So when you take the decision to go on the Ivf journey. (Really don’t like that word journey)
Your medical doctor will look at you case and decide on the best type of IVF for you. (Mostly)
Interestingly what a lot of people don’t know is that there are multiple multiple types of IVF. Most people assume its just IVF. But its not. Its not just a medicine its truly an art. I know IVF clinics would hate to hear that but there is such an art in getting the right protocol for the right patient.
I always compare it to putting petrol into a petrol car and diesel into a diesel car. Put diesel into a petrol car and you will get no where. However you might get some movement by putting petrol into a diesel car.
And medication is the same. Get the right medication and you get to create miracles. Likewise get the wrong protocol and you won’t get the result you’r looking for….
I have seen patients do one protocol 2 to 3 times and get no where, do a slight subtle switch on medication protocols and boom, amazing success. A beautiful pregnancy…. (BTW Im not a doctor) 🙂
Over the years I have seen outstanding doctors provide amazing pioneering approaches in their treatments….. One of my favourite was by a Doctor in Cork, I had never seen this done before but wow…. What amazing insight into fertility. The patient had very low amp… and one doctors view was donor egg. The didn’t believe they could ever get enough eggs to make it to transfer. So this doctor, we will call him ‘Doctor A’ decided to do what he called a double stimulations cycle. Where he would do a low dose cycle, collect the eggs, fertile and freeze, and straight back into another stimulations cycle…. Collect fertile and freeze. And the plan was to keep going until the had 5-6 frozen eggs. With each cycle he upped the medication a little. Just enough…. 2 cycles in and there were 6 eggs to work with….. following an FE~T, my patient was pregnant with twins…..
So back to the question of short and long cycles.. which is best…. well… clinically you doctor knows best…… a lot of clicks in Ireland tend to lean towards a long cycle….. one where typically (not all the time) the patient is put on the pill, for 18 to 28 days, then will go on down regulation medication for 8-10 days, stimulation meds for another 10-ish days…. Collection and transfer….. few… I’m exhausted even waiting this so imagine, having to be the person going through this long long cycle…… and for 70% of people this will work fine… however if you in that 30%… you will still go through this protocol first, the clinic learns from it and then the make decisions based on the result and might go back into another long cycle and up the dosage…. And see what happens….
On the 3rd or 4th failed IVF they might decide to switch to a different type of cycle….. sometimes clinics can do whats called a Short Cycle, Im sure it has different names in different countries…..
So your period arrives…. You go on the medication for 10-12 days, go for collection then transfer….. wow that’s so much quicker…. But is it better…. Well for some absolutely. Less medication, less intervention and the body responds so much better….. however the downside is for the clinic…. They unfortunately need to be able to plan and create a structure for their patients… they can’t just have 50 patients arrive in on a Monday to start their short cycle… so this is a problem for them…. They can only do a certain amount of cycles per week. and there are times where the team is so small they can only do transfers every second week.. again another scheduling issue…. So not possibly in your best interest….. but I get it… limited resources…. limited time….
Don’t get me wrong, I know all the doctors have your best interest at heart… I absolutely know this….. but sometimes resources and time play a big part in this equation of fertility and IVF…. So make sure… your get the best protocol for you…. And not for the clinic…
Chat soon… Gordon