# Should I use oestrogen patches?



## Anonymous (Jun 16, 2011)

Hello everyone    Looking for some advice pleae but feel a bit guilty about what I'm about to ask  

I've had 3 failed FETs already.  All the cycles were medicated (I down-regged and then used oestrogen to thicken my lining ready for the FET).  The lining got to 7.8 the first time, then 8.1 and then 7.99 the last time which isn't brilliant I know, but the hosp said it was just about ok and also said on 2 of the goes that it looked quite good quallity  - 3 stripes or something like that?  
  
Anyway next time we are thinking of trying natural cycle to see if the lining is any better.  This will be our last try though as we only have a couple of   left    so we are desperate for it to work.  

So - what I was wondering was ... whether to cheat a bit   and use some oestrogen patches for a few days before I go for a scan on the natural cycle (I've still got some left from the medicated cycles) in the hope of thickening the lining a bit more?  Can they be used like that with a natural cycle?  I can't find any examples of anyone who has done it.  What I don't want to do of course is mess everything up and make matters worse..  I can't really ask the hosp as they'll probably say No & tellme off!  

Would the patches interfere with ovulation at all? - because I think natural cycle relies on Ov to know when to put the embryos back doesnt it?  or could they trigger ov with a differnt drug if it does't happen?  

Do you think there might be something wrong with me and that's why the lining din't get very thick on the medicated cycles?  I have an older DS from a previous relationship a long time ago but of course as time goes on things change with the body don't they and now I'm older things might not be working like they used to.    

Has anyone actually had thicker lining with natural cycle than a medicated one?  

Thank you very much for any advice and help.   to everyone


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## Caz (Jul 21, 2002)

I think the fact you can't find examples of anyone who has done it is a bit telling really. Oestrogen is one of the ingredients that make up contraceptive pills (they work by inhibiting ovulation) so you run a big risk of screwing up the whole cycle if you do this off your own back. Do you really want to risk that? 

Personally, I would not do anything the clinic have not previously authorised (or at least that you know is tried and trusted in other cases). Have you spoken to them about this option? If so, what do they say? They may well approve it so best to check. 

It's possible that the down regulation process is a bit harsh for your body and it needs a bit more kick starting to get going, so to speak. This can happen; some ladies do better doing natural FET than medicated ones. Or you may well have a slight lining issue. I believe there's some advice on FF about how to thicken lining but things like aspirin and viagra (to improve blood blow to the uterus) have been known to be effective in some cases. If you do a search for lining issues you will likely find loads of advice on that. As always, you should seek prior approval from your consultant / clinic before self medicating with anything like this. Even aspirin (may seem fairly inoccuous but it can have the opposite effect for some). 

Can you not ask the clinic for a monitoring cycle? i.e. they can monitor you on a natural cycle for a month with no ET and see how your lining performs with no interference? Or you could agree with them to monitor and if the lining doesn't reach an agreed thickness you'll treat it as monitoring and abandon ET? Seems prudent to me and if the clinic are interested in getting you pregnant they will listen to your concerns. 

C~x


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