Dear Dr.
First of all, thank you for blogging online! I’ve found your website very resourceful and fun-to-read! I even liked your writing style very much! 
I’m a 32 years old female, trying to conceive in the past two years. We have been diagnosed as unexplained infertility with everything appears to be normal. Now we are considering to have an IVF in this summer. I’ve read something about the "natural IVF" and found it’s appealing to me. Have you ever tried this at your clinic? How do you think about the benefits and disadvantages of trying a natural IVF (without medicine stimulations in the cycle), especially for my case (btw my hubby is 33 and have no sperm problem)?
I actually have an idea of going through a 3-month-cycle with a natural IVF in the third month. Here’s how it can be done: month one, take Colmid (or not) and have two eggs retrieved (I’ve tried two IUIs in the past with 50mg X 5 Clomid and each time I have two mature eggs ovulated by themselves), freeze the eggs; month two, no medicine and one egg retrieved, freeze the egg again; month three, perform the natural IVF and de-freeze the previously retrieved eggs. Therefore I will have one fresh egg and two to three frozen eggs available for the fresh sperms. Do you think it’s doable? What would be the odds of success? And the estimated cost?
Appreciate your time and help!!!!!
Best regards,
Eve
Dear Eve,
The whole concept of natural cycle IVF might sound good on paper, especially the way you presented it, but there is one huge catch! It would be feasible if the three-month process you have described really constitutes one IVF cycle. In that case, the balance of cost and success rate would be very good. However, the big problem is that what you have described is not ONE IVF cycle, but rather THREE IVF cycles, so now the cost becomes astronomical in comparsion to one good stimulated IVF cycle.
The success of IVF depends a lot on how many eggs you can get. So let’s take an example. Let’s suppose that an IVF cycle without ICSI costs about $9000 and the medications cost about $3000.
For a healthy 32-year old such as yourself, let’s assume that you will make an average of 13 eggs with mild to moderate stimulation and 1-2 eggs with a no-stim or Clomid-stim cycle. So let’s compare the yield.
One Conventional Stimulated IVF
COST = $12000. Yield = 13 eggs.
One Natural IVF Cycle
COST = $9000. Yield = 2 eggs.
Two Natural IVF Cycles
COST = $18000. Yield = 4 eggs.
Three Natural IVF Cycles
COST = $27000. Yield = 6 eggs.
Now some say there might be a difference in egg quality between stimulated eggs vs natural cycle eggs, but this is so controversial as to having some people on both sides of the argument. Some would argue that eggs from stimulated cycles are BETTER than eggs from natural cycles and others would argue the opposite.
In either case, unless the disparity were huge, you’re still looking for all practical purposes that a conventional stimulated IVF cycle will still give you the best value for your money.
We can also look at the common sense assertion that things that work tend to be more popular. You would just ask yourself, if natural cycle IVF is so much better than stimulated IVF, then why are more than 95%+ cycles in this country done with stimulation rather than without?
Thanks for the great question. Whatever decision you make, I hope there is a baby in your future very soon!
