Round 4 IVF decision - what should I do?? Go ahead even tho the odds are stacked high against?

[magda22]

Today my clinic asked me if I want to go ahead with this cycle and try to collect one egg from the one follicle which is growing.

I always knew that trying full stimm short protocol with an AMH as low as mine (0.6) was a chance, but I wanted to try. And I'm glad I have, now I know my body hasn't responded well. I can stop wondering! The clinic gave me max dose meds for a few days and clomid to see if it could turbo charge my ovaries, then several days of being told to wait and come back to see what effect took place (6 agonising days!). Today the scan showed quite clearly that 1 follicle is growing and responding.

It feels so unlikely that that 1 egg will be good quality, and the clinic said my LH was a bit high, and that can indicate poor quality. I've been here twice before in natural modified cycles, pinning hope on a single follicle, and getting nothing. So I'm wondering if I do cancel.

And maybe another month might have more follicles available...? I do typically have between 1-5 follicles in scans, but never many when I get the go ahead with treatment! Though I was in this situation in July and cancelled then because I hoped to retry in a month with more follicles. Then I ended up losing 6 months because of a cyst making treatment impossible.

I also don't really want to string this out much longer. I spent the first half of last year doing 3 NM cycles and the second half trying to do a 4th. It is emotionally exhausting and I feel my life has been on hold.

It feels like such a lot of money to spend when there is so little hope - I could save myself the money, the disappointment and save my sample of donor sperm in case I want to do a donor egg cycle in the future.

It all feels a bit rubbish and hopeless, but that maybe I should keep going and try anyway.

What would you do? Thanks for any responses! xx

[Orla9298]

Hi lovely! Awww what a pickle. If you cancel, what money will you get back? If you were going to get a lot of money back or be able to restart the round then i would say cancel, because like you said, higher LH isn’t great and having been on higher stims and not benefiting from the higher dose growing more follicles, that one egg may be reduced in quality a little from the extra drugs too. But if cancelling means you get no money back, I’d still do it. You might get two or three follicles another month. I’ll never guess how I got 6 eggs from 150iu when a round of 450iu only got me two!

[magda22 in reply to Orla9298]

Thanks Orla! I haven't paid anything for the cycle costs yet - only medication and blood tests. So It's a lot of money to be saved.

I hear ya! Maybe I could get a better round in the future, but as mentioned, I did apply that logic and lost 6 months. I think I'm starting to really accept that my ovaries are just knackered and the chance of getting any good response is so unlikely.

I'm also running out of steam to keep on going!

How are you? Do you have plans for a next step? xxx

[Orla9298 in reply to magda22]

I’m ok! We have 3 options for what next... bear with me! They are wildly different! In the meantime I’ve booked almost 3 weeks in Hong Kong and Bali in March with my hubby as we were so sick of putting our lives on hold and avoiding doing what we love - long exotic holidays! Zika and ivf have meant we have missed out.

So here are my wild 3 options

1) we have one very poor frostie left at the clinic that was meant to be transferred as a triple transfer. The clinic messed up so we only got to do two (a 5CC and a 2C, bfn). I feel like it’s almost pointless transferring a 2C on its own! So I can either pay £1400 to transfer it or my other option is pay £2700 to do another mild stim and of no embryos make it for a transfer we could pop that one in. OR, I can just leave that embryo alone for now.

2) my hubby was diagnosed with a genetic condition last year that resulted in him needing 3 brain surgeries. We have found out we are likely to be eligible for 3 rounds of PGD ivf to rule out of his condition, as when we had the 2 nhs rounds and self funded the three rounds, we didn’t know about his genetic condition. We have our first genetic counselling appointment at the end of jan. I’m very on the fence about it, I’d love to make sure our child didn’t inherit this condition (it’s 50% chance every baby) but over 3 rounds of ivf we only got 5 poor embryos and we would lose 50% through pgd. So we could spend a year doing all of that with no result. I’m wondering if we would be able to combine the pgd funding with donor eggs.

3) our big curveball is we have been speaking to a clinic in the US about a 6 cycle donor egg refund plan. 6 rounds and all your money back if no baby. We had a first telephone chat and waiting for the next step!

Crazy hey!

Not sure what to do!xx

[Rainbowhope in reply to Orla9298]

Hi Orla. Could you please private message me the name of the US clinic

[Orla9298 in reply to Rainbowhope]

Have messaged xx

[magda22 in reply to Orla9298]

Orla, this all sounds amazing! I'm so glad you are going on a big holiday, I bet its exactly what you need and hope you enjoy every moment. Relax, spoil yourselves, have fun, rediscover life together after a gruelling time with ivf. (yep, I'm basically saying this to myself too!. I hope the trip away helps you refocus and think through your 3 crazy options - all of which sound promising as a next step, to be honest. I can see why you're not sure which to go for!

No 2 with donor egg and funding is a good call if its possible.

No 1, after all the other money spent that amount doesn't seem that much anymore for one last shot! But I can understand if you don't really want to go through the steps again.

3) sounds like a strong offer. Going over to the states for cycles could get a bit nuts? But it sounds as fail proof as this can ever get.

Will the US clinic be able to take into account your husband's genetic condition?

That's nuts that condition was discovered this year. But now it's known, it can be acted on, and if it gets you additional funded treatments there is some silver lining.

Well done for lining up your options. You're an absolute warrior and I hope you get your baby this year.

I'm not cancelling my cycle immediately, I'm going to keep going for a couple more days and see how I feel. I know it seems futile, and would probably make better sense to use the money elsewhere, but I set out to see if I coukd get 1 more good embryo.

I don't really know if another cycle would have any difference, it could be the same situation again. And my clinic says they will do a 'freeze all' approach, which is their protocol when there is very little collected. If my egg makes an embryo it will be frozen on day 1. I know that gives no indication of quality, but psychologically having 1 embryo, any embryo (!) might feel like a relief. I'm thought it would, but now I'm not so sure. I guess I'm getting more realistic!

Lots of love, enjoy your holiday 👍 xxx