Mini or Natural IVF vs. Traditional IVF

Since discovering mini/natural IVF and doing several cycles, it just seems crazy to me that so many people are still doing traditional IVF. I actually cringe when I hear people gearing up for traditional IVF and talking about all the meds they'll be taking and all the monitoring they'll be doing, etc. I have spoken with Dr. Y about this before and his hope is that eventually mini/natural IVF will become the norm and in the future we'll look back and wonder why we ever did traditional IVF. I've posted before about why I love mini IVF and now I'll attempt to compare the two using my own personal experiences from doing traditional and mini/natural.


Traditional:

• Cycle coordinated for a certain week of the month so the clinic can batch several cycles together. Use birth control and/or lupron to coordinate this.

Mini/Natural:

• Cycle starts when it starts naturally on its own. Birth control pills can be very suppressing for some people and impact the ability of follicles to grow.

Traditional:

• Weeks worth of ridiculous injectable meds. (I think my most expensive cycle insurance paid  $8,000+ for one cycle of meds!!)

Mini/Natural:

• Little to no medication. My most expensive mini was $450. That included three shots of gonal f, lupron for trigger, and clomid. My natural cycle with transfer was $120 for the progesterone. The clinic I go to uses Lupron for the trigger shot. One vial, if kept refrigerated, lasts for 6 months and is around $100.  I used it for 4 cycles.

Traditional:

• Cost for one cycle before meds is $12,000 or more!

Mini/Natural:

• A three cycle package of mini IVF is a little over $12,000 and a three cycle package of natural IVF is less than $10,000. Even if I include my airfare, hotel, and car rental, I am still paying way less than traditional IVF.

Traditional:

•  Side effects of all those icky drugs: undetermined. There have been no long term studies completed yet because it hasn't been around long enough. 

Mini/Natural:

• Yes, you're still using some meds, but it is very minimal and in some cases, you're hardly using anything. 

Traditional:

• Success rates vary widely from one clinic to the next. The clinic I used said they try for as many eggs as possible because they lose about 1/3 to 1/2 at each stage, leaving very few left to transfer. Over two traditional cycles I had 3 eggs and only ever had one three day embryo to transfer. (I also responded very poorly to the high doses of meds and was likely suppressed from the birth control)

Mini/Natural:

• The clinic I use has a very high rate of blasts. Over three cycles I produced 13 eggs. Of those, 11 were mature. Of those, all 11 fertilized. Of those, 7 made it to the blast stage. 

Traditional:

• Many clinics cherry pick their patients and if you don't respond well (or you have high FSH or low AMH) you get the donor egg speech.

 Mini/Natural:

• Rare for anyone to be turned away. FSH and AMH levels don't matter. 

Traditional:

• Monitoring appointments are excessive. I lost track of how many I had during my traditional cycles. Sometimes it's every other day for over a week.

Mini/Natural:

• Baseline monitoring and one or two monitoring appointments. I have been lucky and have always just done a baseline and one monitoring appointment. And I can do them locally and have the results faxed to my clinic in CA.

Traditional:

• Affect on Endo: two cycles of ridiculous amounts of meds flared up my endo so much I needed surgery to clean it out again.

Mini/Natural:

•  I have not had any issues with my endo. The only thing is that I may be a little more sensitive to the pain from egg retrieval.

Traditional:

• Anesthesia is used for egg retrievals and sometimes for transfers as well (I did because my endo flared up so bad from the meds)

Mini/Natural:

• No anesthesia or pain meds needed. (but if you're really insistent, the doctor will give you a little something to take the edge off) After three retrievals without anesthesia or any pain meds I can honestly say it's totally doable. Yes, it hurts when he stabs the needle through the vaginal wall and when the follicles are getting sucked out, but it's over in no time and so worth it to not have to go under. And you get to watch it all on the monitor so that's a nice distraction.

I want to address the fact there is a downside to mini/natural IVF. You may need to do several mini/natural cycles depending on your circumstances. That's why my clinic offers discount packaging. At 33 years old my doctor says I need 2-3 blasts (that have not been PGS tested) for each take home baby I want. I have always wanted a whole house full, so that's why I have banked so many. If you're older, you'll need more. You can also do PGS testing to see if your blasts are normal. We declined and decided to just roll the dice since age is still relatively on my side. I also have a lot of issues going on with my body and it may take me more tries than a more "average" infertile. But I knew this going into the process. I would not sign up for mini/natural IVF with the mindset you will only need one cycle. Hopefully that's all you do, but be prepared for more. The only other downside I discovered is that husbands are not allowed back for the embryo transfers. But, they do give you a picture of your blast and a picture of them chilling in your uterus.