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@mopeybuthopey: I just had my consult for my first cycle of IVF last week so I have never been through it but I can share the answers I got from my RE. I have endo and my DH has lower count but our RE says she would put us in the "unexplained" category too.

1. I am under 35 so for my group at my clinic the success rate is about 60% pregnancy (50% live birth) per cycle.
2. I am seeing the therapist at my RE's office in order to manage my expectations and deal with all the emotions that go along with the cycle. She has been great so far
3. Our RE generally encourages eSET but really the decision of how many to put back is made on the day of transfer after consulting with the RE and the embryologist

@mopeybuthopey: I have unexplained IF and have done IVF twice (no success yet). I'm 31, but I was still 30 when I did my two IVF rounds this past winter/spring. To answer your questions...

- For me, it didn't work the first time or the second time. The SART success rate in my age group for the clinic where I did both cycles was 39.5% (34.3% live birth rate) for unknown factor. At my new clinic, the rates are 43% (37.7% live birth rate) for unknown factor. My new RE thinks that it could be the quality of my eggs that caused us not to be successful, since we had 15+ eggs each time and about a 50% fertilization rate and none made it to freeze. So I'm working to lose weight, which studies show can help with egg quality, and we're testing some other things (karyotyping, hysteroscopy, endometrial biopsy) to rule them out before we start again.

- I had 16 eggs the first time and 19 eggs the second time. The first time my RE recommended a SET, and we agreed. The second time I opted to transfer two embryos because I really wanted to maximize my chances. I think next time I'd be open to an eSET again, just because I don't believe that (for me) the added ~10% is necessarily worth the much higher chance of twins.

My DH and I are unexplained and getting ready to start IVF also.. My understanding is that success rates with unexplained are usually comparable to the general population, if not a bit better...which looks to be nearly 50% success rates per fresh or frozen transfer with a good center. I feel like I have to go into this hopeful-- but not so hopeful that I'm going to be a complete wreck if I don't get pregnant after the fresh transfer... After all, it's a 50/50 chance! I think they will almost never transfer more than 2, if you are younger than 35, because of the risk of higher-order multiples. Where are you in your process? I just had my IVF orientation today, med/injection teaching, and the rest of my testing... Feeling nervous and very excited! Good luck to you and keep us posted!

@mopeybuthopey: I had unexplained IF- all of my tests were dead on in the middle of everything, and DH's SA was stellar (I have a theory that the shell of my eggs were just too hard to penetrate, but that's totally unsubstantiated). To answer your questions:

With unexplained, does IVF often work on the first try? It didn't for me, in that my fresh cycle didn't work. I think it was a combo of my body not responding well to the progesterone I was on as well as my body going, "WTH? What did you just do with all of those hormones?!?!?" My FET worked, though, because it was a very low medicated cycle (again, just a guess, but that's what I think helped).

How did you temper your optimism with the reality that IVF doesn't always work the first time? I didn't, and I was incredibly disappointed. I actually have no advice here, because I was convinced that it would work, and when it didn't, I was devastated. It didn't help that there was a woman I knew was doing IVF at almost the same time I was, and it was being discussed in another forum, and hers was successful. I think that actually helped me going in to my FET- my expectations were lower.

If you're lucky enough to have sufficient eggs retrieved and fertilized, do you generally transfer one or two? We transferred two, but only because we were totally OK with twins, and we wanted to increase our chances. Both embryos took, and now we have a boy and a girl. Best of luck!

Ours was explained, (PCOS/partially-blocked left tube). But FWIW...

- With unexplained, does IVF often work on the first try?
Ours worked on the second try. Our fresh cycle was a failure...kind of like @meganmp, I think my body was wondering "WTH?!" I prepared myself for failure on the first try and was honestly kind of shocked when it worked the second time.
Also, if it helps, I took anti-anxiety and pain medication before my second transfer and did acupuncture. ALSO, we did the "refund" option with Attain IVF and it also really calmed me...I felt like we could still do adoption even if IVF was a catastrophic failure. I really think there's something to be said for having low cortisol levels at the time of the transfer!

- If you're lucky enough to have sufficient eggs retrieved and fertilized, do you generally transfer one or two?
We were extremely lucky to end up with 23 embryos after our first retrieval. We did one on the first try (which failed), and two the next, (which gave us our twins).