Natural cycle IVF

For some people, natural and mild IVF offer a gentler alternative to conventional fertility treatment. These approaches use little or no stimulation medication, focusing instead on working with your body’s natural cycle.

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Mother, father and baby IVF success-rates

What is natural cycle IVF?

Natural IVF is a gentler approach to fertility treatment that follows your body’s natural cycle.

Unlike traditional IVF treatment, which uses fertility drugs to stimulate the ovaries and collect multiple eggs, natural IVF retrieves just the one egg your body produces naturally during your monthly cycle.

The process still follows the same overall steps as standard IVF, but without the stimulation phase.

Mild IVF is similar but uses lower doses of fertility medication to produce a few eggs rather than many.

Working with your natural cycle

Who is natural IVF for?

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Some people may want to avoid fertility medicines, such as down-regulating medicines, gonadotrophins, and GnRH.

This could be because:

You have a higher risk of developing OHSS
You've had or have an oestrogen-sensitive cancer
You want to avoid uncomfortable side effects
You want to avoid freezing or destroying any extra embryos

Deciding the right protocol and dose of IVF medicines is a fine balance. It comes down to several individual factors, including your medical history, ovarian reserve, and egg quality.

Natural or mild IVF isn't suitable for everyone. Our fertility specialists will be able to advise whether this would be an effective treatment pathway for you, using the results of your fertility assessment to make personalised recommendations to maximise your chances of success.

Treatment

How does natural IVF work?

Every natural and mild IVF cycle is different and tailored to your individual needs.

We’ll guide you through your options and recommend the best approach based on your needs. Here’s what to expect from a typical natural IVF cycle.

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Step one

Tracking your menstrual cycle

We'll book you in for a follicle tracking scan prior to your expected ovulation day. During the scan, one of our specialists will assess the development of your follicle, which are fluid-filled sacs where the egg grows.

Step two

Trigger injection

Once your follicle is large enough, you'll need to have your trigger injection. This causes final maturation of the egg, like traditional IVF. You take a quick and easy trigger injection, and the egg is collected around 36 hours later.

Suppressing your natural menstrual cycle

Smiling woman in a plastic apron stands beside an ultrasound machine in a medical setting.

Step three

Egg retrieval

We use an ultrasound scan to locate the egg, which is captured by gently passing a needle through the vagina and in to the follicle. The whole process takes around 15 minutes, though you can expect to be with us for a few hours while we prepare you and help you recover.

Step four

Fertilising the egg

Your egg is then mixed with the sperm of your partner, co-parent or donor and left to fertilise naturally in the lab. In some cases, particularly where there is male factor infertility, we may recommend a procedure known as ICSI where a single sperm is injected directly into the egg.

A technician in blue scrubs uses a microscope in a laboratory setting, focusing on a sample under bright lighting.

Step five

Embryo development

Your fertilised egg, now an embryo, is incubated for up to six days. When it reaches the blastocyst stage, we check under a microscope to see whether it’s suitable for transfer, based on a grading system. You can also choose to have pre-implantation genetic testing (PGT) which screens for any genetic faults.

Step six

Embryo transfer

With natural IVF, the embryo is transferred back inside your womb five days after egg retrieval. Embryo transfer is a relatively simple procedure during which the embryo is gently placed inside the womb with the hopes of successful implantation.

Success rates

Natural cycle IVF success rates

Generally, the success rates for natural and mild IVF are much lower than with traditional IVF, according to the HFEA. The main factors thought to influence the success of natural IVF are your age and duration of infertility.

We share success rates for traditional IVF on each of our clinic pages. You can discuss with your consultant how natural or mild IVF are likely to influence your treatment journey and chances of success.