When can you start your next IVF cycle after IVF failure ?

 

A common question many patients ask is how soon they can start the next IVF cycle when the first IVF cycle fails .

It’s very hard to bounce back to normal when your HCG comes back as negative, because you had hope that your IVF cycle would work. After all, no one would start a cycle if they didn’t believe in their heart of hearts that this would be the one that would give them a deeply longed-for baby !

However, when your hopes get shattered, you no longer feel confident that IVF will ever work for you . You are extremely worried and anxious , and question whether you should start a second cycle or not . After all, if the first cycle failed, what is the certainty that the next one will work ? And how many will you have to do in order to be successful?

These doubts are completely normal , because everyone starts IVF , and expects to hit the jackpot in the first cycle itself. Even though their head understands the success rate is not 100%, in their heart they are sure that they are going to be one of the lucky ones, which is why they go to pieces when the cycle fails.

It takes time to recover emotionally from the failure of your first cycle , so please be kind to yourself, and give yourself time to grieve, so you can bounce back.

From a medical perspective, however , you can start your next cycle immediately , if that's what you want to do , especially if this was a frozen cycle , because your body goes back to normal immediately . After a fresh cycle , the doctor will need to do a scan on Day 2 to make sure that your ovaries are quiet before starting your treatment, - which could be another fresh cycle , or a frozen cycle .

Rather than worrying about whether it's medically fine to start again, you actually need to ask yourself: – are you mentally prepared to start again ?

Some patients feel so sorry for themselves after the first failed IVF cycle that they just can’t muster the courage to go back to the IVF clinic to start another one . If that’s true for you, then please take a break , until you feel more optimistic .

On the other hand, many patients are eager to start the next cycle as soon as possible, because they know that sitting at home is not going to give them a baby. They would rather attempt a new cycle as quickly as possible , so at least they have something to look forward to, rather than brood about their failure.

The truth is that a second cycle is often much easier to do than the first cycle , because you've " been there , done that ", and you know exactly what's involved . Your anxiety levels in terms of treatment minutiae are much lower, and you have demonstrated that a failed IVF cycle is not the end of the world, that you are resilient, and that you can start over.

Uncertainty about the outcome will always be true for any IVF cycle, so the sooner you start again, the better your chances of having a baby sooner. If you are mentally prepared , there is no advantage to wasting time sitting at home , obsessing about your bad luck and feeling sorry for yourself !

Need help in getting pregnant ? Please send me your medical details by filling in the form at www.drmalpani.com/free-second-opinion so that I can guide you !