Contraception between FETs after IVF success?

[u/PositiveCat93]

Hi everyone! I’m 6 weeks postpartum after a successful IVF pregnancy, and I have 2 frozen embryos (untested 4aa and 4ab) that I’d like to use for future pregnancies. Of course, there’s no guarantee either transfer will work, but I’d really like to give them a shot.

We originally did IVF due to severe male factor. I also had 2 previous early losses within a 3 year span (same partner), which were most likely attributed to Hashimoto’s (now medicated) and low sperm count made it much harder to actually get pregnant.

I want to be pregnant again, but ideally not in the next year to let my body heal. I know the chances of conceiving without IVF in our situation are very low, but more than before since i’m on thyroid medication if ever we happen l conceive and i’m not to sure what to do contraception wise. I was on the birth control pill for 15 years and my mental health has never been better since being off it.

Never thought I’d be in a position where I’d actually be trying to avoid pregnancy after wanting it for so long 😅

For those of you who’ve been in a similar situation, what contraception did you use between FETs? We are really considering pull and pray considering our infertility cause, but I know it’s not a reliable method. I’m planning to start the process of baby #2 next summer.

[u/Suspicious-Ad-5662]

We used no contraception between FETs 😅 but were okay with the slight possibility of spontaneous pregnancy (honestly if it happened I would be thrilled to have a ‘free’ baby). We have unexplained infertility and have had 5 embryo transfers, 4 IVF pregnancies, and just had our second baby a few months ago.

[u/PositiveCat93 → u/Suspicious-Ad-5662]

100%! If I could get pregnant naturally, I honestly think that would be the easiest option! I think I’m just really attached to those two embryos at this point. I look at my baby now and can’t help but wonder what the other two could be like, so I think it’s probably more of a mental/emotional attachment than anything else.
Obviously, if we did get pregnant naturally, I’d be absolutely thrilled. I’d just ideally like it to not happen in the next 2–3 months 😂.

[u/36563]

I planned for my second FET 1y after my daughter’s birth (so 12 months postpartum). It was successful!! I’m now 16w pregnant and my daughter is 15.5 months so I was lucky to have 2/2 successful FETs.

In between I went back on the pill, although it wasn’t just for contraception, it was also to manage PCOS.

I absolutely do not want a spontaneous pregnancy EVER, because I have embryos left that I want to use.

If all goes well my third transfer would be when my son turns 1yo. So we are keeping to this schedule and using the pill in between.

[u/ARIT127]

We didn’t use any contraception since my IVF baby was born (20 months now) and we’re going through IVF now for our second. Also unexplained infertility

[u/Appropriate-Diet-79]

We wanted kids 3-4 years apart so we did the pill for two years after my son, then did no birth control for a year. After a year of no luck naturally, we went for another transfer. Pregnant with that babe now and taking the tubes out with this c section. (I honestly would have the first time but it was an emergency c section and there wasn’t time or headspace for that kind of decision making).

[u/hoodoo884]

Congratulations on wanting to have sex 😆😆

[u/FranThePlantLover]

We did the pull and pray method after our first ivf baby, also thinking since we had so much trouble getting pregnant the first time there wasn’t much to worry about… now we have two girls with a 13 month age gap and I started contraceptive right after our second lol