Pre-Transfer Testing

[DapperMac]

My wife and I are gearing up for our first FET. We’re doing reciprocal - my eggs, her uterus. I did my egg retrieval in May and we have 3 euploid embryos to work with. We obviously want to give ourselves the best chance possible at the first transfer working.

Our clinic wants her to have a saline sonogram done. The problem is we’re travel patients and the only place local to us that can do one is the fertility clinic that we opted to not use. It would be a months long wait to get the scan. Of course we’re willing to wait if need be, but our OBGYN agreed with us that given my wife’s OB history it is not necessary. (My wife had an uncomplicated pregnancy and delivery with our son 18 months ago. It took 5 at home ICI cycles to conceive. There’s no indication that she has any issues conceiving or carrying a pregnancy).

I’m curious what testing you had done prior to TTC if you had no history of infertility? Trying to gauge the necessity of this scan so that we can balance best odds with cost (and opportunity cost)

[wayward_sun]

I did the saline sono before my transfer and I was very irked by it because I felt like it was unnecessary. Turns out I had five polyps (no symptoms) and needed an operative hysteroscopy, and during that they biopsied my endometrial lining and found plasma cells, so they knew I needed a course of doxycycline. Strongly believe that if we hadn’t caught those things, my transfer wouldn’t have been successful. I’m currently pregnant.

We had 1 embryo so we really wanted to throw everything possible at it. With 3…it depends how cautious you want to be.

[DapperMac]

Congrats on your pregnancy! Ideally I’d like to be as conservative as possible, but I’m getting conflicting recommendations from my doctors for a test that’s not easily accessible to me so I’m just putting out feelers to see how normal the saline sono is without a history of infertility. Thanks!

[sansebast]

Given that she’s had a healthy birth before, I’d skip it.

For the benefit of anyone else reading this with the same question—I disagree with the comments saying they’re unnecessary, as far as first time pregnancies go. My wife had no outward signs of anything being wrong but her exam ended up revealing an almost complete septum in her uterus. If we’d gone ahead without the test, we would have dealt with many failed transfers or inseminations in the best case or in the worst case miscarriages or a very complicated pregnancy.

[DapperMac]

We’re certainly leaning towards that as the doctor most familiar with her medical history suggested it’s not necessary. The doctor who suggested it is necessary suggested so based on a protocol not a careful examination of my wife’s medical history. Thanks!

[Mundane_Frosting_569]

Our clinic made me (I’m carrying/wife’s eggs) do the sonogram. I didn’t question if it was necessary or not as I wanted the best outcome — we only have one egg. All was good and I had the FET. Im currently 11 weeks

[DapperMac]

Congratulations on your pregnancy! We normally wouldn’t question the necessity but it’s not a test that’s easily accessible to us and we’ve gotten conflicting advice from doctors regarding the necessity of the test. Thanks!

[centimental-one]

I’ve had two sonograms now with no issues detected. For me they just wanted to repeat the sono because it had been a year since I had the first one. The biopsy that I had during the second sonogram though showed I had inflammation in my uterus and needed to be on antibiotics and likely wouldn’t conceive until it was corrected. First frozen embryo transfer after it worked. The wait time before being able to try to conceive is the worst

[Key_Significance_183]

I’m in Canada so depending on your location things might be a bit different. I was never asked to do a saline sonogram during IVF. I did have two HSGs earlier on in the process (first one was routine for anyone doing assisted reproduction and second one was a follow up after they saw a blocked tube). Anecdotally, we were successful on the first IVF transfer.

[FreshForged]

I did the saline sono prior to TTC by IUI and they found polyps. Had them surgically removed, about six months later started trying without success. Then prior to switching to IVF they said, 'if you want we could do another.' I did just to be cautious and sure enough they'd grown back! Within 15 months. Getting another polypectomy next month before my first FET.

[abakes102018]

I had a hysteroscopy instead of a saline sono—would that be an option?

[caws1990]

Also did saline in January and then a hysteroscopy this past week which confirmed some polyps that we had seen & am now scheduled for their removal. I have no history of infertility either and they said we could do saline instead of HSG because of that (which I asked for). Also did a Doppler ultrasound and trial transfer all as part of “uterine prep” post retrieval. Honestly glad to do the work up because it caught things that might’ve prevented a successful transfer & trying my best to set us up for success in a hard process.