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Why short protocol?

Hi, wonder if anyone can help, I am due to start ICSI soon and have been told I will be on the short protocol, from what I have read this is not normally the first choice, I am 34 and have been told my hormone levels are normal, our fertility issue is purely male factor. Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated ????

We were given so much information yesterday our heads are still spinning!!

Xxx

3 Answers • 9 years ago


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Do you know what exactly the protocol is - like which meds? The only "long" protocol I've heard of is long lupron, but I'm not sure what that entails, and isn't what I did. Although I have PCOS, we are doing ICSI because of severe MFI. For my cycles, I was put on birth control for a couple weeks, then on day 2-3 of my cycle had stims for 9-13 days,then added ganerelix (or other similar medication) around day 5-6 to suppress ovulation and then trigger with egg retrieval 36 hours later. However there are several different protocols that I don't know about. The doctor never said whether this was long or short. Either way, I wouldn't be too concerned. Your doctor has probably picked whatever protocol they think will be best for you given your specific situation. Best of luck to you!

9 years ago


Long protocol is normally used for women who have PCOS, have high antral follicle counts (# of small follicles you have when you do a baseline ultrasound) or are younger. My guess would be you are doing a short protocol either because your levels are normal and you ovulate on your own so you don't need a ton of medications, you are nearing 35 and that's normally when egg supply starts to decrease, your egg supply is already decreasing as indicated by your amh level or you have low to normal antral follicle counts. Long protocols are used to really suppress your system before starting to use stimulation meds. I always did the long protocol because of PCOS and I still had 20-30 egg follicles (normal is around 4-10) on each ovary which can get dangerous if you have too many. If you don't have a problem you may not need to be suppressed first or if you don't have a ton of eggs you don't want to suppress them because then they can have trouble growing again.

9 years ago


Thanks for your replies ladies, it's all starting to make a bit more sense today! All the best to you both Xx

9 years ago • Post starter


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