If the patient had a natural IVF cycle without embryo testing, they can usually try again after waiting for their next period. If the patient feels physically and emotionally ready and ultrasound results show no issues, the next cycle can begin immediately. Timing is important, and starting a new cycle soon after a failed attempt is often possible if the patient’s health allows it.
Although for some years, we thought the ovaries needed to rest a bit before being stimulated again, the current recommendation is that there is no limit. There is no need to wait if a patient wants to be stimulated again. Some common protocols used in patients with a low ovarian response suggest that the sooner you undergo the new stimulation, the higher the response could be. This suggests that the first stimulation may help to recruit more follicles that could be stimulated by hormones in subsequent attempts.
In cases where patients do not produce a good number of embryos, for example, because genetic testing is planned, we can perform stimulation every month to accumulate these embryos. This approach can also be employed in cases of oocyte freezing when the patient does not produce a good number of eggs in the first attempt. We recommend that as soon as she has her period, she undergoes another round of stimulation and egg collection to accumulate more eggs.
After an IVF cycle that did not work, we can always try again without waiting a lot of time, it depends on the situation. If for example, we have done an ovarian stimulation, a fresh embryo transfer and we have still other embryos frozen, then with the next period we can start an endometrial preparation for the frozen embryo transfer. Otherwise, if for example, we don’t have any embryos remaining and we do have to do another ovarian stimulation, then at that point normally we do need to wait at least one month in between to do an ovarian stimulation again, so that the ovaries are completely resting. Also, it depends on the situation, if, for example, we had several failed cycles before and we need to do other tests to see the reason for IVF failure or implantation failure, then obviously we need to wait for the results of those tests to count before we do another treatment.
