Is it worth continuing?

[Hoping327]

I have just found out that I had a very early miscarriage (probably at 4 to 5 weeks) after our 9th round of IVF. This is second miscarriage at this stage. All other attempts were BFN.

The last 3 rounds of IVF have been with donor eggs as I am 42. To say I am heartbroken does not even come close to describing the pain.

We have used 2 donors. The last donor produced 30 eggs, of which 22 fertilised. On Day 3 we were told 18 of the embryos were looking good. On Day 5, only 3 had made it to early stage blastocyst and were graded 3BC. We have been told my husband’s sperm is fine, but it seems so strange that we had such a poor response. It was the same with the first donor.

Would we be wasting our time to look for 3rd donor?

Any advise would be welcome, even if it is to tell me stop and accept this.

[Faithful06]

I’m so sorry for what you’ve been through. You have persevered through so much. 9 IVFs wow and I was complaining about my going into my 3rd. I would say if this is what you really truly want it would be worth searching for a 3rd or looking into surrogacy. I truly wish you all the best.

My DH (41 almost 42) and I (39 almost 40) have been TTCing for 12ish years and we had our first ever positive test on our first round of IVF but like you I mc’d very early on. I’ve been told our issue is DH has low quality sperm and I have a couple of fibroids. I’ve lost 8st heading into the 3rd round.

I’d love to keep in contact with you if you ever want to talk. Take care of yourself. 😘😘

[Hidden]

I’m so sorry to hear of your recent loss; I had an early miscarriage last year and it’s truly devastating 💔 I am also sorry you have experienced so many BFN with IVF 💔

I would say it’s encouraging that you conceived ; my fertility specialist saw our loss as huge progress and has encouraged us to keep trying naturally( I fell after six years when my endometriosis was found and treated ) and maybe try clomid as my cycles are irregular and I might not be ovulating regularly.

My fertility specialist did emphasise that miscarriages are very rare and we were very unlucky; it might be the same for you.

Ultimately you must do what feels right for you ; only you know the answer to this. But I wish you the very best and hope it brings you happiness xoxo

[Hoping327 in reply to Hidden]

Thank you

[Orla9298]

I’m so sorry to read what you have been through. I don’t really have enough knowledge of embryo development to actually help but we have just a week ago done the sperm dna fragmentation test as our embryos don’t do well at all in the 3 rounds we have done and normally stop at day 3 but also fragment a lot. I’ve also had two MC at 5 weeks from natural BFPs. We should have had the results by now so I’ll be chasing them up and will post on here if there is anything to note.

Big hug xxx

[Hoping327 in reply to Orla9298]

I would be really interested to hear more about the DNA fragmentation test. Where have you had this done? Hope the results bring positive news for you.

[Orla9298 in reply to Hoping327]

My clinic did it, I think they send it off. It was £500. It’s a bit of a stab in the dark really, I just got frustrated that our embryos don’t develop and thought it was worth looking at whether we have a sperm issue as there is literally nothing else I can do to help egg quality. Hubbys sperm is fine in terms of motility and count, morphology is 4% which seems low but people say that’s normal. I guess because you have tried two donors and had a similar experience both times it may be worth looking at sperm in more detail, can you ask your clinic?xx

[Aleelilook]

I’m so so sorry this has happened. We just had a chemical pregnancy on our 5th round (1st with donor eggs). We also had a missed miscarriage on our second round with my eggs. It’s such a difficult decision to make😔 I dont know how to tag someone but LizzieLizzieLizzie had some kind of test on her husbands sperm, kyrotyping I think she said, so that might be something worth thinking about, or speaking to her?

Unfortunately chemical pregnancies and miscarriages are so bloody common, but this is no comfort, in fact when people used to say that I just wanted to scream! In fact “at least you know you can get pregnant” also made me want to throw something, but that’s just me!😂😂

I’m sorry I’ve not got any real advice, but i totally understand why you would still want to continue, and wish you all the luck in the world xxxx

[Lizzielizzielizzie in reply to Aleelilook]

Yes we had karyotyping done through our fertility clinic and found out that my husband has a hereditary chromosome translocation which we were told affects 1 in 500 people. It’s almost certainly the cause of my miscarriages... and the two miscarriages his mum had. We were told they often expect men with this not to have great sperm test results but my hubbie’s results were always brilliant.

We have had one failed ivf, one failed icsi and two natural conceptions ending in miscarriage. On our natural ivfs they told us they thought it was egg quality due to the stage that the embryos started to fail but when we saw a pgd specialist they said this was common in cases of chromosome translocation.

Might be worth paying for karyotyping therefore.

