Donor cycle - low fertilization

[Bozo_the_pumpkin]

hello ladies,

I've been trying to figure out what might have happened during our last cycle.

We had 11 donor eggs, only 3 fertilized and of the 3, 2 stopped growing by the time we got to 3 days, only 1 made it to blast stage. My clinic said that the sperm sample was optimum and the donor was 23 years....so how could this have happened? We did the transfer and got a BFN but I didn't have much faith in the last blast anyway.

Any ideas or thoughts?

[Cinderella5]

Oh sorry to hear that! Have the clinic given you any feedback? Were all of the eggs collected mature? Did they do standard IVF or ICSI? Was it your OH sperm, have you had fertilisation problems before? Has the donor donated before or does she have proven fertility? My immediate thoughts are sperm issues but that's just an educated guess but I have heard some sometimes sperm and eggs just dont go well together or might just be bad luck I guess!xx

[Bozo_the_pumpkin in reply to Cinderella5]

yes - 13 retrieved, 11 mature. We used my OH sperm and they did ICSI. RE said that he saw no indications of male factor..in fact, my OH was strutting along very happy with himself when we got the results of his sperm analysis...something about 75 mobility. We had 3 blasts with my poor quality eggs (PGS showed none of them were suitable for transfer) ...the RE was suprised by the outcome as well. ...I only know that the donor was 23...nothing else.

Fingers crossed for bad luck!

[HopeTTC18]

Sorry to hear about your failed cycle.

I had a similar experience with my first donor cycle. I used donor eggs from a first time egg donor and a proven sperm donor with 6 pregnancies.

We had 6 eggs donated and only 1 fertilised. That egg made it to day 3 and was transfered but it didn’t stick. I was upset and asked a lot of questions of the clinic but ultimately they couldn’t give an answer. As Cinderella said sometimes it’s due to an incompatibility between sperm and eggs or just bad luck.

We have since moved onto a new donor and got 3 blastocysts this time from 12 fertilised eggs. What are your plans for the future?

[Bozo_the_pumpkin in reply to HopeTTC18]

Didn’t think it was so common! Must have been incompatibility then.. we are going to have another go-this time with a new donor with previous successful donations. When are you having your transfer? Congrats on the blasts👏🏽😁

[JFP30 in reply to Bozo_the_pumpkin]

Hey there, sorry to hear about your unsuccessful cycle. I’m in similar shoes, not sure why it didn’t stick... I got 5 blasts, the clinic were really shocked that it didn’t stick, so I went onto to have the blasts checked further. It does now concern me that maybe the donor is just not compatible . Second cycle due in July. Everything crossed for you all xx

[HopeTTC18 in reply to Bozo_the_pumpkin]

I’ve just had one of the 3 which didn’t stick. Having the 2nd transfer in 2 weeks. I tried asking for a donor with proven previous donations but my clinic didn’t have one suitable so instead I had one with proven fertility from a child they have.

I hope you are able to find one. Are you having treatment in the UK or abroad?

[Bozo_the_pumpkin in reply to HopeTTC18]

I’m so sorry the last transfer didn’t work .. loads of us on the forum know the feeling but at least the chances of success should be much better with a donor with confirmed success I would have thought.. so fingers crossed for your next transfer 🤞🏽🤞🏽🤞🏽🤞🏽

We don’t have a new donor yet.. I am waiting for our clinic to contact me regarding some admin issues but hopefully they will get in touch soon and we will be able to do the next cycle ASAP. I am at a clinic In Spain... what about you?

Btw-do you know how exactly they sync the donor and recipient cycle for fresh transfer?

[HopeTTC18 in reply to Bozo_the_pumpkin]

I’m having treatment in the UK but I wish I had gone abroad now as I’ve heard it’s a lot cheaper and you get much better service. If I don’t get pregnant here I will definitely look abroad.

Syncing with your donor is usually done by putting you and/or the donor on the pill so that they can then stop the pill and force you both to bleed at the same time.

Sounds straight forward and it should be but both my donors came on their periods late and in the most recent case it meant the embryos had to be frozen.

I can’t take the pill to sync as I don’t respond well to it so my clinic use noresthisterone to delay and then force a bleed for me to sync.

Hope you hear something soon and can start a new cycle