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Mr. Nikolaos Bardis, Obstetrician Gynecologist and Specialist in Assisted Reproduction at the HYGEIA IVF EMBRYOGENESIS Unit talks to ygeiamou about the advantages of in vitro fertilization with minimal stimulation or mini IVF
MINI IVF or rather Mini Stimulation IVF is the stimulation of the ovaries in the context of in vitro fertilization or egg freezing, using a minimal amount of drugs, mainly pills or even injections.
THE ovarian stimulation is a key step in IVF treatment or egg cryopreservation. In classic IVF, stimulation is done using a large amount of injectable drugs, in order to ideally collect 10-15 eggs. Several times, and always depending on the age and condition of the woman’s ovaries, the drugs also stimulate some eggs which do not have the same dynamics, resulting in fewer mature eggs.
Furthermore, the medication use it often causes symptoms in women (pain, bloating, discomfort) or rarely side effects, such as ovarian hyperstimulation. Finally, it also increases the cost of treatment, because injectable drugs are more expensive. At the opposite end is the natural cycle, in which we try to collect the single egg that the woman produces in her cycle, without the use of drugs. This, however, usually involves more efforts in order to achieve a pregnancy.
Mini IVF is, in several cases, the “golden” alternative. In this we use, for the stimulation of the ovaries, the minimum required amount of medication, in order to collect 2-5 eggs, which are usually of proportionally better quality. The drugs used are mainly pills with the addition, sometimes for a few days, of a small amount of injectable drugs. This means that women are burdened much less, and the treatment is much easier and without particular symptoms. With Mini IVF we usually manage to reach an embryo transfer with good embryos from the first attempt. On the other hand, it is less likely that we will be able, from the same effort, to have embryos suitable for freezing after embryo transfer.
It is an ideal choice for older women or women with ovarian failure, in whom the use of a large amount of injectable drugs is not going to give a large number of eggs anyway, as well as for those who have failed to collect many eggs with classical stimulation in previous attempts. Also, for women who have a medical contraindication or who do not wish to take injectable extracorporeal drugs themselves.
It is also a very good alternative for couples who do not wish to transfer many embryos, either to avoid a multiple pregnancy, or because they are trying for a second or third child, so they are not interested in having an excess of embryos suitable for freezing after the embryo transfer. Finally, due to the low cost of the treatment, it is a very good choice for those cases where the patients bear the cost of the medicines themselves.