When Dave and I went for our review appointment after our first failed cycle of IVF, one of the best parts was being told that notwithstanding our negative outcome, we had a pretty perfect cycle. At the same time, however, this was also quite frustrating for us, in that there was nothing we could change to improve our chances in our second cycle. The clinic even recommended we follow the exact same protocol that we did the first time round and of course we were delighted and extremely grateful that there were no new issues that arose that required further medical attention or medication, but we both felt that we wanted to try at least a little something different the second time around.
One way we found in which we could potentially impact our cycle was to sign up for the E-Freeze programme that is on offer at our clinic. This is a research programme that is being carried out at fertility centres all across the country, however Aberdeen is the leading clinic in the study. Essentially the aim of the programme is to try and look at ways of improving pregnancy and live birth rates from IVF as despite significant advances in technology, IVF success rates still remain on average around 25% in the UK, which given all the mental, physical and emotional turmoil couples go through, is pretty poor.
In a normal IVF cycle, after the egg retrieval takes place you go in for your embryo transfer either 3 or 5 days later. You then wait the dreaded 2 weeks to do your pregnancy test. What the E-Freeze programme does is takes your viable embryos from egg retrieval, pops them in the freezer then you wait 4-6 weeks before you have your embryo transfer. The idea is that you allow your body time to recover from the onslaught of hormones you’ve just been administering into your body for 2 weeks as well as the very painful and invasive egg retrieval procedure, before having your embryo transferred back in your womb.
This really made sense to me, as I don’t think I’ve felt physically worse in my entire life than when I went for my embryo transfer procedure. I’d had 2 weeks of hormones that made me feel so unwell, bloated my stomach out to huge proportions and had ovaries that were still triple the size they should be. As well as that I could barely stand up straight after the egg retrieval and I still had massive amount of internal pain. And here I was expecting my body to accept an embryo, care and nurture it and grow a baby? Leaving my body to rest and recover for 4-6 weeks sounded very reasonable to me and made me feel that I would be in a much better place physically and emotionally to accept the embryo.
After talking it through together and with our doctor and nurse we made the decision to sign up for the study. On the plus side the statistics from the E-Freeze transfers that have been carried out in the past couple of years are very encouraging and show a distinct 5% increase in pregnancy and live birth rates after following the E-Freeze programme compared with a normal IVF cycle. I know 5% doesn’t sound like a lot but when it comes to IVF statistics anything is an improvement!
The downsides are that obviously because it is still in research mode, there have not been enough cases to prove conclusively that frozen embryo transfer has better results than a fresh embryo transfer. The participants for the programme are also selected at random so although we have signed up to take part, there are no guarantees that we will be picked. There are only a certain amount of couples at any one fertility centre allowed to take part so effectively your names go into a hat and you’re either picked or not. Obviously we don’t know how many couples at our centre have signed up for it, but either way will be happy with what the decision is and will feel satisfied that at least we have tried something new.
Of course if we are chosen, another downside is that our treatment cycle will be extended a lot longer than if we had a fresh transfer. From start to finish we would be looking at an overall cycle time of potentially 13/14 weeks, which in itself is hard as you very much feel like your life is on pause when you’re in a cycle, however if it results in a positive pregnancy test then that is insignificant compared to the bigger picture, and at this point we will try anything!
We won’t know whether we have been picked for the study or not until after our egg retrieval but obviously I will be keeping you all updated.
For anyone who wishes to know more about the E-Freeze study, you can visit the website www.npeu.ox.ac.uk/e-freeze
Our Path to Parenthood 
My clinic didn’t even give me fresh as an option! My sister did the egg growing half of IVF and I figured they would try to synch us up but they flat out told us that they only do frozen transfers for donor egg cycles. They said the statistics are just as good with the flash freezing technology they have compared to fresh. You can ask them to freeze and not be in the study if you don’t get picked. Prob a fee involved but if you really think it will improve your stats it might be worth it. Good luck!!
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Thanks for your comment! That’s great you got a frozen transfer, unfortunately my clinic only do fresh as standard. The only time you can do a frozen transfer is if you have spare embryos after your fresh transfer; they will freeze them for you as a back up to be used at a later date or obviously with the e-freeze cycle. I know they have their reasons but it usually always comes back to money and resources which is frustrating! X
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Standard for doing your own egg retrieval is fresh at my clinic too, but I know of a woman who said she wanted them all frozen and they eventually went with her wishes.
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Ah that’s good to hear! I’m actually discovering nothing is offered to you; you have to be a bit pushy if there’s something out of the ordinary you want to try!
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Definitely worth it. I’ve read of American specialists who prefer to freeze and give your body time to rest too. Whatever happens, at least you know you’ve tried. And either way, at least there’s still a chance whether fresh or not.I hope this next cycle is THE cycle!
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Thank you so much! Yes it definitely makes sense to me so am hoping we will be able to participate. X
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I was forced into a freeze all due to a progesterone spike, initially I was gutted, but actually it was the best thing and allowed me to recover. Like you say though, the downside is the extended process xx
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Oh really? I can imagine but yes I think I would appreciate the that time to recover. Will see what happens though! Xx
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Good luck with it all, will be thinking of you 🍀💕
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I’m a really big frozen advocate because that was the round I conceived with. Before that I’d had 6 fresh rounds with never enough embryos to freeze (similar story at our clinic, fresh as standard unless top grade extras for freezing) on our 6th round we finally tested positive but that ended in a very early miscarriage just 2 days after our BFP. I was encouraged to see this as a good thing as it meant the round had been a good one. I’d been incredibly against frozen before but having the two embryos on ice made it a no brainer so I researched a lot. The technology and science for freezing is definitely much better than it was even just a few years ago and our two defrosted well. Going in for the frozen embryo transfer I felt healed. I wasn’t in pain from the ER surgery. I firmly believe that the body needs time to heal, it’s very invasive and sore surgery and then we’re expected to, just three days after in my cases, make it a nurturing and homely environment for a baby to grow when we’re probably still healing. If you can push to have the top grade ones frozen then see if that is an option. I would advise that if you go with a frozen round make sure they test your progesterone levels, they can be low if you’re put on HRT (as I was) and I ended up doing the intramuscular progesterone injections which were not nice but I feel played a huge factor in achieving a successful pregnancy. I’d actually suggest getting them tested after fresh too, this was never done for me as there was no reason to suggest they would be low but I have my suspicions! Chat to your clinic and perhaps look at their fresh / frozen results too? Good luck and feel free to contact me and ask any questions if you have them x
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Thanks so much for your comment; and I’m really sorry to hear about your early miscarriage. I’m positive however to hear about your thoughts on frozen transfers as opposed to fresh; I think I would be like you and feel better having the transfer when my body had had a chance to heal itself somewhat. I often feel at our clinic that we don’t get much of a say and of course during our first round we were pretty much at their mercy – they are the experts after all. However, after speaking to a lot of people we will definitely be asking more questions and asking for different options especially if we don’t get picked for the E-freeze study.
Thanks so much again; I may be back in touch with you at some point! xx
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