What are the pros and cons of taking birth control before cycle?

[Anonymous]

My RE suggested taking BC because we would like to time our retrieval due to work schedules. What are the pros and cons of taking it versus waiting for your period to come naturally? My period can be anywhere from 30-37 days per cycle. I have never taken BC in my life, and I am worried it will mess up my hormones, etc.

[Anonymous]

I didn't take BC, and now I think that I wished I had. I was worried it would suppress my ovaries, but I think that is just an issue if you have diminished ovarian reserve. During my ultrasounds and even the retrieval, I had lots of follicles and eggs, but a lot less were actually mature. Using BC helps start the follicles and eggs at the same point so that hopefully they all grow and mature at the same time.

[Anonymous]

It depends on your diagnosis. For some, it's really helpful. For others, it can over-suppress you and yield fewer eggs, or it can contribute to cysts. I've used BC three times and each time my cycle was delayed because I developed estrogen-producing cysts. Annoying to deal with delays, but not that serious. You won't really know until you try, just like most other IVF-related things!

[Anonymous]

Did you continue your coq10 while taking the birth control?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did you continue your coq10 while taking the birth control?

I think I kept taking CoC10 during the stims also.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn't take BC, and now I think that I wished I had. I was worried it would suppress my ovaries, but I think that is just an issue if you have diminished ovarian reserve. During my ultrasounds and even the retrieval, I had lots of follicles and eggs, but a lot less were actually mature. Using BC helps start the follicles and eggs at the same point so that hopefully they all grow and mature at the same time.

My RE (dominion fertility) recommended against BC prior to stims, saying it unnecessarily suppresses the ovaries. It made sense at the time when it was explained to me, but I too had LOTS of follicles but maybe only 1/3 produced a usable or mature egg retrieved. I wonder if I had done birth control if it would have helped sync everything. The frustrating thing with IVF is you just do not know what protocol will work best for you. It is all trial and error, which is expensive and time consuming.

[Anonymous]

I would not worry about BC “messing up your hormones”. The injections and pregnancy are going to do a much better job of that! 😆

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn't take BC, and now I think that I wished I had. I was worried it would suppress my ovaries, but I think that is just an issue if you have diminished ovarian reserve. During my ultrasounds and even the retrieval, I had lots of follicles and eggs, but a lot less were actually mature. Using BC helps start the follicles and eggs at the same point so that hopefully they all grow and mature at the same time.

My RE (dominion fertility) recommended against BC prior to stims, saying it unnecessarily suppresses the ovaries. It made sense at the time when it was explained to me, but I too had LOTS of follicles but maybe only 1/3 produced a usable or mature egg retrieved. I wonder if I had done birth control if it would have helped sync everything. The frustrating thing with IVF is you just do not know what protocol will work best for you. It is all trial and error, which is expensive and time consuming.

I'm 38, and so I worried about suppression, but during all my ultrasounds both before and during stims, I had between 18-30 follicles, 17 eggs retrieved, only 10 were mature. It is a costly trial and error!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn't take BC, and now I think that I wished I had. I was worried it would suppress my ovaries, but I think that is just an issue if you have diminished ovarian reserve. During my ultrasounds and even the retrieval, I had lots of follicles and eggs, but a lot less were actually mature. Using BC helps start the follicles and eggs at the same point so that hopefully they all grow and mature at the same time.

My RE (dominion fertility) recommended against BC prior to stims, saying it unnecessarily suppresses the ovaries. It made sense at the time when it was explained to me, but I too had LOTS of follicles but maybe only 1/3 produced a usable or mature egg retrieved. I wonder if I had done birth control if it would have helped sync everything. The frustrating thing with IVF is you just do not know what protocol will work best for you. It is all trial and error, which is expensive and time consuming.

I'm 38, and so I worried about suppression, but during all my ultrasounds both before and during stims, I had between 18-30 follicles, 17 eggs retrieved, only 10 were mature. It is a costly trial and error!

I have DOR (according to my AMH), was on higher doses of meds, skipped BC, 13 retrieved 10 mature 8 freezer worthy blasts.

If you have DOR run away from BC. If you are young and have male factor infertility it might makes sense for you. I've heard speculations from many women who had dud cycles that it may have been the BC

[Anonymous]

As others have stated, it’s trial and error. I’ve been to two clinics tungsten routine prescribe it. I have a blood clotting disorder and had a bad reaction to it, so was taken off of BC within a week of starting it, and began stims a few weeks later on a natural cycle. FWIW, I had 19 eggs retrieved, 16 mature and 11 5-6 day embryos. 8 PGT normal (though of varying degrees of quality.) dealing with endometriosis and some make factor (used ICSI) so I think BC might matter more where you have quality or quantity issues- like DOR.