[Hoping327 in reply to Lizzielizzielizzie]

Thank you. This is really helpful advice and I will most certainly be asking about karyotyping. We always just assumed/been advised that the infertility was down to me (age of eggs and low AMH), but having used donor eggs for the last 3 rounds, it is appearing that there is a good chance that there is also an issue with the sperm.

[Hoping327 in reply to Aleelilook]

Thank you

[anna0908]

Ditto re the sperm fragmentation test. I read about when the embryos struggle between day 3 and 5, it is more often the sperm being the issue. The test can show problems with the sperm even if the sample looks fine on initial analysis x

[Hoping327 in reply to anna0908]

That is what I had also heard. I presume though that nothing can be done if the sperm is shown to have fragmentation issues?

[anna0908 in reply to Hoping327]

Our consultant mentioned it to us at our 2nd round but we didn't have the test itself, as he said the treatment would be icsi (Which we were having anyway), and some proxceed supplement. My dh taking the supplement was cheaper than the test itself, so we just did that. We went from 3 embryos, but none at blastocyst on round 1. Round 2 after proxceed, we had 5 embryos that developed into 4 blastocysts of reasonable quality! His sample quality improved too (though wasn't too bad to begin with). For you it sounds like the test might be worth doing so you can get a definitive answer before embarking on another Round? Xx

[Hidden in reply to Hoping327]

First of all - I am so sorry you have had such a tough journey. You must both have incredible strength to still be going and I really hope you are able to realise your dream.

I just wanted to reply on the fragmentation issues as we had been told by the NHS that my husband's sample was excellent. when we went private our consultant recommended the DNA fragmentation test and my husbands is sky high - over 55%.

He was told absolutely no alcohol for the 3 months prior to the next cycle and to take proxeed twice daily for 3 months too. We don't know whether it has helped as the consultant said it wasn't worth retesting as we've moved to PiMSI now. He certainly thought that things could be improved though so definitely worth researching. Good luck. x

[Hoping327 in reply to Hidden]

Thank you for your thoughts on this. It is really interesting that your husband had good results (as mine did too) on the usual tests, but DNA fragmentation was so high. We definitely need to get this tested. Good luck going forward x

[baby2016]

Definately agree with others on here re sperm issues. Check out sperm comet test. Hubbys normal sperm test was ok, but comet test did reveal high DNA fragmentation. Sperm kicks in on day 3, do If numbers drop after day 3, then this is a sign it's sperm related. We were advised to start on male fertility vitamins, so bought the pregnacare male and female ones. Hubby took them for 3 months and there was a huge difference to the results! Vitamins and general lifestyle changes are what can improve the quality xx

[Hoping327 in reply to baby2016]

Thank you, this really helpful advise x

[alockie]

I am sorry yr protocols failed. I would recommend considering IVF DE with PGS NGS or at least find out whether donor eggs are screened. xx

[Cinderella5]

Its hard to know when to keep going or not but I suspect that you want to keep going from the fact that you've put this post on. The only thing that came to mind when reading your post was that your last donor provided 30 eggs! I would have thought that was over stimulation....is this affecting the quality of the eggs?! I had treatment in Greece and we've yet to get a BFP, having one failed transfer (though 3 more failed embryos with OE cycles at home)....our donor provided 10 eggs, 8 fertilised and we got 6 top quality blastocysts. From what Ive been told its the egg that takes over development from around day 3 so that's why Im concentrating on that. Might be something worth asking your clinic?! Best of luck with what you decide.xx

[abcgirl]

I’ve heard too that sperm takes over after day 3 to 5 like many have mentioned here. I don’t Think this field has really got to understand male fertility because for so long, so much focus was on the female. In an unrelated issue but proves the point - My husbands sperm had always come back within the normal parameters. So much so we did regular IVF (not Icsi) but then nothing fertilised. We investigated further and found he had a protein deficiency in the sperm. Something they don’t test for and, granted, is rare. But the main point is, if something doesn’t feel right and there is more that can be done (ie extra tests) then it’s something to consider. Especially before going into another round. The regular sperm analysis tests don’t really give the full picture and for cases like ours, you have to dig deeper.

We haven’t been ourselves but I’ve heard great things and recommendations for a Reproductive Urologist based in England. Sounds like he’d be able to help as he specializes in male fertility. I don’t think I can mention his name on here but if you’re interested, PM me.

[Cinderella5 in reply to abcgirl]

I was just reading your reply there and know how much research you had to do into your case. My clinic on my NHS cycles told me it was egg quality after day 3 that hampers development which kept happening to us. I had heard the latter and considered the fragmentation thing but we got told not to bother and go to DE. Since moving to DE we got 6 top quality blastocysts using hubby sperm which we had never had before. Its so hard to know what to listen to when we're all getting told different things by different Drs!xx

[abcgirl in reply to Cinderella5]

You’re absolutely right. So hard to know exactly what is really causing the issues