrual cycle and takes 30 days. You have no hospitalization, no stimulation drugs, and almost no chance of multiple pregnancies- all of which minimize stress.
Who can undergo Natural cycle IVF?
This treatment is basically offered for women with a poor ovarian reserve when medications are not thought to help in recruiting a higher number of eggs. Encouraging results has been reported in recent medical literature for poor responders, but the success rates are still low.
What to expect during the treatment?
During the treatment you will be visiting the clinic frequently for vaginal scans and hormonal blood tests, to monitor your ovulation hormones. During the ultrasound scans we will measure the growing follicle and monitor its progress. The egg collection will take place once the follicle has reached a satisfactory size.
Approximately 57% of patients undergoing IVF natural cycles will reach the stage of embryo transfer across all ages. Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) will be undertaken unless there are specific contraindications to its use. During this procedure the sperm will be injected inside the egg.
There is a 30-40% chance that the collected egg may fail to fertilise and therefore no embryos can be transferred. Unfortunately it is not always possible to know why fertilisation failed to occur although every effort will be made to pinpoint the problem. After your embryo transfer you will be receiving vaginal pessaries to support your womb lining. You will test for pregnancy after two weeks.
