From One Cycle to the Full Journey: Helping Patients Navigate IVF With Realistic Expectations
The IVF journey is often a marathon, not a sprint.
Many patients begin treatment with the hope that one cycle will lead to success. While this may be the outcome for some, clinicians know that IVF can be a more complex journey — one where achieving reproductive goals may require multiple steps, adapting strategies, and learning from each cycle along the way.
The challenge for clinicians is not determining how to get patients to complete more cycles.
It is helping patients understand the full treatment journey, recognize different possible pathways, and ensure that every cycle provides meaningful information to guide the next step.
Why planning beyond one cycle matters for certain patients
IVF treatment has traditionally followed a cycle-by-cycle approach.
A stimulation cycle is completed. Outcomes are reviewed. Adjustments are made.
This approach has clinical value. Every completed cycle provides new information about ovarian response, fertilization, embryo development, and overall treatment progression.
However, for low prognosis patients who are more likely to require multiple attempts, setting realistic expectations from the beginning can help prepare them for the IVF journey ahead — one that may require multiple cycles, adaptations, and learnings along the way.
Patients may enter treatment expecting one cycle to provide their answer. When outcomes differ from expectations, they may experience uncertainty around whether to continue, what should change, and whether another attempt will provide new opportunities.
Earlier discussions about a multicycle strategy can help prepare patients for different possible pathways while maintaining confidence in the treatment plan.
Recognizing when the IVF journey may extend beyond one cycle
A multicycle approach is not appropriate for every patient. However, there are clinical scenarios where looking beyond one cycle may support more personalized planning.
- Patients with lower prognosis factors
For patients with advanced reproductive age or anticipated lower oocyte yield, one stimulation cycle may provide limited opportunity.
In these cases, multiple cycles may be considered as part of a strategy to increase the cumulative number of available oocytes and therefore, more embryos.
Planning ahead allows clinicians and patients to establish realistic expectations and consider accumulation strategies earlier in the journey.
- Patients with unexpected IVF outcomes
Not every patient expected to need multiple cycles is identified before treatment begins.
Some patients have a seemingly favorable prognosis but experience unexpected outcomes, such as:
- lower-than-expected laboratory outcomes (Maturity rate, Fertilization rate, Blastulation Utilization rate and Euploid rate)
- Unexplained cycle failure (Total Failed fertilization, No blastocyst development and cryopreserved, No Euploid in cohort)
For these patients, the next question becomes:
“What information can we take from this cycle to guide what happens next?”
The challenge: knowing what to change between cycles
A major advantage of a multicycle approach is the ability to adapt.
But adaptation requires information.
After an unsuccessful or unexpected poor outcome, clinicians evaluate multiple factors:
- Was stimulation response optimal?
- Was the expected number of mature oocytes retrieved?
- Did fertilization rate occur as expected?
- Did embryos arrest during development?
- Could sperm or oocytes be contributing?
One important piece of this picture has historically not possible to objectively evaluate: the oocyte.
Without deeper insight into oocyte quality, determining whether the next cycle requires a change in approach or whether another factor should be investigated can remain challenging.
Using MAGENTA™ to make every cycle more informative
MAGENTA™ provides AI-powered assessment of oocyte images, offering objective insights into oocyte quality and developmental potential.
For patients undergoing multiple IVF cycles, these insights provide clinicians with an additional layer of information when reviewing outcomes and planning future treatment.
MAGENTA™ can help support conversations around:
- whether poor oocyte quality may have contributed to suboptimal cycle outcomes
- whether additional cycles should be considered or moving onto egg donation next
By understanding more from each cycle, clinicians can move from repeating treatment to refining treatment.
Supporting patients through a longer IVF journey
One reason multicycle conversations can be challenging is the concern that discussing additional attempts may reduce patient optimism.
However, preparing patients for different possibilities does not mean expecting failure.
It means creating a shared understanding that treatment decisions can evolve based on new information.
For patients who may require a longer journey, this approach can help transform the conversation from:
“Let’s try again.”
to:
“Here is what we learned, and here is how we move forward.”
Making every cycle count
A multicycle IVF strategy is not about more treatment for every patient.
It is about recognizing when a broader plan may better support an individual patient’s prognosis and goals.
With objective insights from MAGENTA™, clinicians can extract more information from each cycle — supporting more personalized counselling, informed decision-making, and strategies that evolve with the patient’s journey.
To learn more about how MAGENTA™ can support objective oocyte quality assessment and IVF treatment planning conversations at your clinic, or to share feedback on your experience with Future Fertility’s egg quality assessments, contact us at info@futurefertility.com.
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